Lemonade Makin' Mama

Those who know my heart... know it.

2013-05-16T15:03:00.002-07:00

I have to come clean on something. As I blog and show photos of this and that in my house or other things, and sometimes dip into the serious waters of my heart, I have been struggling behind the scenes with something. The fear that our long-ago pursued dream to downsize our mortgage and live our life in a way that blesses others whether it be financially, opening our home with hospitality, mentoring, or otherwise... has come to a complete and total stand-still. I remember the feelings I had when I wrote this post- the one about how we did all those fun updates and things to our kitchen- things I had literally imagined doing for nearly a decade- but the bottom line at the end of the day, was that it's just a house. At the time I blogged that I really hoped if God asked me to leave it all behind and take a leap of faith, I would step out that front door in a heartbeat.

Friends, if you could only know the journey Adrain and I have been on since that moment.

It felt like life slammed us in the stomach with a story so far off the beaten path we had previously been walking on, that we couldn't really talk about it in detail to anyone. We kind of still shake our head sometimes and think, "What is this all about?" Occasionally I blog about the pieces I can share but it's hard not to be able to just vomit it all out there so you guys can actually get the whole picture. Those who know me well, know the general junk that we feel comfortable sharing out loud. One or two people have probed and pursued me, and have let me go deep.

And loved me anyway.

It all began here. Along the way it's been exciting, eye-opening, cloudy, confusing, backward and at a dead stop. We're currently in the dead stop. That sounds so dramatic, but in this economy we are pretty much frozen right here in this place, unless God opens a door to something different. I know I'm not the only one out there that feels this way.

God has certainly been silent in our story for what seems to Adrain and I like a long time. It's always longer when you're the one living it, isn't it? I always laugh when I realize someone "I just heard was pregnant" delivered her baby a month ago. I think, "What? Nine whole months have passed?" (And of course to her, it's small lifetime.)

I have been so encouraged because of something I just heard this week. "When you are going through something hard in your life and wonder where God is, remember, that the teacher is always silent during the test."

No pretty bow at the end of this post... just something to chew on.

Food. And stuff.

2013-05-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love feeding people? Cause yeah. I do.

I have to share one of my favorite bar cookie recipes of all time. Super simple.

But before I do, I have two things to say today.

1) I miss doing my 365 posts, because that gave me an excuse to take random photos of anything I wanted that had nothing to do with anything and put them somewhere. I have a few of those in this post. Just in case you were thinking, "Huh?" as you looked at them. Not that I've ever done that before. Like ever. Ha!

2) I've gotten a ton of emailed questions about some of my blog tweaks. And I'm almost jumping up and down that y'all like them! I still need to install a social media button put on the side, but then I'm done. (I put all the places you can find me in a tab at the top for now.) I thought I'd just answer the main questions here since I've gotten so many duplicate questions. You have asked me the style of font in my texts- I'm using "Arimo" for the main text and "Oswald" for my post titles. I've had a bunch of you ask about the sizes I'm using my photos at. I re-size them in PicMonkey to "850" wide. With my extended margins that is the perfect size for this particular blog width and I can click "Original size" when I'm uploading photos and plunking them into my blog. (You would obviously want to re-size your photos for your own margins.)

(Mother's Day bouquet)

Okay so these bars. I've been making them for years. I got the recipe from a favorite co-worker back in the day when I actually got up really early and got dressed in pantyhose and high heels. Side note, I don't actually think I own a pair of pantyhose anymore. And you should see me walking in high heels! It's hysterical. My feet have completely adjusted to wearing only gray converse or ballet flats nearly every waking moment. I don't even know what to do with heels anymore.

Anyway.

Here is my version of these yummy bars. And no. They're not good for you.

Jennifer's coconut bars
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (14 oz) bag sweetened coconut flakes
1 bag chocolate chips

Turn your oven on to 325 degrees.
Place 1/4c butter into a 9x13 pan, then place the pan into the warming oven and let the butter melt.
While that's going on, crush enough graham crackers to make 1/1/4 cups. (I used s'moreables because they are gluten free. They taste kind of awful, but if you cover something in enough chocolate it's good. Just saying.)
Pull the pan with the melted butter out of the oven and dump in your crushed grahams. Mix them well and press them all down into the pan to form a crust.
Open a can of sweetened condensed milk. Pour it over the top of the graham cracker crust.
Sprinkle a bag of sweetened coconut flakes over top. (But reserve just a handful)
Sprinkle a bag of chocolate chips over that, evenly.
Take the reserved coconut and sprinkle it over the chocolate chips so it can get all toasty and pretty looking.

(I don't think I've ever said the word "sprinkle" this much in my life.)

Now pop that pan into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.

It makes your kitchen smell all coconut-y. And yummy.

And this is what my kitchen looks like right this minute. I actually had to stop in the middle of getting this post up and snap a photo for you. I'm making enchiladas and egg muffins (the healthy kind) at the same time. I can't help my multi-tasking self.

Now I have to scoot because the hoodlums are almost home from school. What are you up to today?

Finding Help.

2013-05-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am always blown away by this amazing blog world. Of course I do realize that there are yucky people out there who leave snarky comments and such, but my experience with that side of blogging has been rare. In fact, my experiences with people via emailing, commenting, encouraging one another and such, has always been overwhelmingly positive.

Last week when I un-customized my blog on accident, I panicked. (I had never reverted to a new template design, back when Blogger was making template changes and therefore, I had never been able to do any customizing for the little appearance-type things such as font, color, and size choices. I couldn't widen my margins... that sort of thing. Drove me nuts to have a vision in my head but not be able to create it.) After messing up the entire thing, and frantically texting a few of my buddies, my friend Carissa pointed me to Pink+Lola. (And I LOVE the look of Carissa's blog.) Not only are the Pink+Lola blog templates gorgeous, they are also reasonably priced. She offers all kinds of services and customizations. (I love her stuff and these photos are two beautiful examples from her shop.) The thing was, I have always designed my own blog header and sidebar buttons... and my cute little VW bus has become my brand, so I didn't really need a template overhaul. I simply needed help and guidance with some uncooperative tweaking.

The shop owner, Kelly, didn't know me from anybody. But she graciously offered advice from the kindness of her heart, and I followed it.

It worked. Day saved. Yippee!

I've almost got everything on the screen how I see it in my head. I only have two more "tweaks" in progress. One is that "Pin-it" button that appears when you roll your mouse over a photo. I'm not 100% sure I want it... so I'm still thinking on it.

Anyway, I don't know if you are looking to make-over your blog, switch something around, or make some customizations but please consider this sweet woman. She works with Blogger and Word Press. I think you will be so pleased!

What has your blog experience been? Has it been positive and encouraging? Do you have your blog looking just how you want... or are you feeling like the vision you have in your head doesn't match? Do you use Blogger or Word Press... or something else? And how do you like it?

New again. And a winner.

2013-05-10T07:47:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I get the itch to change something.

Who am I kidding? This, my friends, is a daily occurrence.

Remember last weekend when we were weeding, mowing, moving bricks around, laying more gravel, removing two huge garden boxes, planting vegetables and flowers and spreading beauty bark?

Yeah. That was a crazy weekend.

And remember when I mentioned that I was also getting ready to paint my bike and paint our bathroom cupboards because I can't concentrate unless I am surrounded by fifteen half completed projects?

Yeah.

Well, I have been crushing on all of those vintage looking cruiser-style bike for ages. And I hated the boring gray color of my bike. But the thing is this. My bike is perfectly fine. It works fine and a new bike for no reason isn't in our budget. So I did what any normal girl would do. I asked Joe if he would be able to take it apart so I could spray paint it. He was like, "Duh mom, of course I can, who do you think you're talking to here?" (Okay, so those weren't his exact words. But that was the gist of it.) He had pieces of my bike sprawled across the garage floor faster than I could find a wrench.

(And apparently you don't really need wrenches to take bikes apart these days. Who knew?)

I hit the whole thing with primer that I had already had, and two coats of glossy, turquoise paint. I had been previously storing the bike basket but I hadn't attached it. Once it was all dry we put the whole bike back together, added the cute little basket, and now it feels like a brand new bike. All for the price of one can of spray paint and way too much painter's tape. (I am sorry I didn't take any before or in-process photos. Apparently I was busy with a few other things. Heh, heh.) The point is this....with a little inexpensive and quick tweaking and the help of a twelve year old boy- I now love my bike.

(I should never give Adrain the camera. He's such a goof when he takes photos of me. He snaps hundreds. I kid you not.)

The best part of having a big flurry of change... I am going into a weekend with everything done. DONE. I can't even remember when that word has been last uttered by me.

(I even hustled and restocked my shop with some more of the Antique blue ball jar flour sack dish towels (found here) that y'all keep buying.)

And now I can ride my pretty, new-to-me bike, sit in my tidy backyard, roast marshmallows in my fire pit, and enjoy a spruced up bathroom area. I plan on doing nothing but relaxing for the rest of the weekend.

I'd say that came just in time for Mother's day!

Thank you again to miss Jessica from Jessica's Serenity for the fun giveaway. The randomly chosen winner of Jessica's triple wrapped bracelet is... #34 Heather. (Email me at lemonademakinmama@comcast.net to claim your prize!)

If you would like to order one of Jessica's gorgeous creations, make sure and visit her Etsy shop, here. (And don't forget you can still use the coupon code "LEMONADEMAKINMAMA" when you check out, because Jessica is offering 10% off all of your orders until May 17th!)

Flinging through the air.

2013-05-08T08:03:00.001-07:00

I was doing some reckless cleaning the other day. And what I mean by that, is I had a garbage bag in one hand and everything my other hand landed on was going into it. I do that sometimes. I'm a clutter hater.

Anyhow, as I was throwing things, I found a pile of old journals. I'm one of those people that doesn't typically keep them after a few years have gone by. This one, however, was a keeper. I recognized the year and I knew that everything poured out onto paper in that journal needed to be saved.

I dropped it onto the counter top and it flipped open near the middle, as books often do. I took note of the page because the center had been written on, circled, starred, and highlighted. It was August 30, 2010. I remember that day. It was the first day of homeschooling and I knew I was in trouble the first hour of that day. (That's a whole other story.)

I wrote an entire quote from Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest. (You know, before I starred, circled and highlighted it.) It read, "Patience is more than endurance. A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and he stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says, "I cannot stand anymore." God does not heed, He goes on stretching til His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly...Faith is the heroic effort of your life; you fling yourself in reckless confidence on God."

I've gotten it wrong more often than I've gotten it right over the past few years, as documented in my roller coaster ride "Adventure Chronicles" label (on my sidebar), but I can tell you one thing. I've gotten pretty good at that 'flinging myself in reckless confidence on God' part.

Don't you love the visual picture of that?

There is still plenty of time to enter my GIVEAWAY! Winner will be chosen randomly on Friday!

I'm just pretending to know what I'm doing.

2013-05-06T21:15:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, as the sun shone brightly, my family was quietly grieving a sad loss. Adrain and I kept the kiddos so busy with our yard work/campfire pit project that they wouldn't have time to think much about it. Before we all dropped in exhaustion on Sunday night, and as the last rays of golden sunshine began sliding over the horizon, we grabbed my cute parents and dragged them down to the riverside for some photos. I hadn't been able to decide what to give the two most amazing people in my life, who have spent forty years loving only each other. And then one day it hit me, and I decided that we needed to commemorate their anniversary with some photos.

I feel so comfortable photographing things that don't breathe or move... but live people are another matter. There was gorgeous (but intimidating) sun flare all over the place and I don't always know what to do with that. (I want to be Paige or Carissa when I grow up so I can figure that sort of thing out.) My parents were so cute and fun and my dad's goofy antics had me laughing so hard I couldn't keep the camera still at times.

I didn't really know what I was doing for the most part, and kept whipping out my Pinterest file to tell them how to pose. Then we'd laugh and I'd shoot a few more photos. I was so relieved when they turned out cute!!

Life is like that for me. Most of the time, I don't have a clue what I'm doing, and I stumble all over the place trying to make sense of it all. I do this in parenting, relationships that have gone twisted, finances that don't make sense on paper, plans that aren't aligning... that sort of thing. I stand inside the circle of mess and destruction sometimes and think, "If this works out, it's going to be nothing short of a miracle." And then... miraculously, it works itself out. A little faith. A little perseverance. A little waiting. And then suddenly it all shifts into place and I sigh in relief and cover that thing with prayers of thanksgiving.

The verse in my bible reading today, was, (Psalm 37:23-24) "The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand."

And then guess what I did?

I dropped off the hoodlums and went for a run.

It was gorgeous and sun-shiney. As I was rounding out the end of mile three, about 200 yards from where my car was parked, I tripped as my toe grazed a chunk of sidewalk that was sticking out. I stumbled like a drunken sailor for about five steps, my hands reaching out wildly to catch myself, and the two fragmented thoughts in my head at that moment were, "OH dear GOD please don't let me end up with teeth like a hockey player," and "Thank you God that though I may stumble, I will not fall, because You uphold me with Your hand!"

I'm not kidding.

It's a wild ride inside my brain, folks.

The point is this. I don't have to know what I'm doing. Because God does, and He's there to catch me. And you. I don't know about you, but I am so thankful for that.

And Happy Anniversary month to my Mama and Daddy (even though you're actual anniversary isn't for a few weeks.) You've always been there for me during my many stumbles.

Thank you for showing me Who to turn to when I do.

Special thank you's to my sidebar sponsors, or as I affectionately call them,

my LMM family... for May.

Deliciously Inspired (who is also hosting a sweet giveaway right now, here.) Leen the Graphics queen, Lowercase Letters, LaFamille, Pearly Bird designs, 163 Design Company, San Fernando St, The Ironstone Nest, The Rustic Ribbon, Farmgirl Paints, Jeanne Oliver, Between You and Me, and Shades Up and Co.

Things I'm loving... and a GIVEAWAY!

2013-05-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED AND COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED.
***The randomly chosen winner of Jessica's triple wrapped bracelet is... #34 Heather. (Email me at lemonademakinmama@comcast.net to claim your prize!) If you would like to order one of Jessica's gorgeous creations, make sure and visit her Etsy shop, here. (And don't forget you can still use the coupon code "LEMONADEMAKINMAMA" when you check out, because Jessica is offering 10% off all of your orders until May 17th!)***

I'm a little bit giddy today, about posting things I love. Okay in all fairness I'm like that a lot. But especially today!! I'm hosting one of my favorite giveaways this week... (and don't you dare scroll down to the bottom yet.) (grin) I'm loving these heritage blue ball jars that I found lurking in my grocery store. There was one box left. ONE. I nabbed it because we can always use more drinking glasses, yes? Yes!!

I had a coupon for 200 free photo prints. (LOVE THAT!) I went back into my archives and realized how many photos I haven't done anything with. Like our entire Disnelyand Vacation from back in 2010. (Mom fail.) Does anyone else out there completely space it on printing out your photos? Why is that?! My hoodlums can spend hours looking through old photo albums... so I printed those suckers up and stuffed them into an inexpensive album. I love that.

Lockets. I love lockets. (This one came from Origami Owl)

Because I printed all those photos, I got an indexed print with all of those sweet faces in miniature. They happen to be just about the perfect size for lockets. Here's all you'll need:

Scissors
Glue dots

I know. It's really complicated.

I didn't have two vertical shots that I loved, but that's okay. It doesn't have to be perfect to be tucked inside a place where nobody but you is ever really going to look at it.

See? Not perfect. Trim the corners and any printed information...

Then grab a glue dot.

Place one into the center. (And yes I realize you probably didn't need a photograph of this. What can I say. I'm a classic overachiever one minute and a lazy person the next. A girl hates to be too predictable.)

Press in your photos...

And voila! I love Joe's expression. Classic.

I love having my hoodlums little faces close to my heart.

I also love my customers. YOU GUYS!! I can't promise shipment in time for Mother's day depending on where you live... but I do have another batch of my antique blue ball jar flour sack dishtowels up for grabs here, if you want one.

And now. For my most favorite thing.... that I love. Jessica from Jessica's Serenity is giving away a tripple wrapped bracelet to one of my precious readers. You can choose which ever one you want from her shop. Can you believe it? She is wonderful and she does gorgeous bead work. I am lucky enough to own two, but this cross absolutely has my heart and these beads are a fantastic glassy-green. I fell madly in love with it the first minute I saw it.

Here is another example of her work. I love these coral beads. I do believe this is my favorite color.

And to make it even sweeter, Jessica is offering 10% off all of your orders until May 17th if you use the coupon code "LEMONADEMAKINMAMA" when you check out.

To be entered to win one of Jessica's triple wrapped bracelets... please go to her shop here, and then leave a comment for us letting us know which of her bracelets you love the most!

For extra entries, Pin, Tweet, Facebook, Blog, or Instagram about it and make sure to leave a separate comment letting us know you did that, for each one!

I will announce a winner next Friday! Now go forth and think about things you love all weekend.

Life is full of good patches.

2013-05-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about sending my kids off to school is helping out with field trips. Back when we home schooled we did a lot of field trips, but I don't remember feeling as relaxed as I do now. Maybe it was the kiddos' ages... we were really struggling back then (hence our decision to home school) and I felt like I was constantly chasing JJ. I guess, truth be told, I was. He was a runner. It stressed me out so much. Then I'd pull him aside approximately every five minutes, to "coach" him. I'd look around at all the relaxed moms with cooperative little kids nearby, not running and climbing things... they were simply visiting with one another building relationships, and in that season of life, I felt like I didn't fit in anywhere.

Funny how time changes things. Matures kids. Relaxes Mamas. It's a good patch. We just pulled out of a fairly tough one, and I'm seeing good growth again. I know this mother hood thing is like a tide. Ebbs and flows. Good and bad. Easy and rough. I'm liking the good and wish we could stay parked on this patch indefinitely.

I suppose the trick is, grasp it while it's around and appreciate it. Give thanks for it. Enjoy it. Laugh through it. Doesn't it always kind of come down to that? Grab that good with a thankful heart.

And this, ladies and gentlemen... is a caddisfly. The kiddos were doing a freshwater survey and they needed to collect some invertibrates. (I will willingly die rather than drink from a creek after seeing what they pulled out today.) Anyway the girl doing this part of Joe's study told me that caddisfly's make the casing they live in, from tiny rocks... apparently people buy them, put them into tanks and scatter the bottom of the aquariums with rhinestones and the like. Then they caddisflies make their little house casings and when they become adults and leave the casings, people use them for jewelry. So if you ever see "caddisfly jewelry" at your farmer's market or something... you'll know what that came from.

Guess what my expression was when she shared this informational tid bit with me? Ha!

I sure do love this curious, inquisitive, knowledge-craving kid. I know these posts are more for me than they are for you all... but I have to document these fleeting moments because before I know it... they'll be gone.

"For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right." (Psalm 84:11)

(I've got a GIVEAWAY coming on Friday that you won't want to miss!!)

Plan A and B.

2013-04-30T12:48:00.001-07:00

Today I had the privilege of being a volunteer in JJ's classroom. (He's informed me that he's okay with either Joe or JJ. Now I'm confused. I think he is too! Ha!) They were painting little squares of silk. It was gobs of fun. I wish every day could be like that.

As we watched the instructor's demonstration, she explained as she went. She was showing how you transfer this watery, colored ink onto the silk, after you've applied a sticky substance called gutta, in the outline of your design. The gutta works to wall off the inks from one another so that you can create patterns and pictures.

As she talked, she shared how mistakes can happen. She told of a woman who was creating a beautiful masterpiece onto the silk. She had carefully painted in a landscape, flowers, and a pretty patch of sky... but then, a drop of red from her paintbrush fell onto the sky, completely ruining the lovely landscape. She clutched her head in despair, convinced one drop of the wrong color had destroyed something that was meant to be so beautiful.

After some time, they devised a plan. They turned that little spot of red into a ladybug, sailing through the air, and she liked it so well, she created a few more ladybugs here and there, onto her silk.

The instructor then said something I loved, and I'm paraphrasing. "If plan A suddenly isn't going to work out for you, plan B can often be even better." It made me think. Isn't that just like life? Things are going along, as you carefully planned. And then bam! Out of no where, a drop of red ink falls into YOUR master plan and you have to decide whether to scrap the whole thing, or bend and see what direction you are being led.

I do believe that's called makin' lemonade out of life's lemons.

Indeed yes.

Still EXPECTING. I just am. (And winners)

2013-04-28T20:42:00.003-07:00

We had a sock hop at the kids' school Friday night, so I'm going to entertain you with a few of the photos from that night while I fill ya in on life.

Do y'all remember back in the week of New Year's when I first said I was going to go into this year expecting good things because I believe that God meant what He said when He promised that He has a future and a hope for our life... and that He came not only so we could have life, but have it to the FULL? I talked about it here too. And blabbered some more here.

Lately, we've been dealing with a lot of random crisis moments that I can't share details about here. My Dad who pretty much knows about all of them, had a really good chat with me on Saturday morning. He told me that Adrain and I remind him of those people in circuses spinning lots of plates. I laughed. Truth, right there. As we verbally walked through so many of my fears, worries, frustrations and hopes, we were talking about how it seems everyone out there is experiencing so many of the similar issues. No one is spared from a life without issues at one time or another, but it matters how we move through those trials.

Many of you remember a year ago last April, when our two-year-old puppy, Lucy, was hit by a car, two days into a much-needed vacation. I remember that afternoon so clearly. Adrain and I had been working out things in such a way, that we felt our heads were finally breaking the surface of the water, so to speak.

We were reading some amazing books and encouragement was ripe for the picking. We were getting so excited, and we had promised to put the kids to bed that night and really focus on the amazing changes our hearts were beginning to take. Then we got the frantic phone call from my mama who had come home to find our dog missing from her backyard. We loaded up the kids and headed back home. After driving for seven hours through the night, with many phone calls from my police officer brother who had been calling buddies in our city trying to locate any stray dog reports... we arrived home just in time to put her to sleep.

I can't tell you the tail spin that one event sent me on. Well, if you read my blog you've probably picked up on the roller coaster of emotion over the past year, as I scrambled to regain ground I had suddenly lost. I can't fully understand why that (or any other yucky things) had to happen. This week, we are facing some health issues with our Daisy pup that may mean some big decisions. It would seem unbearable to me to ask my children to say goodbye to two dogs in the space of a year... but I know this; Not one thing touches my life without first passing through the hand of God. He knows my family (and so many of yours) is weary. But He also made me a promise several years ago and just this morning, the words of that promise sprang back into my view. "Because of the LORD'S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23)

I believe it. And oh how I love it. I feel like I kind of came back full circle in so many ways with just the reading of this sweet promise in our family devotional today.

We all juggle plates... but we can do so expectantly. Because great is His faithfulness.

Always.

**The winners of the print giveaway are Christy Dunnam and Susan Jeffries. Email me at lemonademakinmama@comcast.net with your addresses and I'll get your prints out!**

May flowers... and a little GIVEAWAY!

2013-04-25T13:29:00.002-07:00

As is customary, I'm here to talk about mostly nonsense, immediately after a heart-to-heart.

I showed some photos of my son chopping up a wisteria vine in my previous post. Don't worry, we told him to do that. It finally bloomed last year for me too. That only took about five years which proves what a horrible gardener I am. It had to happen though, because my man and I are beginning a project in the backyard that we've been putting off the entire time we've lived here. I'm pretty sure we have the worst backyard in the neighborhood, thanks to a digging, landscape-fabric ripping up dog. She actually digs for it then yanks it all out. It's a good thing she's cute.

Anyhow, our big project means that we'll be moving those big landscaping bricks (not sure what they are called?) around, and putting a short fence to protect the garden, because if we don't my family won't have any veggies to eat this Summer. Darn dog! We have four huge raised beds and honestly it's always been too many for me. We are taking out two of the boxes... and making a surprise with some of those extra landscaping bricks! I can't wait. I have a feeling this is going to take a few weekends... but I'm itching to get my seeds in the ground and plant my cutting garden alongside my veggies!

To tie me over, I just listed the most fun thing in my shop. A print of those sweet flowers in the blue jar, that I bought for Ava's birthday party. They were so pretty (ranuculus are some of my favorites) and have lasted forever. I only have a few left but I snapped a photo of them when they were at their peak, and loved it so much I am offering it in my shop as either a photo print or a wrapped canvas.

Poor flowers... only a few left....

The canvas I'm offering is so pretty, the photos don't do it justice. I honestly sat there and stared at it last night. The canvas has a self leveling hanger and comes with two of those little non-slip pads so it will stay put on your wall (Love that!) and is one inch thick. It comes sized at 12x16" but larger sizes can be custom ordered.

Kinda makes me feel like summer is here already. (Can be purchased here.)

If you'd rather, here's the print, which can be purchased here! What is it, about cheery flowers? They sure make me smile.

And just because... it's almost the weekend, and the sun has been shining this week I thought we could use a giveaway. I know it's not a big thing, but it makes me smile and I know a lot of you could use that too. So, I'm giving away one of these sweet golden "The best things in life are unseen. That's why we close our eyes when we kiss, laugh and dream" prints (above) to TWO people! It looks darling hung with washi tape on the refrigerator... or framed in an 11x14 sized frame. (Watermark won't be seen on the print you win of course. Just saying. So you know.)

All you have to do is leave a comment and of course, you can get extra entries for blogging, tweeting, pinning, Facebooking, Instagraming or whatever else there is. Just make sure and leave a separate comment for each one! (And please leave your comments here- comments left on Facebook or emailed to me directly won't get chosen, as I use random.org to choose the winner.)

Happy almost weekend you guys!!

Taking a North Turn.

2013-04-24T14:06:00.001-07:00

I had a lot on my mind this morning, an was up nice and early dwelling (some would say "worrying") on it because I had forgotten who was in control of it all, and somehow assigned myself the job. Regardless, I strapped on my running shoes and hit the trail. It seems like everywhere I turn, I've got a precious friend in crisis. I kind of tend to absorb the heartache around me (I'm working on learning big lessons with that but it's an entirely different post). Add to all that, my own list of things-that-aren't-going-so-well and it's no wonder I keep waking up in the middle of the night wrapped in a blanket of "hymn-dreaming."

I'll explain. My man takes my hand in his big, strong one each night, as I cuddle up to him and stick my icy feet on his leg, and he prays for things with me. This is my very favorite part of every single day. It took us nearly sixteen years of marriage to establish this tradition by the way. But we do it. And it sets my heart where it needs to be. Anyway, I grew up in a tiny, tiny country church in Montana. The kind where the pews were hard, the sermons were long (sorry Daddy! Ha!), the preacher's wife packed a wooden spoon in her purse in case her children (me) stepped out of line, and hymns were sang to the accompaniment of an eighty year old with a piano. Tender memories there, let me tell you. And when I'm weighed down by life's aches, I often wake up with one of those tried and true songs on my lips. As though I've been singing it in my dreams.

I love the verse, "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock in whom I take refuge." (Psalm 18:2a) In "Made to Crave," Lysa TerKeurst says, "Even the smallest drop of God's strength is more than enough to cover our frailties, our shortcomings, the places where we deem ourselves weak."

I can't tell you how weak I've been feeling lately and the truth is it's because I have been doing it again- trying to rely on MY power and capability. Dangit! I feel like I've been walking in circles the same direction each day, trying to fix things that are so far beyond my fixability it's not even funny. There are things broken that I could never have anticipated breaking, and I have no way to ever fix them in my own power, nor do I have the energy to even want to anymore. We all have things without solutions, hurts without salve, troubles that only time and God's handiwork will make sense of, and I had to laugh when I came across this verse, "You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north." (Deuteronmy 2:3)

I'm in need of a "turn north." Anyone else?

So that brings me to today's Jesus Calling for Kids devo. The verse... the one that consistently follows me around when I'm flailing my arms and legs, and kicking and screaming, and striving, and trying, and worrying and stressing... the Be Still verse. "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10)

The devo said, "Sometimes when you try to be still, fears and worries creep into your mind. Then you start planning ways to avoid the things that scare you. Soon, your thoughts are far away from Me. When you feel that happening, bring your thoughts back to Me. Stop your planning. Remember that I am always with you, so there is no reason to worry or fear. Be still, and let Me be your God."

Yeah. That didn't apply to me at all. Bwahahahaha.

In closing, both my man and I have been hitting continuous re-play on Casting Crown's new song, "Already There." It's like they crawled inside our minds to write this;

From where I'm standing
Lord it's so hard for me to see
Where this is going
And where You're leading me
I wish I knew how
All my fears and all my questions
Are gonna play out
In a world I can't control

When I'm lost in the mystery
To You my future is a memory
Cause You're already there
You're already there
Standing at the end of my life
Waiting on the other side
And You're already there
You're already there

Of course it's true. He's already there. He holds our future.

"Lord, let me absorb that truth, rather than all the crisis and heartache out there...."

(My "Be Still and Know" print arrived on my doorstep from the sweetly fabulous Heather at Life Made Lovely, and can be purchased here.)

Reminiscing...

2013-04-21T12:19:00.003-07:00

I remember when I was ten years old. I had a pink banana seat bike with a flag, (does anyone still put those on their bikes anymore?) a basket, glittery streamers trailing from the handlebars, and a horn. Which I honked obnoxiously all the time. Because why have a miniature fog horn attached to your handlebars if you're not intending to use it with regularity? I also had these little neon things attached to my tires and they whistled when you went really fast. And really, why would you go any speed but fast if given the option? I had clackers on my spokes too, and basically all of this means that you could hear me coming from a mile away.

Which I suppose isn't much different than my present circumstances.

I tend to be a bit loud.

I never see tricked out bikes like mine was, these days. Why is that?

Anyway, "ten" was good in my world. It was a wild time of ruling the neighborhood, (or so we thought) building forts by a creek bed, ice skating on a frozen pond in the winter, making igloos out of snow, attempting to get my dog to climb a tree and into the tree house my dad built us, and eating all the homemade chocolate chip cookies and kool-aid a person could ever want, after school.

It's funny watching my daughter grow because she looks exactly like I did at that age. (Her teeth aren't as huge as mine were, but I'm good with that.) She plays hard. She rides that bike of hers like a pro. Her hair is always escaping whatever I put it in, and she flashes a big blue-eyed smile that lights up her face with regularity. She's my early bird and loves to jump out of bed, ready to greet the day and hit the shower. (She obviously got that set of genes from her Daddy because I am not a morning person. At all.)

(little niece)

(showing her grandparents what an ipod shuffle was. hysterical.)

(niece saying goodbye after the party.)

(my other little niece meeting us at American girl)

Ava got a bunch of American girl gift cards from everyone who knows her, so we hit the store on the way to the Chris Tomlin/Kari Jobe concert last night. It was awesome.

My kids had never been to a concert and it was a blast initiating them into it as we celebrated Adrain. I forgot to warn them that it would be loud. I forgot to tell them they might lose their voices singing, whistling, hollering and cheering. I forgot to tell them we'd be moving and grooving in the seats. (I didn't tell them about the concerts I remember where seats were roughly shoved aside and a wall of people surged you toward the stage. Does that still happen?) Some very cute young little things ended up sitting next to Joe. I whispered in his ear that I noticed he had some very pretty girls next to him, and he shrugged like it was all in a day's work and said, "Hey, I didn't make the seating arrangements." Cracked me up. He stood through the concert singing his little lungs out, clapping wildly, and yelling, "Mom this is so great, thank you so much for bringing me," between every song. It was FUN. So FUN.

As we neared the final song, I said, "Watch for cell phone lights all over the stadium" and about two minutes later he looked at me with huge admiration, like I knew everything in the world.

I enjoyed that, I'm not gonna lie. (It may never happen again.)

Life has been sweet this weekend. Adrain and I dealt with some very heavy things, a bit of other people's drama, and we came out on the right end of the thing. I feel like I'm at the start of a new chapter this week, and I can't wait to see what's in store. Things don't make a ton of sense yet, and nothing has changed in our circumstances but I do feel like something has happened.

Oh, and for those of you who missed out, because the Antique ball jar flour sack dish towels were gone by the end of the day they were listed last week... I have just listed my final batch before Mother's Day. (You know... in case the mothers in your life like that sort of thing.) You can purchase here! I've also got a few of the half-priced Irregulars listed here. (**The irregulars are already SOLD OUT**) And as usual, if you miss the listing before they sell out, you can always email me to get on a reserve list for my next batch, at lemonademakinmama@comcast.net

Redecorranging...

2013-04-18T09:19:00.001-07:00

I always laugh at how one small change can set off a domino effect, shuffling of all of our house decor.

Someone asked me the other day what I do about the holes in the wall from my frequent changes. Well... spackle, spray texture and paint are my BFF's. I don't use them each time I shuffle things around, but occasionally I drag all the paint cans inside and spend an afternoon touching up. I deal with all the places kids, dogs, and toys have gouged walls, places where trim work has been banged, holes from moved wall hangings, and the like.

It's loads of fun.

(It's really not. I just said that.)

Anyway, I've been craving color, and patterns... but I'm on an incredibly strict cash budget. Dangit! I've already shared that I recently recovered a few toss pillows that were elsewhere in the house, with fabric remnants I'd gotten at JoAnn's. I hadn't jumped in and done anything with the fabric for a while, because I couldn't visualize how the black and white chevron was going to tie into my current style at all- I just knew I loved it and that's always a fantastic place to start. The people who "know" always advise that you should have nothing in your environment that isn't useful, or loved. (The green giraffe pillow cover came from here .)

Slowly, things began shifting, and moving from room to room. I normally relocate things to different rooms rather than get rid of them, but if I have kept an item in the hall closet for a year or so without use, I donate or sell it. It's my way. I don't like clutter in the house or in my closets. I'm the exact same way when it comes to my clothing.

I snapped the above photo of Ava randomly, and it was a jumping off place for me. It was an un-posed, unplanned photograph, but it was an instant favorite. She was wearing her bike helmet, hair sweetly messed like it normally is, and the photo was pure magic to this mama's heart. I got lucky and we all know that moment. I wanted to freeze her like that forever because it's exactly how I see her every day, at this age. I used Costco for a somewhat affordable 14x14" canvas, and figured I could purchase that amongst our groceries if I was really careful. (Which I was! Yay Operation slash the food budget... it's going really well again this month! More on that to come.)

Then I took a great photo of JJ's hand strumming his guitar while he was practicing, and I fell hard for it. That was the following payday's "splurge." (See? Planning. Careful planning.) I used to display tons of black and white photos all the time. However, straightening all those oft-crooked frames nearly drove me crazy. (I might be a bit of a control freak when it comes to straight frames.) These days, I enjoy a few of my favorites blown up really huge. Having some of them in bold, happy color is good for my heart.

That caused a shifting and moving and re-hanging of items previously on the shelf above our sofa. I love this canvas of the kiddos above the guest bed! And of course you know what came next right? This change up caused me to begin looking at what else I could move around, in every single space.
I don't even apologize for it anymore. Mainly, because I don't feel bad about it. Ha! It's so fun to change things, I thoroughly enjoy it, and I don't do it because I hate my surroundings or feel discontented or whatever. I just stinkin' love it!! (For that reason, I secretly chuckle on the inside when people kind of raise their eyebrows and comment, "You are always changing things!"

Yes. Yes I am. (I know you get this.)

For some reason this caused me to buckle down and do some things I'd been contemplating but putting off. I finally broke down and scraped all the frosting spray off the french doors. Some small people (who shall remain nameless but whose names begin with JJ and Ava) put a lot of dirty fingerprints on them just after I sprayed them last summer, and they have needed to be re-sprayed ever since. I'll get around to it soon, but the finger print smudges were driving me crazy and getting more prominent-looking with time. I have no idea why that is.

Now I have no way to hide the clutter. Oops. (And yes, I did have clutter on this bookshelf before. Don't tell anyone.)

At least I can close the armoire doors, though it's a bit scary when we open them. You never know what's going to come tumbling out.

Doing these little re-vamps always puts me in the mood for the most random of projects that have nothing to do with anything, and don't really need "doing." For example, suddenly my boring lampshade needed a mini makeover right that minute! So, I water colored directly onto it. Water colors were the only thing I happened to have on hand, readily available for free, and I thought, "How bad can it turn out? If it's awful, I'll hot glue some fabric over it."

Thankfully, it turned out fabulous. It's all ombre-ish, watercolor-y, and chervron-ish.

(I just made up three words in a row there.)

Finally, I spruced up the front porch. I eventually want to sew some cute seat cushions for these chairs and I am considering spray painting the whole bistro set a fun grass green. We'll see....

So there you go. A classic case of one thing leading to another- or six.

And finally in closing, and just in time for Mother's Day gifts...

...I've got some more of these lovelies stocked up in my shop. I also have a few irregular ones listed for half price, here. (They are the ones where I didn't like the inconsistencies of ink transfer in a corner, or a wrinkle got in the way of perfect ink transfer, or I smeared the tiniest bit of ink someplace. They are still completely cute... they aren't like Etsy freak show products or anything like that. (They are ones I normally give to my Mama. Ha!)**The irregular ones are already SOLD OUT. Thank you guys!**

Happy (Almost) weekend everyone! It's almost here... yippee!!

Birthday and such...

2013-04-16T14:02:00.002-07:00

Oh you guys. I have read and re-read all your comments on my previous post so many times. I've responded to so many of you directly in the comments, but I'm not sure if you get notified by email when I do that. Anyway, we have a precious little community of encouragement here. My hope and goal is that in a world filled with chaos, tragedy, heartache and questions with out answers, we could always lift one another up here on this little blog. I have said it before, but I know that not everyone who reads my blog believes in Jesus the way I do- and I want to remind you that you are so welcome here, no matter your beliefs. Jesus is my rock and my personal foundation so I'll always attack a problem from that angle. I couldn't do it without Him and that's the truth. I hope you are able to leave here ultimately refreshed by what you find. We all struggle sometimes and long to make lemonade out of those lemons. That's pretty universal, isn't it? I love that some of the women who have gone before left lots of stories and shared how they did things, or how they wished they would have done it differently, and how things tended to always work out. I love how Mamas in the thick of it left comments relating to my frustrations... and I love that some who aren't Mamas related the subject to life in general. If I could give you all a group hug, I would.

Okay so in light of my last post, here we are... attempting some FUN. It's the last of my immediate family birthdays. (We have a lot of extended birthdays between January and March with JJ's at the end of March) Adrain and Ava are being celebrated together on Friday, since their birthdays are four days apart. Adrain is such a great sport. I asked him if he cared that I didn't make a big fuss over his party and make it separate with special guy decorations, and he just laughed and told me guys don't care about any of that. (I'm pretty sure he just loves the Indian food I'll be making and the cupcakes.)

Ava, however, firmly made sure I knew that she DID care about having fun napkins, flowers, cute straws, etc, and I'm pretty sure that cemented the fact that she is indeed, my child. It matters. She chose lemon poppy seed cupcakes with lemon-y frosting. Cupcake recipe here fluffy cake frosting recipe here. (I added 1 1/2 tsp real lemon extract to the frosting recipe, and some yellow food coloring.) I don't know why or where she came up with that, but her wish is my command for birthdays so that's what I made. I think she likes to be unique.

I did this party like I do every party. I began this morning, with no idea what I wanted to do, and then I started yanking things out of drawers and it eventually came together. I love to decorate a few days before the event so they can be anticipating all the fun. (The cupcakes are fine in the fridge for the next few days but I had to photograph them for ya.) I figured we'd go with yellow because Ava wanted lemon cupcakes and I already had yellow plates and forks from previous parties. I pulled out some old polka dotted straws too. (I think they came from shopsweetlulu.com) Then I remembered my gorgeous wood pennant, made from a vintage tablecloth in blues, yellows and oranges. (I got mine from my lovely sidebar sponsor, 163 Design Co, here, but I'm not sure they have any more. I can't tell you how much I love using it for celebrations!)

Anyway, I went to Marshall's to find my wrapping paper because they have the best variety and the best prices. I scored an orange and white gingham and a blue and white houndstooth design. I nabbed some softly tinted Ranuculus from Trader Joe's and placed them into a blue jar I had on hand because Ava really wanted flowers. I used some yellow yarn to pull everything together and I was finished. Easy and sweet. My favorite.

My man is working a bunch over the weekend so we'll be rescuing him from work on Saturday night and going to see a great concert (Chris Tomlin and Kari Jobe) as his birthday gift. The kids are so excited. They have never been to a concert before! It's going to be an awesome time of family togetherness and FUN. I want to laugh because I tend to go into things like this with the gritted-teeth attitude of, "Alright people, we are going to have fun if it kills us!" After reading all of your comments, I am going to choose to find joy in the little things on that adventure and I'm going to keep the idea that they are really only going to remember the FUN parts, tucked inside the corner of my heart.

So for the rest of this week, we're gonna party like we're ten. And we're going to have fun! (grin)

I sure love you guys. I hope you all know that!

Our quest for fun.

2013-04-14T16:26:00.006-07:00

Can we have a heart to heart? Oh thank you! Lately, Adrain and I have been super convicted about the lack of fun in our household over the weekends. The truth is, fun usually costs money and when things are tight, it's so much easier to stay home, in your jammies, watching movies and doing nothing.

We had a rough winter- and when I say "we" I pretty much mean me. It was a hard one for sure- and if I'm being truly transparent, (which of course I am) I'll admit that it was the hardest one I've had to date. (Thank you for sticking it out with me.) I'm still very much doing the in-process work to pull myself out of that place, but things are looking up. When Adrain and I look back, we can admit that many things flipped upside down three years ago, when we made some life and mission decisions that we're still trying to navigate our way through. I have to be vague here, I'm sorry. (We're not giving up. We're just trying to figure it all out and whole-heartedly, and contentedly BE in the place God chooses for us to be whether here, or with an eventual job transfer, etc.)

Anyway, three years is an eternity in kid time. Adrain and I don't want to be so bogged down in life junk that we suddenly blink and our kids are leaving the nest, carrying a picture of us that has been colored by trials we didn't handle well. (And there are many that we haven't handled well. I hate that.) See? Convicting.

So... as Adrain and I grapple with those areas we have not handled well, and work to restore balance and such, we are trying our hardest to separate that heaviness from our family times. We're doing our best to laugh together more. And wander places. Get lost on occasion. Get found. Road trip locally. Say yes. Look at each car ride as an adventure. It's kind of hard.

I jokingly (but meant it) said to my kids, "Mama used to be really fun." How sad is that? Well, I reject that! I AM FUN dangit. Or at least I can be, anyway. So this weekend, we blew out of the house. We had some things we had to do, and things we had obligations to, but Adrain and I made time for just each other. We were exhausted from flu recovery and head colds hanging on etc, but we put that priority at the top and I'm so glad we did. Somehow we mustered up enough energy to leave home and find a bit of fun here and there.

The last of my birthdays are happening this week, so I am beginning preparations... that can be fun.

Honestly, it feels like work to force the fun right now. I keep telling myself that sometimes you have to fake it til you make it. Am I crazy? I just wish someone out there could reassure me and say, "Yes, this is totally normal and just keep going... it WILL get better!" Which of course is silly.

But... have any of you ever felt like this in life? I know a lot of you that have older kiddos, or grown kids, and I'd love to know how you made it fun in spite of life heaviness, hormones, (theirs and yours) and pre-teen/teen drama etc.

Help! I appreciate every tid-bit of love and encouragement you care to leave in my comments box...

"Stop picking the flowers for crying out loud!"

2013-04-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

It's so weird.

I remember ten years ago, when I had a two year old, and a baby. It was pure chaos, all. the. time. Chaos, I tell you. Both of them were in diapers. One had acid reflux, screamed all the time, and only wanted her Mama every waking, and sleeping minute of the live-long day. The other was literally running into walls with his body, constantly making noise, and never stopped moving, climbing, running, jumping off tall things, and gave me a big fat daily, "No thank you, I'd prefer to stay awake for eighteen hours straight," when guided gently to a bed for nap time.

Chaos.

I got the brilliant idea that we should begin making an annual trek to a Western Washington tulip field. You know, for those stunning photographs of happy, smiling people and swaths of colorful tulip rows as far as the eye could see. The ones that make it onto the Christmas card and the huge canvas you spent way too much money for, hanging above your sofa. Yeah.

Only, you can't walk in between a lot of the tulip rows... you can't pick the tulips, you can't jump over them, you can't run down the paths, and you have to stay away from trenches of mud that will suck you down like quicksand.

(Okay, the mud is only that bad if you're under two feet tall.)

Good times. Now add a toddler and a baby, and a forty five minute car ride to get there in the first place.

Idiocy, because we, the parents, should have known not to punish ourselves that way.

We broke every darn rule. Every single year.
The kids always picked a tulip, or fifty.

They always took off running down the rows like Dorothy trying to make it through a poppy field before falling asleep.

They always made bee-lines for the mud.

There were always tears at some point.

And then Adrain would remind me that I was a big girl, and needed to set a good example for the children.

This year.

Nobody picked tulips. Nobody got sucked into a quagmire of mud. Nobody tore off running down a path with a sign clearly saying, "Please stay out of the tulip rows." Not once did I utter, "Stop picking the flowers for crying out loud!"
And the only person jumping over the tulips was me, as I tried to navigate a photograph angle.

It was downright boring.

The most exciting part of the whole adventure were two cows making like a couple on a honeymoon, in a field.

If you know what I mean.

The backseat, filled with recent health class graduates, erupted with giggles and finger pointing.

And yes, I took a photo, because I'm twelve years old.

My children are growing up.

And I'm not sure I can stand it.

The end.

A post that may or may not be intended for my husband. (And a winner)

2013-04-11T13:25:00.002-07:00

Mother's day is my favorite holiday.

In all fairness, I do tend to say that about every single holiday. But the truth is in adult-hood, birthday's are crap. We all know it. They stop being fun after twenty one, take a short dip in the celebratory tank at thirty and you just bide your time til forty. (I hear it goes swiftly downhill from that point.)

Valentine's Day is great but the pressure on your spouse is intense and sometimes you get a vase with a blooming rose because your husband was putting in sixty hours at work, that week and he barely made it to Hallmark before they closed, and by then all the remotely funny cards were gone, and nothing sparkly was going down. You can hardly blame the poor guy. Yet you kind of look at this fake rose, blooming before your eyes at the push of a button and think, "It's like he doesn't even know me anymore."

He kind of watches you, watching this fake, blooming rose, and thinks, "She thinks I don't even know her anymore..."

Not that I've personally ever experienced that particular scenario.

And not that we've laughed at the memory of that particular scenario before as we mentored young married couples after Valentine's fail moments.

Allegedly.
That pretty much leaves Mother's day, as the true holiday where your immediate family celebrate the heck out of you, but I've come to believe there's a window. It's short- and it's open from the time you give birth until the point that they grow up and give birth to their own offspring. (Because once they give birth, it's suddenly once again about them, just like it was for you when you gave birth and it kind of stopped being so much about your own mother, though you still get her a card. You know?)

Speaking of cards...I have a delightful collection of mother's day gift ideas for you today (that may or may not have been highlighted, underlined, and left on my husband's desk) and the first idea is actually a very sweet card from Treat.com

This card works for the other moms in your life. It's the kind of gift you give to your Mom, your sis-in-law's, mom-in-laws, best girlfriends, and those that appreciate cute sayings and/or photos of your children. (Treat offers darling cards of all kinds for mother's day, birthdays and for the many other occasions in your life and you'd better believe I'll be checking them out during the holiday season too!) You make the card online, they send it for you, and at about $1.99 you can't beat that deal. Seriously the easiest Mother's Day idea ever. (But don't tell your mother that. She might feel slighted.)

If I was going the card route with my own mother, this card is hands-down the winner in my opinion. She always let us lick the beaters when my brother and I were growing up. And eat the unbaked cookie dough. One time we decided we didn't even want to bake the chocolate chip cookies, and we left a bowl of covered batter in the fridge with a giant spoon in it for a week. Whenever we wanted a cookie, we'd scoop out a ball of dough. It was awesome. That's also the reason my mom gets mother-of-the year award. Coolest Mom ever. (And nobody died of salmonella either. We also drank cool-aid and went down metal slides. And ate high fructose corn syrup as a regular food group. My kids have no idea what they are missing these days, but I won't tell them if you don't.)

This is my favorite gift pick for Mother's day of all time. Cinnamonsticks Etsy studio makes these little silver rings that will seriously melt your heart, they are so cute. I promise I will try not to throw a tantrum if two of them sporting the names "Ava Joelle" and "Joseph Jacob" don't appear in my hand on Mother's day.

I will hold it together like I did while looking at a blooming rose.

Allegedly.

(My husband may or may not have been provided with this website bookmark.)

I'm going to be perfectly honest here. I splurged and bought this for myself as an early Mother's Day gift. And then as I laughed and cried (for reals) all the way through it, I found myself being really upset that I wasn't a millionaire, because if I was, I would have bought one for every single mother I know, including my sister in laws, my mother, mother in laws, and every girlfriend I've ever had. I've adored Big Mama for years... lurked on her blog, left an occasional comment, and talked about her like she was my BFF, way too many times. And now I have a little piece of her. (You can buy your copy here.)

I may or may not be totally addicted to this particular brand of chocolate from Trader Joes. And can you really go wrong getting the mother you adore (or the mother your children adore- hint, hint) a woman's favorite chocolate? I think not. And they do say, that dark chocolate is sorta good for you.

A gorgeous sign from Tara over at Between You and Me is a favorite pick of mine too, especially this one with a song that so many of our mother's sang to us. Well, mine didn't. But she did let me eat cookie dough so we can give her a pass on the singing thing.

via

And if you've got an inclination to go the handmade route on gifts, I saw this idea here. You can tape off the ends of wooden spoons, or salad tongs, and paint the ends with happy colors, making it look like you dipped them. These scream, "Good Mom gift."

If you want to toss in a kitchen-y gift to go with your DIY dipped spoons, I am making another big batch of my antique jar flour sack dishtowels soon and they make a fantastic gift. Hopefully, I'll have my next batch listed here, next week. I'll keep you posted. (I know, shameless plug.)

Thanks again to Maria Isabella for the fantastic recipe in my last post, and the great giveaway! Everyone's comments made me really hungry- y'all are fantastic cooks, I can tell. This book would make a lovely Mother's Day gift since all the recipes in it, are things that take under an hour to prepare and are fabulous recipes that real life chefs make at home. If you want to purchase a copy of In the Kitchen with Cleveland's Favorite Chefs, you can purchase it here!

(The winner of the above book giveaway, was Mama D's Dozen. Please email me at lemonademakinmama@comcast.net and I'll hook you up with Maria for your copy of her book!)

What is your favorite gift to give (or get) on Mother's Day?

Maria Isabella GIVEAWAY and Herb Seasoned Wild King Salmon

2013-04-09T16:39:00.002-07:00

Good Evening my friends! I'm racing to post this because I wanted to share it with you tonight... and we're eating it for dinner within the hour!

A while back, I became blog friends with Maria Isabella of Bits and Pieces blog. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio and has written a book called, "In the Kitchen with Cleveland's Favorite Chefs."

Maria asked each featured chef what they would prepare if they had one hour or less, for good friends unexpectedly stopping by. I love that! I always want to know what real chefs eat at home. The description on her book says, "Each chef shares detailed recipes for delicious signature meals that can be prepared quickly and easily at home -- 119 dishes in all, including a wide range of meat, fish, and vegetarian choices to tempt every palate. Helpful wine pairings are offered as well. Accompanying each recipe are gorgeous full-color photographs featuring both the chefs and their culinary showpieces. Isabella's profiles of each chef offer fascinating insights into everything from personal life stories to tips for successful last-minute entertaining."

And guess what?

Maria is offering one of you lucky readers a copy of her book!!! Not only that, but she shared a recipe from her book with me, from featured Chef Jim Perko. I get the privilege of sharing it with YOU! (and then I'm eating it for dinner when Adrain gets home.)

Herb-Seasoned Wild King Salmon with Mushrooms & Grape Tomatoes

¼ cup well-rinsed, drained, and finely diced white part of leek (see note)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

½ teaspoon finely chopped garlic

¾ teaspoon kosher salt, divided

Coarsely ground black pepper

Freshly grated zest of 1 lemon

4 (4-ounce) wild king salmon fillets, skinned and boned

16 fresh shiitake mushrooms, wiped clean, stems discarded, caps quartered

20 assorted-color grape tomatoes, halved

Leek Garnish (recipe below), optional

1. Preheat the oven to 375º.

2. Combine the leeks, 1 tablespoon of the oil, the parsley, garlic, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and lemon zest in a bowl. Add the salmon fillets and toss until well coated.

3. Fit a wire rack into a rimmed baking sheet. Place the salmon on the rack and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly opaque inside.

4. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a sauté pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and season with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and about ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Sauté until lightly caramelized to bring out what Jim describes as “the umami flavor” (or savoriness). Remove the pan from the heat.

5. Place one salmon fillet in the center of each plate. Spoon the tomatoes and mushrooms around the fillets. If desired, arrange a few strands of leek garnish on top of each salmon fillet. Serve warm.

Note: To clean a leek, cut off and discard the dark green leaves just at the place where the light green starts, about an inch above the white part. Trim off the roots, then make a lengthwise cut from the top down almost through the bottom. Rinse the leek thoroughly under cold water, separating the leaves to make sure to get any dirt that may be hiding between them. Drain well and prepare as instructed.

Leek Garnish

1. Simmer ¼ cup finely julienned white part of leek in a saucepan with ½ cup vegetable stock until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain.

I followed this recipe, but forgot to buy a lemon. Oops. So I gave the marinade a little hit of lemon juice.

I love mushrooms. Especially shiitakes.

I can tell you that I prepared this amid guitar and recorder practices happening in two separate rooms, fighting that broke out about phone usage, a dog going wild because she lost her ball under the couch (for the millionth time this week) and homework questions like, "Hey mom, what's a predicate?" Somehow, I was able to prepare this simple dish, and it turned out so amazing that I'm forcing myself not to nibble before we congregate at the table. I'm serving it with rice. Mmmmm.

And it's pretty.

I forgot to mention that I am guest posting here, for Maria with a recipe for GF carrot cupcakes that I got from my friend Lissa a few years ago, and Cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Please feel free to stop by and say hi to us over here!

And if you'd like to win a copy of Maria Isabella's book, please leave us a comment here, answering the same question she asked Cleveland's chefs- "If you had good friends arriving in an hour, what meal would you whip up?"

The problem is, I'm always changing my mind...

2013-04-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

Can we be frivolous for a few minutes?

We CAN?!

That is precisely the reason I love you. We can go from my last post where I was wrestling through frustrations, hurts, and tears after a week of being in bed with the flu... and we can jump straight into the meaningless. Thank you. (And side note- I never post anything that doesn't directly pertain to the moment I'm living in at the time. If I'm posting an encouragement, it's because it encouraged ME first. You know that, right?)

Let me begin by saying that I am tired of watermarking my photos. So I'm not going to do it anymore. I've had photos flat out stolen and of course you can only protect your images just so much... but for right now, I would much rather skip that part of editing. The only edits I generally do are resizing anyway. So there ya go. I am lazy... and please don't steal my photos. (Of course, pinnning, borrowing and linking back to me are never an issue. Just saying.)

So. What I came here to share is this. I get so bored with things always the same. Do you too? Especially if my life is going along in a never ending yawn of same-ness. Not that I'm saying that mine is.... Okay, I'm saying that.
Case in point, this guest room/office/den space. It's a room I spend a lot of time in. Last night at dinner, something in my brain snapped and I couldn't take that room for one more minute. Not one more, I tell ya! After my man had put his fork down, I dragged him by the arms and then bossed the muscle around for ten minutes while he put everything in the places I pointed.

He truly deserves awards. Most of them would come from putting up with me. But then again, I do bake him pie. Give and take. That's what keeps a marriage alive, yes?

Okay so what I love about this room. I love the bedding. It's scrumptious. I love the spring sheets I just changed out and put back onto the bed. I love the furry pillow sitting in the espresso leather chair that my husband picked out years ago. I love the ruffled aqua pillow. I love the zebra pillow. (Apparently I've not met a pillow I didn't love.) I love the subdued gray paint covering the narrow chest of drawers. I love the tall lamp (But the shade bores me. More on that later, I'm sure.) I love the candle chandy that's imperfect and crooked. I love that I didn't cuss while putting it together because I'm sure there's an award in Heaven waiting for me on that one. I love the antlers under glass that my Montana peeps sent me. I love the painted armoire that houses our computer.

What I don't love... is that there is an obvious "right" wall for the bed. We all know it, and it's prettiest when snuggled up against the striped wall. It's all smashed in the corner now, partially under two windows and that will bug me until forever. However. I am coming to terms with the fact that nothing in life is perfect, no plan is perfect, no solution solves every problem, and sometimes you've got to choose the lesser of the evils and in this case, I needed room to breathe. I needed to see a patch of flooring and move the bed so that piles of paper don't get stacked neatly across the end. (Not that I'd ever name names. Ahem.)

I love the original VW painting that inspired my entire blog make-over a couple years ago.

I love textures.

And also, I needed to take photographs of something. My fingers itch sometimes... just to snap something!! And in case you needed a laugh, since we're being frivolous today... this Ava-child. Such a hoodlum. Would not smile for her mama. Stinker.

So... any rooms in your house drive you crazy? Have you gotten to the point like me, where you no longer care if it "looks pretty"... you just need to breathe and make it work better?

Or is that just me?

Note to self....

2013-04-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

It takes as long as it takes. You can't hurry recovery. You can't snap your fingers and make it better, can you? You have to surrender control, do the work that is possible, but everything else is left to simply "be" and most of the time....that takes time.

Last week, I woke up every single day thinking, "Today I am better. I will be better. I am not sick. This thermometer is surely broken. I will tell my body to be better and it will be."

And then the number registered 103 degrees and exhaustion overtook me as I realized I was wrong. It was going to take more time. I wasn't in control of how long it was going to take to recover.

It was going to take as long as it took.

And that's the truth isn't it? It takes as long as it takes. We want so badly to rush through the pain because it hurts. We don't want to be a bother and we get tired of hearing our own voices complaining yet again, because nothing in our circumstances are different. We want to be done. We want to be in the next season, or the next chapter, lessons neatly learned and then tucked away for that time we need to give some really good, empathetic advice to someone else. But real life, in all it's messy glory, is never like that. We are forced to look into the mirror and face another day that is truly intended as a gift, and often we have to fight our way though that moment just to get to the next. We'd rather be anywhere else, doing anything else.

Recovery takes as long as it takes. When a heart is broken or wounded. Or trust has been broken. Or dreams have been shattered. Or relationships have been strained beyond what they can bear. Or finances are smashed and there is no help from anywhere to make it better. Or when job possibility after job possibility falls through and nothing that used to make sense makes sense any more. When no end is in sight. When the tunnel is dark and tears are falling. When expectations are lost in a sea of, "it wasn't supposed to go like this..."

It's hard. Pessimism is contagious when you're in a pit, and feelings tend to look a lot more like facts in the darkness. In those moments, the one and only thing that pulls me out of the puddle of self-pity I find myself drowning in, are the concrete things I know of God because they are written right there in His word. I had to list them in my journal this weekend, and I thought you might be encouraged by the reminder of His promises too.

God has good plans for me and my future. Not plans for harm. (Jeremiah 29:11)
God loves me with an everlasting love. Not some flimsy, fickle kind of love that changes and shifts when circumstances are different, or when my hair looks good and I've lost ten pounds or I just said the exact right thing to my child and had a stellar mom-moment. (Jeremiah 31:3)
God is faithful, even when I'm not. Which is pretty much daily. AND God's compassion toward me and my circumstances never fail. NEVER. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
God is filled with great tenderness toward me, as a father for a child, and loves to give me good gifts, which is awesome since gifts are pretty much my love language. (Luke 11:11-13)
God rescues me because He delights in me. And I don't know about you, but having someone delight in you no matter how delightful you are (or are not) being is thrilling. Because I'm not always very delightful. (Psalm 18:19)
God fights for me. All He requires is that I be still in that trust of His power. (Exodus 14:14)
God is for me. (Psalm 118:6)
God longs for me to not merely exist, and hop from one life moment to the next, He longs for me to live life to the full. (John 10:10)

(Isaiah 43:2) "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you."

No matter what you or I face this week, those are His promises and it's really all I need to know. Does that comfort you like it comforts me?

Insta-March

2013-04-04T13:01:00.001-07:00

I decided I wanted to do a 365 project after all. But then my camera broke. And it was mid-March. Then my man figured out the camera thing and I decided to start a 365 project on April 1st.

But then I got the flu and the only thing I had to photograph was wadded up tissues. Ha!

I have to thank you guys for all the get well wishes. You blessed my heart. I am just this afternoon, crawling out of the nest of pillows I've been feverishly sweating in for the past four days. I couldn't take it anymore. My kiddos were melting down last night and my man was barely keeping the whole thing from unravelling. Plus, my doggy (who isn't allowed to come into our bedroom) has been laying in my bedroom doorway with her toenails touching the carpeting.... just waiting for me to emerge.

Apparently they have missed me.

I can tell you, I have never been this sick in my whole life. My fever has been raging between 101-104 degrees for the past four days, and I've only had enough energy to sleep. That has never happened to me before. So I'll be snuggling my little people for the rest of this afternoon. I'm very shaky and weak and still have no appetite at all, but I'm up!! The fever isn't quite gone but it's lowering, and my BFF brought me tulips and a get well card.

So... because I've got to keep this short, I give you my Instagram March favorites. (You can find me @lemonademakinmama on Instagram)

The two things I have to comment on... are the fact that I'm kind of dying to know the story behind the man broadcasting that he's not overly fond of liars, on the back of his truck.

And... the little egg carton last supper that my daughter made showed a very unruly Bartholomew, to which I questioned on Instagram, that perhaps it was the four glasses of Passover wine causing that behavior? (Little Passover joke there... in case you missed it.)

Laughed my head off at all the Instagram responses left on those two photos, and then drove my man crazy reading them to him as they popped in all night. (Truth be told, I think my man adores y'all as much as I do. Just so you know.)

Okay, I'm going to lay down on the sofa with one child tucked under each arm.
Happy Weekend friends!!

Spring break. Seriously? (And winners)

2013-04-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

The only word that comes to mind today is... "Ugh."
(Okay not really. I've got loads of words.)
But I have the worst flu bug I've ever had, and it's spring break and that's the one word I keep texting to my husband while he works diligently to provide for my family...

...because I'm the worst sick person ever. I have this twisted need for sympathy and I've honestly never felt this bad. I think I have every possible symptom you can get when sick. Hence, the "ugh" I keep sending to Adrain. I'm supposed to go roller skating on Thursday with my friends (technically our kids are supposed to be the reason we are going) and I'm going to be so upset if I have to miss it. Which I probably will. Plus my man can't get sick this week no matter what, with his job, so he's sleeping in the guest room. Not my favorite. At all. Double Ugh.

Because I may be dead by the end of this week, (heh, heh) I need to pack a lot into this post while I've got fifteen minutes of energy, mkay? Which also means I don't have to time for proof reading. But then again, when do I ever? Ha!

Resurrection cookie recipe can be found here. They are awesome and we love the symbolism.

I got a lot of questions as to why a Christian family like ours, would seek out the celebration of Passover during Holy week. Awesome question, and I posted an explanation of last year, which can be read here.

I tasted my first peep. Grossest thing I've ever tasted in my life. Of course, my taste buds might have been slightly off, pre-flu and all. Still. Ugh.

I've got a few random house photos to share, along with the Easter photos. Because why not?

It's still alive... but some of the tips are turning brown. What does this mean? Am I killing it?! Does it also have the flu? Ugh!

We (I) needed a bit of color in here. I had been wanting to make that chevron remnant into a pillow for EVER, and finally just did it last week. It kind of unleashed a whole redecorranging process upon the house.

This is Mr. Chickenpox. My children used to ride him when they were toddlers. He used to be black. Last week I painted him grass green using leftover paint in the garage, distressed the heck out of him with a palm sander, and fell madly in re-love with him.

The kids were not impressed. They liked him black. They aren't very big change-agents. (I however, adore him all green and beat up like this.)

Random winners of the Jeanne Oliver creative course are;

1) Happy Hodge Podge

2) Christy@MCH Photography

3) Kearsie

4) six3design

5) Nantucket Daffodil

(** Winners email me at lemonademakinmama@comcast.net and I'll get you hooked up with Jeanne.**)

Operation Slash the food budget for March results are in.
First, don't get sick right at the tail end because if you're not fully stocked up on medicine, gluten free bagels, applesauce, cough drops, tissues, AND you also miscalculated and ran out of dog food, you're going to go over the budget. It's a fact. Ugh.

However. We did awesome comparatively to the previous months when we were spending double what our budget actually was... so our April challenge is to stay UNDER it no matter what.

And we will. "So let it be written. So let it be done." (Yes, I have been watching hours upon hours of the Ten Commandments while sick.)

I have a couple of new and returning blog sponsors to introduce to you as well (you just "met" Jeanne Oliver who is a beloved returning sponsor) And brand new to LMM with lots of great recipes, is Debbie, at Deliciously Inspired.

Also returning, is sweet Barbara, who just took some gorgeous photos on a recent trip to Napa Valley. Looking at them, I felt like I was on a mini vacation for a minute. (Until I came back to reality and realized I still had the flu.)

And now I am going to go lay down. And blow my nose repeatedly, groan a lot, take my temperature, sip water, and text "Ugh" to my husband a bunch more times before the day is over.

He is one lucky man.

Sweet Jeanne and a GIVEAWAY!!

2013-04-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

via Jeanne Oliver

I am possibly more excited about this post than I've been in a long time. Jeanne Oliver, who so many of you already know and admire, is about to begin another creative course, here. She is lovely, talented, and inspiring, and there is no doubt that everyone who participates will be blessed immensely. She has a big heart and she is generously offering five of my beloved LMM readers a space in her upcoming class, "The Journey of Letting Go; Creating Beauty from Ashes."

I don't know about you, but letting go is always hard for me. I hold on to everything, thinking I can fix it, or make it better, and so often letting it go is the answer. So often, my letting go process painful, other times it's necessary, but there are times I can't look ahead and see what good can possibly come from laying something down and letting it go and it holds me back. I've gotten better with age, and seeing that God always has a plan and if I yield things to Him with an open hand, rather than a tightly closed fist, it always works out in the end. I'm all about imperfect progress in that area. Jeanne plans to walk us through a creative course that promises to inspire us in letting go of burdens, past regrets, and other things that weigh us down. Regardless of your perceived skill in the arts, this will be a class with step-by-step instruction and guidance that is sure to build your confidence.

Via Jeanne Oliver

Below you will find a short video where Jeanne gives a wonderful description of the class. It's only about three minutes long but I promise you will be nodding your head and wanting to hug her by the time she's done talking. (Or maybe that's just me. I'm kind of that way with everyone.)

She says, "This is a four week, online, art course. It is full of truths about the freedom of letting go. Art will be our companion as we explore the beauty that comes into our lives when we lay down the things that have become so heavy."
Her course begins on April 8th and is a four week course.

The Journey of Letting Go Trailer from Revilo Designs on Vimeo.

Jeanne is one of my sweet sidebar blog sponsors and you can visit her site anytime by clicking this button (above) or over to your right.

To be entered to win one of the five spaces she is giving away here, please simply watch the video (if you are able) and leave a comment about the letting go process. Maybe share something you have let go of, and how it bettered you. Perhaps, something you struggle to let go of, or even something you are afraid to let go of. (I'm going to want to respond to everyone's comments, as I always do, but time will tell if I can squeak that in while the hoodlums are home on Spring break. Just know I ALWAYS want to... and of course I always want to have a big group hug with you girls after posts like this. Ha!)

I will announce the winners on Wednesday! (And of course, if you want to register for it immediately, you can always do so here.)

Sometimes you just go with balloons...

2013-03-31T08:59:00.004-07:00

Happy EASTER my friends!

I have lots of Easter photos to share later this week... and I have an Insta-recap coming too... but today is all about Joe's birthday photos... AND I've also got a giveaway beginning tomorrow! It's going to be a fun Spring break week.

Thank you Target, for making this banner so darling. (Even if I'm a little ticked at you for knocking off so many Etsy/blogger ideas for all your new lines.)

Cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Is there any other kind? Now that I've had this... I think not. (I will be sharing this recipe on one of my bloggy buddy's sites soon, so stay tuned.)

Joe decided all the napkins and items in my party drawer were too girly. And he didn't really want a "theme". Oops.... I kind of made the theme balloons. Luckily he isn't too old to enjoy twelve balloons marking the birth of his grand entrance here on earth.

Adrain blew up little water balloons and we tied them onto skewers and stuck one into each cupcake. Big hit. (And thank you Pinterest for that idea!!)

I love this kid. He challenges my parenting limits to the edge...but oh how I love him. He is going to move mountains and build sky scrapers on the rubble someday. Literally and figuratively. Count on it.

It's our Spring break week but I will be back tomorrow with a giveaway!! So please hurry back!