When Communities Give Back

Summer time. That magical time of the year when kids get to play outside all day, go to bed late, get up late and just have too much fun. It means pools, beaches, cookouts, and sun.

Only. Sometimes it doesn't.

Y'all, do you realize for a lot of kids school days are the only days they can count on getting any food? What happens when it's the summer and they don't know if they're getting any food? This thought seriously breaks my heart.

I'm blessed to live in a community and in a neighborhood where there are people that help. Allow me to introduce you to F.I.S.H.

F.I.S.H. stands for Faith In Serving Humanity. They're an outreach program sponsored by local churches, and they do so much for the community. Some examples include helping needy families pay for their rent, utilities, or medicines. Setting up thrift stores to sell large ticket items like washers and dryers for less than $20. And what I want to focus on, feeding the community.

Each month, needy families are able to get F.I.S.H. Care. It's several weeks' worth of food at no cost to the family. The outreach program is funded solely on donations and volunteer work. They do this because they want to help the community. I'm not ashamed to say the care packages have helped us several times in the past few months. It's just really amazing to know there's help when you need it most.

And back to the school children. The ones that are in need. The ones that are wondering where their three square meals are coming from. F.I.S.H has not forgotten about them. Enter F.I.S.H. for Kid's!

This is a summer feeding program. Each weekday (Mon thru Fri) volunteers load up their cars with sack lunches to deliver to the children. These lunches include a sandwich or hotdog, a juice box, a fruit cup or applesauce, chips, and a granola bar. This way, at least once a day kids in need are getting a good healthy meal.

The way it works is the volunteers drive through various areas of the neighborhoods. They honk the car horns repeatedly to let families know they're outside. All they need is to see the children and no matter what, no questions asked, these kids get a free sack lunch. How amazing is that? It seriously warms my heart to know there are so many wonderful people willing to help, and willing to make sure the kids in their community have at least one good meal.

Giving back to these types of programs is super easy too. Most, like this one has a way to donate money online. But there's also tons of phone numbers and email addresses to reach out and ask how you can help. Interested in seeing if your community has something like this? Simple! Just go to a local church and ask. Last week I mentioned that we may have found a new Church family. It's true, and I'll get to that more later. This Church we've fallen in love with does not have anything like this currently, and when I mentioned it to them immediately planning began to get something started.

Kids are meant to be kids, y'all. Kids shouldn't have to worry about their next meal.
Because of people like this with such amazing hearts I am grateful. I have a grateful heart knowing I live in such an amazing community.

linking up with Emily 

Something else I'm grateful for?? Blogging Friends. This week I will be celebrating this blog's one year Anniversary. Emelia, Kerri, and I have teamed up with some amazing ladies to give YOU a gift for our blogiversaries!

Your June Blogiversary Host Ladies: Emelia, Kerri & Melissa

The Party People & Awesome Co-Hosts: 

Niki, Becca, Anne, Kati 

The Gals- B&M, Rebekah, Lisa, Julia, Hope

Lindsay, Kate, Linda, Alex, Rachael

Meagan, Kristin, Erica, Kelly, Rebecca 

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Best Friends

Happy Last Day of School to the kids in Georgia. We're a crazy state that has school run from very early August (Zander will go back Aug 5 this year) to Mid May. So I'm pretty sure most, if not all of the state starts Summer Vacation today.

Earlier this week, when I picked up Zander from school his teachers were giving all of the parents a little "last week of school" package. It included a lot of artwork and projects the kids had been working on throughout the year, snippets of paper to show how much their writing had improved, and my favorite thing: pictures. Each student had a CD full of pictures from their year in pre-k.

This was at the beginning of the pictures on the CD. I may have cried a little reading it.

I'm blessed to have a very social, friendly son. He takes after his mama and makes friends with ease. I knew throughout the year he had become close with a handful of the kids in his class and eventually I could identify his "best friends". The ones he talked about the most. Having this CD of pictures really showed me how Zander interacted with the kids in his class during the year.

Y'all. I can tell he's really formed strong bonds with his best friends. Twice during the school year we had parent teacher conferences. At each one his teachers gushed over the fact that Zander is such a good friend. He's kind, caring, forgiving, and loving. He thinks about his friends' feelings before his own. He shares.  His teachers made sure to let us know "not every child in this class has those traits".

I'm gushing with pride, y'all. My son has learned at a very young age the true value of friendship. He's already developed close bonds with children that he will most likely know for several years to come. I still remember my first best friend from pre-k. This person leaves a mark with you. An imprint if you will.

On this very special Friday, I'm going to photo dump some of my favorite pictures of Zander and his friends. I'm grateful for the fact that my son has these special bonds, these amazing friends, and the fact that he loves school so much!!

my little scientist. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!

Linking up with Emily

My (Blogging) Friends are Cooler than Yours.

Y'all, I have a lot on my mind lately. Mostly good things but there's a few mixed emotions in there too. Yesterday Christine posted about the Tribe, and I kind of had to branch off of that post a bit.

You see, I completely agree with her post. This Tribe that we're in is an amazing group of ladies. I'm sure most of blog land already knows them, but I'd like to take a moment to highlight them a little today. Mostly because this year has had a lot of ups and downs for me and they've all been there to support me in different ways. I'm truly blessed to know these ladies and call them friends.
In no particular order:

Kendra @ Kenji Is Here. Kenji really inspires me to stay on my fitness path. Battling a chronic illness and still getting the strength to go to the gym? Yes please! But it's not even just that. She's real, she's kind, and she loves dance parties. Why wouldn't you want to be friends with her? I mean seriously!! (PS: she's the current Daddy Llama in post sponsor here too, y'all!!)

Cassie @ Sage. Cassie gives great advice y'all. No kidding. When I was stuck in fitness rut, she came to my rescue. But she's all about building community and raising people up, so it's no surprise that she helped me out. Her love for God and her love for friends is truly an inspiration and I'm so blessed to have her in my life.

Christine @ The So-Called Homemaker. I had the honor to meet Christine at one of the Atlanta Blogging Network events last year. She's seriously just as sweet and genuine as she comes across on her blog. Even if she doesn't get snapchat, she's still a wonderful person to be able to call "friend".

That's me on the left and Christine on the right playing blogging games!

Amanda @ Knock on Wood. My IRL bestie. Amanda has been my go-to gal for almost 9 years. That's nearly a decade, y'all. I'm seriously glad she convinced me to start this little blog. You want honest advice? She's got it! I'm so glad she's been in my life for as long as she has because some days I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't call on her... even if it's about a laugh over an ex boyfriend!

'cause that's how we roll, yo!

Anne @ Love the Here and Now. If anyone has a bad thing to say about Anne, then you don't really know her. She puts her family first and I love that! She constantly reminds me that I'm not a bad mom, and she's forever telling me to just breathe... it will get better. Thanks for keeping me grounded when I need it most, Anne.

Emily @ Ember Grey. I'm not gonna lie, when I first started reading Emily's blog, I was intimidated to comment. She's so pretty and her posts are always what you need to read. You may not have known that you needed to read them, but trust me... you did. I'm so glad I started commenting. Emails turned to texts. Texts turned to phone calls. Now, I'm thankful I can randomly get a laugh about packing for trips at the last minute with this gal.

Meagan @ All The Joys & Rebecca @ The Adventures of Bug & Boo. Meagan and Rebecca were dubbed my blogging soul mates after a blogging matching game last year. After getting to know both of these ladies, I couldn't think of a better match. Our love of pizza runs deep, but mostly I'm happy that I can randomly text these two with panicky mommy moments!

Christine, I'm sorry for essentially copying my post, but after the day I had yesterday I seriously had to give a shout out to y'all. Please forgive me? I'll give you wine!
But in all seriousness, what Christine said yesterday rings true. In this great big blogging world, tribes are key. Communicate with other bloggers. Engage, linkup, email! It works, I promise. There's a lot I most definitely could not have gotten through this year (so far) If I didn't have these ladies!

So Much Love and Proud of It

Congrats, everyone! We've managed to survive the first week of September. By now, my bestie Amanda is in Georgia and successfully unloaded her storage unit. Being the generous friend that I am, I agreed to write a guest post for her today. Sneak peak:

 You can read the full story here!

Now... on to our regularly scheduled Friday. On Fridays we spread the blog love and link up with Meagan. But, before I get into that... I must say it's definitely been a great week. I didn't have to work Monday, but I still got paid for it (Thanks, Labor Day!). I learned Ainsley has zero fear. This is both good and bad. Bad because she will jump into a pool without knowing how to swim and not care because someone will obviously catch her no matter what, right? right... obviously. I also learned that Zander can fold (and put away) his own laundry, so guess who won't be doing it anymore? That's right, this mama! #proudmama. Also, I managed to plan (and make) a wonderful healthy meal for dinner everyday this week. Does this count for super mom status?

So my favorites this week? Well here we go!

+ Christina at The Mediocre Housewife is so great y'all. Seriously, if you're not reading her on the regular- you totally need to. (Mom bloggers: I'm talking to y'all!) This week: getting toddlers to eat and what is easier than doing so. As of lately, my toddler falls into this same category and quite honestly "Herd ling cattle. On stilts. With no depth perception." would be easier than getting Ainsley to eat some days.

+ Adam from The "Florkens" had a really interesting post this week about sitting with your thoughts. Would you be able to go 15 minutes without your phone, or would you give yourself a shock instead?

+ Anne at Love the Here & Now shared ways to be happy this week. I seriously loved this, y'all because I feel like having to be an adult is hard. Life gets in the way and it's so easy to let myself be unhappy, or to let things get to me too easily.

+ Rebecca at The Adventures of Bug and Boo was one of my matches for the Blogger Match Up (Meagan was my other match!) Rebecca is seriously a wonderful person and has seriously been through a LOT in the last few weeks! I honestly don't understand how she's moved countries, with a toddler, and being pregnant, having to start brand new, and finding time to blog. She's amazing! (And this week thankful for family!... I would be too!)

+ Kendra at Kenji is Here had a beautiful post about forgiveness this week. I know I'm guilty of saying I forgive someone, but lingering on it for too long and not really forgiving. This is a reminder that needs to be read!

+ Emily from Ember Grey on changing the world. I seriously love Emily's blog, period. Each day (each week) she has something thought provoking, interesting, or funny, or all of the above. Just go read this, you won't be sorry!

+ Ash from The Grits Blog on how to tease your hair. Yes, you read that correctly: tease. I have been terrified of ever teasing my hair... ever! but Ash makes it look easy to do, and she promises you won't have the "Texas" big hair look if you do it the way you like. So, I'll have to try it now.

What were some of your favorites this week? Ever wonder how to keep all of your faves in line? Anne had some amazing blogging tips this week, too.

This weekend I'm going to a bridal shower for one of my long time friends, Rachel. I'm super excited because I can't tell y'all the last time I had time with other girls away from the kids. I promise to update with pictures as soon as possible! Rachel is getting married in October in a big Catholic church, so I'm sure the bridal shower will be very fancy too (Sugar Hill Country Club, here I come!)

Grateful Heart Monday

Lately I've been feeling overwhelmed and stressed and I've noticed that I've been freaking out over the little things too much. So it's definitely time to step back, take a breath, and remind myself what's good in my life.

Well, I'm most definitely grateful for my children and my family. I'm so incredibly blessed to have two beautiful, caring children and a loving husband. My kids couldn't be more perfect. OK yes, they do get way too loud and fight with each other way too much, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. Even when I'm trying to talk on the phone with Amanda and it sounds like I have Tourette's. I'm grateful that when we leave the house my kids are the most well-behaved gorgeous children and everyone they meet just gush over them! 

My husband has been so incredible lately. A lot of my blog readers don't know this, but Josh suffers from depression and he's bi-polar. It's incredibly difficult to live with, and it's been a huge adjustment for me to learn about these disorders. It take a lot of patience to realize when he's having an episode that he's not mad at me. Well, he's finally found an amazing doctor and he's on a good balance of medicine to where he's not a zombie and he enjoys interacting socially. (I don't have to drag him out of the house to see people anymore). We've also been seeing a marriage therapist to work on some things in our relationship, and I highly recommend this to anyone having a "rough patch" in their relationship. Our therapist has opened  up new forms of communication and the "spark" is back between us. 

Aren't we just disgustingly cute?

Finally, I'm grateful for my new bloggy friends. I seriously love these ladies that I've gotten to know lately. (Ashley, Lora, Meagan! just to name a few) I know it's been said a million times by several bloggers, but if you're new to blogging (like me!) commenting makes a huge difference! You never know who you might get connected to, and you may end up with a fun new friend. 

What are you grateful for? Happy Monday! Let's make it a good week. 

Baby Fever... or Not...

A really good friend of mine came to visit a few days ago. We've known each other for many years, but this is the first time we've seen each other since about this time last year. We both have kids and a busy schedule, and we live 45 minutes apart so the timing to see each other is always a little difficult.

She is a stay at home mommy to 4 gorgeous kids: Lorelai (7), Piper (4), Derek (2) and Nala (3 months). I always love spending time with her because we parent similarly. Yes, I said it... I like the way she parents, and yes there are certain people I don't hang out with because I don't like the way they parent.

The problem with seeing her recently is baby Nala. Not that she's a bad baby or anything like that... No, she made me way too broody! It really didn't help that Ainsley didn't want the baby to leave. No joke, my 17 month old baby girl took claim to Nala and was only happy when she was sitting on the couch holding her.

Cuteness overload, right?

I have to remind myself that a third baby is NOT in the budget right now. And we definitely don't have the room in the house. I'm definitely not moving anytime soon to a bigger house.
Thank goodness for Mirena IUD. Even if I wanted a third baby right now, I'm not getting my IUD taken out anytime soon to start trying. *wipes brow in relief*


As cute as Ainsley was with Nala, I have a feeling she'd be a mean big sister. She's a bit of a bully at times. She takes toys from Zander, and he's three years older than she is.
No, two kids is definitely enough for now.
Thanks, blogger for allowing me to talk myself out of this. And thanks to my readers for sticking around.

Let's Be Friends!

I'm about to admit something a little creepy.

I'm a stalker. Kind of.

I'm relatively new to the blogging community, so I'm trying to branch out and make new friends. I tend to have a habit of clicking on other bloggers names in the comments of blogs I read. 

I told  you it would be creepy. 

Well, yesterday I clicked on Laney's blog. She posted an excellent link up for a blog hop. A way to meet new bloggers and make new friends. 

Of course it gave me a great opportunity to find blogs I had never read before, and now I have more reading material! Thanks, Laney! 

I'm trying to be less creeper-ish and make new friends. I promise to comment if I read your blog and not just lurk in the shadows. Let's be friends!! LOL