She Loves Color

One of the things I love about Alyssa is her love for anything having to do with drawing and art. 

She is always coloring, practicing her words, writing a letter, or teaching Amy to her letters. 

 One day I walked in to find she had fallen asleep coloring and I had to get a picture.

How appropriate! 

Alyssa is AMAZING!!

Our little Fashionista!

It's so fun to see what Alyssa dresses up in because she has such a fun time with fashion. 

From the sunglasses on the top of her head, 

to the striped tights with silver shoes on her feet.

It's so much fun experiencing a girl!

Tying Shoes

I have to admit that I feel like there are a few marked events in life that determine your sucess as a parent. One of them being teaching your children how to tie their own shoes. My goal of having them learn how to do this by the time they are five came to be when Bryon's kindergarten teacher listed this as one of the homework assignments before they finished the year.

I'd like to have a great excuse for not having taught Alyssa how to do this before the time she was five. But I don't. I guess things have just gotten away from me. I will confess though, that if I had, I would not have experienced the amazing blessing of seeing my children teaching each other. I think this is a great accomplishment than if I had taught them myself.

Just after Justin taught Alyssa, she turned around and taught Amy. Is there any greater joy than watching your children teach, learn, and work together? One of those simple joys of life!

What They Say Wednesday

"Can you just see what Dad would say? 

He's the boss of everybody in our whole house."

Amy's Birth-date

We were having a party for Amy for her birthday this year but it wasn't on her actual birthday. Because of this, we wanted to do something on the actual birth date, so we got some cupcakes and sang her happy birthday. By the time we got to do this, it was late and she was so tired, she couldn't even keep her eyes open. We were able to get her concious for a few minutes just before we lit her candles.

(see? eyes open...kinda)

 despite all of our best efforts, she could not will herself to keep her eyes open and just nestled deeper into daddy's arms. So he blew out the candles for her.

 A small celebration before the party that she will never remember. Haha!

what they say wednesday

Michael: Mom, your the best mom. You wanna know how I know that?

Mom: how?

Michael: Cause you survived me.

Mom: (with pleasure) ;)

Back to the Basics

As much as I love doing what I do (eg- refinishing furniture, creating, sewing and making things for my retail space) I have found lately that I'm just so overwhelmed so much of the time. I have thought often about quiting my Shelstring blog, and have been told time and again that I shouldn't. 

As I've been experiencing so many challenges in completing things, meeting deadlines, and trying to run my home and enjoy my children, 

I've found it impossible to do. Especially the enjoying party. I haven't been enjoying much of anything lately. I have been really troubled by this and doing a lot of praying and soul searching. I've known for quite some time that I need to simplify my life more. 

That it is okay to enjoy doing things I love, 

but having all the deadlines of contributor posts and product commitments is too much for me right now. So with all of this I have decided to get back to the basics. 

To focus on what matters most to me. 

My family. Writing to think through things is also therapudic for me. 

I tend to really sort things through when I share how I feel and what I'm thinking. 

This is the first blog I ever started. The most important one for me as well. Now I'm going to try to get back to the basics 

and have decided to start enjoying things day to day like I used to...

before it all got so crazy and out of control. 

My now daily life. There is so much I've missed sharing about. 

It will be good to catch up. 

 It feels good to be back!