It’s been a busy week of meeting with friends, a meeting at the Marimekko store, and lots of prepping for Brave’s birthday tomorrow. She has very specific requests and we’re planning on making it happen.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

True is becoming a really good helper in our home.

Glow is getting better at using utensils (and knocking down everyone’s water cups).

Excited and thankful for our new Tuesday dinners with friends!

If you’re a 9.5 shoe wearer, look at these cute sandals!

This vintage woven bag is totally perfect for summer!

I’m learning to let some things go. I wanted to bake Brave a cake, but for my sanity, I’m just going to buy one.

I’ve been trying to pray for more joy as I serve the girls. I find that I get frustrated because they’re so needy (duh, they’re kids!) and I’m constantly feeling so stressed and impatient. It’s not their fault, it’s totally my heart and actions that need changing.

Thankful for clean bathrooms! I totally tackled my bathrooms this week and they are spic and span. It was getting pretty bad up in their.

We’re going to the OC fair today to kick off Brave’s birthday weekend. It will be such a fun and relaxing weekend (hopefully!), so we’re pretty excited that it’s finally here! What do your weekend plans consist of?

We had a wonderful family vacation and it has taken me a few days to unpack, clean, and finish all the dirty laundry, but it’s done. Whew! Our time in New Mexico was completely amazing! We’re so thankful for the peace, nature, and all the family time we had together (with Ben’s mom and sister too!). It was just such a special time for all of us for many reasons. I will share more about it soon!

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Glow cannot sleep on a long drive whatsoever! The long car rides were toughest on her.

True finished reading The Little Women all by herself. I’m always so impressed with her tenacity for reading. She reads about one (chapter) book a week!

We’re dreaming of our own cabin someday and our whole family loves hiking. We found a new family hobby!

We brought a bit of New Mexico with us as SoCal has had 3 random rainy/gloomy days. I’m liking this year’s summer.

I swear I think I’m losing hair and so in an attempt to prevent more breakage (and face wrinkles), I’m trying out silk pillowcases. Not sure if it’s working, but it feels so nice! It doesn’t really go with the style of my bedroom, especially since I picked a pink, silk pillowcase, but I think I’m loving it so far.

Our faucet came in and now I just need to pick a darn sink. I just can’t decide between stainless or cast iron enamel, but I am leaning towards one now after some advice some gave on instagram yesterday. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Cute vintage wooden sandals for a size 7!

I’m happy it’s the weekend because an extra set of hands really makes handling 4 girls much easier. We have a birthday party to go to and Misha Lulu’s art show. I was a bit late, but I announced the Lisa Leonard winners here and here. Enjoy the weekend friends!

The big girls got their first pair of sneakers! We braved the mall crowds and the crazy parking lot to take them to the Nike Factory Store, and we were reminded again how much we dislike the mall, especially on the weekends. Ben and I are always baffled at how the US economy is supposedly not good, but the malls are always full! I thought we were doing bad?!! We don’t get it. We also almost fought as we were trying to find parking because he didn’t do what I thought he should do to find parking, and he had his own way to find parking, which turned into bickering, and then he said, “We’re already frustrated about parking, let’s not make a fight about it.” I said, “Okay, I’ll close my eyes until we park.” That saved me from my need to share my opinions and we did eventually fight a spot, and the bickering stopped.

At the store, Brave found the sneakers she wanted rather quickly, but True didn’t find any she liked, so then we were off to the New Balance outlet. True found 2 pairs she liked (one was turquoise, the other black), and there was another pair Ben and I liked better, but she couldn’t be convinced to pick it, so we were there for an hour as she decided on which one she liked the best. She kept doing “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” but it wasn’t helping her. She finally settled on the black ones, picked out some sparkle black laces, and she was a happy gal. Then she said, “Mommy, can you get the turquoise sneakers for Christmas?” This girl already has her Christmas list ready.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Glow says, “I don’t know” and “Over there!” She’s so cute and I love being her fave.

True has her first loose tooth! I need to take a million pictures of her smile because it’s about to change!!!

The girls all got hair cuts. True and Brave wanted bangs and Soul got her first trim!

Google reader is officially gone, so if you want to still follow along, you can read Cakies via bloglovin’.

Love my brass triangle earrings from Burdees!

This how to make a rug with a shirt project looks insanely fun (and time consuming)!

My baby sister is the cutest!

I’ll finally have some free time this weekend to answer emails and comments, so if you’re waiting to hear from me, hopefully it will be soon. I will try to get to as much as I can, but please know that I am extremely thankful for each one of you that takes the time to read here, comment, or send me email.

I’m so thankful to have celebrated our 8th anniversary. We had no plans and no gifts. Ben went to work (and worked late), and we just had a sushi dinner at home. I’m so thankful for even these simple moments. We will go on a special date later to celebrate (when we’re able to get babysitters), but I really am just happy to be with him (and have our four girlies). I love my Benny!

Happy weekend friends! I love weekends because Ben’s home! Yayers!!!

I love Crystal Lewis. I’ve been a big fan for. like. ever. I even nerded out big time when I actually met her (in my house!). She’s got a kickstarter going on for her new album and there are 38 hours left (read about it on her blog here). I’m hoping they make it (they’re so close!) and if you love her too, you might want to check it out here! Go, Crystal Lewis, Go!

photo by closer to love photography

It wasn’t their year to win. They came so close. Insanely close. A big swing of emotions played out every few seconds and in the end, though they fought hard, it wasn’t their year. It might sound a bit dramatic and yes, it’s a first world problem, but my heart was (is) a little broken. Those guys are just the epitome of classiness as far as basketball goes and the way they have worked hard to build their team versus buy their team (ahem, yes Lebron and Ray Allen, I’m talking to you!) is just amazing. Even if they didn’t win, I’m proud of those guys. I love them!

I will never forget it was 1999, I didn’t care a lick about basketball, and basketball season had just ended. I turned to my ex-boyfriend and asked him, “So who won the championship this year?” He replied, “The San Antonio Spurs.” I distinctly remember thinking, “Who the heck are the San Antonio Spurs?!! Oh, they must be a new team.”

Just a few years later, said ex-boyfriend was out of the picture, my love affair with Ben Bratcher was just beginning, and with that I was falling hard for that man and the basketball team he loved so much. Thus, my life was forever changed. #gospursgo

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Glow has her own little “baby” (a stuffed bear) and she must have it with her everywhere!

Suddenly, we have a wee bit more time on our hands now that basketball season is over.

We have lots of flies where we live (we live near lots of dairy farms), so I picked up one of these food covers for our dinners outside.

I got surgery on my face this past week to remove a cyst, so I’m looking for wide brimmed hats now to hide from the sun to prevent scarring. This one is cute.

Soul’s shingles are gone… yippee!! Thank you Lord!

I didn’t cook dinner once this week, so Trader Joe’s and frozen pizzas helped us survive.

Crystal Lewis is having a pop-up concert tonight (get info here)! So if you’re in Southern California, you can get more info here! Don’t forget her kickstarter program going on now too.

Hello Monday. You’re off to a slow start, but that’s just the way Mondays go sometimes.

This table is for sale if anyone in Southern California is interested. It’s a mid-century piece Ben has had since his bachelor days! It has worked wonderfully for us these past 8 years, but it is finally time to move it on (there’s a farm table now in its place!). It is a 6-legged table that has two leaves, without the leaves it is 64″ x 40″ x 29″, and with both leaves on it is 89″ x 40″ 29″. If you’re interested or have any additional questions, just shoot me an email!