Summer Fun List...twenty twelve style {& a winner}

The kids and I tackled the summer fun list yesterday, and I thought I'd show you.
This vignette is in our dining room, and it makes me smile every time I see it.
I don't' know if you have a chalk board at your house, but I'm telling you,
I could have doodled on that chalk board all the live long day.
It doesn't take much to entertain me!

I try to keep our list realistic and in order for that to happen, it needs to be simple.
I can handle swimming, movies, ice cream, sleep overs, hiking, cookouts, smores and slurpees.
Six Flags, The Georgia Aquarium and Lego Land in Atlanta will be about it for the not so simple things.

We are so glad that summer's here!
We're looking forward to settling into our new home and doing lots of playing.

{thankful for}
376. Joanie trusting us with her three precious kids for the week while they're in Ethiopia.
377. Andy taking all 6 kids to the pool to have some fun.
378. a quiet house.
379. the sound of my ceiling fan being all I hear.
380. lamp light.
381. summer fun.

Oh! I almost forgot!!!  Becky from farm girl paints won the Shabby Apple Give away!!!
Thanks everyone for entering!
Remember, you can receive 10% off your purchase this month, as long as you mention
 LOWRY10OFF when you check out.

How to dress up a five dollar trunk.

Does anybody remember Minnie Pearl?

She was the lady that wore the hat with the price tag hanging off of it, just in case you don't know her.

Anyway, I was raised to never discuss money, but people, I can't help myself when I find a great deal.

I feel obligated to tell the world so they can get a deal, too!!

Okay, so we picked up this trunk for five stinking dollars at a garage sale in Orlando last spring.

And, I swear it's made a home in nearly every room in our house!!

Don't you love a good versatile piece when you find it?

It's a keeper in my book if it can be moved from room to room.

So, we moved in to our house over the weekend, and somehow it got placed next to the sofa.

After looking at it there for a few days, we decided it should sit a spell, which is southern for stay put.

But, after looking at it in the pictures from my post earlier this week, I realized it wasn't quite tall enough.

Easy fix.

We went to Lowe's and picked up four round "feet" for it.

Andy stained them to halfway match the trunk, then he painted them black and distressed them a little before screwing them into the bottom of the trunk.

Better, huh?

Those feet look like they've been with this five dollar trunk all its life, right?

I spy a dirty floor.

I couldn't stand it anymore.

I swept them, but I refused to take new pictures. 

That's what we are gonna call GROWTH.

And, for all of you out there who want me to talk about the money.....

The "feet" were $8 each, so we now have $37 invested in this trunk that we're calling our end table.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.

{thankful for}

371. whoever came up with the original idea for adding feet to furniture to make them taller.
372.  testing being OVER for my boys.  yippee for summer!
373. easy dinners.  grilled hotdogs to be exact.
374. fun night with the staff wives tonight.
375. more unpacked boxes.

ENTER TO WIN MY SHABBY APPLE GIVE AWAY HERE!!!

A Shabby Apple GIVE AWAY

Have you heard of Shabby Apple?

They have the most amazing clothes and swimsuits and accessories.

They've generously offered one of my USA readers the opportunity to win a $75 gift certificate.

To enter to win, they have two simple requests.

Like their facebook page

&

Visit their website
and then come back and leave a comment telling me what you'll buy with the cash you win!
I'll choose a winner this Friday, May 25th.

Now, you might be one of those that have grown weary of the give aways because you never win.
Well, guess what?
Everybody wins a little something this time!
Shabby Apple is offering all of you 10% off your order for an entire month!!
The coupon code that you need to use when making your order is::
LOWRY10OFF

Light at the end of the Tunnel.

It's been a wonderfully long few days of unpacking around here, and we're starting to see the end in sight.
My husband and I are both the types who love to get in, get unpacked and get settled.
We have this moving thing down to a science now.

I snapped a quick shot just to show you the difference a few days has made.
I'm looking up at that picture realizing that it would have been great if I'd thought to stage the room a little.
I've got some tweaking to do with accessories, but at least the big pieces have found their spots.

We're enjoying every part of making this house our home.
I've got a couple of projects that I'm working on this week that I'll show you in a few days.

{thankful for}
366. less days with pain.
367. the smell of this new home.
368. swimming with friends.
369. lunch with stephanie and carla.
370. a husband who takes care of the details.

A Blank Canvas.

Move in day is TOMORROW!!

I wanted to show you a few shots of our blank canvas before we add our things to the mix.

When you walk in the front door, the family room is what you see.

This is our dining room to the right as you walk in the front door.

I'm having a hard time picking a favorite room, but the light in this one is phenomenal.

To the right of the family room is the eat in area of our kitchen.

This house has a very open floor plan, which we LOVE.

(The door that you see is my pantry.)

This is the kitchen that is open to the family room and the eat in area.

I can hardly wait to host house guests.

In fact, our first ones will be staying with us this coming Friday night!

This is just another shot of the kitchen.

I wanted to show you a more close up picture of the countertops against the white cabinets/backsplash.

I'm up to my eyeballs in packing, so I'll be back in a few days with some details and new pictures!

Hopefully, the pictures will show all of our stuff unpacked and in place.

{My inner "over achiever" is in HIGH GEAR!}

{thankful for}

361.  this new house and move in day.

362.  family date night tonight.
363. less hip/back pain with NO injection!!!  {it got cancelled last week after I posted}
363. dr. hooper and dr. allen for praying that God would use them to help in my healing.
 {it's happening!}
364. blue skies and sunshine.
365. my girl's twirling skills.

On Writer's Block & a WINNER

I know it's normal, but when you love words and they don't come, it's a real struuuugggle.

I reached an all time low in mine when all I could come up with recently was this lame post.

Thank God we're not all in the same place at the same time!

I've found some very thought-provoking, CoLoRfUl and heart-wrenching posts out there.

I thought I'd pass along the links just in case & by some slim chance you haven't read them already.

Edie's Urban Garden in Bean Station, Tennessee.

Nester's post on painting some precious toes with Blue nail polish.

Meg's life of COLOR

Nester meets her sponsor child and I cry so hard it hurts.

And, if urban gardens, blue nail polish, a life of color and
a post that makes you cry the ugly cry isn't enough....
Here are a few more you have to check out....

Shannan's thoughts on storing up treasures in Heaven

Mama Monk's challenge to us to have grace with ourselves.

Paige's video that proves that the greatest of these is love.

Hands Free Mama...prepare yourselves for some conviction!!

Shannan's thoughts on how much is too much

*************************************************************
The WINNER of the beautiful, handmade scarf is Melissa K, commenter #20
Congrats!  I sent you a message to get your address! :)

{thankful for}
358. words that bring life and hope.
359. COLOR that screams HAPPY
360. places called Bean Station, TN and people who live there like Edie. :)

Beautiful Hand woven scarf GIVE AWAY!!

I want to share a beautiful story with you of how one group of people decided to make a difference.

This foundation called, Connected in Hope (CHF),
 began with an adoption and a first visit to Ethiopia in 2009.

It grew into a deep love and respect for the people of Ethiopia
and a compelling desire to give back to this beautiful land and its people.

I am honored that they contacted me and gave me the opportunity to give you one of their products,

which is handmade by some of these beautifully talented women that you see in these pictures.
We're excited that one of you will win a scarf of your choice.
Our HOPE is that many of you will visit their site and join them in their efforts to care for their families.

If you'd like regular updates on the amazing things happening in this great organization,
please visit their facebook page!

I have the gray & white one below, and I LOVE it.
 It's high quality, people!

You can visit their shop and come back and let me know which scarf you'd like to win!

Be sure to leave your email address if you aren't a blogger so I can reach you.

I think these women are unsung heroes.  

They are strong and courageous and smart and talented!

They are fierce mothers who are working hard to provide for their families.

I'm so excited to be part of something like this, and I know you will be too!

In honor of them, 

a winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday, May 12, 2012.

If you don't win, but you'd like to order one, you can do so at their shop.
Also, once you receive your scarf, you can visit their facebook page to be updated on your "weaver."
Isn't that awesome?
You can connect with someone on the other side of the world!!!

{thankful for}
352. amazing women who are strong and brave.
353. amazing women who hear from God and fulfill his mission to love others.
354. snuggles all day today with a sick little girl.
355. a canceled epidural injection at the last minute...super relieved..will give details later. :)
356. laughs with Michele today.
357. a husband who came home in the middle of his day to check on his baby girl.
358. a lazy day with the boys because Lydia was sick and we haven't had enough lazy days.
{okay, we have, but I confessed already that we had a severe case of spring fever!!!}

A business meeting of sorts.

I thought we were in need of a business meeting.

Sounds so official, right?

I'm in my pjs and still sipping on my first cup of coffee, so I'd hardly say we're fancy over here.

This is just my attempt at filling you in on a few details without pictures.

First up::

I've been MIA this week because blogger contacted me to tell me that I need to purchase MORE space.

At that point, I had decisions to make!

FYI...you can't post any new pictures without the space they're asking you to purchase.

It seems like it was JUST yesterday that they had me do that for the first time.

Am I out already?

Anywho, I made the plunge and decided to switch to wordpress and have 

this lovely lady's daughter makeover my blog.

I'll be re-directing you soon to the new site, so the twenty of you that stop by regularly, stay tuned. 

Next on the agenda::

I have my first epidural steroid injection to help with the inflammation in my hip/back.

My appointment is around 2:45 this afternoon...say prayers that it works!!

And finally::

We are set to close on our new house next Friday!!!

I've been slowly packing up the rental house...22 boxes packed so far.

This one should be easier since it's just two miles down the road!!

Hope you guys are having a great week....

not sure I'll be back before the blog gets switched over.

My brain is FRIED right now, and I'm having a terrible case of writer's block.

{thankful for}

349.  rain washing away the allergies that have our heads swollen with yuck.
350. a dent in the packing.
351. the return of some joy in my heart...pain has had this girl dooooooowwwwwn.

Inspiration ideas for the new house....

Young House Love

Miss Mustard Seed

Haute Indoor Couture

My pinterest boards have helped me so much in planning for this new house we're buying.

What did we do before pinterest?

I'll tell you what I did.  I had ginormous idea books everywhere.

It started with the one I had for my wedding.  Then, I added one for my home and one for recipes.

They were so crammed full, they were hardly even useful.

We're less then two weeks away from our moving day, and I feel like it's gonna move at a snail's pace.
I don't know what I'm more excited about...
cooking my first meal in the kitchen?
taking my first hot bath?
sitting out on that big deck with friends?
laying in the hammock with Andy?
watching my kids finally settle and feel at home?

I haven't given this year enough credit because it's been harder than I've cared to mention.
There were a few things that out shined the hard parts.
Living in Georgia.
...in ATHENS, Georgia.
Being near my family.
Working at this amazing church with these amazing people.
It's been 9 months of pure bliss.
Except for the fact that we've moved three times.
We packed up and moved from Orlando.
We unpacked our stuff into storage and unpacked a few things into our temporary home.
Then, we packed up the storage unit and unpacked everything into our rental home.
Now, we're packing everything up again and moving it all to our new house two miles away.

As amazing as this year has definitely been, it's also been a year of unsettledness.
I wish so bad we were those people that were able to be "home" wherever we happen to be.
Renting has been hard for me because it feels a little impossible to make something yours that isn't.
I commend Nester for her philosophy on being a renter.
I have a whole new respect for her now that we've done it.

~WHEW~
No wonder I'm low on energy and my back hurts at an all time high!

{thankful for}
342. the blog makeover in my near future.
343. lots of signs selling.
344. this chapter of renting coming to a close.
345. sunshine.
346. a walk on campus with my honey this weekend.
347. time with just lydia yesterday.
348. family reunion this weekend...feels good to get back to my roots!

Celebrating Motherhood...a winner!

Well...a few things are clear.
There are a lot of mamas out there singing "You are my Sunshine" to their babies,
and we're all being schooled by our kids in this mothering thing!

I loved reading through your comments on the last post.
It's a crazy thing...we're from a hundred different places, but we're all so similar to one another.
My heart kind of swelled with proudness as you shared your hearts on what mothering is teaching you.
I think we all agree that raising these babies will be our most accomplished & hardest life work.
It's turning us inside out and showing us who we really are and who we long to become.
We've all figured out that we can't possibly do it without help from God!

Courtney hosted a ton of give aways this week, and she's announcing all the winners,
but I do get the honor of letting you know which one of you will receive the sunshine sign.

I'm so happy to say that Katie Deserio won the sign!
She's a beautiful, brand new mom to the most amazing little boy.
Katie, you've got a lot of years ahead of you to sing this song to your handsome guy.
I'm squealing that you won!!!

{thankful for}
337. date nights with Andy
338.  walks on campus.
339. lunch with a friend.
340. a miracle.
341. Seth's love of reading...it's been a long time coming!