A Hint...

We are on vacation, also known as staycation for the next week or so. I need robbers casing my house via the housewife blog to notice the stay part of vacation.  Plus my jewelry is all high fashion so you'd be so sad at your loot.  That paired with the fact that we try to be a little anti-technology the best you'd come out with is a Gameboy via 1999. 

I celebrated a birthday this week.  The picture below will give you a hint on what we did to celebrate...
 

Not exactly my idea of a rip roaring good time.  Truth be told, decking the halls is a pain in the neck for me!  The garland has a mind of its own.  My head elf gets frustrated when I make us get out tape measures to make sure stockings are hung perfectly even lest it drive me crazy all the rest of the live long year.

I had my reasons for decking the halls on my b-day though.  It was the weather forecast.  Today is supposed to be rainy all day long.  This is the kind of day dreams are made of.

A house decked with twinkly lights, lamps, candles, pj's all day long, candles, books, blankets and all 5 of us under one roof...we even brought in the coffee machine; this equals perfection to my heart.  We haven't brewed coffee in 5 months because it smelled like skunk to me {tragic, huh?}  It was a little touch and go with the smell this morning, but that hazelnut creamer set things right.  We've spent the morning in our chairs talking and reading.  Our five year old has been asking all day if it was Christmas.  We are in for a loooong 48 days!

Tonight we're making the first batch of chili and I'm baking something.  It is either going to be a flat apple pie or a sugar dusted apple bundt cake.  Both choices paired with the fact that I am planning around Ned's forecast solidify the fact that I am indeed getting older.  And I can't leave out the fact that the TV and music are always way too  loud these days.  In my defense I did get a pair of hipster glasses.  I'm trying. 

The next couple weeks I am trying out some new dessert recipes.  If they are good I'm going to share them with you.  The sugar dusted apple bundt cake has me really excited.  It has orange juice and a can of apple pie filling inside.  No chopping apples.  I hope we all love it.  I'll also be sharing vacation ideas in the coming weeks.

Hugs,
Bugs

Little Friends

This morning I was reading my notes from Bible Study and the thoughts were on helping your children form and cultivate friendships. It's an interesting topic of discussion because it feels like cultivating meaningful relationships is a thing of the past. My mother and father in law used to hang out with a couple sets of friends all the time-they'd even do holidays together sometimes. The result is that years later they still have life-long friendships.

(I love this picture. All three boys after baths last night. Pappa & Nanna gave them the pj's and Grandpa & Grandma gave them the books.)

Last year this thought was on my mind a lot. Shane and I were investing in adult friendships and we left the kids at home with a baby sitter while we went to Bible Study. God put it on our minds to start cultivating friendships with other families. The benefit is that our children are getting the blessing of little friends as well.

We have enjoyed hosting Coffee & Desert nights on Friday nights at our house. It is simple, fast and affordable. We'll invite a family over between 6-6:30pm for coffee & dessert. It's informal, low-key and fun. Usually we get all the kids dressed in pj's before the family leaves so they can go home and go straight to bed.

It takes being intentional to do this though. Some nights you just feel tired and worn out. You think popping in a movie is the best route and sometimes that's the case. We have found a big blessing though in opening our home to new friends. Just last Friday night we had been at the zoo all day with the boys. We came home and were worn out. Spur of the moment we invited a family over at 7:30pm for brownies, milk & coffee. The dads ended up dying Easter eggs with the kids in the kitchen and we just sat around and talked while the kids played.

My house was not perfect or company ready that night. That was hard for me. Really hard. Here's the deal though. I want to choose people over perfection. I am finding something to be true. People are perfectly comfortable to come to a house even if toothpaste is still on your bathroom mirror. Makes them feel more laid back and at home in your home.

So that's my thought for the day. Don't wait for the perfect house or the perfect moment to open your home to friends. It's worth the phone call (or text message ay caramba!). Memories. That's the payoff.

"Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us continue to meet together to encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching" Hebrews 10:24-25 (i think :), going off some old TMS memorization here!!!)