this february week

Thursday it came to my mind several times that I needed to post something. However, even if I'd had something prepared (which I didn't), I'm not sure when I would have posted it. It was just one of those days! It's been a busy week and now, late Saturday evening, each task and event has finally been marked off of the list. 

I truly enjoy being busy. Right now I'd really like a nap but I much prefer busy over bored! 

Here are a few photos I've snapped since last Thursday...

This was the game I mentioned between our original ball team and our current ball team. The current team won, but those of us "Era 2013" cheered our hearts out! It was just as much - if not more - fun than we had anticipated, even though we felt older than our actual age as we went out to eat afterwards and were yawning at 8:30. My dad coached both teams and refereed the game!

Last night was our annual Sweetheart Banquet at church. Due to sickness our crowd was down, and the sign-up sheet kept getting names marked off. Schools are shut down in our town and the surrounding areas for over a week due to the sickness, and I'm hoping it'll taper off soon. Some people are on their second round though, so we can only pray! 

I had the children's group ages 2-4, and we had so much fun! I approached it with a "party" mindset, and even though our group of 16 went down to 8, we had a really good time. I made moon sand, which they could have played with for hours! 8 parts flour to one part baby oil - it smelled good and cleaned up amazingly!

When I told them we were going to do a craft, 3 year old Lena Rae said "If we're doing a craft I'm gonna need help!" We colored while glue dried, played with moon sand and balloons, they read a book, and we had cookies at the end. As 3 year old Dean kept telling us, it was all "too funny". This is one of my favorite age groups to work with!

Our craft - "trees" made out of cutting out their hand shape with hearts glued on for leaves!

Last night we ate supper with a new family in our church. Their youngest son kept saying "watch, Belay!" With the K and L's in my name I've been called a lot of things - Teddy, Keyyey, and Olley. "Belay" is a new one though, and when he finally started putting the "Miss" in front of it it turned into "Be-Kelley". I don't mind! I love all the names they come up with to call me.

This afternoon we had a birthday party for my PawPaw. He'll turn 85 on the 24th and I get emotional thinking about how blessed we've been to have him with us this long. I sat across from him today at lunch and I don't think he said more than five words, but that's PawPaw. Last fall gave us a pretty big scare, and I no longer take a single second I'm with him for granted. 9 out of 17 grandkids were able to make it today, and all 8 great-grandchildren were there.

One of my favorite pictures of PawPaw - taken on a family trip to Gatlinburg when he was 83!

That's all for today, y'all. I'm sorry it was such an uneventful post and that it's two days late. Maybe next week will be better, but real life will always come first! I hope you have a beautiful Sunday! Thanks for reading.

20 questions

It's days like today that I question why I set a weekly blogging goal. For the past month, I've been able to come up with things - even if it was simply a "currently" or TILT - that I enjoyed writing about and wanted to post. Today, however, we're in the second half of a nice, slow-paced week. There hasn't been as much going on as usual (except a stomach bug I'm trying to stay far away from) and it's been so nice. Since I don't have much going on to share and I haven't done much writing lately, I thought I'd do another survey/questionnaire since I haven't done one of those in about 3 years and I've changed quite a bit in that time span!

1. What is your favorite cereal? Honestly, I hardly ever eat cereal! If I do, it's a splurge or dessert, and I love any peanut butter cereal. So bad for you, but so good!
2. If you could bring someone famous back from the grave, who would you choose? This one is so hard. I have so many questions for Mary, the mother of Jesus. I'd like to talk to John for a good long while, too.
3. What is your favorite potato chip flavor?  Ruffles' sour cream and cheddar (this has not changed!)
4. What makes you really sleep? White noise. Put me on a plane and turn on the engines and I'm gone.
5. What one thing annoys you most at a restaurant?  Loud talkers. I get it, I've got several close friends and we can be noisy, but at a restaurant...well...no one else thinks you're as funny as you do. Especially me, Queen of Corny Jokes. ("They named a street after Chuck Norris once but they had to change it because no one crosses Chuck Norris and lives." - 2 big brothers can be thanked for my love of Chuck Norris jokes!)
6. How do you like to relax? Read a book, watch a movie, take a drive...anything that gives my mind a rest as well as my body.
7. If fat, calories, cholesterol, etc were not an issue, what would you feast on? All the Italian foods. I'm making pepperoni chicken tonight, y'all.
8.  Aside from lettuce, what are your two favorite salad ingredients? Cottage cheese and grilled chicken.
9. What profession have you always admired? Surgeons. (fun fact, when I was about 21 or 22 I did all the research on how long it would take me if I decided to become a surgeon. Late 30's was pushing it and that dream died a quick death! haha)
10.  When someone has bad breath do you tell them or try and ignore it?  I try to ignore it unless it's family and then I describe it to them in detail!
11. List 5 things you want really want to do 1 - Visit the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile in Oklahoma | 2 - Go to the Biltmore with my friends | 3 - visit Italy with somebody | 4 - get married | 5 - become a mom
12. What's something you keep telling yourself you're going to do but keep putting it off? list stuff on eBay
13. In conversations, do you tend to listen or talk more?  Depends on who I'm with. But I think it's about 50/50
14. Type of music you like most? guitar instrumentals
15. What's your personal style? I'd say classic and comfortable? I'm don't accessorize very much and I'm not super trendy anymore.
16. What was the last thing you bought?  lavender oil
17. What time is bed time?  Around 10pm, give or take 30 minutes here and there
18. Do you believe in love at first sight? My parents have a love-at-first-sight story, but I think if it does happen, it's very rare for it to be real and lasting.
19. Your dream vacation?  Anywhere warm. Hawaii, Bora Bora, Fiji, Italy, Greece...I've recently researched the Maldives and now I really, really want to go there, too!
20. Last musical you saw?  "Fiddler on the Roof" on Broadway! "If I were a rich man, daidle deedle daidle daidle daidle deedle daidle dumb..." LOVED IT!

I hope that wasn't too much of a cop-out for a blog post! I always enjoy reading these, and they're a lot of fun to fill out! I hope everyone has a nice, restful weekend. Our original ball team - the one with my close friends on it - is playing the current ball team tomorrow and we're all really looking forward to it. There's a lot of nostalgia involved, and I keep telling myself you don't cry at ballgames! (haha) We get to have a little piece of our teenage years back though and it should be a lot of fun!!

I feel like I blinked and five years went by.

things i love thursday

"Relying on God has to begin all over again everyday as if nothing had yet been done." ~C.S. Lewis

What a week this has been! The beginning of January must have been the calm before the storm, because the past couple of weeks have picked up speed and had us looking forward to having a "sit down" on an evening we don't have to get back up and rush off somewhere. It's all been enjoyable, though, so I thought it was time for some things I love Thursday!

church family

First and foremost and all of the time. It's just one of those things I know I take for granted way too often, and being the pastor's daughter I sometimes get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes stuff that I should appreciate so much more. Last night we had our monthly church-wide meal before services. This month my mom and sister and I were cooking (aka my mom cooked and Amie and I helped wrap things up). We eat at 6pm, and at 5:15 all of the electricity went off in our county. I was putting dessert plates out, my mom was cutting cake, Amie was in another room. We don't have a backup generator and it was completely silent and totally dark. We felt around for our phones, turned on the flashlight, and kept plugging on. Thankfully, my mom's a prepare-er and everything was pretty much already ready. The Hostess Committee began to trickle in with their phone flashlights and while some of us held them up the rest of us filled cups, set out dessert, washed up the few remaining dishes, and got everything ready. More church members and men began showing up with flashlights and torches and shining headlights in the glass doors of our very, very dark gym. At 10 til 6 everything was done, we had enough bobbing lights and a big spotlight shining on the ceiling to see, and we prayed and went through line. It was a sweet picture to me of how a body works - each person did a different job to make sure it all got done, even though we were all experiencing the same "handicap". The lights came back on at 6:30 and we were able to clean everything up, start church on time, and proceeded as normal!

ballgames

But kind of only the home games. Our little church ball team has picked back up! We didn't have enough high school boys for a couple of years but this year they all got together and aren't too bad! We have another game tonight and they're always a lot of fun! With not a whole lot of "just-for-fun" things this time of the year, it's an enjoyable way to spend a winter evening.

the things kids say

"Miss Kelley, that's a pretty necklace, where did you get it?"

"To be honest [three year old] Mabel, I don't remember, but thank you."

"You are welcome."

"Lena Rae, while your brothers have a boy party [with about 20 of their friends they've been talking our ears off about] do you want to come play with me and A?"

"No, I want to go to the party."

"But you're a little girl."

"No, I want to go to the boy party, I'm a little boy."

"You're three, Lena Rae, you have to go to class."

"I want to go to the nursery, I'm two today."

"Ok, kids, someone tell me what your favorite part about tonight was."

"I wish we had played freeze tag! If we had played freeze tag, that would have been my favorite part!"

february
Sometimes it's alarming how quickly time passes. It's scary that we miss so many opportunities and I hate feeling like I can't keep up. Somehow though, I've been enjoying the passage of time this year. I have high hopes for 2017, and it feels like each new month brings a whole set of new possibilities.

my office
I got a new desk and rug and completely re-decorated! Yet another welcome and happy change. I just need to print some pictures and buy a fake plant or two (I've killed every real plant I've touched).

warm quilts | new books | Georgia cornbread | Dougy hugs (the definition of a bear hug) | Lena Rae dimples | the little boys' excitement | warm, sunny days | fresh air | group texts | my oil diffuser (I've even got one in my office! It makes the entire bottom floor smell like Thieves oil) | finally having short hair again | late night conversation with friends after church | planning ANOTHER baby shower - this time for Faith!!  | Wednesday night class - I love being a teacher's helper! | old pictures & videos - I've been so blessed to have grown up with the people I have!

back during our trip to Germany 5 years ago - the reason I started this blog!

I hope you all have a very lovely February! What are some things you're loving this Thursday?