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It was such a lovely fall weekend! The temperatures dropped over the last few days and it actually got me in the Christmas-y spirit, finally.

Friday: We spent the evening at home and decided to make it a special “date night in” night. We put Ayla to bed a little early, and then Ben and I had a “date” in the living room with apple crisp, frozen yogurt, and hot drinks. It was a cozy evening at home, and even though I would have loved to have gone out for an evening together, it was still a date!

Saturday: We met some friends from church for breakfast in the morning, and had such a good time talking and getting to know them and their little girl who was actually born on the same day as Ayla. I think they are meant to be friends, hehe! We stayed and chatted with them as long as our little miss allowed us to, but eventually nap time called and we had to head out. We did a quick stop at Lowe’s for some house stuff on the way home, and I think we have our kitchen floors and countertops both decided on, so huge sigh of relief here. The afternoon was full of house work and chores, and Ben put our new shed in place in the yard so we’ll be able to get a lot of things cleared out of the garage now, woot! We semi-watched the football game in the afternoon, but both ended up having things to get done yet that day so we didn’t really get to sit down and watch much. I ran into town at half-time for groceries and a quick Target run for living room curtains (which are finally put up and it feels like we’re officially moved in now, hehe), and came back home at five thirty in a terrible funk. It was like one of those things when you know you’re acting like a child but it seems almost impossible to just snap out of it…like, I just want to act immature for a little bit here. Goodness, I’m embarrassed of myself just even typing that out. But that’s the truth of how my Saturday afternoon was…and thankfully, I did manage to snap out of my immaturity after talking out all the things going on in my heart and mind with Ben. It’s weird how it can just make it better to simply talk about it, right? So we talked and I realized that I was stressing out over things that didn’t need to be stressed out over and I just needed to take a chill pill. I’m much better now, hehe.

Sunday: We had a quiet morning at home, playing with Ayla and being cozy in front of the fireplace. We lit the fireplace for the first time on Saturday night, and it just creates such instant coziness that I love! Ayla loves to sit and watch the flames and grins at the crackles and pops that come from the wood. Ben went out to walk in the woods at a nearby state park for a while in the morning, and I made lunch and a big stack of pancakes to have ready for our supper after church while he was gone. We had church in the afternoon and came home to eat pancakes and eggs and catch up with some sweet young friends that are here to visit us for a few days. It was a great start to a full week of spending time with family and friends!

Here are five things I love:
– this attitude
– this genius product
– these ideas for Thanksgiving leftovers
– yes to this
– this pretty clutch // keep your eyes open for a giveaway coming soon!!!

Have a great holiday week, dears!

It’s another weekend update, and it was a fun one!

Friday:: Ben’s best friend, Austin, came to visit for the weekend and flew in on Friday evening. We spent the evening with him and Ben’s brother and family at their home having dinner and conversation and catching up.

Saturday:: We had breakfast at home and then spent the rest of the morning doing chores around the house before taking Austin out for lunch to The Pharmacy. I don’t know what it is about those Pharmacy burgers that just pull you in, but we are hooked! I switched it up and ordered the falafel burger this time and it was so super delicious. If you’re ever in the area and feel like having one of the tastiest burgers, you know where to find it! And of course we had to watch the Clemson game in the afternoon since we are ranked NUMBER ONE and all right now. We won so that was cool. I also had one of my uncles from South Carolina stop in for a little visit in the afternoon on his way home from Kentucky, so that was a neat surprise. The guys went out to town for the evening, so Ayla and I had a quiet night at home. She went down to bed a little earlier than normal and I did some cooking for Sunday and tried to bake a batch of English muffins that were a huge fail and ended the day with Food Network and popcorn.

Sunday:: A few weeks after we moved, Ben and I were having breakfast on a Sunday morning in the city and couldn’t help but notice that there were so many homeless people walking around the streets of Nashville. It tugged on our hearts so much and I remember trying to fathom what it feels like to not have a place to call home…I literally don’t think I can even fully imagine what that’s like. It’s such a sad reality! We decided that sometime we wanted to pack up some breakfast sandwiches and bring them into the city on a weekend morning to hand out to the homeless people and engage them and pray with them. And we just never got around to it until this weekend! We got up early on Sunday morning, ate a quick breakfast, filled up a dozen paper sack bags with breakfast sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, and bananas, and headed out for downtown. We really didn’t know what we were doing or where to even really go to find the people we were looking for, and we spent the first forty-five minutes aimlessly driving around trying to find people who looked homeless. After a while, we decided to park along a street and take our basket of paper sack bags with us to walk around looking for people who needed a meal. We ended up walking by a church that was actually serving a breakfast meal for the homeless and ran into the pastor standing outside the door. We told him what we were trying to do and asked him where we could go to find people who needed some food, and he immediately took us over to a group of men (who were homeless) and had them tell us the best place(s) to go. We only had to walk about a block down from the church to a small plaza with park benches and sitting areas to find about twenty people milling around, and it didn’t take us long to empty out our small basket of food. I walked up to a woman sitting on a bench with a toddler in a stroller in front of her and two young girls beside her and asked if they had a place to call home…and it broke my heart to realize that the only place they had as a home was a homeless shelter. One of the girls asked me if I knew where they were serving food today…and I told her about the church down the street, but also that we were there with some breakfast meals for them. We talked for a while and prayed for them before we left…and I walked away feeling so haunted to be honest. Looking in the faces of these little girls and this woman and knowing they didn’t have a place of their own to go to…it was heartbreaking. It was really fulfilling and fun to be out giving and praying with these people, but it was absolutely heartbreaking at the same time. We headed back home to get lunch ready after giving out all the breakfast meals and Ben’s brother’s family came over to eat with us. Funny thing:: I had experimented with making this raw pumpkin pie thing for dessert and while I didn’t think it was the best thing ever, I also didn’t think it was too bad so I went ahead and served it at lunch. I gave a big disclaimer to everyone as they were ready to dig in and wasn’t going to be offended by anyone who didn’t want to eat it if they didn’t think it was good. Ben’s two nephews had come running back to the table when they saw dessert come out but only lasted for about a bite each before wrinkling up their little noses and leaving the table again, hehe. Kids don’t lie, right?! We went to church in the afternoon and then the guys went out for supper afterwards while I brought Ayla back home for bed since she was once again having her famous Sunday evening melt-down. She did great during worship and napped during most of the message, but the last twenty minutes of the service were just a little rough. It’s getting better every week, so we’ll take it!