Celebrating Motherhood & Some Give Aways!!!

I've been a mama for twelve years.
In six years, my oldest, Luke, will be eighteen.
This means I'm not a "young mom" anymore.  I think it means I'm a full fledged, seasoned mom.
I guess this also means I'm not a girl anymore. I am, in fact, a woman.
I always thought the seasoned moms had arrived.
Let me assure you that they haven't because I still feel as clueless as I did when I brought Luke home.

Anyway, I don't know if you're weird like me,
but I rarely ever feel like one of the moms being celebrated on Mother's Day.
I get lost in honoring my own mom, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm deep in the trenches of mothering these babies of mine that aren't quite babies anymore.
It's wonderful and amazing and such a gift from God, but it's also hard.
There.  I said it.
Every season of mothering has been wonderful and amazing and hard.  All at the same time.
And can we all just admit that all those emotions at the same time make you feel a little crazy?
We're all on the same page?  good.

I celebrate my own mom because she made it.
She saw me through those sleepless nights as a baby.
She survived the hardest years in her marriage while learning to balance motherhood & marriage.
She didn't die when she left me on the first day of kindergarten.
She helped me grieve the death of a friend the day after 6th grade graduation.
We both survived junior high.  Whew!
Of course, I fell in love the first week of seventh grade with a boy I just knew I'd marry.
She endured me loving that boy for too many years to count!

She bought me that first dooney & bourke purse that I had to have.
She paid way too much money for prom dresses.
She made homemade biscuits for the entire football team on game days.
She made our home the one that all my friends wanted to come to.
She always stocked the pantry with all the best snacks.
We ate her out of the house nearly every weekend and she never complained.

Oh, what a wonderful mother she has always been.
She had homemade goodies every single week.
She cooked home cooked meals every single night.
She made curtains for the play house that was really just our old pig pen.
She worked her fingers to the bone in our garden every summer.
She took us swimming in the summer and made snow ice cream in the winter.
She did my laundry for far too long.
She cried when I needed her to cry and laughed when I needed her to laugh.
She also gave me a firm talking to when she needed me to listen and learn.

I appreciate my mom more than she will ever know.
She constantly reminds me that mothering was wonderful and amazing and hard for her, too.
She assures me that all moms feel every emotion known to mankind all at the same time.
She tells me every single time she gets a chance what a fantastic job I'm doing with my babies.
She encourages me and challenges me and pushes me onward.
She reminds me on the wonderful and amazing days to soak it all up and take it all in.
And on those hard days....she tells me it's normal and that tomorrow is another day with new mercies.
She's also been known to remind me what she survived in mothering me!

There are days in mothering when we wonder if we'll survive our kids.
And there are other days, more days, when we wonder if they'll survive us.
 This mothering is made up of a whole lot of thriving and surviving.
It's wonderful and amazing and hard...all at the same time.
I celebrate my sweet mom because she made it!


It's time to celebrate all of you ROCKSTARS who are thriving & surviving!!

I am excited to be part of celebrating all of YOU mamas out there.
It's almost MOTHER'S DAY!!
And you know that all of us are mamas to somebody, right?
If you've got neighbors or nieces and nephews or students that you love like your own, then
this is for you.
Courtney from Lil Light O' Mine wanted to honor and celebrate mothers for the next couple of weeks.
And, she asked me to join her and a few others in doing a week of give aways!
Please visit her blog to read the sweet message she wrote just for YOU.

I'm honored to give one of you our "You Are My Sunshine" sign.
I think most mothers have spent countless hours singing this song to their babies!

I'd love for you to enter to win.
Simply leave a comment telling me something motherhood is teaching you.
PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL IF YOU AREN'T A BLOGGER!! :)
I'll post the winner on Friday, May 4th!

Here's a list of the give aways this week::

Monday, April 30 ( Lil Light O' Mine & Lay Baby Lay)

Tuesday, May 1 (Between You & Me & Lil Light O' Mine)

Wednesday, May 2 (be{tween} Collection & Sarah Jane Studios)

Thursday, May 3 (Carol&Company & Lil Light O' Mine)

Friday, May 4 (Cabell's Designs & Noonday Collection)

warning:: lame post.

right now i am.....

watching: nothing.  i know, i can't believe it either.  just know that friends reruns will reconvene as soon as this earth shattering post is finished.

drinking: nothing.  do you dare to wonder how much sweet tea i drank today?  too much.  yes.  i'm suppose to be NOT drinking it but i am anyway....such a rebel.

wearing:  my black jersey knit skirt from old navy with my gray "Athens, I love you" t-shirt.  

eating:  nothing at the moment because I'm stuffed full of chinese food that I ate tonight with Lydia.  That's what we do when the boys go on a "man date."  They're fishing if you're wondering.

listening to:  nothing but the sound of my ceiling fan swooshing.  silence is golden. 

avoiding: folding the three loads of laundry that surround me on my bed.  this time i'm actually going to fold it and not throw every last bit of it back in the basket on my floor, like i did last time.

wishing:  i could click my heels together and be moved into our new house already. this girl is OVER the waiting.

feeling:   READY...to move...to be out of pain...to meet with the surgeon...to finish this school year.  and on and on and on.

missing:  my boys being little.  

thankful:  our school year is almost over.  honestly, we've got the worse case of spring fever EVER.  maybe it's the new house and knowing that we're moving soon.  maybe the year of pain has taken it's final toll on me. whatever it is....put a fork in me.  i feel done. {and so do my kids}.

craving:  who should be craving anything after all the chinese food i ate earlier?  but, have no fear. i'm craving pistachios.

wondering:  when i'm gonna get my mo-jo back.  dishes in the sink...laundry undone.  beds unmade.  piles of papers on the countertop.  dolls and legos and books and shoes and socks are strode all over this house, and none of it bothers me enough to do anything about it.  would the real tara please show her face?

praying:  for open and closed doors when i see the surgeon on tuesday.  i seriously don't want options.  i just want them to tell me what i need to do.  

needing:  to pack this house up.  we move in three weeks, and i haven't done the first thing and honestly can't imagine starting.  like i said, i need that mo-jo back pronto.

{thankful for}

333. a haircut.

334. girl's night with lydia.

335. antique stores with Andy.

336. the mama bird and her babies in our garage.

One step closer to white...

I started falling in love with the crisp, clean look of all white rooms a couple years ago.

I know...I know...I'm always a little late to the show.

Here's why it took a while to convince me....I grew up with it.

My parents have had all white walls for nearly forty five years!

I spent my entire childhood begging trying to persuade them to paint those walls.

My dad prides himself {JUST A LITTLE BIT} when he figures something out before I do.

And, this isn't the first time they've known something was awesome before everyone else figured it out.

My parents have always had a garden big enough to feed us and most of the people around us.

And, I grew up with chickens in the yard way before it was cool.

So, if by some small miracle my dad happens to be reading this silly old blog, I'll humbly admit again 

he was onto something when he painted every.last.wall.in.the.house white.

Ashley from The Handmade Home gives me hope that I'll eventually follow my parents' lead!

Everything in her house is accentuated against the white.

I was amazed at the difference in how her house looked before and after.

If you want some more inspiration, you can head over to Perfectly Imperfect.

Shaunna has some great posts on how she revamped her cottage one room at a time.

We're closing on our new house in just a few weeks.

Almost as soon as we bought it, it was time to tell the builder our interior colors.

Daily, I went back and forth looking through my pinterest boards for inspiration.

 I was amazed at just how many white rooms I had pinned!

I was soooo close to choosing white, but in the end,  I just couldn't commit.

{sorry dad! sorry blogland! sorry pinterest boards!}

However, I did choose the lightest shade I've ever chosen, and I love them!!

...one step closer to white.

Weekending it at the Botanical Gardens

We visited the State Botanical Gardens here in Athens today, and it was the perfect day to visit.

The skies were blue and the weather was perfect at 68 degrees.

These kind of days are always good for our family.

We come alive when we're enjoying all that God created.

I love to see my kids explore and find things in nature.

I enjoy seeing them run ahead of us with excitement for what they might find around the corner.

It makes my heart glad to watch my boys balance themselves all the way across a broken tree.

No fear.  No thought of falling.  No hesitation.

I love seeing Lydia find sheer joy putting her feet in the water.

She couldn't get her sandals off fast enough!

For the record, she doesn't live in much fear either 

because she was halfway across the tree when we pulled her back to us.

Of course, these kind of days are never without a few moments that bring us back to our reality.

The boys were running together at one point, and it seemed picturesque until one fell.

Come to find out, he only fell because his brother gave him a swift push.  

One minute, you're holding hands with your honey watching your kids enjoy an innocent race.

The next minute, you're picking one off the ground and reminding the other how to treat his brother.

I wouldn't trade the good, the bad or the ugly with this crew that God gave me.

It's never mundane, and we're always learning something together.

{thankful for}

328. Sunday afternoons with this family of mine.
329. flowers in full bloom.
330. dinner with friends last night.
331. a cool breeze.
332. Andy's birthday celebration this weekend.

Progress.

I thought I'd show you some pictures of the house and how it is progressing.

I always forget to take a "front on" picture, so the front door is between the stone and the brick.

*Just in case you're wondering*

The builder had completely built the house and added the brick when we bought the home.

We were able to pick the stone and the exterior color.

The only problem was, we bought the house at the point when he needed the color stat.

There are seven homes in the culdesac, and four of them are a shade of brown.

We knew we wanted something in the gray/beige family to go with the gray in the brick & stone.

So, with only a couple of days to deliberate on it, we chose Perfect Greige by Benjamin Moore.

Because the brick is darker in color, as is the stone, 

we really wanted to go with something lighter on the exterior.

We're looking forward to seeing the dark shutters and gutters on it in a week or so.

I think those will make a huge difference in it's overall appearance.

We're also hoping that landscape will add another dimension.

Right now, it looks like a sea of RED with the dirt and the brick!!

Here's the back of the house with our deck.

We added four feet to the size of it because apparently,

deck size is to my man what kitchen cabinets are to me. 

So, here's my our kitchen.

I knew I wanted white cabinets with white subway tile,

and I thought I wanted white countertops, but with stainless steel appliances, 

I thought it'd be a tad more modern than I prefer.

Plus, those white countertops were way out of the builder's budget, 

so we went with this builder grade granite, and I really like it.

I picked out the rubbed bronze knobs & pulls for the cabinets to tie into the countertops.

The subway tile is going in this week, and we can't wait to see it in there!

This is the eat in area in the kitchen.

I'll put our barn table in front of those windows that you see.

The door that is open beside the windows is my pantry.

This is the light fixture that I ordered for the eat-in area in the kitchen.

This is our family room, and we love the 12 foot ceilings.

The door that you see goes onto the deck.

This room is completely open to the kitchen and eat-in area.

There is bright sunlight in every single space in this house, and we love it!

This is the front door.

It has the window panels on top and on both sides.

Eventually, we'll add one of those doors that has a window 3/4 of the way down.

The open doorway that you see leads into the dining room.

This isn't the exact light that I chose for the foyer, but it's very, very similar.

Here's the dining room.

We added board & batten, and we're very pleased with the look of it.

The painters haven't finished the interior painting, so it's hard to tell the color.

We chose Summer Breeze by Porter Paints.

{It's the lightest color that you see on the walls.}

This is the light fixture that I ordered for the dining room.

This week and next they are finishing landscape, tile and staining our hardwood floors.

It's been a whirlwind of a couple months, but the journey has been so worth it.

Never in a million years did we ever imagine we'd be moving into a brand new home.

The housing market here is bizarre.

There are homes that are ten-fifteen years old that need a TON of work 

for the same price that this new home is costing us.

Uhmmmm...that decision is easy after renovating four homes in ten years!!!

We'll take the new one, please.

{thankful for}

326. My MRI scheduled for today...praying for a solution to the pain. {prayers please}
327. a rainy day for staying inside.

A hard day's play.

Oh, today was a great day.

I wonder if my friend Angie has any idea what a blessing her family and her home is to my crew?

We went over for lunch today and ended up staying until 5:00pm.

Thank God I had put dinner in the crock pot!!

They built their dream home on a large plot of land, and it is a total refuge.

She had the windows open, and we sat and enjoyed conversation on her comfy sofas.

The only noises we heard were our children laughing hysterically while they played outside.

We grilled hotdogs on their ginormous deck and enjoyed them with all the fixins'.

She made homemade m&m cookies that the kids devoured.

There were fresh flowers on her amazing island.

It was glorious.

I grew up on land so playing in the creek and among the animals was an everyday occurrence for me.

It does my heart soooo good to see & hear my kids doing the same.

She has triplets {two boys & a girl} who are almost twelve and another little girl who is eight.

I didn't get her girls in the shots because I didn't have my camera out for very long.

But, they are the sweetest most generous and fun loving girls.

They had tea parties and held dance recitals for us and ended the day soaking wet from the water hose.

I'm telling you...it was a gooooood day.

I know these pictures I took won't win me any awards.

I'm a people over task kind of girl, so the people won out. :)

Anyway, their home is a real beauty.

It's what all of us bloggers out there swoon over.

Hardwood floors throughout.

White paneled walls throughout.

Wood ceilings to match their floors.

The perfect shade of blue kitchen cabinets.

A farm table that begs you to sit for a spell and enjoy the food and company.

Two fireplaces on the same wall in the same room....todiefor amazing.

Windows that welcome all the sunlight the skies have to offer.

A front porch the length of the house.

And land that your legs will run on for so long and so hard that they feel like they might just fall off.

{thankful for}
320. friends.
321. friends who open their home and share themselves.
322. the laughter of my kids with their friends.
323. the true worship that my heart felt today listening to the sounds of our kids playing hard.
324. the flowers that I saw out of every single window in her house.
325.  a whole day without hearing a single kid say they were bored.

Lord, Bless our friends..Bless their home..Bless their family...
Thank you for this new friendship.
Thank you for their faith that is lived out loud without very many words needed.
Thank you for the sweet worship that I experienced just by being in their presence.
Let our home be a blessing to others.
Let our family exude your joy and peace to those we encounter.
Amen.

twelve.

Today was full of celebration.

This boy is my first born, and it's his birthday.

Twelve short years ago, after seventeen hours of labor, I delivered him by emergency c-section.

So many people felt sorry for me that I had to have a c-section.

To be honest, I didn't care.

The method mattered not because he was the treasure.

He is tender hearted and sensitive and persistent and a little stubborn.

He is smart and inquisitive and inventive.

He is twelve and changing and growing up.

He loves people but he's a little more introverted.

He's a thinker and an inward processor.

Pretty much, he's his daddy.

Happy Birthday, Luke.

You are my first born sunshine.

{thankful for}

317. birthday celebrations.
318. tea parties with Lydia.
319. a rerun of friends that we never saw in the 90s..hilarious.

There's a winner!

I have this picture in my head of me slinging my car into a parking lot on two wheels with frazzled hair.

I meant to announce the winner of the bracelet give away this morning, but the day got ahead of me.

The winner is MaryBeth, who left comment # 44.

CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS!!!

I'll get your bracelet to you sooner than I delivered this post today. :)

I have one of Jessica's handcrafted goodies and I can bear witness that they are lovely!

I've worn mine almost every single day since it arrived.

I'd love for you to visit her shop and purchase one for yourself!

She delivers them to you in the sweetest packaging with no detail spared.

{thankful for}

314. the boys having friends over for the night.
315. cupcake making with Lydia.
316. dental visit today...love having my teeth cleaned!