Life Lately

From The Lazy Genius podcast: 

"Noticing the simple things, makes us to continue to notice, and be thankful for them. Then, we put our energy into that simple enjoyment, instead of spinning out over things that don't matter."

Name some things that are simple right now:

1. the first sip of a nitro cold brew with sweet cream

2. snuggling under my Disneyland blanket with the fan blowing on me

3. watching my son take initiative to be a helper

4. listening to my son read

5. watching my daughter dance whenever music plays

6. my little Books and Coffee sign that lights up when I plug it into my laptop

Life Lately

It is the last Life Lately in May! This has been super fun to reflect on these crazy times.

Almost, but I'm celebrating as if it is!

All smiles with my boy! And Minnie!

We've had gorgeous weather and having a lot of outdoor playtime!

One of my absolutely favorite Fab Four Smoothies! If you don't know about the Fab Four, check out the book Body Love by Kelley LeVeque. So important to fuel ourselves with good foods after we've shoveled in all the quarantine snacks.

#wordcount: 17,283

Life Lately

Another week winding down and coming to an end... where did the time go?

After a nap, this girl is all smiles.

In love with this iPhone wallpaper from www.emilyley.com

R doing some distance learning.

Hopped on the bitmoji virtual office bandwagon. This took way to long to admit.

#wordcount: 16,052

Life Lately

Not going to lie - this has been a rough week.

It is hard to encourage others when you feel discouraged. 

School at home while also working a full-time job is hard.

Finding time to myself for some self-care is hard.

Doing things to help my stress is hard.

Taking time to find the beautiful things is hard.

I think we're all feeling the isolation a little differently, now 2 months in. Decisions from our state governor and our state health department change so regularly, as this is the first time we're dealing with a pandemic. You can't really fault anyone on this.

So, I don't have a great photo from the fun we've had in the past week. Life lately is just hard. But I will submit to the Lord with prayer and thanksgiving.

#wordcount:13,285

Life Lately

Happy Thursday! Here's what we've been up to:

Daddy did E's hair and she looked about 5 years old. #slowdown

 

I shared on Target Haul Tuesday how a $10 pool is saving our sanity!

Distance learning hotshot!

I'm doing RunDisney's virtual 5k series! On Tuesday night, I completed the Space Mountain 5k.

"Princess Pasta" from my pink princess!

A rare moment where they are not throwing things at each other's heads.

Early morning walks in fancy sparkle shoes!

Ballet class in Zoom

#wordcount: 12,047

Everyday in May - Kicking it Off!

This month, I'm blogging everyday!
In addition to the post, and to add an extra layer of accountability, I'm going to give my word count on my manuscript.

Each day will give a new post for the following topics:

Mondays: Amazon Mondays, where I share a rare find from Amazon that I want to share.
Tuesdays: Target Tuesday! because, Target.
Wednesdays: Worship Wednesday, where I share songs or messages from the weekend that are worth a read.
Thursdays: Life Lately, because documenting this crazy time is pretty funny!
Fridays: Small Biz Friday, to share small businesses that need our patronage and are doing incredible things.
Saturdays: What I Read Last Week, because you might want to read it too!
Sundays: Sunday Funday, where I share a memory from past Disneyland trips, in hopes to one day return to the parks.

Since today is Small Biz Friday, I'm highlighting:

https://castleboundsupplyco.com/

I found Castle Bound via Instagram, where I saw this amazing custom Small World clock:

The shop "opens" every Sunday at 5pm PST to floral ears and magical home decor. 

I ordered this clock for my daughter's room. I can't wait for it to come!

They have amazing custom pieces to bring some of the Disney magic, that we're missing, home.

Take care!

Lisa

#wordcount: 10,121

Support Indie Bookstores

Reading is my self-care. I'll take it any way I can get it. Libraries are my jam, especially with ebooks and audiobooks I can check out while we're in quarantine.  This helps authors and publishers, too.

If you're like me, you've given a LOT of business to Amazon and Target for books. While listening to a podcast yesterday, I was reminded of the indie bookstores that could really benefit from my business during this time.

Did Kathleen Kelley teach me nothing?! 













Allow me to introduce, or reintroduce, you to www.bookshop.org. You can get pretty much any book on this site. So far, $570,275.86 has been raised for local bookstores!

Am I getting Amazon pricing? No. 

Prime shipping? No. 

Fast shipping? No.

Am I helping support small businesses? Yes.

Am I still getting books in my and my children's hands? Yes.

Then that's all I need to know.

Blessings!
Lisa

First World Problems

In this crazy, upside-down, surreal time, I want to declare permission for all the moms who do it all to brain drain their losses.

Will it change the current state of our world? Nope.

So often, we have to remember how very blessed we are. What we perceive as problematic, obviously doesn't stand against world poverty, hunger, lack of drinkable water, the list goes on.

However, this is our reality. By just reading this, I can confidently state you are in the 1% of the world's richest people. Don't believe me? Go to http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Still, we are pained when plans have to change. My kids' birthday party is off. I know people who planned on going to weddings...not anymore. Planning on taking your kids to the movies? Think again. My Disneyland is closed through the end of March.

This opportunity (yes, I'm going to go Pollyanna, and call this an opportunity) affords us to take inventory of what we have and pray for those who lack. Slow done and count those blessings. What we can't do in physical community we need to make up for in distancing. Pray!

Life Lately

Home watching the Rams game, 2 year old laying on top of me, as I type. 5 year old eating Trader Joe's ghost and bat chips. Hubby in bedroom attending virtual class meeting for his MPA. Reflecting on this beautiful Autumn day...

In the final days of my Fall Break, I slept today. Glorious sleep. I watched two movies that had been on my watch-list forever. Two!! Did some laundry. Wrote 3 invitations for family to come over for Thanksgiving. Had the kids stamp leaves on the envelopes. Dogs tried fresh dog food for the first time. I think they're addicted! Walked them to the mailbox and back. Went to the dentist for a cleaning. Saw my dear friend, and 2nd grade teacher, Becky. She's recently healed of colo-rectal cancer, Hallelujah! Made plans for a proper catch-up visit next week. Delivered pizza to a dear friend and her family as she recovers from surgery. Listened to the audio-book version of Tattoos of the Heart by Father Gregory Boyle. Sent my dad home with pizza for he and my mom to enjoy. Fed kids pizza and organic fruit snacks, without any dye. Why is dye still a thing?

I'm marveling at my relaxed state today. While I enjoy my job, I love being on break. I'm seeing things differently. I have a different energy. I am giving myself time. I'm not exhausted. I'm not frustrated. I'm not irritated. I've actually brought out the PAINT! I'm putting effort in friendships. I'm cooking. I'm baking. I'm making memories.

I'm writing. I'm back on track. It was a really challenging 2 months of work. Taking a few days off work is healthy. It's necessary.

Life Lately

Nothing like a little life lately post to make you want summer to just freeze and savor the moments a bit longer. Especially since I can't turn off my teacher's brain. I've been prepping for next year instead of reading, cleaning, or weeding the yard. LOL --who wants to weed the yard?!

I ordered this shirt for Independence Day from Githerments. Isn't it cute?

@Githerments is an Instagram store that only takes orders on Mondays, for like, an hour. They are all Disney-inspired shirts and so so adorable.

I chose the next book in Jen Hatmaker's Modern Girl's series and can't wait to dive in:

If you've never read Jen Hatmaker, I highly recommend all her books. Follow her on social media and you'll fall in love with her! She says all the things I think but am too chicken to say. She loves Jesus, her family, and books. We are obviously BFFs.

Saturday morning started with our usual walk to breakfast at Starbucks.

This guys loves him some pumpkin bread!

#hegotitfromhismama 

I decided later that night that this would make the perfect Father's Day gift for my hubby. Give him all the sour gummies!

On Monday, we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.

 #bronze

Love this guy more each day!

 Tuesday was our big first day of swim lessons!

We started with some breakfast at Starbucks with my dad.

They have a sweet and strong bond!

This guy loves the water!

 Later that day, this cutie came over for a playdate lunch.

She loves her some guacamole!

That night, I was overcome with drowsiness. I turned in early and woke up Wednesday later that usual. When I looked at my FitBit app, I saw this:

I guess I was really tired!

The rest of this week is more swimming, followed by a CPR class this Saturday and the wedding of my hubby's coworker. 

Please summer, slow down!

Life Lately: House Reveal!

I love our Spanish style home! It just wasn't quite Spanish-style. It needed a fresh coat of white paint, and some great trees.

When we bought our home 2 years ago, the grass had been left for dead, so the "before" pic is several years ago, when we weren't in a drought.

Before

Annnnddddd....

After

We took off the shutters that had served no purpose, had the house painted a beautiful white, and the eaves and facia chocolate brown. We chose 3 windmill palms and 1 pindo palm, plus 9 Italian cypresses to line the property. We have 12 jasmine plants starting out to eventually climb a trellis to cover the meter and electric box. We also have a  fruitless olive tree at the end of our driveway. EVENTUALLY, we want to do rock, a fountain, and some artificial grass to finish the yard. For now, I LOVE the house!

January-February 2017

January 2017

This was from a great book! Had to write it down.

A boy and his dog :)

In a movie theatre seeing "Sing"

Ryan received this tee ball toy when he turned 1...he's finally ready for it, and was loving the box!

Sweet boys!

I loved this graphic... a great reminder!

We love visiting the steamies at Travel Town!

February:

Sweet boy enjoying the cool weather!

Just warm enough to swing for a bit!

Handsome gentleman!

Went to Knott's Berry Farm! Always a favorite!

Goofing around with Pa at Knott's Berry Farm!

Ready to explore Camp Snoopy!

His first big-boy ride!

So brave!

He rode the balloons with all of us throughout the day!

My boy loves his ketchup!

Waiting in line and goofing with daddy!

This brave guy!

Ryan passed out Valentines to his church friends:

We celebrated our 2nd annual Galentine's Day!

Hubby brought me an obnoxious bouquet:

And my students used heart-shaped marshmallows to build towers!

We goofed around especially for V-Day!

Went to Palm Springs for a couple days...finally got to check out the Living Desert Zoo:

Celebrated hubby's birthday at Schnitzelhaus:

The next morning getting coffee:

Reading with Pa:

And enjoying a bath!

Goofing around with snap filters:

My little boy loves to read!

Getting ready for his first time bowling!