quick tip: receipt organization

I used to keep all my receipts together, in one giant unorganized pile, like I can imagine tons of people do! I filed bills and statements, but receipts were a mess. For multiple reasons, I really wanted to get that under control. My idea may not be original, but I thought of it and it works great!

friday five 2-7-14

{I know it's not Friday (though I DID write this for Friday!)
and there's more than five, but I like calling it Friday Five! Ha!}

I can't believe it's already February. Where does the time go?
{Speaking of February, the youngest I nanny turned 3 on Sunday. Un.Real.}
Thankfully, as the minutes fly by, everything slows down for at least a few moments as I relive the joys of roller-coaster-filled weeks.

friday five 1-24-14

Two weeks of family joys might be more the norm now. I can't seem to keep up with weekly, as you know, and I'm okay with that now! :-) I'm going to go with five for each week this time!

all in a day

The last few weeks have been filled with a lot of the same over and over. I think we all enjoy the predictability and familiarity :) But, I realized as we did it all over again today, that I want to remember and share this season. I love the creativity.

Also, in the midst all this we had some terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. Ok, so not THAT bad, but enough I was crying most days. But, thankfully, God's mercies are new each morning, and He helps the wonderful, awesome, not bad, very good moments usher in and overpower.

2013 family letter

We got our Christmas New Years letter sent out this last week to some people, but we couldn't send paper copies to everyone, so here's a digital copy! Happy 2014, friends and family!
(It seems to be loading funny the first time the page loads it, so if you see a bunch of squares or characters instead of words, reload :))

chrisamas roundup

Now that we're home after a week away for Christmas festivities... Another long post! But lots of fun pictures ;)

There are so many moments from the last couple weeks, especially from the last few days, that I want to hold onto forever right now. I've already forgotten some. But I'm trying to be okay with that... with the fact that there are times I'm immersed in the moment, not taking a picture or a mental note, and that I don't have a good memory, so I might not remember the moment. But there are some joys I just have to note and share! :)

"Chris-a-mas" was a whole new experience with a 2.5-year-old. The pure innocence, excitement, and joy was so fun to watch, and was so contagious! His pronunciation, "Chrisamas," made us smile every time. He mentioned it a lot as every day we had to establish whether it was Christmas yet or not :)

friday five 12-6

Five family things from the past couple weeks.

1. Finally got my bottom wisdom teeth taken out. Papa and Nana K helped us out. Those teeth gave me a much greater appreciation (?) for the pain my little boy goes through with teething. The first time I had pain from them, he got his first molars; then I was having major (as in life-affecting) pain, when his top 2-year-molars broke through the skin; then his bottom 2-years broke through the week I had my teeth taken out.
My favorite part of having them taken out, besides extra time to relax and watch way too much Parenthood, was Jordan's sweetness. His gentle loves, touches, words, checking on me in my room, and asking often, "You growing teeth feeling better and better, mommy?"

thanksgiving 2013