August 30

August 31, 2013 Jacqui

Whirlwind packing day. When I just looked over my pictures from the day, I was like, the kids went to school today? Oh ya, it's Friday... Wow. The house it packed for the most part. Some clothes hanging in the closets and some breakables in the kitchen cabinets is all that's left. You know you're tired when you wake up exhausted! I'm running on buffalo chicken Mac & cheese, Papa John's pizza & adrenaline today, folks.

I essentially packed up our entire house since Tuesday {nothing like waiting til the last minute} while my husband was working and juggling moving details and acquiring two sets of appliances {for us & our rental property} & cleaning the carpet & saving the world. We make a good team. It's truly amazing what you can accomplish when you push yourself! More on that later. Thanks to the grandparents for all your help this week!! :)

August 29

August 29, 2013 Jacqui

August 28

August 28, 2013 Jacqui

August 27

August 27, 2013 Jacqui

Poor little Ruby didn't have a better day today... I left her crying and had to pry her off my legs :( Her teacher called at lunchtime and said she was fine, so that was a relief! Today was Grandma Debbie day, so I had a little time to myself around the house. That's good, because we are moving this weekend! AHH!! Not at aaaaaalllllllll ready I don't feel like, but I'm sure it will all come together. We're just moving about 5 minutes down the road, so that helps, of course. Lots of packing to do this week... I have a feeling the sleep meter will be on low this week and the overwhelmed meter will be fairly high. I can sleep when I'm dead, right?

August 26

August 26, 2013 Jacqui

Busy day. Toby picked out this plane with his birthday money/gift receipts {Bama & Jones'--thanks!}. And Eva went for her 9 month checkup today and is SOOOO BIG at 19 lbs. 12 oz. She's lookin good! :) Sweet little Ruby had a tough time going back to school today and was a little homesick. Poor kiddo... I hope the week gets easier for her! Broke my heart to see her tell me about it this afternoon with teary eyes and a quivering lip... :(

August 25

August 25, 2013 Jacqui

August 23

August 23, 2013 Jacqui

It's Toby's 3rd birthday today & the kids had an awesome first week at school, so we celebrated with some Menchie's ice cream! And Eva learned how to do "so big!" today, too! Haha.

August 22

August 22, 2013 Jacqui

Busy, busy fun day. It was my first attempt at packing a "real food" lunch in my spiffy new Ziploc containers: whole-wheat zucchini bread, banana with peanut butter for dipping, and vanilla chia pudding. Sadly, as I found out this afternoon when the lunch boxes came home, it didn't go over very well... They looked like little birds had pecked at it. Very little birds. Not very hungry ones, at that. Ah well.

The zucchini bread turned out really good, though! It was a hit with all the kids and mama's at the mom's group this morning. I used my recipe for Best Ever Whole Wheat Banana Bread and just subbed zucchini for the banana, used 1/2 cup maple syrup {instead of 1/3 cup honey}, and added 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. I wanted to give the kids a good first impression of zucchini bread, and besides, when they asked what it was, I could say, "it's chocolate chip bread," and be completely truthful! Never you mind the green stuff in there. Your eyes are playing tricks on you.

After our fun morning, it was time to get ready for Toby's birthday party with some of our family tonight {he turns 3 tomorrow!}. I made some homemade pasta sauce, baked a cake, made some frosting, and got everything else prepped for dinner. The cake turned out pretty good, but my recipe isn't perfected yet. When it is, I'll post it!! The boy is all about Batman these days.

The face of mischief. The kids found the figures for the top of the cake: they wanted Batman and the Penguin in jail.

He asked for a blue Batman umbrella. Very specific request, but the grandparents searched and found it!

Bat Toby

Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you!

August 21

August 21, 2013 Jacqui

Ruby stayed home today, as they had all the boy kindergarteners in class today. Tomorrow she goes back to school with her whole class. Went to Target {again} & got rid of a ton of paper recycling. This whole purging thing is a lot of work but kind of fun! I like the obvious, fairly immediate results, my favorite of which is releasing the stress that comes with clutter. Less clutter, less stress. Win win if you ask me. :)

August 20

August 20, 2013 Jacqui

The first day of school was a success for all!! They both went right into their classrooms without any hesitation or complaint, and I walked out feeling a little sad about that in a way... I wanted to linger at the door, especially Ruby's, to make sure she found her seat, that she looked okay, that she was smiling and enjoying herself... But I didn't. I kept walking. They both loved their teachers and went on and on about all the good things in their day. They saw each other at lunch and a couple other times, too. I think this will be a good year for them. One down, many more to go.

HELLO!

I'm Jacqui, the mom behind the camera. Wife of one + momma to five. Writer + speaker. Unqualified philosopher + theologian. Accidental mentor. Chaos manager. Lover of coffee + wine, perspective, and Jesus. Truth teller. Freedom fighter. Worth affirmer. Wanna-be author + world changer. Laundry piler. Emoji enthusiast. It's nice to meet you!

I hope you'll stay awhile and take a look at life through my lens, as I seek to find joy in the mess and walk with God through the beauty of everyday life.

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That last-week-of-school hustle is reeeeaaal. 😩👊🏻😴

Oh haaay, summer, haaay!! ✨😎 It’s almost 90 degrees with a breeze here in CLE, & we’re not minding one little bit. We just got back from a Target run, as one does on a Saturday. 🎯 I swept yesterday’s chalk dust and all the helicopters off the porch (as far as propagating strategies go, this is a very good one. Those suckers are EVERYWHERE!), and now I’m watching my little corner of the world go by from my second-hand rocking chair on the porch, iced coffee in hand. And it’s so, so good to be right here. In this moment, in this place: the wind tugging at my hair, the kids arguing about something in the backyard, the wind chimes next door, the dogs sunning themselves at my feet. These are the days. This is the abundant life. And I wouldn’t trade it for the whole wide world. My corner is enough.

I used to think the old woman who lived in a shoe was nuts. I mean, why in the world would you choose live in a shoe? With all those kids?? 😱 And withholding the bread? Straight up neglect. Some versions say she kissed them fondly, but we all know that mean broad spanked the daylights out of them before sending them straight to bed. Then I became a parent. Life has a way of waking you up to realities that are literally impossible to understand until you’re completely immersed in the incessant demands of a sacrificial season, or in some cases, a sacrificial existence. And you can fathom now how life can wear a person down to a shell of who they were, how one unfortunate circumstance can tragically alter a trajectory. And you finally realize that no one chooses to live in a shoe. A shoe is where you live when you have no choices, when you’re out of options, when it’s either a shoe or the streets. She had so many children she didn’t know what to do—so many mouths to feed every day. If broth and bread is all she could afford, there might not have been enough to go around. She didn’t ration out of neglect but rather out of necessity. And she whipped them all soundly before she put them to bed because she didn’t have anything left. Because she’s an overwhelmed, exhausted single mom without a shred of a support system. She never gets a break. Carrying the weight of their survival solely on her weary shoulders, she beats them now so the police won’t later. She whoops them because she cares, and that’s the only way she ever learned how to show it. . ...and what you can see now is, she loves them.

Anyone else feel the pull to show up here every so often to say, “Hey! I’m still busy doing things! My life is still interesting! And it matters! And here’s why…” When I feel compelled or obligated to do something, for whatever reason, one of the best things I can do for myself, at least for a little while, is….don’t. Don’t log on. Don’t post for the heck of posting. Don’t force something that doesn’t want to come. And I let the silence begin to speak for itself. God speaks in a whisper, you know, but how often are we quiet enough to hear it? And how exactly did we arrive at the place where our worth was determined by the number of hearts tapped out on 2x2 squares? It sounds quite ridiculous when it’s all spelled out like that, doesn’t it?

This is how we showed up at church tonight—legit looking like maybe we just crawled out of a garbage dump. Or at least a construction zone. 🚧 It’s actually worse than it looks and literally the best I’ve got this week. Bless it. Also, the nursery worker made them wash hands before snack, so we’re good. What matters is that we showed up. On time, in fact, which is no small miracle in and of itself. . ✨All that is required of us is that we arrive as our truest selves. And today? We’re filthy. So, here’s a gentle reminder to you, fellow traveler: come dirty, come late, come ill-prepared or even irate. Come with a smile on your face, or come because you need some grace. Come stressed, come sweaty, come imperfect, even petty. Just come, in spite of your mess, and trust that God will take care of the rest. He always does. See for yourself. ➡️

These jokers are my favorite. 💖 #happymothersday

‘Tis the season. 💜🌸 The only problem is choosing just one! 🤩 So I didn’t. 😬 Did you know that lilacs only bloom for 1-2 weeks a year? Kinda makes you wonder about humanity’s over-emphasis on “blooming”—always producing, striving, hustling, creating output. Even if we’re blooming where we’re planted, as the saying goes, it’s brief. Stunning, yes. Breathtaking, yes. Colorful, vibrant, full of life, yes please. But also short-lived. Temporary. Fleeting. Seasons are not only temporary but necessary. Don’t focus so much on the fruit that you miss the seasons of watching and waiting, of hunkering down when the landscape is barren and learning to weather the storms. These create the fertile soil in which flowers grow. 💜

*new headshot* 😬

Today is Good Friday, and it arrived exactly how I always picture it—the sky weeping, the earth soaked with tears. This is the inevitable darkness that must come before the morning, the necessary death which precedes resurrection. This heartbreaking pattern of life is something my human heart always struggles to embrace as “the way.” Surely, there has to be another (less painful) avenue toward truth and life? . Selfishly, I want what we all think we want at the end of the day: a life of comfort and ease. We quickly realize, however, that comfort is fleeting and ease is overrated. With each excruciating step up the hill of Calvary, Jesus reminds us again: every good and perfect gift arrives on the other side of death. It is finished, forever and ever. Amen.

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. —Rumi

HELLO!

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