January in Review ✽ Hello February

Highlights:

-Noah started walking! He wants to talk, too... He's so big <3.

-Studying Colossians 3 with a friend (and like, forever after I "should" have been done with her, haha...)

-Staying with Aunt Tessa and getting to help throw an Elephant themed baby shower for my Aunt Amber and baby James.

-A precious package from a dear friend <3.

-Branching out and trying new drinks from Starbucks. I am usually a very predictable person.... I get a caramel macchiato. Every time. Haha. But we ended up getting a free smoothie when we went in one night, which was okay, considering I usually only like strawberries fresh, and then they were handing out samples of the new Cascara Latte the next day (it was pretty good too! Bold, but not bitter). Then in a fit of daring, I ordered a caramel frappuccino, and it was delicious. Then Tori let me taste a sip of her Java chip frap, and that was good too, although I didn't like the chunks in it.
Me: "This is so good!"
Tori: *takes it, takes a sip* "Bri, that tastes exactly like what you always drink."
Me: *thinks about it, realizes she might be right* "...But the texture is even better!"

-Beginning work with another local church and their respite program. It went really well, and I'm excited about where it will lead. This seems like just the door I've been looking for :).

-Getting to see some friends I hadn't seen for 18 months.

-Working on a crocheted princess Leia doll for a little friend :). I'm freestyling it because the one she saw didn't come with a pattern, so, we'll see what happens. Lol!

-Tori showing me how to draw a jellyfish, and I don't think it was a fail, although it could use some improvement.

-Setting up the snowflake tree and decorating for winter.

-Deciding to join Grace Anne in writing a letter or note every day in February. I can think of 18 notes or letters I was going to write anyway... the other ten I expect will come. This should be easy... haha ;).

-Speaking of which, catching up on my correspondence. although I owe people again now, but at least I'm not two months owing them, right?

-Actually blogging a bit. I miss this hobby being a regular part of my life.

Laughing at:

-Getting Bethi addicted to Rolos. I let her have a few I bought, and then the next time she picked out a snack, she went right for them. That was easy.

-"Soooooo," I asked, looking back at Bethi and Andrew, as Daddy pulled out of the parking lot I had been practicing driving in. "Was it what you were expecting?"
"Yup," Bethi answered. "I expected you to go as slow as a snail, and that's what happened."
"It was boring," Andrew pouted.

-Almost accidentally ordering water at Starbucks. I was telling my aunt, "When we went to get coffee with our friends this month, one of them went to get their tea cup refilled with hot water because she was liking the warmth on her hands, and the guy asked one of the other baristas, "How much do we charge for water?"..."
*Barista peeks over the counter* "Does someone need water?"
"Uhhh... no. Sorry. I'm just... telling a story."
"Oh, that's okay!"
*continues* "And then the barista must have told him that it comes free, because next thing we know, we hear him holler out, "How much do we charge for the energy to make water hot?"
*cringes as I realize that the barista is looking my way again to make sure no one is asking for water*

-Me: "I bet Evynne Hollens will do "Somewhere out there" since she's on a Disney song kick. That would be so fun!"
*checks youtube three days later*
New subscriptions: Peter Hollens: Somewhere out there
"Close enough."

-Tori, as we listen to a song: "What is she even saying?"
Mama and I: "Not sure. Your words have faith? Your wounds are faith?"
*Mama looks up the lyrics*
"Ohhhhhhhh, "your wounds have made a way."
??????

-Bible time, Daddy asks if everybody is done being loud so we can read.
Josiah: *Leans against the door and coolly remarks, as if it's an obvious loosing battle* "...There are a lot of people in here?...".
Tori mentioned it was like Peter when Jesus asked "who touched me?" and he just kind of looks around like, "Ummm, Jesus do you have eyes? There are so many people shoving I doubt they even know?"
Peter was so human, haha...

-Gramma re-shares a link she tagged me in on Facebook a year ago.
Me: "Awwww, the hedgehog is cute"
*looks at old comments* Me a year ago: "Awwwww, the hedgehog is adorable!"
In some ways I never change.

-Me: "Tori, come look at this mouse skateboarding on our bathroom tile."
Tori: "Why did you show that to me? Now I will never be able to not see that."

-Sitting down to play the piano with Josiah and Noah... next thing I know, Noah's toes are on the keyboard while he chews them, and it's anything but a melodious sound, haha!

-Peter, who only found out he was "bigger" than Josiah a couple months ago:
"Ohhhhhhh, I was born before Josiah and Noah? So that's how I got bigger than him!"

-Peter: "I'm four, Josiah, you are two."
Josiah: "NO. I am four, you are two."
"No, I am this much." *holds up fingers* "You are this."
*Back and forth for a while*
Josiah changes tactics: "You are four. *I* am *this much*. *holds up six fingers*

Quotes I liked:

-"The decisions we make today determine the stories we tell about our lives tomorrow." -Pastor Dude

-"it's a losing battle
but a soldier fights anyways" -Julia Ryan
I don't know, y'all. I just loved that line when I read it in one of her posts.

-"Doing something different calls for repentance — turning around and heading in a different direction. As believers, we have “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10, ESV). We’re being changed. If it’s time to turn toward a new way of thinking or doing, commit to doing that now, asking for strength and grace from the Lord who specializes in making all things new." -Pam Foster from Doorposts

-"It is true that justice demanded that Christ should bear the burden which as a substitute he undertook to carry, but Jehovah always loved him, and in love laid that load upon him with a view to his ultimate glory and to the accomplishment of the dearest wish of his heart." -Charles Spurgeon (I'm pretty sure, lol. I read several online commentaries around this time.)

Reading:

-"Radiant". I enjoyed this book, and started a list of people to find more biographies of, haha :).

-"In His Steps". Which I started in November, but the middle was kind of slow, and so it took me a while to push past it. I liked the Bishop that was introduced in the last half of the book, I wish more of what he did was in the middle of the book instead of after, haha!

-"Scout", which was more of a young boys book, but I picked it up off of Andrew's shelf from boredom one day while I was putting Josiah to sleep, so Andrew gave it to me to finish, and I didn't want to disappoint him. It was actually pretty good, it just had that younger reader feel that is hard to get caught up in.

-"Foxe's Book of Martyrs", because I don't remember it hardly at all, and want to.

-Colossians 3... what else ;)?

Fails:

-Calling the bank to see if my card was on it's way because I was going to be out of town and it was hitting the maximum time I was told to wait, and then they probably think I'm a scam because I gave them Bethi's social security number.

-Then realizing that that probably means I gave the church her number when I went to take the training class to work with their special needs program. Yep.

-Realizing I have something I'm not sure what it is charged to me on my receipt, and going back in to ask about it. "I didn't get any jewelry making?" "Oh, I just hit the wrong button, that's one of your yarn balls." But I only had seven balls, not eight? So, she refunded it, and I went back to the car... to turn around and take the eighth ball, that I found under Noah's seat in the car, back in. I will probably never go back into a store to question $4 again. I wanted to cry.

-Giving Josiah extreme anxiety over people not being seen for even just a scene or two in movies, presumably because Daddy came home from dropping me off at the special needs respite without me; he cries if he doesn't know that all the characters are accounted for. This is the child who formerly just kind of threw his arm over the back of the chair and looked invincible if a movie became worrying. Also, he couldn't find me the other night and so he wailed, "Bri! I love you!" in a pitiful, don't punish me sort of way. This from the child who usually tells you "Hi" to make you tell him you love him, because it's weak to tell you he loves you first.

Grateful for:

"I will give thanks to the Father who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints of light, and steadfastly continue thanking God in my prayers, being watchful in them with thanksgiving. For I have received Christ, and will walk in him, rooted and built up, established in the faith by him, as I was taught, and abounding in thanksgiving; rejoicing in my sufferings for Christ’s sake, rejoicing in the good order and firmness of faith of his children, singing hymns with thankfulness in my heart to God. I will do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him. And be thankful.
May it be so, Lord." (Prayer formed from the commands to be thankful in Colossians)

-Getting to listen to music while I drink tea with Josiah (almost) nightly.
-All the reading I have been able to do lately :).
-Noah's little grin.
-Hugs.

-Peter's chatter after he asks you to lay on his bed for a few minutes before he is tucked in<3.
-Being able to crochet, and some of the neat tips I've seen this month :).
-My journaling bible! I love it so much! I've been using that bible to study Colossians, and it's become a colorful couple of pages, haha :).
-That the Lord is always with us!
-Anyone who cared enough to make it to the end of this post... haha :).

I hope you've had a wonderful January... happy February!!!

Chatting over coffee ✽ I can finally get into my blog!!!

I asked recently if you all could view my blog, and a couple of you said yes; but I still couldn't go to my blog home page for WEEKS after blogger's recent update, I could only view individual posts by typing the direct link in, and it was really grating on my nerves! But I try to pull up my blog every time I blog, and it just worked, y'all! I'm happy about that, and, hey, my panic about it caused me to back up my blog, which is a good thing so we're all good, right? Haha :). My blog page has never been so satisfying to see...

And so, I'm here, with not-supposed-to-be cold coffee in my beau-ti-ful cup, to ramble on my blog, because that's what I do best ;).

*Goes for pictures* *plugs in USB cable* *remembers comment I saw one time that someone thinks when they bury the creator of the USB cable they will lower the coffin, pull it up, turn it, and lower it again as tribute* *further remembers the comment that the USB symbol is always on top, so you should never have to turn it around* Like, duh? The things I never notice *gets it correct first try* I haven't had to turn it around once since I saw that weird thing, and I find it disturbing that that has become such a predictable pattern in my life.

Apparently Walter is helping write this blog post, thanks to Peter 

Pumpkin... haha! Pardon my messy bed- creativity is disastrous ;).

And I promise I have a life outside of the snowman... haha! He shows 

up a lot here, I know.... He just gets into the strangest circumstances- 

he's like elf on a shelf, but not creepy. And it's my siblings pranking 

me instead of Mom pranking the kids. Ha!                                         

My Gramma sent me a pattern for some red valentines day head warmers on Facebook recently and several ladies thought they were adorable, so I made some up, and now I've listed them in my shop :)! That's the most exciting shop news I have for now... There are wheels turning in the background that I'm super eager to share, but aren't ready to be revealed in any coherent way yet. Hopefully soon! I'm especially chewing on the idea of... but you'll have to wait and see :)!

Emmi "modeling" one of my headwarmers. I just love window 

pictures like this... they are so pretty! And Emmi <3. She got her
hair cut today... maybe five inches? And it doesn't look any shorter?
How does that work?!                                                                        

I do want to ask, does anybody get tired of hearing about my shop here? I have a Facebook page that I'm trying to build up for it, but it's just so much more natural to share it here... this is like my online home, haha. I don't know... I feel like I mention it too much, but, it's what I do, and I enjoy it. But do people really want to hear about it all the time? Then again, do they really want to hear anything that I post? Blogs are supposed to have a theme... "Find your niche, make sure you have enough material to make it worthwhile, create a perfect design, then go for it"... but I like simple. I don't enjoy making pins that bring people to my site, I often can't talk myself into sharing my posts on the FB page I set up for my blog because it was "the thing to do", I like simple and pretty rather than the complex or stark white sites all the big bloggers settle on (not that I dislike the blogs that look like that... just for me, my blog, it just doesn't fit) and if anyone were to ask me what my blog was about... I don't know, life? Random ramblings? My less-than-stellar-capability in weird situations (haha... that would probably be the first thought for some people ;) )? Nothing that you can quite grasp as the one common thread? How does someone create a blog focusing only on one aspect of their life, when all of life is such a writable, lovely, aching-filled, laugh inducing, constantly changing, growth bringing, twist filled, gift of a story from God? I struggled with that for a while. Where was I supposed to direct my posts? But I don't need my blog to be perfectly conformed to this world's standards of correct. God gave me the desire to write, and he'll use the ways I do that to bring about what he wants to do. So, in a way, I guess it doesn't matter; skip my shop stats if you want. But I do also want to cut back on it if it's annoying... I have a journal that I write the stupidest things in, so I can always rave there instead... haha!

That's my badly settled mind flow for the night. Thank you for your time. Haha...

Also. Tori did this. And I want to hug it until it stops crying, but also,

it's just really good. She's so good at art... she drew something recently

that is GORGEOUS, but she hasn't revealed it yet, so I'll share it later :).

 Not sure what is going on here, but this is the crew that I get

to read children's stories with frequently, and I love it :).        

Big boy sleeping in his own crib! But he doesn't stay there long, 

I'm told, haha. He walked "for real" Thursday of last week.

 Tori and I left for my aunt's the next day to help set up Aunt Amber's 
baby shower, and I was soooooo glad I didn't miss him walking! 
I knew he was close, and I actually threatened to stay home 
if he kept trying as hard as he was but wasn't there by Friday, haha! 

The baby shower went really well- it was elephant themed, and it was adorable, and it was happy, and our stay with Aunt Tessa was busy and cozy :). We had coffee and got rained all over, set up for the shower, went to church with Aunt Tessa, and I snuggled cats, and we baked, and I missed everybody here dreadfully even though I was loving every minute there, and on Saturday I called Mama at 11 o'clock at night, and we talked to everybody in turn (except Noah, who isn't quite ready for the phone, and Josiah, who was asleep and had already called me that evening to tell me he ate supper by himself, which was adorable), and we got the most convoluted report of the day from everybody from Daddy to Peter, all told in very personality-true styles... haha :). I was happy to get back home, and I look forward to visiting again... it's one of those hard to choose between things, you know :)? Also, I learned how to make a washigami elephant, and I'm very interested in learning more. OH, and when Mama and the little girls arrived for the shower and to bring us home Sunday afternoon, I went out to hug them, and I tried to take Noah to soak in some snuggles... and he screamed at me and flung himself back at Mama. I was gone for what, 45 hours? and the child acted like he didn't know me? So wrong...
 
"Can we watch a movie?" Josiah asks me as he sits beside me sketching on Tori's MP3 player art feature. "A scary movie?"
What even 'Siah? Why?!

(For those of you curious, I finally finished the bible study I should have been done with on the 11th. But I'm still going on with it anyway. Haha :).) And now I'm going to go listen to music with JoJo :). Have a blessed Sunday tomorrow!

Little Penguin ✽ Life

 Look at this outfit, like, I love it so much, and that grin and those little feet, agh <3. Mama and I were at Target a couple months ago, and we saw this outfit and I fell in love with it. The penguin peaks out of the jacket, y'all. And Mama laughs at me because I seriously rave over it, haha, but she bought it when it went on sale, and so I made him a penguin for Christmas to go with it, haha :). Daddy got some pictures last Monday :). This is my favorite, even though it doesn't have the penguin...

I mean, could he get any cuter? Don't ask me what he's looking at, but it's cute. And he took two steps in a row during the photo shoot. And four in a row today. He doesn't do it on command yet, but he's growing up...

Qualifying moments of productivity for the day; baking, drinking hot chocolate (I do consider this productive, okay?), getting my new bank card verified, cleaning my purse, and earning one cent switching my Etsy information to the new card ;). Haha! I'm left wondering if they will charge me come my next bill for that cent that was sent to make sure my account is connected right, or if I get to keep it?...

Me trying to verify my card: *puts in number*
"This account number does not exist. Try again."
*puts in number*
"This number does not exist. Verify the number and call back."
Mama: "Want me to try?"
*puts in the number*
"This number does not exist. Try again."
*puts in number*
"Your account has been verified."
We did nothing different?! Whatever....
Me to Mama: "Thank you... for doing exactly what I did and making it work... That was kind of a Daddy moment..."
Mama: "Well, I have to have a few of those moments..."

I recently made up this Family Resolutions custom canvas! I can't wait to make these family canvases a regular item in my store... Actually, I can't wait to put a lot of different new items up! My shop is doing so well, that it's hard to find time to streamline listings to get them up, though, which I am thankful for :).

Bethi today: "I have so much to do. Catch up on my bible study, clean out all my stuff, catch up on writing."
Me: "Wow, that sounds so much like my life."
Bethi: "Yep. But at least you don't have math anymore."
True that.
"And you always seem to be catching up on your bible study, so I don't think that you can be THAT far behind. I am SEVEN. DAYS. behind."
"Bethi... I am ten days behind.
In a 30 day bible study.
Of Colossians 3."
Bethi: *blinks eyes* ".... How can you get behind reading one chapter?"
This question is actually baffling me, too. The assignments are supposed to take 5 minutes a day, but somehow they take me 20 minutes or longer, partly because I get side tracked bible journaling or doing word studies that aren't assigned, and I'm loving doing it, but it's making it really hard to stay caught up, haha!

Also, I've read just for fun every day this week, and I'm super happy about that. And the KBR magazine got here this week, and my friend wrote the subscriber's script! I also knit my first-ever diaper cover! I love January and productivity :).

Happy New Year ✽ First Post is Random

Me: "Joey-gator! Hey, come here."
Daddy, from two rooms away, ready to head out the door: "...WHAT did you call him?"
"What?"
"Did you just say Joey-gator???"
"Is there something wrong with that?..."
Mama: "Oh, that really is what she said."
Daddy: "How many nicknames do you have for him, anyway?!"
Quite honestly, I've lost count...

These pictures have nothing to do with the post, and they are

a few weeks old anyway, but this is kind of hodge podged to-

gether  on a whim anyway, and he's cute, so here you go ;).   

I spent the day working on setting up a coupon code and sharing it through all my listings on Etsy (20% off until Friday ;)!), backing up my blog, because blogger's update has literally scared me so bad (I still can't get to my main blog page, y'all! But you seem to be reading it fine, so I guess it's just something on my end?), and formatting coming blog posts... which led me to writing this one for no reason, and do you all realize how distractable I am? Lol :). 

I'm looking forward to this coming year. I'm hoping and praying that the Lord would use it in my life and that I will serve him through the time he has given. There are things I'm looking forward to, and things that scare me to an extent even if I want to reach it as well (driving alone, hello?), but I also think I'm ready to take the plunge. I think, this year, I just want to move forward... that's kind of my goal for this year. Most years I make New Year's resolutions to finish this or that or the other. It's always disheartening to see what I've not done, and this year, I decided I wasn't going to put the big things that I want to get done but that take months to work through and drag on me the whole time. Instead, this year, I sat down, and I thought of the little changes that would make more time that would help me reach those bigger goals. I want to invest in relationships and manage my time well. I don't want to give up anything that I do now; but I also want to do more. I want to read more books, and study the bible more consistently -not jut read, but really study. I want to embrace the new opportunities that I run into with joy, rather than fear. 

 

I know none of this is something that will just happen. It's going to take faith, trust in a God that knows better than I do, and more intentionality than I have lived with for some time. There is nothing special about the day January 1st. It can't do a thing for us. The only newness that is added to our lives comes from the Lord Jesus' forming us always into a new creation, an image of his perfect spirit, and giving us his righteous robes. But I do think that any reminder we have to live our lives more fully for him and what truly matters is a blessing. And I'm thankful for the most recent one, the beginning of 2017. Happy New Year :)!