I love fresh picked flowers, those are my favorite kind, and Ben did just that for my Valentine’s flowers. I love them so much, but I love the giver much more!

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Perfection isn’t the goal, Jesus is. Good for my heart. Found via Crystal Lewis.

Um hello, chocolate pullover rolls! Please make your way into my stomach.

I so want to make this color block clock!

Love the entertaining inspiration on Planning Pretty! Entertaining is one of my weak areas. My mom, on the other hand, is a pro!

I have been getting horrible sleep at night accompanied with excruciating neck and shoulder pains. I’ll wake up at 4am, can’t fall back asleep until 6ish, only to have to wake up 30 minutes later feeling really tired.

I’m finally getting my sewing area organized and I’m itching to sew again. I think I want to make a dress today!

How cute are the questions my Brave wrote down to ask the doctor? #iloveher #iloveallofthemreally

Have a good weekend friends! The weather here is sunny and warm, so we are going to try and spend some time enjoying its loveliness!

These girls have a whole lot of love for each other (and for Ben and me). If there’s some celebration type day coming, like Valentine’s, these girls are busy bodies making stuff to gift each other. This whole week, any free time they got, they were wanting to make something for Valentine’s gifts. I don’t give them any direction and they just get paper, stickers, tape, scissors, boxes, pretty much whatever they can get their hands on, and they just start making. It’s such a joy to see, and Ben and I are amazed at the things they come up with every time. I mean, look at that thing holder (not sure who that is for just yet), but it’s got slots (that you can’t see at this angle) to hold things. True was totally making that herself! I can’t wait to see what other clever things these girls come up to give to each other.

Really though, I’m thankful these girls have a lot of love. Jesus was spot on when he said we needed to be like the little children. These little ones abound in love, forgiveness, and honesty. I’m also thankful that my children will tell me in the most loving and honest way when I’m doing something wrong (even when I don’t want to admit it and listen). I hope that never changes. I hope they always feel comfortable enough to tell me, and I don’t get so set in my prideful ways that I wouldn’t heed to the warnings of my children when I am in fact doing something wrong. I think it can be hard for parents to admit to their children when they’re wrong, admit their children are right, and then actually take it further to ask for forgiveness and say, “I’m sorry, do you forgive me?”

I think of a specific moment this week when True came up to me and said, “Mommy, you weren’t doing right earlier.” She was right, I wasn’t. I asked her forgiveness, prayed with her, and then thanked her for telling me. It’s such a humbling thing to have your children correct you. We can’t just make excuses for our bad choices and behavior to our children, we have to admit where we fail, talk about what should have been done, so they can understand. Children really understand so much more than we really realize, and our actions and inactions are so clear to them. Thus, on this highly commercialized day of love and chocolates, I am thankful for the big hearts my children have and the work Jesus did for me on the cross. Of course, I’m totally thankful for Ben too, obviously, he is my ultimate Valentine.

Happy Love Day friends!

We have passes to the San Diego zoos, so we took the girls to the Safari Park for the first time a couple weeks ago. Ben had never been there before, and it’s been way over a decade since I had last been there, so it was totally new to us too. The park is just gorgeous because you can see all the wide open spaces they have for the animals to roam. We had a marvelous afternoon together, and then we ate at one of our favorite burrito place, Freebirds, on the way home. I’m thankful for family days like this that break us away from our never ending to-do list, and allows us to just hang out and enjoy something together.

I wanted to make heart-shaped, healthy, strawberry flavored, baked doughnuts, so I started off playing off of this old recipe I’ve done before, which is pretty tasty and slightly healthy. I was experimenting to infuse a strawberry flavor with some fresh pureed strawberry, and also using more whole wheat to make it healthier, and it just didn’t come out right. It came out downright nasty, to me anyway. It definitely wasn’t what a doughnut should taste like.

The recipe I made used 5 cups of flour, so you can imagine how much dough I had (yup, not sure what I was thinking)! I only baked a batch of 4 and well, that was enough to give me a taste and tell it just wasn’t right. They weren’t going to make good doughnuts, though it definitely tasted like it would make good pizza dough. Thus, I separated my dough into separate balls because while you could clearly see the strawberry pieces in it, it seems like pizza dough is what it was meant to be.

That was my total doughnut fail. I wanted to play with the recipe some more to come up with something yummy for my girls and to share here, but you know what, 4 kids need me more than doughnuts, so I just scrapped the whole experimenting again idea for the week. Maybe another time (when there’s more of it), but for now, I will stick to following someone else’s recipe. Anyone know of a good one?

Oh! And what did I do with the 4 doughnuts I did bake? I still stuck some glaze on it, topped it with sprinkles (took a picture), and gave it to my girls. My sweet little daughters-of-a-dietitian don’t know any better and all said they really liked it! Brave said, “Mommy, this tastes really healthy! It’s kind of like a bagel.” HA! A doughnut that tastes really healthy, almost bagel-like, is most definitely not a good sign.

We are a on a room rearranging kick, since True got her big girl bed (still looking for bedding) and moved over a bed to Soul and Glow’s shared room. Soul and Glow’s room needed some lighting, so I made this (sweet) heart light. All I used were a string of white twinkle lights we already had, 19 Gauge galvanized steel wire (this one from Lowes), and a wire cutter. Basically, I just intertwined the string of lights and the wire until the desired length to form into a heart. Depending on the size of your heart (mine is pretty large), it might be best to wrap another wire around to give it more structure. I kept the last 36″ of the cord closest to the plug end free from any wire.

The girls love the heart light, and we’re definite suckers for any sorts of twinkle lights. It adds  a little bit of magic to that area, don’t you think? I’ve been keeping an eye out for something that would work as their main source of light for both the girls’ rooms, but for now, fairy lights will have to do.

Color Blocked Air Plant Pot

Supplies:
2 1/2″ wooden doll heads (that’s what the wooden balls are labeled; they also have a flat bottom)
Drill
1″ drill bit
Painter’s tape
Craft paint
Paintbrush
Air plants (mine bought from here)
Directions:
1. Mark the top center of your wooden ball and proceed to drill your hole going about 3/4″ deep into the ball. I hand this to my husband to do.
2. Decide if you want to paint an even bottom section or want the color to go on diagonally, then tape off the top of the wooden ball to designate the area to be painted. Make sure the tape is securely on and proceed to painting on your color. I did one coat of paint on my pot and allowed it to dry completely before applying the second coat (I did two coats total). Allow to dry completely before removing the tape.
3. Place air plant inside the top and voila… you’ve got a cool air plant pot!

This is definitely inspired by the cool air plant pots from Bird & Feather, so if you’re not a DIY-er, you could just pick one up from them. It’s just another fresh and modern way to display air plants. I shared about how I like to display them on rocks in this post. Air plants are so great because they really are so easy to maintain. I keep mine in a bright spot and gather them all in a bowl of water once a week to soak for about 10 minutes. Afterwards, I let them dry completely on a towel before putting them back in their designated spots. I’ve neglected a couple once before and they ended up drying out, but they look cool dried out too. Though, a dried out one probably won’t look that cool in this color blocked pot!

After I made these, another air plant display idea came to me, so once I can enlist Ben’s help for some drilling, I’ll share that one with you too! If you think you have a brown thumb, don’t be afraid to try air plants. They are good plants to start with and very inexpensive, so you won’t feel as bad if they dry out on you.