...somehow kitties live here too...

I say this like I have no idea how it happened, when I'm the exact person who made it happen.

I'm not sure how to say this, but we had a significant mouse problem when we took over this house on December 29th. Like...we knew there were mice...what we did not know was that there was a literal army of rodents, freely living here like it was their actual home.

On the first weekend we owned the house, Josh set traps under the kitchen sink and within a half hour we had caught EIGHT mice.

EIGHT.

So we plugged some holes around the foundation, set a bunch of traps, made sure the entire house was clean (even during renovation!) and we continued to catch mice all winter, all spring, and consistently at least one a week for much of the summer.

I lost count of how many we'd caught somewhere north of 60.

Mav's first look at his new kitties.

When Jamie and I went to Waco for five days, I came back to mouse poop in places where it had never been before. Places we thought were 'safe' from the invasion (at this point we were usually catching them in Josh's 'Man Cave' which is the most unfinished part of the house/utility room, so it was a problem but it didn't really 'disturb' me...finding it in Maverick's closet DISTURBED ME) and we decided to finally wave the white flag and call a pest company.

Embarrassing for people who a. Think their house is too clean for mice, and B. People who like to do things themselves instead of paying for someone else to do them.

I'll let you guess who is who.

Anyway, after the pest people came THE PROBLEM GOT WORSE. It's like they'd trapped the mice INSIDE the house, when they were previously coming and going freely through mouse holes all around our foundation and chimney. I couldn't even decide which one of those things was worse! There were fat mice. And black mice. And teeny tiny BABY MICE. And now that they were all trapped inside our house, we just had to sit back and wait for a trap to catch them or have them die in our walls.

It was a really fun week.

Meanwhile, everyone I talked to about our mice problem, looked at me matter-a-factly and said..."You need to get cats." I heard it over and over. From strangers and friends and 'cat people' and normal people. I heard it enough that it finally started to sink in.

And because I was desperate, I figured...it was definitely worth a try. Why couldn't we get cats? Kitties can be cute? More animals around here might be fun?

One quick text to a friend, and I had two little girl kitties headed up from Missouri within the week.

This was real, it was happening, and I did it all to myself. But do you know what?

Darnit if our kitties aren't the cutest stupid thing ever. I hate that they're so cute. They make me sneeze and the way they bury their poop grosses me out so much but ALSO WHY ARE THEY SO ADORABLE. They wrestle and play and jump three feet in the air and it's hilarious. I could watch them all day. The way they cuddle up and sleep together is TOO MUCH. We tried naming them 'Amy and Penny' after Big Bang Theory, because Sheldon's 'Soft Kitty' song gets stuck in our heads anytime we've been around them...but that didn't really stick. Gray Kitty and Stripe Kitty are what's stuck for me and Mav because neither of us are great at creatively 'naming' things ("Mav, what do you want to name your car?" "Green car." ...I mean it just makes sense).

We've just tried to be really laid back about it otherwise...there's a chance they'll run away...or be hit on the highway...or be taken away at night by some animal larger than they are...this is apparently the life of outdoor kitties, and we are now outdoor kitty owners so I'm not going to get too precious about it.

Josh has surprisingly taken the strongest liking to the kitties. I catch him cuddling them randomly on the porch...helping them out of a tree with a ladder...and whistling them across the yard to get them to play and sleep on our bedroom porch. I asked why he liked them so much and he said, "It's just nice to have other living things out here, ok?!"

And I'm not sure it's even correlated at this point because they're still little and it seems like they stick to their spot near the shed...but we haven't had a mouse in the house since they've been outside.

I don't even care about anything else.

And THAT, friends, is the story of why we have kittens.

MmB

I mean, COME ON.

That time we got dogs...

Here's the blog post with the explanation Instagram never gave you...

Most of you know we had eight extra furry legs join our family earlier this spring...but most people don't know why. Or how. Or why.

In January (when we were in FULL ON remodel mode with exactly 579,669,485 things happening) a picture of these two sweet-sister-pups was posted on Facebook by their owners and I immediately commented that we might be interested. Of course I commented and THEN asked Josh...

You see, Josh and I have never been dog owners. Neither of our families had dogs at any point during our respective childhoods. We talked about getting a dog for like a minute a couple years ago but then realized we were gone too much for it to make sense. We also didn't have a yard. And lived on 13th St.

To be honest, we'd had actual conversations about giving our a kiddos a puppy to 'open' on Christmas morning at some point...because our lame parents never gave us that Christmas commercial moment and we wanted it for our six-year-old selves more than anything else. Needless to say, we had thought about it off an on for years...when we had more space, more land, more margin, we'd love to eventually have dogs.

So with life on five acres in our immediate future, we talked about getting cats and dogs and maybe chickens and Josh has his heart set on a cow. I figured...this was step one. A pair of beautiful, already-trained, incredibly low maintenance, already outdoor {FREE} dogs.

We are not the kind of people who were ever going to spent $500+ on a dog. We just don't get it. Nothing against people who do...but like...we would do a lot of other things with $500 before we spend it on a dog (do you know how many antiques you can buy on the Junk Jaunt with $500?!). We have a hard time grasping the idea that dogs cost money on a monthly basis, in addition to meds/shots/yearly vet checks, etc...plus we knew we'd need to install an underground fence living on a highway-acreage. So we wanted to do almost anything to get around the up-front cost of purchasing a doggie. And originally we'd thought all of this was like...part of the long-game...at some point, eventually, we'd decide it was time and start researching.

And then that picture was posted and I was like, 'Well those dogs would match our house perfectly.'

I liked that they came from a great home. That they already knew their names, knew how to sit, stay, come (usually), don't jump, don't lick, and don't drool. They're great with kiddos. I like that they tell me when the mail comes and when a foreign vehicle enters our driveway. And otherwise they're super laid back and insanely well-mannered. I'm bragging about how incredible they are, but I can't actually take any of the credit because they came to us as two-year-olds, and apparently their breed is just super chill (unless there are small kitties to chase). They don't mindlessly bark. And as far as outdoor dogs go, they don't even smell that bad (unless they've been rained on)! I even liked that there were TWO of them to keep each other entertained all day and night without needing us around for playing.

I relayed all the pros and cons to Josh frequently to try and get a decision out of him. He's always been the one with the acreage dream, and then it just sort of second-hand became mine too...so if having dogs was part of it, then I felt like it was my job to figure out the logistics and get it done (even though it was much sooner than we'd expected). When we went to visit them before we officially committed to taking them, we left and I asked Josh what he thought, and he said something like, 'Their demeanor is what will win me over. Those are really nice dogs.' So between that, and me prodding that an opportunity like this would probably never come up again, we decided to GO FOR IT.

I have more to say about this, for now let me just say...they came to us on a pretty bad weekend this spring. Bad for house stuff, bad for our fam, bad for BLC...a lot of things stacked up against us back to back to back and we were like, 'Whaaaaaat did we just do bringing these dogs here this is insane, make it all stop.' 

I am the LAST person to ever become some sort of animal-loing weirdo...but these sweetie-girls were  a welcomed distraction in the midst of serious chaos. They actually came at the PERFECT time. They got us outside to play when it was muddy and cold and we just wanted to huddle inside in front of the TV. They made us laugh when we felt like crying. They kept us busy and gave us chores and extra errands to focus on. They are cuddly and playful and smart and fun and SO SWEET, which is my favorite word to describe them (as you might have already noticed): Sweet. They will forever be the unexpected bright spot during a tough month, and I'm nothing but thankful for them. Even when I'm brushing pounds of white hair off of them in the spring. They're also terrible at posing for family pictures but I can get over that.

Milly is 3 and is the calmer, more obedient, one of the two. She listens to us a little better, is more likely to follow us around and is the first to sit with us on the porch. She is territorial about her food and HER favorite spot underneath the deck. She doesn't run across the yard after semi's as much as her sister will. Her fur is less soft and poofy and she's also a bit skinnier than Remy. I don't know why, but her 'beard' is always dirty, when Remy is the one I typically find digging. I can't figure that one out.

Remy is 2 and a half and is the crazier, less obedient one. She's a bit more of a wild card. They both sit and Milly will lay...Remy will lay about 50% of the time. She generally seems goofier, more like a puppy, even though she's the younger sister only by a few months. Her fur is huge and amazing, and when she's brushed she's basically a model. I say she's the 'naughtier' one, but she's still unbelievably good overall. She's usually naughty in a funny way. We have to call to her more than once before she will come in for the night, it only takes one time with Milly. I actually think this sounds like pretty typical first and second born behavior and that is hilarious to me.

They both love car rides, steak bones, chasing our kitties, and being let in the screen porch for extra-special late-night cuddles when we have friends over and I've had a drink so suddenly I 'forget' how much I prefer NOT to sweep dog hair (stuck to everything) out of my porch the next morning. They love chewing on shoes we accidentally leave on the porch, but for some reason they leave our three pairs of rainboots alone. They're fairly easy to tell apart, but it's even easier once you know their personalities. They both have pretty brown eyes, enjoy being brushed, and love when we have some extra time to spend giving them attention. They like being lazy, occasionally digging holes, and greeting us every time we come or go.

Anyway, I'm a Dog Mom and I am COMMITTED to this thing. I honestly love them. And It didn't take long for it to feel like they actually love us back. It's been so fun to have them here as we settle into life on our acreage and find our new normal...I look outside and I see two giant, beautiful dogs hunkered down on either side of our driveway and it's somehow exactly what I've always pictured. They've helped us slow down. To enjoy life out here a bit more. To keep us feeling stable when things seem crazy...they add extra chores to our daily life and list of responsibilities, but they're the thing I just never knew I needed until they were here and they were ours.

MmB

Jamie's Sweet Potato Hash

Far be it for me to ever give anyone cooking "advice"...but this "recipe" is just too darn good to keep to my own kitchen.

I like that it's healthy. I like that it's colorful. I like that it actually TASTES GOOD. I like that we can literally eat it for breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack, supper, or a late-night snack. I like that it's EVEN BETTER as leftovers the next day. I like that it's 'open to interpretation' because anything involving exact-ness and precise measurements is just not allowed anywhere within 100 feet of my kitchen (I'd say 100 ft of my house, but we have quarter-round to finish and I'm told that will require some measuring, not my usual 'eyeball' method). I cannot work with anything that has too many steps and MUST be completed in a certain order. Gosh, just typing that makes me roll my eyes with disdain. Who can work under those kind of demands?!

Apparently a lot of people, but whatever.

It's funny I'm calling it 'my kitchen' in this post because I've never taken professed to have too much ownership in there. It's 'the kitchen' or 'our kitchen'...but I suppose since I spent the morning chopping and prepping for supper (at 9am, I don't even know who I AM today) and it's where my coffee lives, I should start claiming it as my own.

Anyway. Here goes.

Prep time: 30 minutes+ (depends on how efficient you are at chopping/multi-tasking)
Dishes dirtied: 6 (again, depends on your efficiency)
Serves: 4 people if you want leftovers, 6 people if you want the whole pan eaten.

Spray a 9x13 pan. Jamie always foils hers but I'm not sure what that does and I ran out of foil the last time so I've made it without and it's exactly the same. See? There are NO RULES.

Chop 4-6 sweet potatoes (make it as big or small as you want to make it).
Throw in a bowl.
Add whatever kind of oil you use in your house, lots of salt + pepper, stir.
Dump across the bottom of the pan.

Brown meat (sausage is our favorite but anything will work).
Add salt+pepper+minced onions+anything else you like for spices/flavor.
Dump the meat on top of the sweet potatoes.

Chop veggies (we like onions, mushrooms, colorful peppers but you can use whatever you like/have).
Sautee veggies if you feel like it/have time.
Dump those on top of the meat.

Another thing I love about this meal...you can make it the day before and throw it in whenever you're ready. It makes an AWESOME freezer meal. Or you can prep it and put it in the oven right away too. It's good no matter what you do to it. It can't be ruined, as evidenced by my profession of love for it.

If it's being prepped and cooked on the spot, 350 for 30-45 minutes.
If it's coming out of the fridge after being prepped in advance, 350 degrees for 45 minutes-an hour.
It's it's been in the freezer, it *can* be thrown right in the oven but it will take an hour or more...I like to pull it out as soon as I remember on the day I've planned for it to be our supper. So if you put it in the oven frozen, you might have to poke around to check the sweet potatoes after the 1-hour mark to see when they're 'done' however you prefer your sweet potatoes.

While it's in the oven, during the final 15-ish minutes, beat up some eggs. 6-12 depending on how much you like eggs and how many you have in your fridge. I usually like to do 8-ish per 9x13.
Scramble.
Layer on top once the hash comes out of the oven.
(I never freeze with the eggs on it...always adding them after the oven seems like a better choice)

Pile your plate high, sprinkle some (or a lot of) parmesan cheese on top and ENJOY!

MmB

Front Porch Styling + Sources

It kind of goes without saying that our front porch is the show stopper at this new house. It sets the stage for the cottage farmhouse style I've carried throughout the rest of the house...I want it to look exactly like everything I've always dreamed, without 'over-doing' it.

Here's everything I've gathered, and exactly where I grabbed it from...in case you find yourself inspired by something you see here. ;)

White Watering Can: Hearth and Hand, Target
Plants: Holub's Geenhouse, Walmart, Lowe's
Terracotta Citronella Candle: Hearth and Hand, Target (BEST ONE ALL SUMMER)
Table, White Corbel: JB Knacker
Galvanized Metal Pail: Gravy Home Goods

Black Rocking Chairs: Lowe's (white also available)
BW Buffalo Plaid: Amazon (lots of colors/sizes!)
Assorted Pots: Collected
Watering Can Greenery: Homespun Collection (not pictured)

Ferns: Walmart
Welcome Rug: Magnolia
Tall Black Planters: Threshold Brand, Target
Magnolia Wreath: Hobby Lobby
'Farmhouse' Sign: Hobby Lobby
American Flag Pleated Banners: Lowe's (or Target)
American Flag + Mount: Lowe's

String Lights: Amazon
Boot Tray: Threshold Brand, Target
Black Metal Bench: Target (no longer available)
Farmhouse Outdoor Lights: Lowe's
White Screen Farmhouse Door: Lowe's
Porch Corbels: JB Knacker
American Flag + Mount:

Happy porching. :)

MmB

An Interview with Maverick

Today at the pool I just started asking Mav a bunch of questions while we were eating lunch. And because I thought it would be fun to clue Josh in on what we talk about all day every day, I started typing it in a text message to him.

Talking to him is so fun. We talk all day every day about everything. It's nonstop. And sometimes it's more than I can handle and I let moments slip by where I'm working on something while Maverick jabbers in the background but when I stop and have an actual conversation with my precious little buddy...it's just the best.

He is the sweetest, most articulate little almost-three-year-old I know. I can't even think of all the amazing things he surprises me with every day. And because I'm feeling a small tinge of mom-guilt due to how LITTLE I've written about him over the past six months...here's a post all about our BabyMav.

...who's not a baby at all anymore, but he gets called baby almost exclusively, and who's third birthday party I just finished planning.

What do you like about the pool?
Doing the big slides.

What do you like about church?
Singing.

What do you like about our new house?
Playing with Millie and Remy.

What do you like doing with daddy when he's home?
Playing toys with daddy.

What's your favorite thing?
Riding my Gator.

What do you like about summer?
Playing my Gator in the summer and I like going to the orchard!
*We need to work on understanding seasons*

What's your favorite show?
Uhhh Thomas and Friends!

What's your favorite food?
Ghardetto's.

What do you like about going to Manson?
Grandma and Grandpa.

What do you like doing at Nana's house?
Playing Jackson Storm.

What's your favorite book?
Washington DC.

What do you like about going to the farm?
Play tractors.

Do you like the new house or the town house better?
Townhouse!
*We keep asking him this and his answer is the same every time and IT BREAKS OUR HEARTS because we miss our sweet townhouse too*

What did you like about the townhouse?
Playing my toys.

What was your favorite thing about the fair?
Animals.

What's your favorite thing to wear?
Thomas the Tank one.
*This is a hideous shirt he found at a thrift store on Saturday that I just couldn't buy*

Are you excited to be three?
Yes I am.

Are you excited to have a train party?
YES I AM!

Ohhhh sweet buddy. You are more precious than you will ever know. Talking to you and learning about you and loving you is my favorite.

MmB

Home Reno: The Unedited Version

Ohhhhhh my sweet people. How in the dark you've been about the past six months of our lives...which is the way I like it sometimes. But when friends text me bright, chipper things like, 'You make the home renovation process look so fun and easy!' I think to myself...hmmmm...I am clearly not painting this in an accurate light.

How do I put this...it was not fun and easy. It was the exact opposite of those things times eleventy-billion. It was hard. And constant. And all-consuming. And stressful and dirty and I would honestly not recommend it to anyone. Buy a beautiful-move-in-ready home IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.

Here's a quick little timeline for you:

November 1st - Look at the house for the first time. Decide it's way overpriced and way too much work. Basically write it off and never discuss it again.
December 8th - Realize the price dropped, decide to go look again on a whim.
December 9th - Bring parents and contractor. Decide to make an offer (WAY UNDER ASKING PRICE) at 2pm. #itsfinethisisfine
December 9th - Offer is accepted at 6pm without negotiations. WHAT. And the seller requests closing BY DECEMBER 31ST. ALSO WHAT.
*Christmas is spent talking about down payments and financing and taxes and expenses and utilities and getting quotes for all the work we're about to do. I'm still depressed about it.*
December 29th - Close and get to work! Except Josh is plowing snow all day + and we have a family Christmas happening over the weekend. Not stressful at all.

So in less than two months, we went from living our sweet little content life in our Ames house to renovating + moving to 4,200 SF home on an acreage. Plus we needed to find renters for our Ames house. And ENDLESS AMOUNTS of snow needed to be plowed and invoiced.

All of that that in and of itself would be *enough* for any two sane people to handle. Now please take into consideration that Josh and I just don't work well together on large, expensive projects, exactly like this one (might I remind you about The Great Tile Floor Project of 2014-15). And this was set to be our biggest, most expensive 'project' to date.

Josh is an extreme perfectionist. I don't know how else to describe it to you, except to say that it is EXTREME. I see a space, transform it in my mind, decide the paint color, the pictures for the walls, the furniture placement, and conclude that it will all look amazing in the end, despite a few flaws...but nothing I do can convince Josh that no one will ever see the small imperfection on the walls/floor/doors/ceiling. It's ALL HE SEES. It's still all he sees. If you've been here for a house tour, you might comment on how great the wood floors look in the old part of the house...and you'd be right! They look AMAZING! Josh spent a week working so hard on them and it really shows! But he is the first (and only) person to point out all the 'bad spots' and tell you how bad the floors look overall. It makes just me want to kill him, in front of company, no less.

It continually frustrated me that he couldn't step back and see the bigger picture... and that if this house didn't meet his unrealistic PERFECT standard, it would all be a failure (I continually reminded him that if he wanted a perfect house, we could have built a perfect house). I just call imperfection 'character' hang a wreath on it and move on with my day. Josh is good with millions of tiny perfect details, I am not. I'm good with letting certain things go due to deadlines/priorities/schedules, he is not.

Thank goodness we had an unbiased witness in our presence most of the time...in one day Brent laid our dining room floor, met Josh's crazy Aunt Kerry, overheard us in a decent argument, and I fed him lunch...by the end of it he was part of the family whether he liked it or not, but I was SO thankful for his perspective on things. Aside from doing the jobs we couldn't handle (rotten siding, building countertops, replacing windows), he was the professional voice of reason when Josh and I couldn't agree on something. Brent's answer trumped either of our preference and that was invaluable. If you ever do anything like this YOU NEED A 'BRENT.'

Right or wrong, my standard is always much lower than Josh's. I'm a BIG FAN of the eyeballing method and the 'good enough!' phrase. Josh only sees one perfect way of doing things, end of story. As we all know, there is a time and place to use each of these approaches and have success, but to say we clashed on how to do almost everything would be...an understatement.

So our house renovation was a whole lot of what I just described. Me standing back, seeing the bigger picture, deciding it was 'good enough' or that at least it would be in the end...then Josh coming in (typically exhausted from plowing snow) to tell me how I should have done something, pointing out the imperfections *argument ensues* we land somewhere on someone's side (or occasionally in the middle). Repeat for two months.

It's true we balance each other out, and it's cute sometimes. Josh is the meticulous-details-man and I'm the grand-big-picture designer. But when it comes to projects like this, we are such polar opposites and when that gets magnified to the extreme...it's just not so good. But if you're married you know all of this. I'm just trying to be real, although we appeared cute at parties or on Instagram, we were not cute in January.

Moving in without having a kitchen sink, master bathroom sinks, or kitchen countertops wasn't great. The water heater exploding on move-in day was less than ideal. The un-repairable dishwasher, smoking light switch, incessant mouse infestation, leaky master bedroom doors, extensive carpenter ant damage, and the (current) surprise, non-stop, undetectable roof leak are all just items on a long list of extra issues that we encountered during our little fixer-upper experience. #itsfine

Last year on August 5th, I posted a picture to Instagram with the following caption:

"Yesterday we offered on a big beautiful fixer upper farmhouse on an acreage. And I prayed that God would give us a quick and decisive answer and that's exactly what we got. A fast no. So it's not what God has planned for us, which is obviously better than we can imagine, but for a minute we wondered if THIS was the ONE we've been waiting for. Tami called with the news and the first thing she said was, 'God is protecting you from something,' and she is so right (she always is). So today I'm back to being fully content where God has us and the farmhouse dreams are on hold for the fourth time...but I know we can trust him with those dreams."

I'm not crying, you're crying.

Do I think this house was an amazing undeserved blessing from God? Yes. I still fully believe that despite the ups and downs and hardships we've had. When we sit on our porch with friends until 2am or watch Mav play with the dogs and ride the Gator to the burn pile to dump his sticks, it feels like home and it feels perfect. 100%. I have a porch that WRAPS AROUND TO OUR BEDROOM. It's more than I could have ever dreamed or asked for. He took our desire for a reasonable white farmhouse with a front porch and multiplied it into something so much greater than we imagined.

Do I ever want to do this again? Absa-fricking-loutley NOT. Never. Someone texted me last week asking if I would take on a small wall-paper-removal job and I wanted to say, 'not if you paid me all the money in the world.' Ultimately the hard work was worth it. We now know the potential we saw back in December wasn't completely crazy. But there was a lot of crazy to GET to this point, and and it's too much for me to recommend doing a fixer upper of this magnitude, while raising a family/running a business/trying to stay healthy/alive/sane. That's as honest an assessment as I can give.

But wow, I really do love our house.

MmB

Summer Reads + Reviews

I started the summer with a stack of books and a completely naive perspective. Not only have painting + house projects plagued any relaxing book-reading-time I might have enjoyed this summer, I now find myself cleaning a house over three times the size of our old one.

The learning curve has been...intense.

I've barely read in three months what I read in ONE last summer...but I have a renewed summer attitude and I'm determined to get some good August reading in. Here are my brief reviews (and Amazon links) to the books I've read since June 1st.


1. A Simplified Life, Emily Ley ***

Bow down to the queen. Emily Ley is the goddess of organization, and it's like I'm sitting at the feet of the master when I read her books. First of all, this book is so pretty and has large text, so it's a really fun, quick read. I felt like I accomplished so much when I had finished it, and I'd literally done nothing...because I was in the car on the way to Waco. Had I been at HOME, while reading, I would have taken the opportunity to scribble all my ideas inside the questions/journaling part and then tackled each part of our house alongside each chapter. I plan go back and do just that next spring because everything in the book was so practical.

2. The Magnolia Story, Chip and Joanna Gaines

Once was good. Twice was better. Listening via Audible for a third time was the best. This book was written by both Chip and Jo, and the text makes that obvious, but I really liked listening to them tell their story. It definitely added something.

3. Breathe, Priscilla Shirer

I did this study with a group of ladies from church, and while we all liked it...we also agreed it wasn't what we were expecting. It was strictly a topical study with some scripture thrown in...not a true Bible study (like many of her other studies). So if you go into it knowing what it is, then great. Just don't expect an in-depth look at Sabbath. It was good for reflection + discussion though. I would recommend doing in a group alongside the videos, I'm not sure I would have gotten anything out of it otherwise.

4. The Simplest Way to Change the World, Dustin Willis, Brandon Clements

Read this one as a small book club and really enjoyed it! It was good to learn about hospitality from a more intentional approach...it really is so much more than just opening our home for parties with friends and getting excited about setting the table with my antique dishes, it's about reaching people for the Gospel...something about our home should be 'special' in a way that draws them in and lures them to Christ. I'm happy to report we've welcomed quite a few people into our home this summer, that are outside our usual 'family and friends' circle, and while it's created endless amounts of busy housework it's stretched me to dive deeper in a different direction when it comes to the way we use our house as a hospitality tool for the Gospel.

5. Glory in the Ordinary, Courtney Reissig ***

Probably in my Top 3 from the summer! Also read this one with a group of gals, in 'book club' format, on my back porch. The dream that I clung to all winter while I was scraping wallpaper and painting trim and powerwashing decks...that I was DOING ALL OF THIS WORK so I could open our home and enjoy it all summer by hosting things like book clubs...turned out to be my favorite group of mom's discussing motherhood under twinkle-y lights. The book was a good, easy read...I'd recommend having your pen ready for underlining.

6. Treasuring Christ When Your Hands are Full, Gloria Furman

I had high hopes for this book...I also read it in two parts (with a month+ in between) and that is just not how I read books, so that's probably why it wasn't my favorite. Don't get me wrong, Gloria is amazing, but her writing is almost *too* full for me...like...I could have underlined the whole thing it's so good and heavy. Every sentence is packed with SO MUCH wisdom. I would try and focus and then just get glazed over because I couldn't digest so much at once. I probably need to get better at doing this kind of reading. Doing this one in a book club would have probably helped me.

7. Loving the Little Years, Rachel Jankovic ***

Also in my Top 3 for the summer. Short chapters, easy to digest, lots of really great little bits of solid wisdom. I would read every book by the author but because she has four kiddos under four, I'm guessing it will be a few years before she's cranking out books for us to buy and read. ;) I would definitely recommend this one if you're 'in the trenches' as the sub-title states.

8. The Meaning of Marriage, Timothy Keller

Full disclosure, I've been trying to read this one for over a year and because it's really intense writing on an intense topic...I've struggled. I'm pushing through because everyone says it's their favorite book on marriage, ever. I read the first half last fall...I started the second half last night, and like I already mentioned, that is not how I typically digest books best. But I have so many others I'm excited about that I feel like I'd lose all my steam if I start it back at the beginning right now. So I'll hopefully have a better review in a couple months and I'm already planning to read it again at some point.

And because I just realized I forgot to tell you what I read last fall and I can't leave these off the list...

Capital Gaines: Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff, Chip Gaines

I read this in one weekend spent at the lake, then listened to it with Josh on the way to and from Galena. It's so good, you guys. Chip has worked so hard for what they've built in Waco. He loves what he does and his heart is so incredibly generous it pretty much brings me to tears. I honestly can't think of better role models, so you're all just going to have to get over our obsession. I'd highly recommend, and for my entrepreneur-husband it was a HIT.

Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers

HOW HAD I NOT READ THIS BOOK BEFORE?! I CAN'T EVEN ACCURATELY DESCRIBE HOW GOOD IT IS. IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE FROM THIS LIST, READ THIS ONE. I'M SO SERIOUS. I stayed up until 2am one night while I was deathly sick with a cold + ear infection during my busiest week of the fall (women's conference week) to finish it because it's just THAT good. It might be one I have to read every year, but warning, it's pretty long and it makes things like feeding your kids, doing the laundry, and any level of human interaction with your husband seem unnecessary.

Titus, Precepts study at Cornerstone

My first Precepts! I loved it! I feel like I got SO MUCH out of it, and Titus is only three chapters. Having a large-class for weekly discussion helped my retention...having Teresa Dodge as a teacher certainly helped..and Josh being home in his slower season, allowing me to slip away on a couple Sunday afternoons during naptime to crank out my homework helped too. Turns out that beautiful season was short lived because it was right at the beginning of our house-offer-renovation nightmare process, so I didn't finish as strongly as I wanted. But I plan to take the next Precepts offered at Cornerstone.

1 & 2 Samuel, She Reads Truth

I never knew I could get so much from two Old Testament chapters. I got deeper with this study than any Bible study I've ever done before and really grasped how everything in each OT story, chapter, and verse points to the one, true King who was coming. The entire Bible fits together as one big, beautiful story, and the Old Testament is such an important part of that. Which is why it's so WORTH studying. I grabbed a group of girls to do this one alongside me and we met every other week as our schedules allowed, which was good, but I was excited enough about this one all on my own. I can't recommend She Reads Truth Bible studies enough...something about the structure of the study all written out for me in a pretty book sets me up for success. Worth $24.

Born is the King, She Reads Truth

The saddest review of them all...you all KNOW how much I love Christmas and I was looking forward to this Advent study ALL YEAR. Then the Christmas season came and buying a giant house came with it. I think I might have made it to Day 14 (only because I started super early), but pretty much everything from December 8th to the end of March is a blur. A word about the SRT Advent studies...unless you have a study tool to use in addition to the book (like this one I use from Risen Motherhood) you might 'wander' around kind of lost. They're pretty books but they're a little *light* on content...(probably feels that way because it's verses you've heard every Christmas for the past 30 years). If you want more out of their Advent studies, you're going to have to commit to adding a study method alongside their verse selections + journaling sections.


What's coming up...

Grace Based Parenting, Tim Kimmel
Undone, Michelle Cushatt
1 & 2 Corinthians, She Reads Truth
The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman
Everybody Always, Bob Goff
Home Body, Joanna Gaines (you knew I ordered this for pre-order the very day it was made available...this is the one I've been waiting for for two years and I'm positive it will be my favorite)

What are you reading and loving?!

MmB

Because Summer Isn't Over

This thing happens to me every summer...we hit July and the weather might be cooler for a week and my soul starts itching for autumn waaaaaay too early. I know it's a false alarm. I know Iowa in August means it will be AS HOT AS THE SURFACE OF THE SUN. And yet, I start thinking about all of our fall favorites and things get really out of control if I let myself venture to Pinterest (I didn't allow it to go that far this year). I remind myself it's very much STILL SUMMER and we will ENJOY EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF IT.

BECAUSE SUMMER IS THE BEST.

But there are "favorites" for every season, aren't there? Each season arrives with anticipation and it's own set of traditions, activities, and changes in weather...I don't know why it's so impossible for me to get excited for summer at a reasonable time (as in...not March) and then just enjoy it in it's entirety before rushing into fall far too early.

Maybe it's because the Hobby Lobby aisles fill with Thanksgiving and Christmas Decor before the Fourth of July...or maybe it's because Starbucks releases their festive fall drinks at the end of August...both clearly point to the fact that I'm the sucker who buys into it when I know full-well I'll be in shorts and flip flops until October.

What would life be like if I just lived in the exact season I'm in, instead of wishing it away...always looking forward to the NEXT of everything?

The balance between slowing down and enjoying our long summer days vs. doing the many fun activities that always accompany summer mean we're living in this tension between DOING ALL THE FUN THINGS and NOT DOING ENOUGH THINGS WHILE SUMMER SLIPS AWAY. I especially noticed it last week when I decided we should stay home ALL DAY on Monday to catch up on the usual dishes and laundry after a crazy weekend. It felt so good to have absolutely nothing planned besides grocery pick-up...but I also felt this weird Summer-Mom-Guilt about not going to the pool on a perfectly nice day. WHY?! Because it's July! And summer is basically overrrrr!

Except that it's not.

This summer has not been a typical one for us...I've had a long list of lingering house projects + painting to accomplish  and Josh has had an unusual amount of time off the past couple months. This has led to a very weird combination where I'm busy balancing my stuff AND we're filling our evenings and weekends with FUN FAMILY DATES. I've loved it all! But I have to admit, this summer has been anything BUT relaxing and slow, which is exactly what I was looking forward to after our INSANE winter/spring.

I'm determined to spend the next 30 days with NOTHING on the calendar. No more rushing off anywhere in the morning...having supper from the grill every night...and checking more books off my summer reading list (which has accidentally been the same sad stack since the beginning of July) while Mav plays in the yard. The school supplies are out at Target and the State Fair is here but summer still has so much life left in her. And I plan to make the most of it, in the least stressful way possible.

So here's to finishing my coffee in my pajamas while I read on our porch before changing straight into a swimsuit to head to the pool at 11. On repeat for the next. four. weeks.

Mmmmm Summer 2018, I'm excited for you all over again.

MmB