We just completed the whole Star Wars series and my girls are excitedly anticipating the next one coming out in December. They were sad when we finished the last movie, but happy to know the saga will continue. And they love Darth Vader because they said, “He becomes nice Anakin in the end.” They went from wanting to sport Queen Amadala’s hairstyles to now requesting Princess Leia’s buns. Glow’s favorite is Yoda, and she’s requesting a “Yoda birthday” at a hotel (we will see if that request changes between now and September). I love joking with the kids and trying to do Yoda-speak… “Such good girls you are.” Or “Much disobedience today there has been.” I’m not sure if that’s exactly the way he orders his parts of speech, but my imitation of it definitely gets them rolling on the floor in laughter.

So with their love for Star Wars, comes a lot of Stars Wars play. I’ve shared these blocks before, but the girls just get better and better at creating things with them. They have no Star Wars figures (yet), except a tiny Darth Vader keychain, but they’ve been creating their own with their Tegu blocks. They make all the characters with them! They also make dinosaurs, and use it alongside their pony toys, but lately, it’s been a lot of Star Wars. If you look closely in that last picture, you might even be able to spot their R-2-D-2! I think it looks pretty good and the little wheels let him roll around too!

I love wooden toys, but my girls are regular kids, so they have plenty of character ones too. They get spoiled plenty by the grandparents in the Disney department, everyone showers Brave with Spider-Man things, and My Little Pony is one we commonly get for them. Glow has lot of animal and dinosaur toys, and while I do love handmade and wooden toys (they’re still my favorite kind to give them), I grew up with lots of character plastic toys and turned out fine (and have plenty of good memories). I’m sure they will too. We do try to limit things though, and when they are given new ones, we move some of their other ones along.

When the kids were babies, we were pretty firm with our handmade and wooden toy rule, but we’ve had to adjust and grow as they have gotten older. So as the kids have grown, the toys in our home have changed too. I still love our wooden toys, and I think those still get played with the most, but they mix them with their character toys too! I’m sure in the near future, Star Wars things will be added into the mix. The biggest thing to me though is to limit the amount of toys because they really don’t need much. We try to move things along often, and when they don’t clean, the toys I pick up go into a “prize box.” Then, when they do something that warrants a prize (we don’t use food as a reward), instead of going to the store to buy a new toy, they pick one from the “prize box.” And it’s fair game in there; if something of True’s got taken away, Soul can pick that out and claim it as hers.

p.s. my sister-in-law bought the girls this Tegu block set for Christmas, but we saw how much play they get out of them, so we ordered a couple of these too.

Mother’s Day morning, I was served breakfast in bed (it’s tradition), but I just wanted granola and a cup of milk instead of my usual request for waffles. I knew I wanted indulge in ice cream later, so I chose to go with calories from the ice cream later, than calories from waffles for breakfast. After breakfast, Ben and the girls serenaded me with a sweet little number and it came accompanied with drawings.

I’m so thankful for the thoughtfulness of Ben in leading the girls in this little performance. It was too funny and absolutely perfect! Right after they did this, things kind of went awry and within 30 minutes we had two of the kids throw major tantrums on our way out to church gathering. Then once we were at gathering, Glow decided to go for it and make it 75%, and her tantrum lasted so long that Ben missed half the sermon. Oye! And of course, because Mother’s Day doesn’t really exempt you from these kinds of things, Ben and I decided to have a little fight (and another after we saw my family). The only one we really didn’t have too much trouble with was Brave, but we did get close to her almost having her own moment. Nevertheless, I am so thankful to be their mother (and Ben’s wife), and all these crazy people I live with point me to Jesus through the good times and the chaos. Cheers to continuously learning to selflessly love my family!

Hope your Mother’s Day was just as eventful!

p.s. don’t worry, ben was totally cool with me posting this video. that guy’s such a good sport (even when his morning hair is crazy)!

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Still love looking at these Elvis pictures of my girls (and Ben). It puts a smile on my face.

Chocolate waffle ice cream?!! Um… yes!!!

I think I want to make one of these today.

I ordered this is XXL and I’m hoping it fits. I also got Brave the XS because she likes to be twins with me (it’s 30% off right now). LOL

The thrift stores have been so kind lately, and I’ve been finding lots of good things.

This scarab ring from Jean Jean Vintage is so interesting. I also love her new logo!

These striped boots would be cute for gardening! The older three have outgrown theirs, so time to find new garden boots.

Our Tegu blocks are the toys that get played with the most in our house!

Ms. Tips has 20% going on until tomorrow!

Something my heart has been pondering a lot on is that God already accepts me because He accepted Jesus in my place. My disbelief leads me to think I still need to do something, but I don’t, Jesus already did it.

I had a big put my foot in my mouth moment this week. Out of nervousness, I said something that was incorrect, but panicked after I gave that answer. It’s blog business related, but the business part of blogging doesn’t come natural to me. I love all the creative aspects of blogging and having a place to share my heart. I’m thankful for all the opportunities that have come from it, but I’m more creative than business minded, so sometimes my lack of confidence in the business part comes through. Ugh! And emails… oh gosh, I’m always behind! Blogs as a business is still a strange idea to me. I see my space as a place to just share things I love and what’s on my heart, so it’s such a fine line I think, but certain opportunities do come because of it. I didn’t start off blogging thinking this will be my brand and my business, but I feel blessed that certain things fell into my lap. I’m sure it’s weird to see some of your favorite blogs turn into full fledge businesses (and maybe you’re cool with it, maybe you’re not), but I think it’s easy for bloggers (everyone really) to lose perspective sometimes and things have gotten a little muddled I think. Anyway, you guys are a big reason why I get the opportunities I do, and I’m so thankful for that. Well, that little rant wasn’t something I planned. There I go word vomiting again.

I will be heading to North Carolina this week, and will have one free evening in downtown Charlotte to wander around, so if you have any recommendations, do share.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and my only requests were food related… I want to eat egg roll cookies, ube and queso rico (cheese) ice cream, and sushi. I do want to take a trip to the flea market, but that won’t happen until next weekend.

Happy weekend everyone!

The school year is winding down, and I’m so ready to be done. This week was True’s first experience with standardized state testing, and oh boy was I feeling all sorts of anxiety. I asked her how her first day went, and she said, “It was easy and I was the first one done!” That could have meant something totally great or totally not. I don’t know, either way, it made me nervous. I know these scores don’t really measure all that she knows, but I still feel the stress and pressure of it. Probably because I feel responsible for areas she is weak in, and well, I am responsible. The BFF reminded me that she is a well-rounded child (and if they tested her creative abilities, she would blow that thing out of the water). And I know she is, but I still get worked up over this testing thing. Later on today, we are going to do something fun to celebrate surviving standardized testing week! Sounds like that would make a cute t-shirt slogan, maybe we should make one.

The words from “Brokeness Aside” by All Sons & Daughters captures well what I’ve been feeling this week…
‘Cause I am a sinner
If it’s not one thing it’s another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
But You are a Savior
And You take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
Beautiful

I’m a person who likes things to go fast paced, and I fill up my schedule with to-dos. I feel crazy from everything (and probably complain about it), but I totally do it to myself. I enjoy making myself busy, but too much busy isn’t always a good thing. I see how I often try to find my happiness in something fleeting (projects, social media, obedient kids, everything to go as planned, etc.), but I really am just tangled in lies. The good news is that I know I’m not stuck there! God takes my messiness, covers it with Jesus, and makes it beautiful.

So the saga continues, and we have another batch of corten steel beds added to our yard. In the curved bed, which follows the concrete, we will be creating a privacy screen by growing citrus along a trellis. This will help block the view of one of our neighbors. Then, the other big steel beds will be for avocado trees.

We love the look of these beds so much, and while they are a bit costly, we feel it is worth the investment. Ben still does build some wooden garden beds here and there, but our steel beds are our favorite. We love the way they weather and they just have such a nice presence. Our garden has changed so much these past couple months, and I keep meaning to film a short tour of it. I think it would be fun to see how it progresses each month because Ben is always adding and changing things. One day, when everything is lush and green (and full-grown), it will be special to look back at how our backyard has transformed.

See when we first put our corten steel beds here, this is our steel vegetable beds, and the beginnings of one of our citrus trellises.

Giant Mother’s Day Poster

Directions:
We took some photos this past weekend, and I chose one to use for our poster. In Photoshop, I switched the color image to black and white, added the Mother’s Day greeting, then saved it to be printed as a 24″ x 36″ poster. I went to our local copy store, and asked them to make a blueprint copy of the file. It prints out in black and white on thin paper (ours came out to $3.89 each). Since this is something we will be giving to our mothers, Ben’s and mine, we had the girls write “grand” (using paint marker) in parenthesis next to the word mother. I guess we could have gone with “Happy Grandmother’s Day!” on the poster, but I thought if the kids wrote the “grand” part, it would give it a sweet touch.

I got a poster shipping tube to send it off to Ben’s mom, and we will see my mom, so we can hand it to her in person. If you don’t have access to Photoshop, just have the children (or yourself) write the greeting onto the print. I think the large poster packs a nice punch, and of course, what mother or grandmother wouldn’t want a large poster of her children/grandchildren?! You can also keep this idea in your back pocket for Father’s Day!

One thing I just realized is that none of my girls like spaghetti strap tops or dresses. Now that I think of it, I don’t either. I got this cute romper for Glow, but she didn’t want to wear it without a shirt underneath. She put up a fuss, until I offered her a top to wear under. I’d totally wear Brave’s romper and True’s dress (seriously considered ordering it in an XXL), and pair it with those exact shoes too! The fabrics are nice and light, perfect for the summer temperatures we had this weekend. Soul was super excited to get her own pair of slip-on sneakers. True and Brave have some that they share, so she’s been wanting that style to be like them… and now she can!

on true: chambray embroidered dress, c/o old navy. biker boots, gap kids (similar here). on brave: chambray romper, c/o old navy. checkered vans, shoes.com. on soul: stripe dress & slip-ons, c/o old navy. on glow: shirt, misha lulu. jersey romper & sneakers, c/o old navy.

This post is sponsored by Old Navy. In honor of the 101st Mother’s Day celebration, Old Navy is partnering with artist to bring some of your favorite memories as a a mom, or with your mom, to life in watercolor. To enter, see here for details. Thank you for the support you give me, this space, and the brands I choose to partner with!