The Little Things

Today, I'm feeling grateful for a husband who gets that the little things are important.  

Like a few weeks ago when he let me drag him to West Elm to window shop, and then suggested that we get a few things to 'spruce up' our kitchen.

We came home with these sweet measuring cups, and this cute little colander.  It's perfect for rinsing berries.

We also got a small cutting board and a new outside mat.

Just a few small things, but they made a big difference.

Love that man.

Happy Anniversary

Six years ago today.

And this is what we have to show for it.

Not too shabby, I'd say.

I've Decided...

...that I'm definitely treating myself to a Shabby Apple dress when I get my body back.  I seriously love this one.  Hopefully a fall dress will be in order and not a spring one...

...that the worst thing about being on bedrest is hearing people say oh-so-helpful things like, "Well, I was dilated to a 1 for three weeks".  Yep, I get it.  It's a total possibility that in a few weeks I'll be released from bedrest and then still make it to (or past) my due date.  You know what else is a total possibility?  A few weeks in the NICU.  Bedrest trumps NICU in my book.

...that MacGyver deserves a medal.  I have lots of time to makes lots of lists during the day.  He gets home from work and then is on the clock for me.

...that I can't decide what to do with my family room pillows/color scheme.  I almost bought a rug at Ikea, and decided not to.  So, we pulled out the rug from the office for a few days to see if we even liked the idea of a rug in the room.  Well, now we love the rug from the office out here.  So, we need to kind of tweak the color scheme to match the rug.  Not a huge deal since the existing pillows are looking a tad shabby, but I can't decide what direction to go.

...that $4.17 is too much to pay for gas.  We'll save a bundle without me running all over town for the next few weeks.  MacGyver is planning to bike to work as soon as the monsoons stop.

...that it is going to be cuh-razy in May.  I'm assuming this baby will come before my due date, and my doctor thinks it will be the second week of May.  Which, conveniently, is the week that MacGyver graduates.  Should be interesting.

...that daytime TV when you don't have cable is so bad.  What did people do before the internet?  Also, why did internet get flagged on spell-check?

...that Starbucks needs to deliver.  You think they would for their #1 fan.

Happy Monday!

Let's Do 52: Handwritten

A few weeks ago, the prompt for "Let's Do 52" was 'handwritten'.  I immediately thought of this lovely stack of letters that I have in a box in my cloest.  I keep most cards/letters/notes that I recieve, espeically those that are meaningful.  I pulled the box down to find a good 'handwritten' object for the photo, and found these gems:

My stack of letters from MacGyver while he was on his mission.  For those of you not familiar with our story, we dates for about 6 months, and then he left for a 2-year service mission for our church.  We got to talk on the phone only 4 times in the two years, but we were able to write letters each week.

Looking at the stack of letters brought back so many memories of watching my mailbox like a hawk.  I'm sure my college roommates remember it well, too!  It was tough to have such strong feelings for someone, and then be limited to letter-writing for two whole years.  In the end, it was one of the best things to happen to our relationship.  We got to learn about each other and were able to develop a good friendship.  And we'll always have these letters, which I know we both treasure.  It's really fun to read them and remember what our 19-year-old selves were like.

So I thought I'd share why this stack of handwritten letters is one of my favorite posessions.

Happy Monday!

2011 Resolutions

I know lots of people don't like new year's resolutions, goals, or theme words.  I happen to love them.  I'm a serious Type A, and so that type of organization and documentation is just my thang.

This year, though, I've been struggling with developing some good goals.  Mostly because this is a year of exciting changes for our family.  And exciting change = lots of unknowns.  We're for sure going to be having a baby and MacGyver will have a new job.  He'll be graduating this summer, and staying at his current job won't really be a viable option.  And those are just the for-sures.  Life is super great about throwing random events in, too.

With those two huge changes, there are lots of variables.  So many things are 'up in the air' for us right now, I can hardly stand it.  It's making planning really tough.

So I can't make a goal to have a fantastic organic garden, or to organize my house (done), or even make a serious business-related goal.  I feel like anything that is at all dependent on location needs to be put on the back burner this year.  That's seriously hard!

But then, I realized that one thing is constant in my life.  It's these people:

No matter what, I will be a wife and a mother.  No matter where we are living, or what type of income we are living on, I'm going to have my family.  We are together for a very long time.

So my goal this year is just to be the best wife and mama possible.  Let me tell you, I have room for drastic improvement.  Life will probably get in the way sometimes, and I'm sure I'll lose sight of my goal from time to time.  But I'm going to try to just be present for my family a little more, get down on the floor with my kids a little more often, and invest a little more time into my marriage.

What are your plans for 2011?