Comfort and Joy

I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will
give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
Jeremiah 31:13

Friday, March 30, 2012

Five for Friday-cleaning supplies

This Five for Friday is a post on some of my favorite cleaning items.

5 favorite cleaning items:
1. Clorox Wipes - allows me to clean up the kitchen and bathroom in a matter of seconds.  Love these and will never live without them.  They are used constantly in my house.


2.  Clorox Toilet bowl Wand.  I hate cleaning toilets so I love that you don't have to touch anything but the handle and can throw away the sponge afterwards.  I appreciate my mom more and more as I get older and I really appreciate that she cleaned the toilets with 3 men in her home.  Gross!!!
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3.  Shower cleaner.  I found this recipe on pinterest and it does seem to clean the glass on my shower pretty well.


4.  Dyson Ball Vaccuam - Love this vacuam, especially with dog hair.  We don't have Sadie in Boston but I still use this all the time.  We will get her back when we move back to Memphis so this appliance will always have an important job in my household.  They also have great customer service.


5.  Dirt Devil Red Dustbuster - My old Kone Dustbuster died recently and I thought I was going to go nuts using just my broom and dustpan.  This is a new thing for me to have to clean up kids food after they eat.  I am used to my old trusty dustbuster (Sadie) and really missed her when we moved here.  I now sweep the floors and then use the dustbuster to clean up the mess.  This one is great because it has a small crevice tool that gets between the cracks of their highchairs as well.


*If you are an organic/green cleaner than I applaud you.  I am trying to become more green (Boston will really encourage you to do it) but I am making the transition slowly.  I am a person of habit and love the trusty things that work for me.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Pinterest projects

Here is a list of the projects I have done that were inspired by Pinterest.

Using peeps for decoration in a flower arrangement -
Pinterest:
Source: bing.com via Brittany on Pinterest
My flower arrangement using peeps
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Using plastic eggs for educational purposes
Pinterest:


My eggs for educational purpose - matching upper case and lower case letters on an egg.  I used scrap book paper letters you would find at Michael's and matched them up and then pulled them apart for Austin to put back together for a match.  



Some really good recipes I have found from Pinterest.
Bunny Bait recipe from Pinterest - I didn't take a picture of mine but it was good.

Making a Thankful Banner-
Pinterest:  



I have made a banner for a few holidays over our window. IMG_4651   
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The Burn Book
Pinterest: 



















Our Burn Book:


Shamrocks
Pinterest: 

Instead of saying lucky we said happy:
Austin's 4 leaf clover


The Thankful tree-
Pinterest:
Our Thankful Tree:
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Making a book out of your Christmas cards-
Pinterest:
We made ours into a prayer book so each night we turn to the next card and pray for that family on the card.  It has been a great visual tool for my boys to know how and who they are praying for.  
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Prayer pail with prayer sticks:
Pinterest:




Our prayer pail with sticks: the boys pick 3 sticks at night along with the prayer card that we pray for.  Another great visual tool for praying.  
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Husband cute notes-
Saw this on Pinterest and thought it was cute.  I didn't take a picture of mine but enjoyed doing it for David.  


T-shirt Superhero capes-
Pinterest:

Source: thesoutherninstitute.com via Brittany on Pinterest
Our capes:
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Painting your name on a canvas with tape-
Pinterest:
Our canvas:
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Craft letters-
Pinterest:

Our letters:
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Sending a hug through the mail-I can't find where I pinned it on Pinterest but I'm pretty sure thats where I found the idea.
Our hug: We did handprints from each child and tied them together with ribbon and then mailed them to the grandparents for Valentine's Day.  
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Would love to hear about some of your creative Pinterest ideas...or you may not even need Pinterest to inspire you to be creative.  Feel free to post some in the comments section!  Happy pinning!

Monday, March 26, 2012

College girls weekend in Boston

This past weekend 3 of my best friends from college flew to Boston for our annual girls weekend.  To say we had a blast is an understatement.  It was truly a wonderful weekend.  We have been close friends since we pledged the same sorority in the fall of 1998.  That is getting close to 14 years.  We have all been in each others weddings and celebrated, rejoiced, and grieved with each other through some beautiful and difficult times.  We have celebrated the birth of 9 babies and grieved the loss of 1.  We have prayed numerous prayers over all our children but especially over Forrest and Hines who we were worried wouldn't make it after a difficult birth this past September.  Thankfully Hines is doing wonderful and healthy as can be.  These three have seen me at my best and they have seen me at my worst and have loved me despite my flaws.  I am honored to be their friends and walk through life with them.

Now, on to the weekend...
On Friday Jennie landed at 12:15 and braved the subway all by herself.  She did an awesome job and made it to my apartment around 1:15.  I wasn't quite ready for her because I thought they were all coming together and would be closer to 3:00 but I was thrilled to have her here earlier!  We had a chance to catch up while the boys were napping.  Kacee and Ashley flew in close to 2:00 and took the subway together and made it around 3:15 to my apartment.  We sat around catching up while we waited on Miller to wake up.  After my little man was up the boys and I took them on a tour of our little area.  We showed them some of our favorite things around our neighborhood.  We headed back to our apartment when David got off work and got ready to go out that night.
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We took the T into the city to eat at Lolita, a fun little restaurant off of Copley Square.  Unfortunately when we arrived there was an hour and half wait but we made the best of it by ordering a pitcher of our favorite margarita and getting an appetizer to share.
Yes ma'am
The dinner and company were perfect and the cotton candy they bring you at the end was a perfect way to end the night.  After dinner we took the T back to my apartment and spread out all over my tiny 1000 square foot apartment.  Love Lolita cotton candy
The next morning we woke up with the boys, spent some time with them and David and then headed into the city for our Freedom Trail Tour.  I found a deal on Groupon for the tour and thought it would be fun for us to see a little history of Boston.  We dropped our bags at our Bed and Breakfast and met up with our tour guide.
Freedom trail tour with the southern girls
Our tour ended at Faneuil Hall Marketplace so we spent some time there and then headed over to the Long Wharf so the girls could see the Boston Harbor.  IMG_6264
After a little retail therapy we headed back to our Bed and Breakfast.  I found our place on the Bed and Breakfast Website and it was the perfect place.  The location was ideal...on Commonwealth Avenue less than 1 block from Boston Gardens.  It was perfect and the room was great as well.  IMG_6265 IMG_6266 IMG_6267 IMG_6268
After we all got cleaned up we headed out for a little more shopping on Newbury Avenue and then for dinner at Stephanie's on Newbury.  We all had a delicious dinner and great conversation just catching up.

(This next picture is obviously not the best, Kacee doesn't usually have a black thing above her eye and are eyes aren't all the best but I wanted to have one picture that showed what we looked like before dinner.
Our night out on The town Love Stephanie's on Newbury
After dinner we headed to the Prudential building where we planned on having drinks at Top of the Hub.  Unfortunately I tripped, rehurt my hip from the race, and then the drinks didn't seem like such a good idea.  We did get incredible views of the whole city from the top.
3OCbghH5i0Vt4gF3fHiRLjtedA5oQNbj9p7lrJlmzxp8-zfTOCnCsY_-tIQqwIt6Oi51kdSatyJmJ5a59KEBtG5ST46R_dJSmdqMvPg9FgPAvumfVp-O2-3OlOaI.jpgThe girls at the Pru Top of the Hub
We woke up Sunday and had breakfast at our place and then headed out to see Beacon Hill and the River.  I made sure we stopped off to visit our favorite ducks.
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After our morning walk we unfortunately had to return to The College Club to pack our bags and check out of our room.  Ashley was the first to fly home so we started our journey to get her to the airport.  My sweet husband was coming out of church at the same time we were starting to walk to the T so he just picked Ashley up and took her to the airport.
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Kacee, Jennie, and I took the T to the North End and made sure we had one last piece of pizza and a pastry from Mike's Pastry.

Jennie and I then said goodbye to Kacee as she went one way on the T and we went the other way.

After we left Kacee we headed to the Prudential to do a little shopping/roaming around.  We would both love a pair of lululemon Groove Pants so we decided to try some on just for fun.  After the Prudential we headed back to our B&B to pick up our bags and head home/airport.  We then said goodbye and I headed home to my boys.  I picked up a little "happy" for the boys from the trip and a treat from Mike's Pastry's.
Gift from mommy from her girls weekend IMG_6291
The wonderful weekend ended with Miller tripping and landing directly on the coffee table.  He was so precious holding a bag of peas on his head.  Miller has a bump on his head :(
The weekend truly couldn't have gone any better.  Thank you Ashley, Kacee, and Jennie for making the trip up to Boston.  I loved showing you the city we have fallen in love with.  I am so thankful for each of you and the wonderful friendship we share!  Can't wait for our next trip in October!