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Thursday, April 27, 2017

Life with Lucas {week 49}


I can't believe we have just 3 more of these posts!! 
Although if I'm being honest, I'll be SO glad to be done with the weekly pictures. It is an act of congress every week to get them taken! 

Last Thursday, big sister was making this "beautiful" picture at preschool...



...while little brother stayed home and helped me with the never-ending laundry. Doesn't he look so excited?!


We also played at the park...



...and got Lucas's golf cap in the mail! He's going to wear it for his upcoming cake smash pictures. 


Unfortunately, this is how he feels about it. And also he won't leave it on his head for more than .2 seconds. So that's fun. 

On Friday, we decided to hit up the strawberry patch again!


A lot had changed in the 8 days since we had last been there! Lucas finally figured out that he needs to eat the red berries (not green ones, or leaves/dirt/straw)....


...and the berries were so much bigger and juicier! Crazy that they ripen so much in just 8 short days!


Oh, and see all those school buses behind Ella?! Welcome to my life. Any time my friend Chelsea and I try to take our kids somewhere, there ends up being at least 85 school groups there too. We thought we'd be safe last summer when we took the kids to pick blueberries (It was July! No school!), but nope...there was a daycare group there! Ha! 

Anyway, thankfully the school groups didn't bother us too much and we were able to eat pick our strawberries in peace. 





Oh and of course we got more strawberry slushies!


We had a super low-key weekend. I had to work Saturday morning, so Trav took both kids on a walk up to get ice cream! Ella can seriously get her dad to do just about anything! 😉

In the afternoon we spent lots of time outside playing, since it was going to rain for the next 3 days!



Lucas walked up and down and all around the driveway with his walker. It is the best thing ever...if you have a soon-to-be walker, I highly recommend this one!! 

On Sunday, I finally got around to putting up a baby gate. I still need to put up one more on the steps in our bonus room...but for now, at least we can trap Lucas in his room and he won't fall down the stairs (that are literally right outside of his door...I was standing on them to take this pic)!


Also of note on our boring Sunday, Ella was beyond excited when I found....wait for it....PAW PATROL YOGURT! I found it at Walmart of all places.


Y'all know I do NOT do Walmart...but I had to go there because they have super cheap plastic golf balls, and I needed approximately 113 of them to make this:


Yes, I know the bottom looks shoddy. I still have to cut it to make it even. But it's for Lucas's birthday party, yay! Little by little, things are getting done around here!

Monday meant gymnastics! It was Ella's last class before her little recital next week, so she spent a lot of time practicing her different routines!


I think this guy wants to take gymnastics lessons too! 


Tuesday, Lucas and I went to story time while Ella was at preschool. Of course he was completely humiliated with me taking his picture. 


And to be even more of a crappy parent, I totally forgot our shopping cart cover, so he was basically swimming in the top of the Target cart. 


Yesterday, we went to church story time, and there was a fire truck outside! They happened to be visiting the daycare at our church and we totally crashed their visit!




The fire fighters didn't know about Marshall (WHAT?!), so Ella had to tell them all about him! 


Afterwards, we had a picnic lunch and played at the park for a little bit!


I think all of our playing outside has caught up with us...both kids' allergies are at an all time high today (Ella even got sent home early from preschool!). If you have any allergy remedies, please send them my way....for Ella, we have been doing children's Claritin and local honey, but obviously Lucas can't have either of those. 
Hopefully everyone will be better by Saturday because we have Lucas's cake smash pictures!!!! Eeeek!
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Lent 2017: 40 Acts of Kindness

This year for Lent, instead of giving something up, I decided to take something on. You all know I love some random acts of kindness (2012 | 2015), so I thought doing 1 act of kindness a day for each day in Lent would be a great thing to do! 

I wanted to share what I did in case any of you are looking for easy ways to spread some joy in your lives! :) 

March 1: Send a bottle of wine to my parents' hotel room for my mom's birthday.

{sorry for the blurry pic! my dad sent it to me, haha}

March 2: Call my grandparents.
I just love my grandparents and don't call them enough to say hi! Doing this more often for sure.

March 3: Save someone's spot in line at a consignment sale.


March 4: Make and send a birthday card to my brother


{March 5 was a Sunday...I didn't do an act of kindness each Sunday in Lent, because then that would have been 46 acts in all! And I had a hard time coming up with 40! My minister dad told me it was ok to skip Sundays!}

March 6: Write a letter to Jenna.


Oh y'all. This was one of the few things that tore. me. up. this Lenten season! My sorority sister, Jenna, had been battling stage 4 colon cancer and a week prior to me writing her this note, her husband had posted on Facebook that she would be put in to Hospice care that week. My heart just ached for not only her, but for her family, especially her little girl who is 2 months younger that Ella. I could still cry now just thinking about it. 
Anyway, a week after I sent her that card, Jenna lost her battle to cancer. I don't know if she was even able to read my note, but I am so glad I didn't wait to send it. 

March 7: Leave a note in Ella's lunchbox. 


She LOVED it. Totally need to do this more often, too!

March 8: Pay for the person behind me at Starbucks.


March 9: Walk (ok, I ran) instead of drive to pick Ella up from preschool. 


So this sounds really lame, but I am the worst driver on the planet (I was voted "Most Accident Prone" in high school!), so it really was an act of kindness to all my fellow drivers out there. And also I was being kind to the Earth by saving gas! 

March 10: Donate frozen breastmilk


I think this was probably one of my favorite acts that I did. Someone posted on our Facebook moms group that her supply was tanking and she wasn't ready to switch her baby to formula just yet. Several of us offered to donate some of our milk to her. Since Lucas still won't take a bottle, I had 70+ ounces just sitting in my freezer, and I had no clue what I was going to do with them all! So glad I could help a fellow mama out! 

March 11: Donate to the JRDF fundraiser for Ella's preschool. 


March 13: Order books for Ella; part of the proceeds help to buy new books for her teachers!


March 14: Join bone marrow registry.


This was the easiest thing to do ever, and I would encourage everyone to join if they haven't already! Go to bethematch.org

March 15: Hide $1 bills in the Dollar Spot at Target. 


March 16: Send in treats for Ella's preschool teachers.


March 17: Leave coupons on shelves around Target. 


March 18: Donate old clothes/housewares to Goodwill.


March 20: Leave a treat for the mail carrier. 


She left a note in our mailbox saying thank you, which I thought was really sweet!

March 21: Tidy up shelves at the store.

Before:


After: 


March 22: Leave heads up pennies on the sidewalk.


March 23: Donate soap to Ella's preschool.


Her teachers had sent an email saying they were running low on soap...so I was all over that! 

March 24: Stick extra quarters in parking meters. 


March 25: Cheer on other runners during my 8K.


There was one particular guy who kept stopping (I think he kept cramping up), and I'd pass him...then he'd get running again and pass me. We must have passed one another at least 6-8 times. I tried to cheer him on every time I saw him stop. We both finished around the same time and he came up to me at the finish line and gave me a big high five! 

March 27: Hold doors open for people as much as possible.


March 28: Put encouraging post-it notes in books at the library


March 29: Comment on 5 blogs.


Need to do this more for sure!

March 30: Leave coupons around the craft store.


March 31: Give books and toys to the hospital in honor of a baby's heart transplant anniversary.


This was another one that fell into my lap thanks to the mom Facebook group! A mom posted that her sweet baby had received a heart transplant almost a year ago, and she wanted to do something to celebrate that...he is now doing great with his new heart, ps! 

April 1: Donate to Charlie's GoFundMe.


Ok, this is the one that wrecked me like NO tomorrow. Thanks a lot, Kyle Richards, for posting about this baby on your Instagram. If you know me, you know that my achilles heel is sick babies, especially boys who are around Lucas's age. So when I saw this sweet boy pop up on my Instagram feed, I had to learn more about his story. You can read it all here...Charlie's whole ordeal is still going on, but man oh man, did I cry some big tears for this little guy!!! I believe you can still donate to their GoFundMe as well, which you can find here

Ok, no more sad things now!!! Promise!!!

April 3: Comment (instead of just "like") as many Instagram/Facebook posts as possible.


April 4: Offer to pick up a shift at the Y.


April 5: Donate candy-filled eggs for our church Easter egg hunt.


April 6: Leave diapers on a public changing table. 


April 7: Offer to let Kathryn's dogs out. 


April 8: Let someone go in front of me at the post office.


April 10: Send letters to out-of-state friends.


Two of them are pregnant, so I threw in some Buy Buy Baby coupons for those mamas-to-be as well!

April 11: Donate books to the little library at Park Road Park.


Another one that I found out about through my moms Facebook group! Haha, this is why I can't quit Facebook! 

April 12: Buy my ticket for Bunco for Babies.


This is a local fundraiser to support military families and is being put on by some of my good friends! Local ladies, get your tickets here! :) 

April 13: Return carts in parking lot.


April 14: Leave bubbles around park/playground.


April 15: Leave positive sticky notes on mirror in a fitting room. 


Whew! There you have it!!!
40 acts of kindness was a lot...I kept a list on my phone and only had 32 ideas at the beginning of Lent! But, thankfully, I was shown several ideas for acts throughout these 6 weeks. If this kind of thing is up your alley, hopefully I've given you a few new ideas for acts of kindness, too! :) 
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