24 ON 1: DAY IN THE LIFE

Since our summer is wrapping up - less than two weeks now! - I wanted to document what a "normal" summer day has looked like for us this year.  Every year really is so different, but this post will capture this season pretty well.

8ish am:  This is what my back porch almost always looks like right now - towels and swim suits drying and waiting to be put back into use.



9ish am:  We dropped the twins at therapy, and the girls and I headed into my workout class.  There was some whining involved, which you might be able to pick up from Lily's face in this pic.  🙈😝😂

10 am: Picking up the twins from therapy involves all kinds of movement.  So much so that this picture is blurry.  I'm so thankful for their speech therapists who are helping them learn how to communicate!

10:20 am:  We headed to the pool to meet up with friends and celebrate Bella's best friend's birthday.  Bella created this card for her and explained that she wanted to help Taylor learn math.  So she wrote out math facts for her and left room for Taylor's older siblings to add more if they saw fit.  😂 Bella is definitely ready for kindergarten. 😳

12ish pm:  Adult Swim/Lifeguard Break and lunching on towels with friends.  This scene sums up summertime for us.

Between 12 and 1:  My kiddos have loved the pool this year.  The girls both enjoyed jumping off the diving board for the first time this day.  Lily doesn't like going under, so she managed to stay above water by jumping with three noodles.  I overheard her tell her cousin last week that she doesn't go underwater because, "I really like breathing.  I just like breathing a lot."  😂

(Violet in goggles got me all 😍.)

(William's favorite friend by a landslide, and this five year old is SO SWEET to my three year old.)

After 1 pm:  It was time to head home, and I caught this moment with all of our minivans opened and being loaded at the same time.  👊

Around 1:30ish pm:  Summer afternoons often find me still looking ragged in a swimsuit and not showered.

2ish pm:  My plants are still alive, but I often move them in the afternoons to get them a little more sun.  Plus, I have actually watered them this summer, which I'm sure has contributed to their overall lifespan.  🙌🙌🙌🙌



3ish pm:  After I showered, I sat down to work on the mountain of paperwork that has been required for preschool/the government.  Bless my doctor's heart - I gave her a lot of extra busy work.



4ish pm:  Everybody's up from "nap" and wanted to eat dried mango.  Who can blame them?  That stuff is tasty.



4:30ish pm:  Violet always wants to "hold you couch," and since I am counting down the days til preschool with sadness in my heart, I was happy to oblige this request.

5ish pm:  Violet did let me get up, and I wanted to capture the fact that she actually will sit and watch cartoons for any length of time past 10 minutes.  Though obviously screen time is not the best - it certainly comes in handy when I need to cook dinner without the most helpful three year old ever!



6:15ish pm:  Eating dinner as a family usually means that John and I eat dinner, and then we spend the next 20-30 minutes "encouraging" the kids to eat the dinner.



7:15ish pm:  We went outside to make a video and found a package on our front porch containing some Izard Caramels.  I've found a new product to love. 😋

7:45-8ish pm:  Sweet bedtime moments.  We don't always get them, and I'm so glad when we do.

(Lily was telling me that she looked like a "little teenager" with her shirt tucked in.  Not sure where this idea came from. 😳😂  Glad we are a ways from that still.)

(They love brushing his hair.)

8:30ish pm:  I walked past the new bags and realized all over again how quickly school will be upon us.  I do love the new bags, and I'm glad, because I have a lot of days to look at them ahead of me.



9ish pm:  John and I synced up calendars and realized that we are pretty well booked through October. 😳😝  The fall will be full - a ton of fun, hopefully - but for sure full.  Also, gotta love the scribbles on the planner.



10ish pm:  I capped off the night with the season finale of the Bachelorette.  Bless JoJo's heart.  It's always so dramatic, and I enjoy the escape.

That wraps up this summer edition of Day in the Life!  School is knocking on our door, but we've still got some summer fun ahead of us.

WHAT MATTERS

Last night, John and I spent a little time reflecting back on the month of July.  We started it in Dallas, and at the time, I really thought we would have a low-key month.  I even remember telling John it would be a good time to work on a pretty big project we have in the works, because things seemed relatively calm.  But that is not how our July turned out at all.  Instead it felt as if the nation fell apart, we had the fun/chaos of Cow Appreciation Day, lots of hard things showed up, and then lots of fun people showed up.

At the last minute, another dear friend happened to be in the country, and we got to play host to him.



He's from Rwanda and spent a year in the US, and we got to know him and his family very well.  We love him dearly, and we jumped at the opportunity for him to stay in our home.  It's exactly how we want to be using the space that God has given us, and we wanted the chance to catch up with him and know what was really going on back in their world.

What a joy it was to talk with him and hear stories of God's faithfulness to their ministry in Rwanda.  I will actually be traveling to Rwanda in the coming months and get to see some of it first hand, and I am so excited!  Joel is a man of God, and a cherished friend, and we had a wonderful time with him.

I say all of this, because it is 100% true, and this is exactly what we want to be doing with our time and our lives.  However, the reality is that at the end of a challenging month, we were also tired.  Having someone in our home adds joy, but it also adds another element of work - work absolutely worth doing, but it requires effort.  I think it could have been easy for me to miss the joy, because I didn't feel like putting in the extra effort, and I'm so thankful that in this case, I didn't miss it.

The fact of the matter is life comes at us quickly.  God has been so gracious to give us a job where we are able to influence many people, which is exactly what we would want.  But in our hearts, some days are really hard.  People are broken (just like we are) and require so much time and energy.  It is wearing.  Also, we have four young children who all need time and investment and intentionality.  Again, it is what we dreamed of, but the reality is so much harder than I ever dreamed it would be.

Yesterday we closed out July at the local water park with our CFA team.  I can't say that the water park was at all relaxing with four children in tow, and we did make the call to leave and have dinner at home in the air-conditioning with the kids all ready to go to bed as soon as their movie finished.  That was much more relaxing.



This past week was a good reminder that there are always reasons to say "NO" to the good things - the things that really matter.  But, when I look back, I want to know that we served the Lord with everything that we had - that we were good stewards of all that has been entrusted to us.  It takes a lot of discernment to say YES to what matters, and I pray that God gives us eyes to see and ears to hear what he has for us to do.  And that we do it even when we feel really tired, because we do it in his strength and not our own.

ELLEN & MOM CAME TO VISIT

Summer fun has continued in full force, and last weekend it included my mom and sister and two nephews, much to the delight of my children.

(Violet super loves Hutch.)

Ellen came first, and we hit up the pool in the crazy heat.




This is when Hutch began his love affair with popsicles.

Our children steadily made their way through tons of fruit.  Especially cherries and grapes.

Ellen wanted to learn how to make sugar cookies, so we whipped some up to practice on.

And, she graciously offered to make pillow shams for William and Violet's room that I had been meaning to get to for ages.  She's a million times better at sewing than I am, so I majorly scored on this.



Mom arrived that Thursday night, and we spent more time at the pool, because that is one of the only things to do outside in Arkansas in July.




Hutch got to have another popsicle.

John was in and out heading to Atlanta for two nights, and then on his father/son trip to St. Louis, but we did see him some.  The cousins had a blast being together, though they were less than thrilled about a picture in our final moments together.




(Hutch was laughing so hard at Lily falling repeatedly into the ottoman.)


Lily spearheaded a note writing campaign for Ellen to take home to Luke so he would not feel left out, and he texted a pic of what she wrote.  We just like to get the word out about chicken.  😂 😂 😂 😂

Both Ellen and Mom were so kind to me in the midst of the sometimes chaos that is my home.  We had a great time together and missed my other sis and sis-in-love being with us - fortunately, we'll all be together soon in another week!  Summer does have its perks, but saying goodbye is always hard.

CHOCOLATE TASTING EVENT AT IZARD CHOCOLATE

Earlier this month, John hatched a super fun idea, and on Tuesday evening, it all came to fruition.  His birthday is coming up next week, and he said that this is how he wanted to celebrate.  You know I love any excuse to party, so I was totally game on, especially when the planned evening checked so many of my favorite boxes.

Great Friends ✅
Delicious Food ✅
Local, Bean to Bar Chocolate ✅ (turns out, this is one of my favorite boxes)
Tasty Drinks ✅
Specialty Cheeses ✅

I've many time sung the praises of Little Rock, and we have found one more reason to love our city: Izard Chocolate.  John found his way into Izard Chocolate a couple of months ago, and as I've cut back on my overall sugar intake, I have increased my dark chocolate intake, because antioxidants and health, of course 😜.  My go-to chocolate has become the Izard Dark Chocolate and Almond Bar, and I probably grab a square of it at least twice a day.  Okay - probably more than that.  I hide it from the kids, so you know it must be good.

John started talking to the proprietor, Nathaniel Izard, and asked if he would ever be willing to do a chocolate tasting/demonstration for a group.  He was, and so John's birthday party was born.  When we pitched this idea to our friends, we realized that three other people in the group had birthdays right around John's, so we turned it into a joint birthday party at Izard Chocolate.



We started the night at our house with sushi and other light fare.  I didn't want to spoil our stomachs for all the chocolate that was coming later.

(Quick and easy party tip: grab a roll of cute wrapping paper and use it as table runners everywhere to tie things together and jazz it all up!)

From our house, we caravanned to Izard Chocolate in Hillcrest where we found this delightful setup awaiting us.  I think my exact words were, "Well, this looks magical." 😍

(Isn't that the truth?)

Nathaniel had given us a list of wines that would pair well with his different chocolate offerings.  There were palette cleansers in the form of almonds, crackers, artisan cheeses, mineral water and strawberries to have between trying various chocolates and drinks.  He explained some of the differences in the chocolates and what to be looking for as we sampled them in turn.

After working our way through our papers - and let me just say that I sampled and LOVED every single thing on there, we were treated to a walk through the space and how chocolate is made.  As a life-long chocolate lover, this was fascinating!

  

All in all, this was a most delightful way to spend an evening, and we thoroughly loved the entire experience.  Thanks so much, Izard Chocolate!
(For more information about Izard Chocolate, check out their website.  You could even contact them to get your own tasting/demonstration scheduled, which I highly recommend!)