Hey friends! Sorry I’m late again to this month coffee date. I’m excited to be here with you guys though to catch up and share what we’ve been up to this past month.

If we met for coffee, I would ask how you’re feeling about the changing seasons. I’m not sure how I feel this year. This past week has been very cold and I am just not really ready to be cooped up in the house for the next four to five months. I am looking forward to the holidays though of course. I just wish that it didn’t mean the inevitable sickness that also spreads throughout the house come wintertime.

If we met for coffee, I would ask what are your priorities when it comes to looking for a church. I believe I mentioned last month that we are looking for a new church after our convictions about salvation theology had become more apparent to us. We are trying our best to come up with a list of our priorities of things that we need in a church but it has been a bit more challenging than I expected.

If we met for coffee, I would share that we got our fall family pictures done last week and I’m always so thankful that we prioritized getting them taken. They are usually quite stressful to plan and to actually take (pictures with little ones is challenging) but they always come out really nice. I love having nice pictures of us as a family frozen in time to look back on in the years to come. I think maybe this year I will share our pictures on the blog.

If we met for coffee, I might bring up the blog and my Youtube channel. It has become more challenging to find the time to work on the blog (hence this post being a week late). It’s also been more challenging to work on my Youtube channel and Etsy shop but I am not setting anything aside permanently. I’ve finally realized that it’s important to, for my mental health to prioritize these types of things. But I also realized that I need to be really flexible when it comes to them as well. I used to swing back and forth between the two and either decided to just not work on them at all because there didn’t seem to be enough time or prioritizing them too much and putting to much pressure on our family for me to have the time to work on them. It seems to be a perfect balance like this. I dislike not having a perfect schedule to follow but it helps me not idolize anything when I need to be willing to set them down maybe for a full week or two.

If we met for coffee, I’d apologize for rambling on for that last point but it’s something I’m usually always thinking about and mulling over. I finally have peace about the decision so I thought I’d share. Do you have a hard time finding the time for yourself in the season of life that you’re in?

Thanks for joining me and for giving grace for me being so late. Don’t forget to check out Bella’s post too and linkup if you have a blog too! 🙂

Hi friends! I’m so glad to be joining you for this month’s coffee date! I’m really thankful that Bella and I have this linkup we do together on the first Wednesday of every month. There are just so many things going on in our lives right now with homeschooling and having three small kids that I’m thankful that this gives me the extra encouragement to show up here. Even when it’s only once a month, I’m really happy to show up and sip some coffee with you guys!

If we were having coffee, I would ask how you’re doing?! How is the school year going so far? Our homeschooling year is going pretty smoothly so far. We have fallen into a routine with school and have decided this year to have a very relaxed approach to school. I know the years are coming when we will need to spend a lot more time on school each day so for now I’m enjoying my kids being little and having a lot of time in our day to do other things.

If we were having coffee, I would ask if you have ever spent time diving into the theology of salvation. So a little bit of background is that Tommy and I attended a church for about ten years until about two years ago when we switched to a new church. We have been attending the one that we switched to ever since. We didn’t grow up in Christian homes and had only really ever gone to one church before our switch so we actually weren’t aware of different views of salvation. We have recently learned that the church we switched to has a different view of salvation than our first (which we believed) and I have been doing a deep dive on both views. It has been very stretching and I’ve been really enjoying the deep dive into the Bible but it has caused us some confusion over which church to attend now.

If we were having coffee, I would also share that Tommy and I have decided to build a small workshop in our backyard for Tommy to start his own business. He has had this dream of owning his own shop for a very long time now and we finally feel it’s time that we start working on his dream. We are trusting God to lead us in this journey and are very excited!

If we were having coffee, I would likely talk about my journey into baking sourdough! I have been thinking about trying sourdough for a long time and finally decided to take the plunge! I have yet to be able to bake a loaf of sourdough bread but have been baking a lot of different sourdough discard recipes and it’s been so much fun. I’ve made pancakes, a sourdough discard loaf, and chocolate chip cookies and they’ve been so yummy. It’s turned into a really fun and kind of unexpected hobby.

If we were having coffee, I’d also share that we went on a “staycation” this past month and had so much fun! Instead of going somewhere this year for vacation, we stayed at home but Tommy took off of work. We went to the ocean a couple of times, went hiking, and went to Legoland! It was nice to vacation from home because we knew our kids would sleep well and we could still go and have fun just like on vacation. I’m hoping to get vacation recap up this month but we shall see! 😉

Thank you so much for joining me for this coffee date! It’s been really nice to catch up!

Hi friends! I’m sorry for being late to our coffee date again this month, I promise not to make this a habit though! I’m so glad to be having coffee with you.

If we were having coffee, I would share that the reason why I’m late to our coffee date this month is because we had a very scary start to our week. On Monday Tommy went out to ride his dirt bike, which is a normal occurrence around our home. It’s one of his favorite hobbies that doubles as a way to get in some exercise as well. Well on this particular day, he was out and was swarmed by bees and was stung many, many times. He came home and we knew he needed to get to the hospital asap because while he was not allergic to bee stings, his body definitely has a higher reaction to them. We left as quickly as possible but the ride there was very scary as his body started breaking out in hives and swelling up a lot. Thankfully we made it to the hospital in time and they were able to give him lots of medicine to counteract his body’s response to the bee stings. There was a little while though where I was very concerned that he wasn’t going to be okay. I’m just so thankful that he is okay. Something like this really makes you so thankful for the time that you get with your family. This is just a reminder to cherish them as much as possible, despite things not being perfect.

If we were having coffee, I would find it hard to move past this huge thing that has happened in our lives, just as I had a harder time in real life as well. But I would manage to because I would have to also remind you that today is sweet Melly’s first birthday! I would share about how excited I am that she is one and how thankful I am for her. I would share about how we are having just a small “party” with my side of the family (just my mom and brother) and then are planning on probably doing the same with Tommy’s side is about a week or so. I quickly ordered some cute decorations from Amazon yesterday and I would show you how the theme I went with is One Sweet Peach. I can’t wait to set everything up today and celebrate our sweet girl. I will be sure to share all of the details here soon!

If we were having coffee, I would likely share about a big life change that has happened recently as well. I would share how I am getting to essentially be the bookkeeper for the business that Tommy and his family owns. This was such an answer to prayer though because if you’ve been around here a while then you know that I have been trying to find a way to make money from home for so long now. I was very particular about the way that I wanted to do it though. I always wanted my family to stay priority and I wanted to be able to take off whenever I needed to. This has been a challenge so being able to work for our family business and make some money is such a dream. I was able to set up a little “office” in the corner of our bedroom that I will also try to share soon too. I feel so grateful that I get to do this!

If we were having coffee, I would apologize for talking your ear off. We’ve just had so much going on lately, it would be hard not to share it all. I would of course want to hear what is going on with you as well and am hoping that you’re doing well. Did you start school with your kids yet? We started up homeschool, technically three weeks ago now, which is very surprising for me to realize. We started sooner than I was planning because Shane was begging me to start again. I’ve changed my view of homeschool this year a little bit to being a lot more relaxed than I previously thought it was going to be. We are still taking things seriously of course but I’m just not focusing on it quite as much as I was thinking I would. I realized that I am just thankful for this time to be able to do that because I know as the kids get older, things will have to be more serious and take up more time. So for now we are enjoying this season of homeschool and trying to make the most of the rest of the time we have together as a family.

If we were having coffee, I would thank you for being here for this long. I would let you know that I always enjoy showing up here, even when I’m unsure if it’s worth spending my time writing on this blog anymore. I really enjoy having a place to share what’s going on in our lives. Please let me know what’s going on in your life, if you feel like you want to share. I would love to hear. Thanks again for being here. 🙂

Hi friends! I know I am a week late to this post but this past week has just been so so busy! I figured late is better than never, right? Also, don’t forget to check out my friend, Bella’s post here! (She was not a week late with her post 😉)

If we were having coffee, I would share first why we’ve been so busy lately. Tommy was in a wedding last Friday and for those of you who have been in a wedding before, know how much time it takes. It felt like all of last week went to preparing for this wedding haha. But here we are on the other side and it was a really fun wedding. I got to hang out with a childhood friend that I haven’t seen in years (hi Brooke if you’re reading this!!) and it was so fun!

If we were having coffee, I would likely talk about homeschooling and about how I’m trying to figure out when to start for this year. I was originally going to start at the end of this month but I still have curriculum to order and I don’t think it will be here in time to start until the last week of the month. We also have a vacation planned the second week of September so I’m wondering if only starting for two weeks to stop for vacation is a good idea or not. I’m thinking maybe we should wait until we come home from vacation to start. The awesome thing about homeschooling is that we have that flexibility. Sometimes it can be difficult too though because sometimes I just want someone else to make the decisions for me haha.

If we were having coffee, I would probably ask you how you have seen God working in your life lately? I have been doing this study still and I would still highly recommend it. It has a lot of practical ways to follow God and to know him more and it has just been so helpful. It is by far the best bible study I’ve ever done.

If we were having coffee, I would also share how I can’t believe Melly is going to be one so soon!! I’m not sure how we got here. I wish I could slow down time. I’m currently trying to figure out when/how/if we are going to have a birthday party for her. We just had Riley’s third birthday last month and I’m exhausted thinking about throwing another one haha. I do really want to have one for her though of course. We shall see what happens though.

Thanks for being here friends. And I apologize again for this post being so late! Please link up below if you wrote a post too. ☺️

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I shared some Friday Favorites and we’ve had some exciting things going on so I thought today was a great day to share. 🙂

o n e

Yesterday was Riley’s birthday and we had the best time celebrating our big three year old! We went to a local park and had his party there. It was perfect and I’m so thankful. I am going to post a recap of the day some time next week I believe. I can’t wait to share more!

t w o

We also took a weekend trip up to Lake George last weekend to celebrate my father-in-laws 60th birthday. We had a really good time despite the drive there and back taking about 5 hours (when it was supposed to take 3)! I also want to share a recap of this trip soon as well!

t h r e e

In between all of this, we have been having a great summer so far! Our town does swim lessons and summer sports. This picture is from our first day of swim lessons. As time goes on I am more and more thankful that we chose to live here, especially in the summer! I love that we have the beach just down the road. It’s so fun even when it is incredibly difficult to take care of three kids while there haha.

f o u r

Another favorite is just watching this girl learn and grow! She’s getting so big and it’s making me both happy and sad! I am trying to cherish the time with her as much as possible because it’s going so fast.

f i v e

And last but not least, as I shared in my July goals post we got to celebrate our first year of homeschooling! Shane finished up his preschool year and since he would normally attend a preschool graduation if he were in school, we decided to celebrate with our family with a cake. Shane thought it was great and it was fun to celebrate this big milestone for the both of us. 🙂

Thanks again for being here and thank you to Andrea and Erika for hosting this little linkup! I hope you guys have a great weekend!

It may be a bit late to recap June’s goals and to set new ones but better late than never, right?

June Goals:

• Read one book Technically I read two halves of two different books but I’ll take it!
• Stick to our meal plan I am very thankful that I have gotten a lot better about meal planning and grocery pickups and it has helped our sanity a bit, not having to run to the stores last minute because we ran out of something again.
• Have a yard sale! Yes! We actually followed through with this and while we didn’t really make very much money, with did get rid of a lot of unused items around our house! I am very happy that these items now are in a home that they will be used.
• Start working on Melly’s nursery – Nope. Moving this to this months goals though!
• Finish organizing the homeschool supplies – Also nope. I think once we get closer to the new school year I will feel more motivated to do this.
• Celebrate our first year of homeschool completed!! – We actually just did this yesterday, so not quite in June but that’s okay!

July Goals:

• Stay off of Instagram
• Empty out Melly’s room
• Celebrate Riley’s birthday well!
• Get baptized!!
• Continue planning your weeks
• Read more

Here’s to a month (or what’s left!) of staying disciplined and celebrating well! I am trying to take a break from Instagram this month, which has been harder than I care to admit. I know I need to take a break when I am needing more direction in my life. It can be so hard to hear from God when you have so many other voices in your life. I am wanting a clear vision for this season and I know the way to get that is to be more open to hearing God’s voice. Also, I am planning to be baptized at the end of this month. I surprisingly have not been baptized yet even though I have been a Christian for a long time. So between that and celebrating Riley’s birthday, it should be a good month!