Counting

Today is the big day.  I'm half way thru this 2nd month of "7" and I'm going to count my clothes.

All of them.

Socks (I'm counting by pairs cuz that's what I want to do), underwear, tank tops, tee shirts, dresses, pants, shoes, all of it.  

Except my jewelry.  Because I don't want to know.

I'm going to go ahead and guess I have about 100 articles of clothing.

Be right back...

Um, I was slightly off in my guess.  Off by 68.  I have 168 articles of clothing, not counting jewelry, scarves, belts, or hats.  I probably should have counted them too.  

Because I like justification I counted how many things were given to me, bought at a thrift store, or bought new.  

18= things given to me

39= thrift store finds

44= items bought new

If you are any good at math you will realize those 3 numbers add up to 101.  That's not 168.  It's because I only counted my "real" clothes.  You know...not underwear, socks, tank tops, or flip flops.  Which means I have 67 things that nobody really sees.

Oh dear.

I wonder what the number was before I purged my closet, blogged about it, was introduced to "7", and started this journey?

I wonder what the number will be when I finish my 7th month.

I'm hoping it's reduced.  And not just so I can tell you that "7" was effective in helping me reduce the excess in my house.  I want the heart change.

This is a fast of sorts.  And I can tell you, I am not enjoying this month.  But a fast is supposed to pinch a little, is it not?  How can my heart change if there is never something uncomfortable that brings the yuckiness to light?

This month I have been surprised and appalled by how much my attitude is tied to my perception of how I look.  I thought I didn't really care that much.  But it's become quite clear that without my accessories I don't feel nearly as beautiful.

That was a hard sentence to type.  

If you are like me your thoughts went to 1 Peter 3:3 ~ "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes."

Crap.  

Now, I'm not gonna go all Amish on you.  Don't expect to see me with my hair pulled tight against my head, in a handmade dress, handing out my jewelry to more "worldly" women.  You better believe that on May 1 I will be wearing my biggest pair of hoop earrings along with some of my 168 clothing items that I haven't worn in the past month.

But underneath that I hope you see shining thru "the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."  ~1 Peter 3:4

Jen Hatmaker's prayer thru all of "7" was this: "God, let there be less of me and my junk and more of You."

Seems like a pretty good prayer to me.

Blah

It's gray.  It's raining.  It's cold.  My Jakers is still a little sick (he woke me up from dreaming about vacationing in Hawaii yesterday morning at 5:30 to say he "throwed up").  My knee hurts again (apparently it was not ready to run yet even though it felt fine).  I hate this month of 7.  I should be doing x,y, and z.  

Instead I am procaffinating.

Seems like a good day to blog about our recent trip to Atlanta.  In a previous post I mentioned that my brother has abandoned the family for the south.  Seeing as how March and I are not very good friends, I thought a visit to Georgia would be a good idea.

It was.

We picked the kids up at school on a Wednesday at lunch time.  We drove for a million hours until we stopped to spend the night with some friends in North Carolina.  Truthfully, the driving was not bad at all.  I really expected it to be, pardon me, hell on wheels.  There was really only one moment when I wanted to kill one child in particular.  So I consider that a win!

Anyway, we had a lovely time catching up with Ryan and Denise Weaver.  Unfortunately, I'm an idiot and forgot to get a photo with them.  But I have some of the kids!  We went to a Krispy Kremes where you could watch the doughnut making process and then buy hot doughnuts right off the line.

Following that we went to Pullen Park.  It was sunny.  And warm.  The opposite of today.  I literally sat down on the black spongy stuff they put under playground equipment nowadays (i think it's made out of shredded tires?) to soak up the sun.  Until I started soaking up the moisture the spongy stuff was holding.  Dang.

There were was a little train ride we went on and the carousel.  I can't even tell you how much I love carousels.  No sarcasm.  This particular one was pretty fast.  I closed my eyes and felt like I was flying.

We brought this lovely girl along with us:

Adrianne was back in the states on furlough.  So we thought it would be nice to use her to entertain the kids have her company on the trip.  And it was.  She made all kinds of road trip games and helped us keep track of our 4 wild animals.  It was wonderful to spend time with her before she went back to her mission field.

So before we left Raleigh we went out to lunch at a place called...oh shoot, I can't remember.  Because... this.

*side note:  I just opened the oven to get out a pan of bar cookies and I wanted to crawl in there.  a.) it smells delicious and b.) it's so warm.  Ahhhh.

Anyhow, lunch.  We were walking thru the parking lot and saw this:  

My apologies to those of you who are animal lovers.  But this cracked me up.  oh.my.word.  Reminds me of the time I was driving with my mom as the passenger (I think I just had my permit) on Wallace Road and we hit a bird.  It hit the windshield right in my line of sight.  I may have screamed, let go of the wheel, and closed my eyes.  Maybe.

My goodness, I am taking a lot of bunny trails today.  So sorry.

So after a fantastic lunch outside on the patio of some restaurant in North Carolina, we headed for Atlanta.  Checked into our hotel then found Travis and Nell's house.  We drove past some houses that made me want to stop, ring the doorbell, and ask for a tour.  Gorgeous.  But no pictures because, see above.

Travis made us some fabulous deep dish pizza and we ate outside again.  *Delighted sigh*

Nell came home and we all chatted a bit.  Then we left 2 of our kids there and headed for the hotel.  Don't worry, it was on purpose.

On Friday we spent the day at the Georgia Aquarium.

For lack of a better word, it was amazing.

In the above photos we were walking thru a glass tunnel.  There were 2 whale sharks in addition to tons of other cool things swimming to our left, right, and above us.  If it wouldn't have been for the other 100 people in the tunnel I would have laid down on the floor and spent a long time just watching.

Around the corner from the tunnel there was  ginormous wall of glass and steps where you could just sit and watch.  

We saw lots of other displays and I was so in awe of God's handiwork.

If you ever end up in Atlanta I would highly recommend a visit to the aquarium!

We spent a relaxed time on Saturday morning drinking coffee and watching the water.

The kids were entertained (mostly) by playing down at the water's edge so the 5 adults could have some good conversation.

Then my boys came up from the water with this:

I know it's small but a snake's a snake.  Shudder.  We took a picture and posted it to Nana and Grandpa's facebook right away.

After coffee we parted ways with Travis and Nell.  We spent some time (some of us in wonder and delight and some of us whining and complaining all the way) in a store called World Market.  I'll let you guess who was who.  

I bought this pile of food even though none of it was 7 sanctioned for the month of March.

Cajun Dill Gator-Taters.  They'll change your life.

After World Market we picked up Trav (poor Nell had to work) and went to Stone Mountain.  We hiked about a mile up to the top. I sweated in a tank top.  And loved it.

No gondola ride for us.  We have people with too much energy.

Blue sky.  I think I'm going to cry a little right now.

Back to Trav and Nell's.  Chicken pot pie out on the deck.  Duck Dynasty inside.  Lovely evening.

Sunday:  Cold and rainy morning.  Visited Trav and Nell's church.  Screamed at Kye and Cole on the way back to Trav and Nell's.  Seriously, so much drama over a bucket of golf balls.

Burgers for lunch.  Watched/slept thru Planes.  Did some laundry.  Caught up on facebook.  Introduced Adrianne to kid president.

Supper: 

I have pictures of food but none of my brother and sis-in-law.  That's how I roll.  Ugh.

Hugs and goodbyes.  Then we left for home, Larry drove the whole 11 hours straight thru.  My hero!

Thanks for having us, Ryan and Denise and Travis and Nell!

Next time I promise to take pictures of the people I love.

22 Pies + 2 Kiddos = Delightful Morning

I should be working on this:

But I don't want to.  Paperwork is such a drag.

What I want to do is write about my morning.  Meet my niece, Riley:

She excels at being adorable and asking questions.  I don't get to babysit her very often since she lives at the end of the earth (also known as Lititz).  But my sister was desperate today so I got to keep Riley.

This is also the day I needed to make 22 chocolate chip pies for MCC's Relief Sale.

So, I put the kids to work.

There was lots of "IT'S MY TURN!" and "I WANNA DO THAT!" and "IT'S MY TURN!".  So I sang this song.  I don't think they got it.

In between pie making we did other things.  Like laundry.

And making imaginary pies.

And being silly.

We also discovered that some of us have irrational fears.

We already knew Riley was terrified of cats, vacuum cleaners, and Santa Claus.  Now we need to add play microphones and stick horses.

Some of us hit others with spatulas.  Some of us locked ourselves in our bedroom.  I was neither one of those.

We were all super cute.

We ate lunch and drew pictures.

The pies all got made.

Some of the pies acted like brats.

So instead of my house smelling deliciously chocolate chippy, it smells like burnt crust.  Fabulous.

My house looked like this when I was almost done making pies:

This was not a "normal" day at my house since I don't usually have two children at home or make 22 pies.  But it was a real day.  With real fun, real tears, and real messes.

Everyday life is so beautiful.  I hope we learn to embrace it fully.