Blessing #5 Little Boys

I have four children, the girl (18), the big boy (15), the middle boy (7) and the little boy (2).

If you have a teenage daughter you can probably understand why my blessing for today is little boys... nice, sweet, helpful, little boys that don't stay out too late and don't talk back.

and that's all I have to say about that!

#4 Inspiration

There are many things that inspire me to do lots of things~ what can I say, I am easily swayed!

A cute exercise outfit will inspire me to work out (for a couple days anyways)

A sentimental poem will inspire me to call my sister

An amazingly cool tree will inspire me to create a new decal design

The new Pottery Barn catalog inspires me to shop :)

the list literally goes on and on and on....

Well, I have been inspired once again! Several bloggers have inspired me to repaint the main room of my house pale robins egg blue and use lots of black accents (Remind me to tell you all about the awesome armoire that I found at a yard sale).

Layla of The Lettered Cottage is always an inspiration. She has an amazing eye for detail and just seems to know how to put things together. Here's a pic of her beautiful kitchen.





Through Layla's blog I found Daryl of The Vermont Cottage. Her home is so gorgeous! Just take a peek at this kitchen!




Also while skimming (I had a stomach bug, I did a lot of web surfing) I found this really cool blog
which led me to her etsy shop, Little Bluebird Studio, where I found this photo! Which will be so fab on my new blue wall (I've got big plans for a photo arrangement...will share later).


So, blessing number 4 is Inspiration. I hope that today you feel inspired in some way. I also hope that Mr. Man is inspired to paint the house blue while I am in NY!

Contentment #3

Saturday morning I woke up around 4 and couldn't get back to sleep, this happens to me often because I have SO much on mind at any given time. By 5 I was emptying the dishwasher and starting laundry (quietly of course, it's a little house and I didn't want to wake anyone). Around six 'ish I gave up even thinking that I may go back to sleep, made some coffee and headed out to the garden. My yard sounded like a rain forest, the birds were all talking at once. I saw a few herons flying toward the waterway, starting their day. The flowers in my garden are so beautiful right now, I could hear the ocean roaring, and there was not another person to be seen.

The entire scene was so peaceful. I was enjoying the sereneness (is that a word?) of it all and thinking about the day ahead and was looking forward to my family waking up and making them breakfast and spending a day with them with no plans at all. It made me realize how content I am with my life. Yes, sometimes I stress and there are even times that I think I may lose it but even then I am content deep inside. I have the most wonderful husband and four great kids (I could go on and on and on about them), I make a living doing something that I love to do that allows me to be creative. I live near the ocean, for gosh sakes, how fabulous is that? I realized that for me, it just doesn't get any better. I did a few of those big happy sighs (you know the ones) and said a little prayer of thanks.

I truly have a wonderful life and I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to reflect on it that morning. So my blessing for today is contentment and I hope that you are also blessed with that feeling of a big happy sigh :)

Blessings Day 2~ Baby Naps!

Ok, I do realize that I skipped yesterday so this should be day 3 of my Blessings posts.

But I have a good reason. Middle boy, baby boy and I all have walking pneumonia. Yes, you do remember correctly that we just over the flu twice. And no, I don't know why they call it walking pneumonia because I don't feel like moving from the couch much less walking. If I did walk I think my lungs would absolutely Explode!

Now that that is out of the way, my blessing for today is that baby boy has finally stopped coughing long enough to take a nap and I think that I will join him :)

I hope that today you can find a few moments to close your eyes (at least) and think about your blessings.

Todays Blessing~ FAITH

Today the first blessing that came to mind was Faith. To me, faith is different from religion. There have been times in my life when my faith was wavering. As I grow older I see that faith must be an important part of my life in order for me to live the life that was planned for me.

I won't dwelve into it too deeply here but no matter what your faith is, no matter where you place that faith recognize what a blessing it is.

Today's Quote~ “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” – Jesus the Christ

Blessings

Every time I get frustrated or stressed out (which lately happens more often that I care to admit), I stop and think about the things that I am grateful for. Try it, it really helps :)

For example, when I have a mountain of work to do and my 2 year old is not content to play quietly with his train set but instead MUST be on my lap rocking, that tends to stress me out! But then I think how blessed I am to even have this sweet little boy who wants to snuggle me and that some day all too soon he will be too busy with friends and girls (gasp!) and other things that he won't be bothered to cuddle his mommy. Suddenly the stress melts away and the snuggling begins :)

I saw an article recently about people listing the top five things they are thankful for. I quickly mentally rattled off at least 20. For the next ten days I will list ten blessings in my life in no particular order (that's because I don't know which ten I am going to use yet). Just ten random things, not necessarily my TOP ten.

I hope this inspires you to think about the blessings in your life and how fortunate you are to have them.

Polka Dot Moon Winner!

I was asked a while back to participate in a giveaway celebrating Polka Dot Moon's blog's 2nd anniversary. Well, of course, I HAD to participate! She has the greatest blog! And unlike yours truly, she posts ALL the time!

The lucky winner received Mia. She chose Red and Brown, how cute is that?!

On vacation!

I am taking a long (and much needed) weekend off from Friday, May 8th until Tuesday May 12th. Orders placed after May 6th will be shipped on Wednesday May 13th - Friday May 15th.

Please Note~ All orders placed while I am on vacation will receive a FREE cutie bird trio! Just a thank you gift for supporting my business while I enjoy some family time! :)

James and I feel incredibly blessed every time we look at our kids and we are SO looking forward to spending real quality time with them :)

My family and I are so excited to be heading to Asheville to spend the weekend at a Young Life camp called Windy Gap. If you haven't heard of Young Life you should check it out here. Their motto is "Young Life brings the good news of Jesus Christ into the lives of adolescents with an approach that is respectful of who kids are and hopeful about who they can be."

And we have a winner!

Congratulations to trixpixel! Her name was randomly chosen as the winner of my Not just For walls Decal giveaway! In case you were wondering she chose the bird cage decal :)

Thanks to everyone who entered, I loved all the great ideas!