Am I the only one who is ECSTATIC that today is Friday? This week seems to have flown by and left me behind in the dust. It’s been awhile since I joined in for 5 on Friday and I have quite a few random things to share, so hang on!
ONE: After almost three full months of Bible Journaling, I am still going strong. It’s hard to find the time to have an in-depth art journal session at 5 o’clock in the morning, but I usually find some time to be creative five or six days a week. I have been using Jesus Calling and the She Reads Truth app since the beginning of February, but my focus has shifted a little starting last week.
Do you know about Secret Church? It’s a pretty intense 6-7 hour teaching session led by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, David Platt. It’s held each spring in the days before or after Easter. Designed to bring focus to the persecuted church around the world, participants engage in a focused time of study and prayer and “come alongside our brothers and sisters who live in places around the world where there is little to no gospel witness or where the gospel is met with resistance.” Secret Church 15 met last Friday night and my mom and I had the pleasure of attending a local simulcast event. Platt preached until well after midnight on the biblical truth surrounding many social issues we face today and I’m still trying to digest everything I heard. There are hundreds of pages to cover in the workbook and I am using it as a daily devotional for the next several weeks. I was so convicted about my stance on some social issues and how to approach them from a loving, but biblical, point of view.
If you are even the slightest bit interested in listening to an amazing sermon {that will likely take you all day to cover}, I highly recommend visiting the Secret Church website to find out how you can watch the replay and get a copy of the study guide yourself.
TWO: I’ve been meaning to pick up an inexpensive set of watercolors for several weeks, thinking it would be something fun for the girls and I to enjoy. I had to run in Hobby Lobby earlier this week and, armed with my 40% off coupon, I got a pretty cool travel set for less than six dollars. The girls wanted to try it out and see how the colors all looked, so they sat down together over a single piece of copier paper. How is it that I can attempt to create something beautiful all day long and my 5 and 8 year old daughters manage to make this? It has been safely tucked away in my “to frame” pile for our future house.
THREE: Let’s talk blog design and Pinterest and Twitter. Josh snickers when I say things like “this is the year of the blog”, but after neglecting it so badly because of work last year, I’m trying to focus on being more consistent with my content and making the site as user-friendly as possible. Yes, this is mostly a place to share our daily lives with family and friends, but for those of you who come for birthday party ideas and funny stories, I want to make it as easy to navigate as possible. Talk to me about what you like to see out of a good blog design. Are there things here that drive you crazy or make you want to spend less time poking around? Did you notice that we added buttons in the lower sidebar so that you can quickly access our party posts? They are pretty much my new favorite thing ever. I also added a Pinterest plug-in {so you can see what we’re pinning in the sidebar AND so you can pin items from our site more easily}. I’ve been spending far more time on Pinterest than usual {hello future house ideas and projects} and I’ve carefully curated and organized all of our boards to be easier to browse. The last little thing I’ve updated recently are the post sharing options. I added a floating social share menu on the left-hand side. Please tell me that it doesn’t drive you crazy? And while I pride myself on keeping up with technology and social media, I have been trying to ignore Twitter for the better part of my blogging career. Josh finally convinced me to bite the bullet, but I’ll admit I have no idea what I’m doing. My tweets have been few and far between at this point, but I’m going to be trying to have a bigger presence on that social media channel in the coming days and weeks. Can you just flatter my ego slightly and follow along? I promise for some reciprocity and I’ll try not to embarrass myself any further. Just call me grandma.
FOUR: I wish I had thought to take a picture of the playroom before the girls and I tackled it on Tuesday evening. Josh’s green screen and lights were in the middle of the room {yes, my husband makes ridiculous YouTube videos sometimes}, Sophie’s birthday gifts {and related trash} were spread out everywhere and pretty much every article of clothing that they’ve worn in the last week was on full display. It didn’t take long to get it under control, but I’m kind of over asking the girls to clean it up on a daily basis. I will be beyond thrilled when their rooms are on the second floor and I don’t have to walk through their mess as I head to the bathroom every morning.
To help streamline their tasks and to encourage hard work, I put these little chore charts together for them this week. They each have an – almost identical – list of chores to be completed daily, along with a place to check them off each day. Since some chores are alternated and others are only relevant to certain days of the week, I went ahead and filled in some of the circles for days when they don’t have to do certain things. Each week, they’ll be rewarded for filling up their entire chart or if they fill in less than 30 chores, their bedtime will be adjusted for the following week. I’m hoping a little reward/consequence situation will help enforce the importance of their participation!
I also added stars to the days of the week when it’s their *day*. If you ever hear my kids screaming about whose *day* it is, you can be assured they are just arguing over who gets to sit in the coveted right corner of the couch! I have no idea why this is a thing, because the couch is directly across from the television and each corner is equidistant from the tube. It just makes no sense. After trying to regulate it and after countless days postponing their *day* because of trips or evening activities, we adopted an every-other-day routine and these stars will help them to know whose turn it is without asking me eleventy-billion times before breakfast.
FIVE: Please tell me that I’ve convinced you to try Stitch Fix by now? I know that every blogger and their sister has encouraged you to do it, but I’m telling you it is well worth your time and money. As much as I love to shop, I really love to get a surprise in the mail and that’s what Stitch Fix does for you! I have no idea how many boxes I’ve opened at this point, but I thought it might be fun to show you how many individual pieces I’ve kept {seventeen, not including jewelry}! I have a box on it’s way right now and I can’t wait to unpack it on Monday and see what all Jodi is sending my way. I’ve requested some distressed denim shorts {since I can’t seem to find a pair that I love on my own} and a few flowy, boho-inspired tops for spring and summer. Assuming that my kids aren’t swinging from the chandelier or something, I’m planning to do an unboxing video to share on the blog later next week. And just in case you haven’t picked up a mother’s day gift for the special ladies in your life – Stitch Fix gift cards are a FANTASTIC option {hint, hint}. Hey, Josh, I was talking to you!
Whew, that took longer than I thought. We’re headed into a pretty full weekend, but there are lots of fun things to look forward to. I’m meeting my parents {and my girls} at a local salvage store tonight in the search for a few things for the house. I’m hoping for pretty weather tomorrow so the girls can play outside while I tackle a few outside projects and work on getting our house ready to list {in the VERY near future}. On Sunday, I’m attending a Sunday School class at our new church for the first time {eeeek} and we have a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party to attend later that afternoon {prayers are much appreciated}. Here’s to hoping your weekend is just as full {or relaxing, if you prefer it that way} and that you’ll come back on Monday and visit again. Happy Weekend!
