Holy Ground.

I spent the weekend with my mom in Virginia and felt really strongly that I needed to write about it. I haven't been here on the blog in over two years but no better place I guess.

Mom's brother - my uncle - Tom was diagnosed with a brain tumor less than a month ago. Some named mass that I can't pronounce or spell that is slowly stealing him from the life he loves. He had surgery two weeks ago and it didn't go as expected - those angry tendrils are still reaching further into his smart, healthy brain - a brain that has guided this man through a life of projects, work, raising a family, and meeting adored grandchildren. I haven't posted about it much other than a vaguepost because it isn't my story to tell but we covet your prayers all the same.

But, I didn't come here to write about a brain stolen. I came here to tell you a story about Holy Ground in a hospital room.

Tom and his wife Eutanaha have been married 46 years today. I know they never thought this year's celebration would take place in a hospital room but I want to tell you about what I saw, born of those  years. He told the story of how they met and how she ignored him at college graduation. He told the story of getting married in record breaking cold in Birmingham, Alabama and claimed my mom was his best man. He talked about moving to North Carolina and then Virginia, always side by side. He spoke a lot about his children and grandchildren and all the things he still wants to do with them.

And then he told her that he would still choose her all over again. That she's still the only one for him.

I jokingly asked her if he was always so romantic and she laughed and said "No." And you know what she did? She served him. She fed him. She loved him, guided him, and spoke calmly to him in his frustration with being dealt a hand he cannot win . She was love with hands and feet.

There are moments in our lives when we don't realize that we are being allowed to glimpse the ground where Jesus has walked. You wouldn't think that room - full of wires and beeping and needles and broken hearts would be but let me tell you --- it was Holy Ground. To bear witness to their lives, filled with love and joy and grief - and watch them stand firm in a peace that passes our understanding and to know that in the midst of this storm, there is still a good Father. Oh friends, that is Holy Ground.

My valentine.

 

Chad had to work on Valentine's Day so I ended up at dinner with his uncle and parents and some friends. It wasn't a bad way to spend the evening - Uncle J and I even went to look at appliances. You know you are an adult when....oh well.

Chad was, however, off this weekend so we had big plans to spend the days together. On Saturday, we went to sweet C's birthday party. I can't believe he is 2 years old and we have so enjoyed watching him grow - and his parents are wonderful friends. You can see the joy of Jesus in their lives and in their parenting. It is sweet to see. Anyway...Chad and I left there and snuck to Rembrants, a local coffee shop.

I had a lovely pot of tea and Chad had decaf coffee (and claims his own brew at home is better).

 

My mom asked for pictures of our treats but I sort of forgot to take a picture until it was mostly eaten. Sorry Mom. I had a delicious éclair and Chad had a muffin. His was long gone before the camera came out.

 

But trust me, it was delicious.

I did manage to paint my nails for the occasion. Hearts for fun.

 

We enjoyed some lazy time together the rest of Saturday and Sunday...and ended our weekend with a trip to the local observatory that the university owns now. Apparently they do this weekly get together but invite the public - who ever is interested in coming - so we went! They talked about telescopes, we watched a little planetarium show, and then they let us go look through the BIG telescope (you know, the kind that points out the domed roof!). They had it pointed at Jupiter, one the brightest spots in our night sky, and we saw at least 3 moons and Jupiter's rings. I am a little space obsessed and I thought it was the coolest thing. I am really thankful Chad knows my love of space and took me. What a guy...

All in all, it was a lovely weekend with my favorite dude.  

My sweet mom.

I might have talked about this before but it is absolutely worth talking about again...so I will. Pretty much ever since I moved to Chattanooga, my mom has done her best to come visit about once per month. She leaves Columbus on Friday, stops in Atlanta to see my sister, and then spends the weekend with me. We sometimes don't do much but fold laundry and watch movies but sometimes we manage to do things that are a little more exciting. Usually, over Christmas break, we both get out our calendars for the next year and go ahead and pick weekends. Sometimes they have to change as the year goes on but usually it is pretty dependable.


That being said, this weekend is mom weekend! I have a running list of things we want to do in Chattanooga - weird things to go see, places to eat that she hasn't eaten before, etc. so we are going to try to knock some of those off our list this weekend. I am excited that she will be here. Sad that Chad has to work and will miss some of it but then I get her all to myself...and that's ok too.

One more.

Last birthday post I promise...but this one is a little different.

Chad and I looked for our house for a long time. We lived in a family owned townhouse for about the first 2 years of our marriage, at times sharing it with his grandmother and for nearly a year, his sister. I have no complaints about those years. It allowed us to save up money to buy a house, taught us a lot about family and love, and showed us that God's provision sometimes doesn't look like we expect it to.

We looked at a lot of houses.
Let me rephrase that. PAULA looked at a lot of houses. Chad's work schedule at the time (mainly, his lack of time off or a flexible schedule) did not really allow him to look at many houses with me. We would find ones we wanted to see and I would go with the real estate agent to look. If it passes the first test (me!), then we would make a second appointment to go back and look at it together. It really worked best for us because we were able to rule out a lot of stuff that would have just frustrated Chad and I really enjoyed the process. (If I ever have a major career change, I'll become an interior designer.) We kept coming back to the St. Elmo neighborhood for a long list of reasons, some we were sure about and some that I am sure was God leading us in the right direction.

We bought this house over 3 years ago and have been gaining some lovely relationships ever since. I am absolutely 100% convinced that we could have ended up somewhere else - there were a few other houses that I really liked - but 10000% convinced that we are exactly where we are supposed to be.

We have some of the most amazing neighbors. A sweet couple across the street that have 2 year old twins and share Chad's love of running. The awesome couple in the purple house that know exactly what is going on in the neighborhood - and who trade books about Jesus back and forth with us and sent me chocolate and a sweet card for my birthday. The family up the hill that has sons that have bonded with Chad and all of whom I truly consider family...that that bestowed the sweetest birthday present on me today. An awesome bag full of goodies - homemade soaps (oh Lordy - they smell delicious and make me want to be more dedicated to my Pinterest crafts), a sweet Origami book with gorgeous paper, a hysterical Pez dispenser, and an absolutely fantastic candle from a little boutique in town- which they know I wanted because they saw me post it on Facebook.

It isn't that my affection can be purchased. Gifts isn't even my love language! It IS the fact that these people that make our house more a HOME every day are a small piece of the puzzle of why I deeply believe God put us exactly where we are supposed to be.

This week has been so eye opening. I have been trying to hard to be mentally more aware of my blessings (I picked a good week to start, right??), be more intentional with my time, more thoughtful and more thankful. And truly, tears are pricking my eyes because I can see it! God is everywhere and involved in everything.

The sweet purple house neighbors included this verse in my birthday card and here it is from the Message "Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go..." Proverbs 3: 5-6a

More blessings.

I had to go to Knoxville on Tuesday where my sweet team surprised me with homemade pumpkin cake and homemade vanilla icing. Then yesterday at work, we had planned a lunch of baked potato and salad bar (no birthday connection) but there were two kinds of chocolate cake. My K gave me a new Fitbit (pedometer) bracelet and my sweet guy gave me a 12-pack of diet Dr. Pepper (along with the sharpies? He knows the way to my heart) and a massage gift certificate.

I feel so blessed. So loved. So thankful. So aware of my days and their numbers and living life fully today and every day. My heart overflows.

A productive day.

One of the things that I wanted to do for Chad for our anniversary was to deep clean the house. I know, it sounds really 1950's housewife and not at all the independent woman that I believe I am. But, in my defense, since I work so much, sometimes my share of our house duties falls by the way side. We share most things evenly - or just take turns doing them - but admittedly, it had been a while since I had done THIS much cleaning. (Don't think we live in messy house - unless you count Gwendolen hair - we do clean!). Bottom line, I knew that a deep clean would probably bless him more than anything I could purchase him so it is one of the reason I took 2 days off this week.

So, here was my TO DO list for yesterday - updated with what I actually got done:
- sand mud on walls in bathroom
- wipe down walls and dump drop cloth
- paint ceiling and walls in bathroom
- paint bathroom cabinet
- vacuum all floors
- do all laundry and put it away (this ended up being 5 loads...my dryer was exhausted)
- clean up hiking stuff in guest room from Leconte trip
- clean up kitchen and put away dishes
- clean up craft stuff in spare room
- clean out/wash/wax car (this one is totally for me!)
- clean up dining room table
- clean up the other guest room that has been holding bathroom renovation stuff
- hang Chad's 3D map that he got for Christmas (this is almost embarrassing)
- deep clean hall bathroom
- clean off front porch (the number of spider webs is unreal!)

Obviously, I didn't get everything done in the bathroom that I wanted to get done but my arms were tired from nearly 2 hours of sanding! I need a little help/advice from Chad on the next step (ceiling) anyway so I was sort of in a holding pattern until today anyway.

My house is so clean that I feel like we should leave so we don't mess it up! p.s. he also noticed, which only slightly surprised me. I was still awake when he came home last night and he was like, whoa, thanks for cleaning! and THAT rocked my world.

Today's plans include catching up on our favorite TV shows, hopefully lunch with his parents to celebrate his mom's birthday (which, by the way, is the same day as our anniversary. Another story for another day), a trip to Lowe's (because what romantic day doesn't include a trip to Lowe's?) then a matinee movie and dinner down by the river. Le sigh. I love days like this.

 (Edited to add: I DID actually buy him things but they aren't here yet. I'll show them off when they arrive.)

5 years.

Today marks being married 5 years to one of the most patient, generous, dedicated, hard-working, funny - in his own way, thoughtful, weird (I had to say it!), and loving man. It has been an honor to be his wife - through good times and bad times - he is my cool, calm, collected, always making me think about life differently guy.

A lot has happened these last 5 years - we've marked a thousand memories down but surely we have millions more to go. I know people always say this but sometimes I feel like it was just last week that we were standing there in that park by the water making our lifelong promises to each other. And sometimes, I can't believe that we've made it this far.

Chad is surely my gift from God. He is calm when I am anxious, offers thoughtful responses that make me see the other side of every situation, challenges me spiritually, leads our family, makes hard decisions and easy ones when I can't, and continues to love me when I might feel unlovable.

I took today off work to spend some time with my guy. It's been too long coming! Granted, he has to work today so we are only going to get the morning together BUT...I also took tomorrow off work to hang out with him the entire day. So, we'll truly celebrate tomorrow and today we will just hang out at the house together. I love this guy...

Homemade gifts 5 and 6 (and sorta 7).

I gave my mom these two things with a tag that said "to the woman who taught me to love sewing and art". A pear watercolor that I painted and is now living in their dining room and a hot mat that I "quilted" for her.

I also made her, uncle J and dad B a calendar of pictures that I took in the last year which I am always very proud of - both the time it takes to design the calendar and the photos that I choose for each. This is the first year I have done one for J and B but 3rd or 4th year for mom. Hers was all pictures of things we did together - I think- and that was fun too. Hiking trips, hot air balloons, etc. Sorry - no pics of those.

Leaving soon...

We are going on vacation this week. Not gonna tell you which days or where - no creeping allowed - though I am sure you will see plenty of updates on instagram where I am @stelmosweetness and on Twitter where I am @Love10984. Follow our vacay and 4th anniversary there.

August Birchbox!!

It's Birchbox time! It finally came after what felt like months of waiting and everyone else I know getting theirs first!

There was a neat theme this month - Beauty School - so the insert (seen below) had lots of fun tips and tricks in it for "back to school". It also came in this fun yellow box - like a school bus - instead of the traditional pink box. Now, if you know me, you know I LOVE pink but I'm good with a little switcheroo every once in a while.

This is what is looked like when you first open the box...the pink insert is the tip sheet.

This is whish body butter and it smells absolutely divine. Not too strong a scent and really smooth feeling. Can't wait to put it all over my legs!

This is the Brightening Cleanser by DDF. I haven't ever heard of this brand so I am pretty excited to try it out. It is a nice sized sample too so I might actually be able to decide if I like it or not!

This month we also got a fun "Birchbox Find" which was this (new?) 5 blade razor by Schick. I am always looking for an easy, faster, and better shave so I am looking forward to trying this pre-beach next week! It also has a nice coupon on the back so if I like it, I will definately be getting more.

This is a curl cream called Pillow Soft by Miss Jessie's Orignials. Though my hair is a little wavy if it air dries and kind frizzy, I'm not really a curly girl. I got two samples so I will probably try one just to see and pass the other to my very curly haired sister. It does say that it helps frizz so I might like it after all.

Finally, the new perfume by Juicy Couture called Viva la Juicy la Fleur. Nice scent - fairly light and I like the hint of mandarin.

I think I have literally gotten a perfume sample in every single Birchbox so far and I am highly unlikely to splurge on any of the full size perfumes. However, I am amassing a nice selection of choices for days I choose to wear it!

The neatest part about this month's box is the partnership that Birchbox has made with Pencils of Promise, an organization that builds schools. I too believe that education is one of the biggest keys to lifelong success to I love that a portion of their profits this month go to this organization. Well done Birchbox!

Want more info or a Birchbox for yourself? Just click here.

4 years.

I would like to report that our 4th anniversary is next week – blessedly on the day we will be arriving at the beach for our vacation. So, I started thinking that now would be a good time to get started on Chad’s anniversary present. A little research later and I discovered: the traditional gift for a 4th anniversary is fruit and/or flowers. Uh. Ok. Let’s try modern…and that would be appliances. Which might be slightly amusing if our microwave didn’t die last week. Thankfully, my husband is super handy and believes that he can fix the microwave (the spring that holds the door shut appears to be broken) so I should expect some fruit. I’ll buy him a bag of apples.

Or wait, I’ll take my fruit blended in an adult beverage with a umbrella on top while I admire the ocean.