Shop Announcement and some Recent Custom orders

Friends, there are so many joys I have with this adventure of working from home, doing something I absolutely love. However, the one struggle I am facing recently is the skill in walking away from work. My workspace is in our "eat-in kitchen" (cough, cough).... okay, and slowly spreads to the homeschool room, the living room, the garage, and the office. And usually there is a stack of signs lining the entryway of our house waiting to be picked up. And often lining my server (turned paint cabinet). And you just never know when you might find one drying on one of the bar stools, or on a humid day you might find one (or three) lying on the living room floor under the ceiling fan.

I normally take a scheduled break immediately following Christmas. However, this year I am feeling the need to have a break a little sooner than that. Last year back to school time was a slower time for me, so I chose these dates to attempt to more naturally coincide with that time of year.

****** The last date to order so that your sign will be able to be made and shipped/picked up will be Friday, August 28, 11:59 pm. After that my shop will reopen on Saturday, September 12. If you need your sign before those dates or in the next week after I reopen please order early. Thank you all so much for understanding!!!******

AND NOW! The fun!

 Customized Mark 10:9 with first names and wedding date. Shown in black and white. Sign measures approximately 12"x24".

 Custom phrase done on pallet wood. Shown in bridgeport gray wash and charcoal lettering. Sign measures approximately 16"x20".

 Custom phrase. Background is distressed black over dark walnut stain with cream lettering. Measures approximately 17"x24".

 Custom stamped baby onesie.

 Custom phrase for above a girl's double bed. Shown in black, white, and pops of coral blush. Sign measures approximately 36"x12".

 Custom verses for a Texas wedding. Mark 10:8 and Mark 10:9 done in coordinating fonts and colors. Shown in Cabernet stain and magnolia white lettering. Signs measure 12"x18".

 Custom phrase for an Etsy customer. Shown in gp purple and magnolia white lettering. This little sweetie measures about 9.5"x12".

I hope you all enjoyed looking at these as much as I liked making them! Thank you all for you continual support. It's a fun journey!

Time

One of my most frequently asked questions is: Where do you find the time to paint?

One of these days I fully intend to give you a "day in the life of Mama Hess", but for now this little snippet will have to do.

I love to paint. Truly. I love it. I make the time for what I love doing. I have two portions of the day which are devoted to my little painting business.

One part of the day is my girls nap/quiet time. This time is often interrupted with homework questions, so it's not as devoted as I would like to be. Baby Caroline usually starts her nap time between 1 and 1:30 pm. She usually gets up between 4 and 5 pm. She's an angel. I leave the older girls room between 1:30 and 2 pm. They are supposed to be in their room until 4 pm, but they usually end up coming downstairs to do homework around 3:30. This leaves me approximately 90 minutes to two hours to "work". But let's be honest, half the time I'm checking emails, wasting time on Facebook, and replying to messages about custom orders. If I'm lucky (or more purposeful) I get right to work on creating designs or sitting at my table to paint, spraying the clear finishing coat on painted signs, and adding hooks to the back of completed signs.

Caroline falling asleep in my arms.

The second portion of the day that is reserved for painting is in the evening after the girls are asleep at night. I like to start around 9 or 9:30 pm and depending on my work load will work anywhere from 11 pm to 2 am. And I will admit, there was a time when I got deeply involved in my work and lost all track of time. It was 4 am when I went to bed that night, I mean, morning. I typically leave my phone upstairs on silent during this time so that I'm not distracted by messages, Facebook, Instagram, and all those good things. I do not stay up that late every night. I always try to go to bed at a good time on Sunday nights, and on a rotating schedule of every-other night. I get too tired during the day if I stay up that late every night. I also will end up taking a short nap after I read to the older girls during their quiet time to make up for a really late night.

I almost always reserve Friday nights for a Redbox and wine time with my husband. Often he sits with me on week nights as I work and keeps me company until he needs to go to bed if I'm working late. He also washes all our dishes while I paint. Every night. He is a complete gem, and I wouldn't get as much work done if it weren't for him.

Time is something that is hard to come by. I really believe that you can make time for what is most important to you. It helps that I really love painting. It would certainly be harder if it were something I didn't enjoy. Also, I try to find ways to simplify the ordering process. This is not always possible but I recently spent a significant amount of time working out colors. I was having a bit of trouble getting colors right on signs which required me to go back and work on them again. I do that willingly because that is what people are paying me for. They want something that is going to fit just right in their home, and trust me, I totally understand!

I just finished my color chart yesterday.

I'm pretty excited about it. The only thing that I couldn't accurately represent was the stain colors that I offer. I would have liked to have stain samples on my paint sticks, but the paint stick absorbed the stain in such a way that I did not feel it was an accurate sample of what it looks like on the wood I typically use. That being said, I have done many signs in each of the colors I offer, so it is easy for me to pull up a photo with each of those stain colors.

Etsy offers this beautiful "Zoom" feature, so if you have trouble reading the color chart I would recommend visiting This Link, scrolling to the last photo and hitting zoom in the bottom right hand corner.

I hope that helps answer your time question. I thank you all so much for your orders. It has been so fun for me to create beautiful things to hang in your home. I'm honored.

Looking Back

I have a terrible memory. Seriously, ask my kids. They are constantly reminding me of things I said I would do, but forgot. And if I'm half asleep when talking to you, psshhh, forget it. I probably won't recall ever having a conversation with you.

My poor memory skills are probably why I love blogging so much. If it is written down then it must have actually happened (even if I can't remember it clearly). I also love to journal out those raw emotions. I am often embarrassed by what I write when emotional, but it is so healing in the moment to get them out in a safe place, and later to look back on them.

Monday mornings I give my two oldest girls a spelling pre-test. It is good for them to see growth in short-term way. It's hard for adults to see how they are growing in the moment, how much more challenging must it be for our 6 and 7 year old children? For the past two or three weeks Abbey (age 6) has gotten all of her spelling words right on the pre-test. Whenever this happens I "reward" them by not having them take the test on Friday. This Monday morning, however, Abbey missed one word. To say the girl was upset would be an understatement. Mind you, these are words that she has not studied, and she does not have access to the list ahead of time that she could peek at it. She was distraught over this one little word she missed (I told you she is a perfectionist).

To encourage her little heart I reminded her of how hard even the simplest words were for her in the beginning of the year. She grabbed her language arts binder (that is such a pain for me to put together, but man, today I was glad I did), and flipped to the very beginning. And she laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Oh, what joy that brought to my heart. She looked back to the beginning of the school year. The word was "are", she spelled it "R" on her pre-test, week 1 of the school year. And she laughed! It was very real to her, and showed her just how far she has come this year. I could have cried.

Yes, I'm teaching spelling, but I like to think it is so much more than that. I'm teaching these girls the value of looking back on life. We don't stay back there, we move forward. Yet there is value in looking back. To take a peek at what life was like less than a year ago is important.

Just the other night my dear husband and I were looking back. He had gone through times of self-doubt, of not knowing where he was going, what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go in life. And he prayed and prayed and prayed for direction, never feeling like he was going anywhere or being led. As we talked through the decisions he made he realized just how much the Lord was leading him, guiding him, and setting him on a path. It didn't feel like it at the time, yet when he took a moment to look back, he realized how all these little pieces that didn't seem like much (quitting one job to take a pizza delivery job) all fit together and created this beautiful picture.

Sometimes looking back can be painful. I think of our foster son and daughter on a regular basis. I know I have learned a lot from that experience. However, it is still painful in many ways to look back on that time. I'm sure that someday (maybe not on this side of Heaven) I will see how those months fit into my mosaic to create something whole and beautiful. Certainly I am changed because of that experience.

Isaiah 61:3 (New Living Translation) To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.

Portions of this verse pop into my head from time to time, but I'm not sure that I ever noticed those last three words. The beauty for ashes, the joy instead of mourning, the praise instead of despair, it's for HIS OWN GLORY. Not for us. Not for me. For Him. Wow. 

I'm just letting that sink in.

I will leave you with this: Gungor "Beautiful Things". Hands down one of my favorite songs. 

I encourage you to take a few minutes today, sit, and think. The weather here has been beautiful. Grab a cup of tea or coffee, watch the kids play in the yard, and look back and realize the beautiful things He has done for HIS OWN GLORY in your life.

For Such a Time as This?

If you have a moment, grab a cup of coffee and your Bible and read ALL of the book of Esther. It's not that long. And if you don't have time, just continue on with me. A few nights ago I painted this water color using a small portion from Esther 4:14 "for such a time as this".

The full text reads (NIV) Esther 4:14
"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"

As I was painting the border I originally planned to make a pretty wreath of greens and flowers. But then I got to thinking about the verse and about what it represented. Esther was just going along, doing what she was told to do/knew how to do/was encouraged to do. So I went with the green border to represent the every day events. And wrapped the green around and around the words. And then gently placed the purple among the green. There is much less purple than green. Because the purple is the "big" stuff. And we may not do a whole lot of big stuff in our lives. For Esther, Providence placed before her an opportunity to do something big. It was right there in front of her. She needed the encouragement to do what needed to be done.

Just yesterday a friend shared a blog post about cherishing the moments and enjoying the things our kids do when they are little. And the blogger had gorgeous photos to accompany her post. All the photos showed her children doing the things she mentioned, (running around in a diaper, reading books in a tent, playing on the couch) yet in a pristine, spotless home. No toys or books on the floor. Everything perfectly shelved and clean. She writes about letting the dirty dishes wait, but she doesn't show them to us. She shows these impressive, beautiful hardwood floors that were certainly just scrubbed.

Certainly not an Esther.

 And friends, let me just be real with you right now. Yesterday was just plain rotten. One particular child woke up too early. Again. And this child can get downright vicious with her words. We did not make a pretty picture. There was fighting, arguing, slamming doors, crying, children sprayed by the hose, more crying. We were a broken mess.

We have this monstrosity in our living room because my neighbor hates me loves my kids.



I have laundry still not folded.

 

I have these flowers that have been on my window sill (dead) for a week.



I have a shoe rack that can't keep shoes on it.



I have a counter that won't stay clean.



Friends, I am no Esther. I'm not doing anything big. I am messing up on a regular basis. I'm sorry if I have given you the impression that my life is perfect, because it certainly is not. Yes, I love my kids, and they are a joy (most of the time). But can I just be really honest right now? I will NOT miss days like yesterday. I won't. I don't cherish the time my child told me she hates me.

A brief, joyful moment from yesterday.

Don't get me wrong. I love, love, love my kids. And I try my best to find joy in each day. But I don't feel (too) guilty when I finally get those kids in bed and thank God that the day is over. I AM grateful that today is a new day, and we can show each other grace and move on from the place we were yesterday. But will I miss yesterday? No, I don't think I will.

 

 Okay, fine, I'll miss this.

A Day with Anne

Today I have a "Guest Blogger". This article was originally written for our church newsletter. The intent here is to give you a glimpse into our everyday, beautiful, messy life. From Anne's perspective. When written, back in September, Anne had just started first grade, and was 6 (almost 7) years old. **All photos are from the two weeks surrounding the date her article was written.**

A Day With Anne Hess

Friday, September 5, 2014

6:40 am – Wake up and come downstairs. Put on my rainboots and go outside with Daddy to feed our six chickens and check for eggs. Only one so far!

Our first egg - Aug, 2014

7:00 am – Read part of a horse book and play with the doll house with Maggie.

7:30 – Mommy wakes up and comes downstairs for coffee. I go upstairs to play with our little horses.

7:50- Breakfast. It's Abbey's day to choose – strawberry poptarts.

8:10 – Go upstairs, get dressed & brush teeth.

8:30 – Watch a movie. Abbey chooses Cinderella.

9:00 – School starts. (I am homeschooled and in first grade.) We do our morning routine – calendar, counting up and down to the date (5^th today), Pledge of Allegiance.

9:05 – Friday is Test day: Spelling test first, I got 8 out of 8!

9:15 – Math Test – I finish quickly so I take Caroline into the living room to play while Abbey finishes her test. I got 17 out of 17! This is the first math test I have ever had.

9:30 – Bible – we read 2 Timothy 3:14-18. I memorized Psalm 1:1-2 for the first two weeks of school. Abbey, Maggie, and I all take turns saying this out loud. Abbey and I work on our handwriting while we listen to Mommy read.

9:40 – History/Geography – locate India on the globe and map. Pray for Hindus. I like to pray for the children who are “untouchables”. We also read about mud huts and different types of houses.

10:00 – Recess outside while Mommy puts Carrie to nap. I play on our neighbor's swingset and chat with our neighbors.

Our neighbors let us play here whenever we want!

 10:15 – Language Arts – practice expression when reading aloud

10:30 – Science – Night Animals. I read our five pages out loud to my sisters. We then answer questions on a worksheet about what we read.

10:40 – Math: Today we are counting by 2s, doing tally marks, greater than/less than, tens and ones columns, and adding. I have two homework pages that I do quickly.

11:00 – RECESS!! Play outside, collect eggs (3!), play “loving family” with my sisters.

Acting out a story with toy animals.

 11:30 – I wake Caroline up and carry her downstairs for lunch (I have a sandwich, clementine, and sweet potato sticks).

{{Sidenote: This is a funny Anne quote during lunch. Anne, “I read in a book that having a pony is a dream for many, but a dream come true for few.” I said to her, “Are you going to be part of the many or the few?” Anne was quick to reply, “The few!” For those of you who don't know, Anne loves horses!}}

I just love being a big sister to this little sweetie!

12:00 – lunch is over. I like to wipe Carrie's face and then play peek-a-boo with her.

12:05 – Take a blanket into our woods for our read aloud time. (Homer Price today)

Our favorite spot to read.

12:40 – Come inside to play. It was too humid to enjoy playing outside. I read a chapter book called “The Worst/Best Christmas Pagaent Ever” to myself.

1:05- Mommy takes Caroline upstairs for nap. I keep reading.

1:25 – Rest time. Mommy reads to the three of us older girls for awhile.

1:50 – Mommy goes out of our room. I read my book quietly.

3:15 – Watch the rest of Cinderella.

4:00 – Rest time is over. I practice piano.

4:15 – Go outside and skip count by 2s. (Jumping every 2 numbers which are written in chalk.)

4:40 – Come inside. A storm is coming. I see my neighbor friend who just got home from school. My mom doesn't let me go outside because of the thunderstorm. I get angry and run to my room and slam the door and cry. I sit in my room awhile. To regain control I brush and braid my hair. But I am still angry. I argued with my mom and made a face at her so I had to be sent to my room.

5:15 – I spy some pretty clothes. I put them on and decide to act like a princess. I dress Abbey and Maggie up too. We all act like princesses. We help mommy crack the eggs for dinner.

5:40- DADDY IS HOME!!!

6:00 – Eat dinner – scrambled eggs, sausage and toast. We eat a lot of eggs these days.

6:40- Finish dinner. I quickly run outside to play with my neighbor. We play at his house all evening. We swing, dig in the dirt, and talk with the grown ups. 

Our neighbors love little Caroline.

7:50 – Time to go home. We get ready for bed.

8:15- Daddy reads to us from “Little Town on the Prairie.” I am very tired. After we all pray I fall right to sleep. 

****Hope you all enjoyed a little window into Anne's world.*****

Shouldn't You Be In School?

I'm often asked what made me decide to home school. It's sort of a long answer so I figured a blog post might be a good way to go with this one!

First off, a very brief note: I know and understand that home school is not for every family nor for every child. Every one is certainly able to choose for themselves what schooling option is best for your family. I hope that nothing I say comes across as judgmental or preachy - that is certainly not my intent.

Now that that's out of the way.....

"Shouldn't you be in school?" This question was posed to my oldest daughter (age 7) this week. She was outside playing in our little patch of woods behind our house. There was an older gentleman cutting wood just beyond our property line and he asked this question. Anne's quick response was, "I'm home schooled!"
 
Part of me cringed when she told me this, because I am acutely aware that we are different. I love people, and I want them to love me. I've always worked SO hard to win the approval of everybody; my parents, my peers, etc. That means I want to fit in.

Is this weird?

 I want to be like everyone else and do what everyone else is doing. I want to be the best at whatever it is I'm doing, and if I realize early on that I may not be the best (i.e. the three years I played saxophone and I did a victory dance when my little brother kicked the case and a key broke) I want to quit. Galatians 1:10 "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." {I professed Christ as my Savior just before my 19th birthday. I am learning to not allow my 'personality' to be an excuse for a lack what I know to be right.}

I never, ever in a million years would have thought I would be a home school mom. Nope. No way. Do you know why? Home school people and their kids are weird. Weird and different are synonyms. I don't like different, I don't like weird. Nope. Not doing it.

Anne reading "James and the Giant Peach" - age 5

You may want to be careful what you say.

I have a teaching degree from Millersville University, formerly known as "the teacher's college". After our oldest daughter was born and growing at an extremely rapid rate (does time speed up once you have children?), my mother-in-law wondered if I would consider home schooling. My immediate response was, "No." I didn't even want to think about it. No way. Not for me. Home school kids are weird.

Our celebration of 100 days of school - 2015

 Then a funny thing happened. The Lord began to work on my heart.

Girls working on their "Heart Journals" - 2015

 As I watched my girls grow (with a special focus on my oldest since she would be the one to go to school first) I noticed some interesting things about her behavior. First of all, she was very much like me. She is so very easily influenced by her peers. For example, when she was about three and a half years old we came home from the mom's group we attended weekly. Anne asked for a cracker at lunch. After providing her with the cracker, she began to chew it like a beaver, letting crumbs fall from her mouth all over her shirt, the floor, and the table. She laughed uproariously and sprayed cracker all over everything. (Can you picture this???) When asked what in the world she was doing she said a boy in her little class did that at snack time and everybody laughed and she really wanted to try it.

Anne reading a Highlights magazine to her sisters - summer 2013 (age 5 1/2)

This became nearly a weekly occurrence in our home. She would see another child do something (always something she knew she probably shouldn't do) and then she would come home and do it. Every. Week. And I thought, "My word! If this is what she does after being with other kids for 90 minutes, what will she act like when she is with them for a whole day?!"

Then something else happened. Anne started reading at age 4. (I didn't even know this was possible.) In my four years of college education and my miniscule time teaching before Anne was born, I had never taught any one how to read. It was a really awesome experience. I can't take credit for what happened next. She picked up her first little book and read it without help. Then our two foster children came into our lives and I no longer had the time to sit and work with her on a daily basis like I had been. About two month after she read that first book I was hurriedly trying to get dinner ready and juggle five children under age five (I don't recommend this). Anne offered to read to the kids for me. I thanked her and went about what I was doing. A few minutes later I peeked on the kids and she had them all lined up on the couch with her as she read aloud from Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. We had read it aloud together before so I assumed she was just retelling the story in her own words. Until I listened more closely. She was reading, with expression, a book on a second grade reading level.

Anne reading "Peter Pan"- age 5

It was at that point that I started to consider home school as a very real option for our family. None of my friends home school their children, so it was a really tough decision for us to make. The more I prayed about it the more clear it became that this is what I should do. If I had to give two main reasons why we chose to home school it would be these.

1. I want to have more influence in my children's lives than their peers. I want to build a firm foundation based on the truth of God's word before asking them to stand up to peer pressure on a daily basis. I want to be the one who talks to them about hard and controversial subjects. And trust me, we DO talk about them. I am not sheltering these kids so that they have no clue about the world. I would much rather them get facts from me than from their little seven-year-old friends.

A little hike to The Pinnacle in Holtwood, PA to see the frozen Susquehanna River: Winter 2015

2. The ability to meet their unique abilities. Teachers in public and private schools are amazing. We have a really awesome county where there are many many wonderful teachers. When Anne started Kindergarten she was reading at a sixth grade level. It did not make sense to me to put her in a class of children who are just learning to read. (Remember how Anne and I are alike? When something is easy our personality tends to get bored and then we get in trouble.) Currently Anne has about six weeks of first grade left. Her reading level is now at an 11th grade level. Although she reads at that level, she definitely doesn't comprehend fully all that she reads, and her pronunciations are sometimes a bit off on some of the larger words that aren't in our every day vocabulary. Our second daughter is a very different personality from Anne, but she is also very bright. She is five (normally Kindergarten age) and will complete first grade with Anne this year. Her reading level is approximately fourth-fifth grade. Our third daughter struggles with some of the things that came very easily to her older sisters. There are still four letters of the alphabet that, try as she might, she just cannot remember. But Maggie is by far the best storyteller and most creative of the three. I have every intention of encouraging her in those regards.

Anne read The Lord of the Rings series (all three books) in under a week. Winter 2015 - age 7

Abbey working hard on First grade math - 2015 - age 5

The close bonds these four girls have is worth it all!

Tea Party at Grandpa & Grandma's

Hard to believe these two are only 17 1/2 months apart.

Sister-friends

Sister-friends (Caroline LOVES little hats/ handkerchiefs on her head!)

 Whew. Did you make it through all that? I hope that answers some questions for you all! Please feel free to ask questions!

He is Risen

In keeping with my standard behavior I am writing an Easter post two days after Easter Sunday, rather than before like all the other bloggers in the world. What can I say? I'm going against the flow. Okay, fine, I'm a procrastinator. (Plus, it didn't end Easter Sunday. He rose. He stayed on Earth another 40 days. So I'm still safe talking about this for another 38 days.)

My chalkboard drawing.

There is always so much that goes on during any holiday. Amidst all the prep work of food, house cleaning, cleaning the children, plus the actual gatherings themselves, I find it easy to lose the meaning of the event itself. I have made a concentrated effort to keep these gatherings as simple as possible. We don't do 500 sides, 20 desserts, and 5 different wines. In fact, we don't do any wine.... maybe we should do one wine. Yes?

Thursday we had Trent's side of the family over for our Easter dinner. This included his parents, his two brothers and one sister-in-law. I taught school in the morning, then cleaned the house, and made green bean casserole. My in-laws made sweet potato pudding, and grilled pork loins. My sister-in-law made an adorable "nest" cake (wish I had a picture of this) and my brother-in-law made a delicious salad. That was it. Simple. We had this at my house so that I could put Caroline to bed, then also the big girls while the adults stayed late, drank coffee and tea and played Apples to Apples. We actually got to spend time with each other without all the fuss and stress of extra food and huge amounts of clean up.

Hess girls!!! (Minus a sleeping Caroline)

 Friday Trent was off work for Good Friday. The girls had a small amount of school (basically just a spelling test), and they wanted to read a little history. We sang this song together (either Thursday or Friday). Matt Maher's Christ is Risen. Anne and Abbey sat in my lap as the words scrolled through on my iPhone. I think I was crying as we finished. Hearing my girls sing these words was so beautiful.

Sunday my mom came over after church to eat with us. We relaxed in the afternoon. Two of my sisters came over with their kids around 4:30 in the afternoon for a huge egg hunt and some snacky foods. We visited with our neighbors.

My beautiful sister, and Caroline

Bunny rolls. This was Caroline's favorite part of the meal.

Opening eggs and discovering the goodies inside. It's always so fun to have the family together!

I think Maggie (age 4) said it best. She liked the basket from Aunt Sarah, she liked the candy, she liked being with the family. But the thing she likes best about Easter is that Jesus didn't stay dead. That he rose again.

These two are so sweet. They are my inseparable girls who love to dress in matching outfits.

 Personally I find it very meaningful to spend a few moments reflecting on where I was before I repented of my sins. And then think of my spiritual conversion. I don't spend this time filling myself with regret for past sins. However, I do find it beneficial to my Spiritual growth and health to remember that I was dead in sin. And when I really and truly accepted Christ into my heart, in a crummy little dorm room in Jackson, Mississippi, that though I still sin and still fail on a daily basis, that I am no longer DEAD in that sin. I am redeemed. And you can be, too. It's a beautiful thing, to be redeemed. To feel the weight lifted from your chest and be free. Thank you, God, for sending your precious son, so that I may have life. None of us deserves it, yet he loves us so much that he pours out his grace on us. Daily. Every day, never giving up on me. And I am grateful. Oh, so grateful.

Note to self: take adorable picture first thing in the morning, NOT when everybody is tired. It's much more difficult to get a good photo with tired children. You'd think I'd know that by now. ;)

 HAPPY EASTER!

Slow Down

Thursday was quite the day for us. As many of you dear readers know, I'm a homeschooling Mama. I love it. I choose to be home bound most days of the week. However, Thursday I decided to be adventurous. I took all four girls to Sports Authority right around nap/rest time. I know, I'm a wild one. I like to live dangerous.

Caroline only wanted Anne at the store.

Soon after returning home from the aforementioned trip, our power went out. Kind of weird, since there didn't appear to be much wind. However, we live in southern Lancaster County, so it wasn't completely shocking. Last summer (or fall?) the same thing happened - there were random tree branches down on the power lines. I figured a similar thing happened.

Maggie looking for a poem for me to read to her.

Plans for Thursday dinner were leftovers. In the microwave. Which requires electricity. I called Trent at work. He says not to worry, the estimated time was 8 pm, and it's always on before that.

Trent gets home, still no electricity. I went for a run (remember that 2015 goal - run a 5k)... While running my phone battery dies (I think being out of the house in the afternoon plus having no electricity/wifi drained the battery really quickly). I get back from my run and Trent asks if I got his message... Um, No. My phone is dead. He had texted me to ask me to bring Burger King home for dinner. This resulted in a family trip to BK to eat INSIDE (seriously, you would have thought we were at a 5 star restaurant). The kids were awesome, and we all had so much fun!

For some reason I find this photo hilarious. Anne desperately wanted someone to come play outside with her.

We got home to a dark house, put the girls to bed, and then... What? What do you do when you have no phone, no wifi, no light. We read the Bible together with a headlamp for light and each caught up on a little reading. I had signs to paint but couldn't work on them. As I was praying two words came to my head. Slow. Down. I don't really consider myself a very busy person, mainly because I don't leave the house that often. However, as I sat in the dark thinking of all the things I "need" to do, I began to realize how hard it is for me to sit still. To just be still. To be in the presence of the Lord. I say that I want to do that, yet I don't make the time to do so.

Doodled this in the dark Thursday.

As I let those words roll around in my brain I thought of all the things I thought I should be doing {painting, dishes, cleaning, returning emails, replying to FB messages, checking my Etsy store, checking Instagram, thinking about the next day's school lesson, completing my homework for my Bible study, contemplating a discipline issue with a particular child, wondering if I was too hard on the kids today} and I made my brain just stop. Because how many times will I get a chance to really slow down like I was forced to do Thursday night.

Took some time to play a game Friday at school

Abbey really enjoyed her BK crown.

 I know that Sunday (or whatever day you take as your Sabbath) is supposed to be a day of rest. Yet for many of us Sundays are one of the hardest days of the week (hello - getting four girls and myself ready for church to leave by 8:40 am!?) and are far from restful (especially if you are involved in any form of ministry).

Enjoying our restful Sunday.

These two are the best of friends and playmates. (they are rushing inside to bandage up dolly who got a thorn scratch)

 This weekend I really focused myself on slowing down. On truly enjoying the every day, simple moments. Of letting go of what "needs" done, and allowing myself to cherish my sweethearts while they are still small(ish).

Watching toads emerge from hibernation

Toad watching

Here are some photos of us enjoying the moment

Anne flying her kite.

 A series of night time photos.

How do you slow down? What are some tricks you can share with me?