Tuesday Ten

Stephanie over at Under The Table and Dreaming, a mom/crafting/cooking/decorating/DIY blog that I l.o.v.e. inspired me to join her in Tuesday Ten. 

"The Tuesday Ten is all about sharing what's going on, things you love, recent purchases, cute photos...pretty much all the sweet tidbits that make up daily life that you'd like to share, bundled in to one post.  It can be short and sweet or filled with pictures and details...anything goes - just casual and fun!"

My Tuesday Ten:

1.)  Our whole bunch has been battling acute illness off and on since we were on vacation in Sanibel a few weeks back, starting with Harrison.  Just when I thought we were on the mend, he caught the stomach virus.  Eww.  In my attempts to sterilize and de-germ to keep the rest of us from getting it, I managed to catch it myself.  The good news is that it was short-lived and we were able to enjoy most of the July 4th holiday weekend until....  Daddy caught the bug.  He's resting today in hopes of trudging on to work tonight.  (Note:  I'll spare you the photos from this.  It involves lots of bathroom time.  Not cool.)

2.)  On a much happier note, I just starting reading "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp this past week.  Ann writes the most beautiful blog "A Holy Experience" and her words never cease to brighten my day and change my outlook.  I originally bought the book on my eReader (love that thing!) about a month ago in attempt to read it while on vacation.  I didn't get to it that week, but did this week and have hardly been able to put it down.  It's no secret that I've struggled with having an attitude of gratitude since...well, forever...and that's precisely what this book is about.  It's a beautiful picture of how the Holy Spirit changed her heart when she was challenged to list one thousand gifts -- meaning blessings or things that truly made her happy.  She quickly made it to one thousand and hasn't stopped the list.  Though not finished with the book yet, I'm already feeling inspired to do the same.  So much of my days are lost in the rush and noise of babies/to-do lists/house/husband/projects/work that at the end of the day I wonder what I've accomplished; not merely what I've scratched off my list, but what's been instilled in my children.  More often than not, I come up feeling cheated.  If you're in the same boat, grab the book and a box of tissues. 

3.)  Matching July 4th shirts!  (In all the festivities of the weekend, I completely forgot to get a picture of both my cuties together in their matching threads.)

(it's an awful iPhone photo...sorry)

4.)  Brig was bitten for the first time in church nursery during Sunday morning service.  I'm rarely paged to the nursery department for either of my kids, so when Brig's number flashed on the big screen, I got a knot in my stomach.  He was stunned by the bite, but had already stopped crying by the time I made it to the nursery.  The bite left a mark, but not a bruise.  I'm not sore over it...kids will be kids and sometimes these things happen.  Actually, in all my years of having a child in the nursery, I'm a little surprised this is our first time dealing with it.  And, yes, I'll spare photos of this because the Mama of the biter was distraught (well...so was the Mama of the bite-ee) and the last thing I want to do is make her feel worse. 

5.)  So, I pretty much love my iPhone and rely on it a lot for convenience with work stuff and such.  But being the list-making, calendar-lover that I am, I have a new favorite app...Teux Deux.  I love that I can easily scroll through the days and with one tap, a completed item is done.  And I love that items that didn't get completed on a particular day are automatically moved to the next day.  For non-iPhone users, Teux Deux is online, but I'm not sure if it's available for other smartphones.

6.)  Most anyone knows I love to cook, and especially love to bake.  I made this July 4th cake for...July 4th.  It's not a brand new recipe or anything.  I just used a box cake mix...Funfetti - our favorite - and a can of pre-made frosting.  Baked and frosted the cake, then topped it with fresh blueberry "stars" and fresh sliced strawberry "stripes."  So yummy and so easy.  That Betty Crocker knows her stuff, you just can't go wrong.

7.)  With sickness by far being the highlight of our last week, the next thing is that we're redoing our master bathroom.  It's way dated (a small glimpse can be seen here - yikes) and in desperate need of a redo.  We know this home is temporary, but the timeline of it's temporary-ness is unknown, so when we were thinking of updating it, we knew we wanted to spend our money wisely.  So after getting a game plan together, the redo started this week.  Justin pulled out the old hunter green tile backsplash.  We repainted the Pepto-pink walls to a calming pale green.  The cabinets were taken apart and I finished repainting them this morning.  Hoping to put them back together tomorrow.  As annoying as it is that we can't use the bathroom, just the progress made this week makes me really happen.  The bad news is that the most constructive steps (new countertop/fixtures and new tile floors) will be the most invasive.  I'll be posting pictures of the finished results (hopefully) in a few more weeks.

8.)  Harrison's 5th birthday was a few weeks ago and part of his gift from the Thomas family included a huge container of water balloons.  Having never done these before, I managed to fill 50 or so balloons figuring it'd buy me at least an hour of outside time.  Puh-leeze.  All of those balloons were busted in about 38 seconds.  But the boys had a blast!  Harrison's asked me nearly every day if I'll "blow up" water balloons for him. 

9.)  Harrison's had chore responsibilities and allowance for quite a while, but with it being summer, we've revamped the chore list this past week.  Seeing as how he has all this extra time for the summer, I see no reason why the number of daily chores couldn't be increased.  Not a whole lot (hello...it's summer vacation), but just a few.  Wondering if his pay rate increased as well?  Ummm...no - $5 a week is already more than enough for a 5-year-old. 

10.)  Our July 4th weekend was a great time (minus the part at the end with J catching the stomach virus).  After church on Sunday, we downed some lunch, cleaned the house and packed our bags for a few days at the beach.  We enjoyed Monday with my Aunt and her family, lots of sun (maybe too much sun for me), good food and few fireworks.  But, yet again, I managed to take only a handfull of photos. 

(Couldn't resist re-posting this pic...it's July 4th 2010)

Have a blessed week!

**  If you're interested in joining in on Under The Table and Dreaming's Tuesday Ten, hop over there and link up!