Hi friends! I’m sorry for being late to our coffee date again this month, I promise not to make this a habit though! I’m so glad to be having coffee with you.

If we were having coffee, I would share that the reason why I’m late to our coffee date this month is because we had a very scary start to our week. On Monday Tommy went out to ride his dirt bike, which is a normal occurrence around our home. It’s one of his favorite hobbies that doubles as a way to get in some exercise as well. Well on this particular day, he was out and was swarmed by bees and was stung many, many times. He came home and we knew he needed to get to the hospital asap because while he was not allergic to bee stings, his body definitely has a higher reaction to them. We left as quickly as possible but the ride there was very scary as his body started breaking out in hives and swelling up a lot. Thankfully we made it to the hospital in time and they were able to give him lots of medicine to counteract his body’s response to the bee stings. There was a little while though where I was very concerned that he wasn’t going to be okay. I’m just so thankful that he is okay. Something like this really makes you so thankful for the time that you get with your family. This is just a reminder to cherish them as much as possible, despite things not being perfect.

If we were having coffee, I would find it hard to move past this huge thing that has happened in our lives, just as I had a harder time in real life as well. But I would manage to because I would have to also remind you that today is sweet Melly’s first birthday! I would share about how excited I am that she is one and how thankful I am for her. I would share about how we are having just a small “party” with my side of the family (just my mom and brother) and then are planning on probably doing the same with Tommy’s side is about a week or so. I quickly ordered some cute decorations from Amazon yesterday and I would show you how the theme I went with is One Sweet Peach. I can’t wait to set everything up today and celebrate our sweet girl. I will be sure to share all of the details here soon!

If we were having coffee, I would likely share about a big life change that has happened recently as well. I would share how I am getting to essentially be the bookkeeper for the business that Tommy and his family owns. This was such an answer to prayer though because if you’ve been around here a while then you know that I have been trying to find a way to make money from home for so long now. I was very particular about the way that I wanted to do it though. I always wanted my family to stay priority and I wanted to be able to take off whenever I needed to. This has been a challenge so being able to work for our family business and make some money is such a dream. I was able to set up a little “office” in the corner of our bedroom that I will also try to share soon too. I feel so grateful that I get to do this!

If we were having coffee, I would apologize for talking your ear off. We’ve just had so much going on lately, it would be hard not to share it all. I would of course want to hear what is going on with you as well and am hoping that you’re doing well. Did you start school with your kids yet? We started up homeschool, technically three weeks ago now, which is very surprising for me to realize. We started sooner than I was planning because Shane was begging me to start again. I’ve changed my view of homeschool this year a little bit to being a lot more relaxed than I previously thought it was going to be. We are still taking things seriously of course but I’m just not focusing on it quite as much as I was thinking I would. I realized that I am just thankful for this time to be able to do that because I know as the kids get older, things will have to be more serious and take up more time. So for now we are enjoying this season of homeschool and trying to make the most of the rest of the time we have together as a family.

If we were having coffee, I would thank you for being here for this long. I would let you know that I always enjoy showing up here, even when I’m unsure if it’s worth spending my time writing on this blog anymore. I really enjoy having a place to share what’s going on in our lives. Please let me know what’s going on in your life, if you feel like you want to share. I would love to hear. Thanks again for being here. 🙂

Hi friends! I know I am a week late to this post but this past week has just been so so busy! I figured late is better than never, right? Also, don’t forget to check out my friend, Bella’s post here! (She was not a week late with her post 😉)

If we were having coffee, I would share first why we’ve been so busy lately. Tommy was in a wedding last Friday and for those of you who have been in a wedding before, know how much time it takes. It felt like all of last week went to preparing for this wedding haha. But here we are on the other side and it was a really fun wedding. I got to hang out with a childhood friend that I haven’t seen in years (hi Brooke if you’re reading this!!) and it was so fun!

If we were having coffee, I would likely talk about homeschooling and about how I’m trying to figure out when to start for this year. I was originally going to start at the end of this month but I still have curriculum to order and I don’t think it will be here in time to start until the last week of the month. We also have a vacation planned the second week of September so I’m wondering if only starting for two weeks to stop for vacation is a good idea or not. I’m thinking maybe we should wait until we come home from vacation to start. The awesome thing about homeschooling is that we have that flexibility. Sometimes it can be difficult too though because sometimes I just want someone else to make the decisions for me haha.

If we were having coffee, I would probably ask you how you have seen God working in your life lately? I have been doing this study still and I would still highly recommend it. It has a lot of practical ways to follow God and to know him more and it has just been so helpful. It is by far the best bible study I’ve ever done.

If we were having coffee, I would also share how I can’t believe Melly is going to be one so soon!! I’m not sure how we got here. I wish I could slow down time. I’m currently trying to figure out when/how/if we are going to have a birthday party for her. We just had Riley’s third birthday last month and I’m exhausted thinking about throwing another one haha. I do really want to have one for her though of course. We shall see what happens though.

Thanks for being here friends. And I apologize again for this post being so late! Please link up below if you wrote a post too. ☺️

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I shared some Friday Favorites and we’ve had some exciting things going on so I thought today was a great day to share. 🙂

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Yesterday was Riley’s birthday and we had the best time celebrating our big three year old! We went to a local park and had his party there. It was perfect and I’m so thankful. I am going to post a recap of the day some time next week I believe. I can’t wait to share more!

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We also took a weekend trip up to Lake George last weekend to celebrate my father-in-laws 60th birthday. We had a really good time despite the drive there and back taking about 5 hours (when it was supposed to take 3)! I also want to share a recap of this trip soon as well!

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In between all of this, we have been having a great summer so far! Our town does swim lessons and summer sports. This picture is from our first day of swim lessons. As time goes on I am more and more thankful that we chose to live here, especially in the summer! I love that we have the beach just down the road. It’s so fun even when it is incredibly difficult to take care of three kids while there haha.

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Another favorite is just watching this girl learn and grow! She’s getting so big and it’s making me both happy and sad! I am trying to cherish the time with her as much as possible because it’s going so fast.

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And last but not least, as I shared in my July goals post we got to celebrate our first year of homeschooling! Shane finished up his preschool year and since he would normally attend a preschool graduation if he were in school, we decided to celebrate with our family with a cake. Shane thought it was great and it was fun to celebrate this big milestone for the both of us. 🙂

Thanks again for being here and thank you to Andrea and Erika for hosting this little linkup! I hope you guys have a great weekend!

It may be a bit late to recap June’s goals and to set new ones but better late than never, right?

June Goals:

• Read one book Technically I read two halves of two different books but I’ll take it!
• Stick to our meal plan I am very thankful that I have gotten a lot better about meal planning and grocery pickups and it has helped our sanity a bit, not having to run to the stores last minute because we ran out of something again.
• Have a yard sale! Yes! We actually followed through with this and while we didn’t really make very much money, with did get rid of a lot of unused items around our house! I am very happy that these items now are in a home that they will be used.
• Start working on Melly’s nursery – Nope. Moving this to this months goals though!
• Finish organizing the homeschool supplies – Also nope. I think once we get closer to the new school year I will feel more motivated to do this.
• Celebrate our first year of homeschool completed!! – We actually just did this yesterday, so not quite in June but that’s okay!

July Goals:

• Stay off of Instagram
• Empty out Melly’s room
• Celebrate Riley’s birthday well!
• Get baptized!!
• Continue planning your weeks
• Read more

Here’s to a month (or what’s left!) of staying disciplined and celebrating well! I am trying to take a break from Instagram this month, which has been harder than I care to admit. I know I need to take a break when I am needing more direction in my life. It can be so hard to hear from God when you have so many other voices in your life. I am wanting a clear vision for this season and I know the way to get that is to be more open to hearing God’s voice. Also, I am planning to be baptized at the end of this month. I surprisingly have not been baptized yet even though I have been a Christian for a long time. So between that and celebrating Riley’s birthday, it should be a good month!

Hi friends! I can hardly believe it’s July! We are in full summer mode over here and it’s just the best. Let’s chat about what’s been going on in our lives while we sip some coffee (or tea!). Don’t forget to post your link below if you have one. 🙂

If we met for coffee, I would share how we are coming off of a long holiday weekend and I’m not ready to get back into the swing of things just yet. Tommy was off for four days (which is so unusual for us) and it was so nice to have him home. We kept ourselves very busy with lots of plans. Our lake community has sports and swim lessons that started up a couple of days ago so it’s been a bit of a whirlwind but also so fun to see the kids having so much fun too.

If we met for coffee, I would share that we just finished our first homeschooling year this past week! We have had so much fun doing school at home and have learned so much. I’m really thankful that God has led us down this path and for the new friendships that we are making with other homeschool families. I couldn’t have imagined how far we would come when we started this school year and it’s just been the best.

If we met for coffee, I would likely share how I started planning my weeks out on Sundays in a new way that has really freed up so much head space. I’m no longer asking myself all day long what I should do next. It has been such a game changer. I will have to share a blog post soon about it. I feel like as a stay at home mom, it can be so hard to know how to spend my days. There are just so many options to choose from and so many things that need to get done. My new planning method just helps with the overwhelm so much. I can’t wait to share more with you guys.

If we met for coffee, I would tell you about a new Bible study that I started a couple of weeks ago. It’s called Never Alone: Parenting in the Power of the Holy Spirit. It’s basically a Bible study on the Holy Spirit and it’s teaching me so much about how practical the Holy Spirit is to us and how we are able to more consciously lean on him. I feel like I’ve never really been taught much about the Holy Spirit in the past and I just never knew how much we could actively lean on him day to day and especially in our parenting. It’s been very eye opening and I would highly recommend the study!

If we met for coffee, I’d likely have to keep our visit short this month. Things have been go, go, go in this season and I am constantly feeling like there are so many things packed into each day. This sometimes is a good thing and sometimes it can feel hard. I’m hoping in the fall things will slow down a bit and we can sit and spend some more time together. I would thank you for spending some time with me and am already looking forward to our next coffee date next month!

Thanks for being here friend! Add your link below if you have one. 🙂

If we met for coffee, I would ask you how the weather is where you live. It’s about to be summer here, and this month is usually one of the best months for weather. It’s usually around 65-75 degrees (occasionally going about or below) and it’s glorious! Especially since we moved up to a lake, the weather is a little less hot and it just makes being outside so nice. The boys have been spending around 3-4 hours each day outside. I love that they get to spend that much time and I love how much they enjoy it.

If we met for coffee, I would share that Melly is 9 months old today!! How did that happen?? It’s starting to hit me that she isn’t going to be a little baby very soon and I’m not sure how to feel about it! I can’t believe that were already here in life and have had three kids. There’s a part of me that is going to be so sad when we no longer have babies in the house. It just goes too fast.

If we met for coffee, I would also tell you how excited I am for today. Tommy and I are bringing the boys to the new Spiderman movie and I cannot wait. Riley has never been to the movies and both of the boys absolutely love Spiderman so it is going to be so much fun. We’ve been looking forward to this day for months so I’m just so excited that it’s finally here.

If we met for coffee, I would share that I’m reading this book about parenting and raising children who want to follow Jesus and it’s really convicted me and made me think so much. It’s helped me really see my own weak spots and want to work on them so that I can love my kids better. Also, it’s made me realize how helpful parenthood would be if it came with a manual. 🤣

If we met for coffee, I would ask if you have any gardening tips. We are going to be starting our first garden this year and I’m so excited! I’ve been wanting to plant a garden for a few years now and this year my brother and sister in law gave us some of their extra plants they had. We probably weren’t going to get around to planting them until we got them from someone else so I’m really excited that they have helped us along on this process! I’ll have to keep you guys updated on how it goes. I’m so excited.

Thanks for being here friends! Just a reminder, Bella and I host this linkup the first Wednesday of every month. Share your post below if you decide to join us. 🙂