A Wife Loved Like The Church

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Thanks to my loving husband {who picked up on my not-so-subtle hint}, I get to see these when I first wake up every morning:

The best part? I didn’t get them for our anniversary. I got them just because. Just because means a whole lot more. They make my mornings just a little brighter and sunnier.

I love you, Jonathan. You are the best.

Top Ten {Tuesday} In the last week Jonathan’s grandma moved in with us, our whole family got sick, and I freaked Jonathan out by suggesting we use re-usable toilet paper. And during all that time, I learned some real life lessons.

1. Flowers from my husband “just because” makes my heart flutter.

2. Mamas don’t get sick days. Ever.

3. I have a wonderful community of friends. I already knew that, but felt it even more this week.

4. I still can’t sew a straight line. But I’m learning.

5. Hannah is not pleasant teethers.

6. Cola icee + no naps + Sam’s club = absolute craziness.

7. Cocoa roasted almonds are delicious.

8. Dyson makes the best vacuum in the world.

9. Mattresses on the floor will provide hours of entertainment for toddlers.

10. There are 130 days till Christmas. Oh yeah, I so just went there.

Visit Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.

There are times that I really do think our family {read: me} might just be a tad bit crazy. But I wonder, is crazy really all that bad?

Saturday we went toilet shopping. Yep, pretty much the best way ever to spend your Saturday morning. Eat pancakes, drink coffee, toilet shop. Seriously, we aren’t always this cool. Anyways, we came across these waterless toilets. Our interest was peeked {because, you know, we’re crazy}. I did a quick Google search and discovered composting toilets by BioLet.

I’ve not done a ton of research on the subject, but it seems harmless enough and something I would consider doing. And the more I thought about a composting toilet the more I thought about family cloth. What is family cloth you ask? Well, think about cloth diapers. Only for your entire family. Just let that sit for a minute. Ok, you’ve got it. Essentially, family cloth is a replacement for toilet paper.

I heard about family cloth about 2 years ago. It’s a pretty outlandish idea. At first I really thought “Are you kidding me?“, but slowly the idea has grown on me. I mean, we are using cloth diapers. And I am using cloth pads. So doesn’t the next logical step seem like cloth toilet paper?

What are your thoughts? Ever heard of family cloth? And just how crazy do you have to be to use family cloth?

As I mentioned once {in random passing} Jonathan’s grandmother is moving in with us. I haven’t really written about it since, as there wasn’t anything to tell. But now there is; Grandma moved in Thursday night!

{fair warning: Grandma hates having her picture taken, so set your hopes low for ever seeing her smile in one}

We originally planned for her move toward the end of this month, but on Wednesday changed everything for her to come the following day.

We are all very excited about this newest path in our life and family. I think it’s going to be a wonderful life lesson for our girls {and me!} to live in a multi-generation home. And like with all housing situations, I am sure there will be issues and problems to work through. In fact, for me we’ve already had our first. Thursday night, Julia and I both got really sick. Grandma’s welcoming committee was the two of us throwing up and feeling less then hospitable {at least on my part}. While Julia felt better by Friday morning, I stayed in bed most of the day. Not quite how I imagined starting off hosting, but what can ya do? Thankfully, she didn’t mind in the least.

As part of my 30 before 30 I made a goal to sew a dress this year. Funny thing is, I can’t sew. Technically speaking I can. I’ve sewn buttons on shirts, sewn together holes in pockets. And once I made a hotsling with great assistance {read: I sat and watched while my friend made it for me}. But I can’t actually sew. I’ve never owned a sewing machine and the last time I made something on my own I was 12. Sewing my own dress is sounding more and more brilliant.

Earlier this year my friend Rachel gave me her old Singer. Tuesday morning I took the plunge and fired the bad mama up.

Oh, you thought when I said old I meant old as in from the last decade. Or even from the last 4 decades.  No, no my friends, this machine is a classic. And while it isn’t fancy, I actually quite love it.

It took me a while to figure out how to properly thread it. And after nearly an hour of doing what I thought seemed right, I had to call Rachel to come show me how it is really done:

I did a few practice runs to try it out. And you know what I learned? I can’t sew a straight line. Awesome.

But, I won’t let a little thing like straight lines hold me back. I’m pressing on! I’m taking the Windhamettes on an adventure to Hobby Lobby later today to buy pins and then I’m going to start on my first home ec project: sewing an apron. Rock on.

Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures.

Top Ten {Tuesday} This last weekend, Jonathan and I started talking about my 30 before 30 list. In 8 months I’ve managed to only mark off 4 items {with the 5th coming up}. That leaves 26 goals to complete in 20 months. Seems easy, huh? Well, since one of them is to visit Paris {and we all know how that’s going}, I’m realizing some things are going to need to be tweaked.

I’m leaving the list the same for now, but changing what I plan to accomplish before this year ends. Here’s my top ten {and the 6 that are left}:

1. Run a half marathon Finished this one back in April. And actually am crazy enough to consider doing another one in October.

2. Get a tattoo – Took the plunge in April. Might have been the best decision I’ve made all year.

3. Speak before a large audience – Finished this one back in March.

4. Learn to make crepes – Finished this in February. Funny enough, this one seemed the most intimidating {I kid you not}.

Now the ones I still need to complete:

5. Girls weekend getaway – If everything goes as planned, I’ll be spending a weekend in NYC come September. Niiice.

6. Learn to sew a dress – Jon brought my 1960’s Singer sew machine out of the garage this morning. I’ve got it open and am currently learning to thread it. No easy task for this home ec drop out.

7. Submit a recipe to Southern Living – I’m keeping the recipe a secret for now, but plan on experimenting with it later this week. Hopefully it goes well {and makes for a good post ;)}.

8. Read through the Bible – After years of following reading plans, the one year I don’t is the one year I’ve actually read more in my Bible than ever before. Go figure.

9. Finish my wedding album – Really, does my wedding album sit on my dresser half completed, taunting me? Yes, yes it does. And really, is it that hard to put photos in an album? Probably not. But since it’s taken over 5 years to do it, you’d think it was. Haha.

10. Learn to play 3 Christmas carols on the piano – For a while I was teaching myself the piano. Yeah, we’re gonna scratch that. Keep it simple – just learn the carols. And after I found the Smule piano app for my iPad, I’m thinking that might just count.

Visit Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.

Jon and I went to Minneapolis this weekend to celebrate our five year anniversary {July 30}. We had a wonderful time {made even more relaxing knowing our girls were well taken care of – Thanks Abdos!}. I have a confession: We didn’t take as many pictures as I {pr maybe even you} might have expected. From the moment we arrived in Minneapolis, all responsibility, even photo taking, went out the window.

We started the weekend off by driving this:

2010 Chevy Camaro – Awesomeness

We stayed on the 16th floor of the Marquette in downtown. We love tall buildings and lots of crowds, so we were delighted with our view:

Minneapolis reminded us a lot of Austin. Which in of itself made us love the city. One of the coolest things we came across was public bicycles. Minneapolis has this bike rental program called Nice Ride. The idea is to rent bike for a day, month or even a year, then when you are done riding, return it. There were return kiosks all over downtown, so finding and returning the bikes were quite easy. I loved it. Although, there were times {say 5 o’clock traffic} that I was less than confident riding on the streets. But, Minneapolis is incredibly bike friendly, so after the first few minutes I realized most drivers were use to having cyclists riding along side them {not something I can say is as true here} and I stopped worry so much and went with the flow.

Our three main goals of the trip were 1) sleep in, 2) eat at a really nice restaurant, 3) plan nothing. That last one was easy. Aside from our couple’s massage on Saturday {which was as nice as it sounds} we made no plans. And while I doubted I’d be able to sleep in, I actually did. I woke up at 6:30 on Saturday, went back to bed and then got up for the day at 7:30. However, Sunday morning I slept till 8:30. I couldn’t recall sleeping that late since Julia was born. Talk about a nice way to start off your Sunday!

As for eating at a nice restaurant, we had dinner Saturday night at 112 Eatery. The atmosphere was a little louder and less romantic than I had originally wanted, but rather than sitting across for one another, Jon and I sat side by side, which actually made it more romantic. And the food? It was worth every penny. We had scallops with mushrooms, a pasta with lamb sauce and this amazing green bean and feta side dish. Oy! It was so good, I dreamed about it that night!

Here we are all dressed up for our night out:

We got home on Sunday night around 8. The Abdos weren’t home from church yet, so we were able to unpack our bags before getting the girls. I’ll admit – I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be “ready” to start being mama again. Even as we pulled into town, I kept thinking “I don’t want to go back to reality just yet”. But when we saw the Windhamettes for the first time, I was thrilled. Hannah caught us through the window and just stared in puzzlement. Once she figured out what was going on, she just started laughing. It was really sweet and made me glad to be home.

And now, as our week has started and life moves on, I can look back at a wonderful time spent alone with Jonathan and rejoice in God’s blessing in our marriage.

But, this is what I’ve packed for a weekend getaway.

I’m not sure what’s more disturbing, the fact that I have 10 outfits for 3 days, that I’m already packed two days in advance, or that I still feel like maybe I should pack more {you just never know what you might need}.

If you see me in person from now until Friday, please don’t laugh about me wearing the same clothes every day. Ok? Thanks.

Top Ten {Tuesday} Jonathan and I are heading to Minneapolis this weekend. {Please excuse me if you’ve read about our trip a thousand times on here or Twitter – I’m just a tad bit excited.} We don’t know everything that we will be doing while in MPSL, so I thought instead I’d give you the top ten things I won’t be doing on vacation.

1. Cleaning – I don’t plan to so much as pick my clothe up off the hotel room floor. I spend too much of my time cleaning during the day/week that I don’t want to do anything this weekend.

2. Changing diapers – For the first time in over 2.5 years, I will not change a single diaper. Bask in the glory.

3. Looking at the kids menu – No chicken nuggets, no grilled cheese sandwiches, no milk in cardboard containers. Only adult food.

4. Waking up early – Maybe this should be number 1? But I can promise I have no plans of getting out of bed before 9am.

5. Going to bed early – I’m not sure my body actually knows how to sleep until 9am. But I figure if I stay up until 1am it might learn.

5. Checking the time – I don’t want to worry about what time we eat, what time we go to bed or being anywhere for anything. {Except for our couples massage on Saturday. Yes you did read that right. Couples. Massage. Awesomeness.}

6. Cooking – While I love cooking, it’s nice to have a break and enjoy being served. Especially when it’s at a yummy restaurant like 112 Eatery.

7. Facebooking/Twittering/Taking calls – While our phones are coming, along with our iPads, I have no plans to use them. Well, aside from watching instant Netflix.

9. Driving a mini van – We are leaving our Swagger wagon at home and renting a car. We found a great deal through Enterprise with a coupon off eBay and have our fingers crossed for something sporty and fast.

10. Forgetting my girls – I think it’s going to be absolutely wonderful to get away alone with Jon for an entire 48 hours, but I have a sneaking suspicion I’m going to be missing the Windhamettes something fierce by the end.

Visit Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.

If you’ve seen/heard of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, you’ve got to see this: