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Four Treats in Four Hours to Bake, Package, and Give this Week on a Whim

December 22, 2020 by Erica 1 Comment
Four Treats in Four Hours to Bake, Package, and Give this Week on a Whim

“Holiday Baking Days” are generally not a part of our December traditions, but 2020 found us having two this year: one for our kids (holy flour and sprinkle explosion!) and one for just me. All alone. In my kitchen. With no little fingers and extra messes to worry about.

*Ahem* – maybe the mess was just as big, but it was just me, prepping, cooking, decorating, packaging, and having myself a good ole’ time while Jamie graciously had the girls out of the house so that I could have some “me” time to baking some treats for our neighbors.

I can’t put my fingers on when I started cooking and baking from scratch, but it’s been my thing for a long time. I find that if you always have a list of essentials on hand, baking from scratch is not only a piece of cake, but it’s so much more affordable than routinely buying packages. It also tastes way better and is super gratifying. :)

As soon as we run out of baking essentials or a spice of some kind, I immediately jot it down on my grocery list for my next trip.

Having a trusted cookbook and food blog as your go-to is super important too, and when it comes to baking, Sally’s Baking Addiction is my resource every time. I’ve made dozens of her recipes over the last five years, and every one of them is perfect. She’s taught me so much about baking.

Cooking or baking from scratch is also so much easier and more enjoyable when you have a variety of tools to pick and choose from that fit your needs, such as baking sheets, a slew of measuring utensils, etc.

A few days ago I ran into our local Walmart and completely lost myself in their Home section.

 I haven’t updated a lot of my baking tools since we got married 10 years ago, so I scooped up some additional baking sheets, mixing bowls, measuring cups/spoons, and some treat containers to deliver to our neighbors. There doesn’t seem to be a kitchen item that they don’t have, and Walmart Home usually offers each kitchen item from several different brands to pick from. Most of what I scooped up during this trip was from the brand Wilton and Pioneer Woman (so stinkin’ cute!)​​​​​​​.

After I grabbed my ingredients, I headed home and prepped to bake the next morning (i.e. pulled up my recipes, set out butter to soften, set all dry ingredients out on the counter, etc).

I started at 9 a.m. and had the kitchen entirely cleaned up with packages ready to be delivered by 1 p.m.

If you’re looking to make some last-minute treats as well this Christmas week, here is how I quickly made these four recipes.

  • Peanut Butter Blondies
  • Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • Chocolate Cake Balls
  • Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods

  1. I started with the Chewy Chocolate Chips Cookies. I made the dough and then put it in the freezer to chill.
  2. Next, I made the Peanut Butter Blondies.
  3. While those cooked, I made the cake for the cake balls. While that was baking, I made the frosting.
  4. While the cake finished up, I got started with melting chocolate (both milk chocolate and white chocolate) for the pretzels.
  5. Once the cake was cooled, I mixed it with the icing and scooped it into balls using my melon scooper. I lined a baking sheet with wax paper and then put the balls into the freezer to set.
  6. While those were setting, I began dipping pretzels into the melted chocolate.
  7. I swapped out the cake balls for the pretzels in the freezer.
  8. I then dipped the cake balls into the chocolate and decorated them. Back into the freezer they went.
  9. When the Peanut Butter Blondies, cake balls, and pretzels were all finished and cooling or setting, I got the chocolate chip cookie dough out of the freezer and scooped it onto a baking sheet.
  10. I cleaned up all at once at the very end, packaged the treat boxes, and took Sadie to deliver them with me (always trying to sneak in one-on-one time with the girls where I can).

I doubled each of the recipes and ended up with 10+ boxes to gift to neighbors plus an entire tray to serve our friends who came over to film their daughters’ and our daughters’ Christmas piano pieces.

Here’s a link to all of the goods I grabbed from Walmart to bake. Having a fresh set of measuring tools and baking sheets was GLORIOUS. And everything was so affordable. I cannot recommend updating your baking items enough. It’ll make you want to get them out and do some cookin’!

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Four Months of Homeschooling: Some Thoughts

December 14, 2020 by Erica Leave a Comment
Four Months of Homeschooling: Some Thoughts

I’m not going to lie – I just wrote that title and had to stop and think about if it’s really been four months since school started. Have we really survived? Have we really made it a full semester? Are we for real still doing this thing? We are, we are, we are! I cannot believe it. If I had a penny for every time I’ve considered putting them back in school, we’d have more than a handful of pennies.

But yet, here we are four months in, and I’m feeling pretty empowered (at least today…!) to finish up the second half of the school year homeschooling. We embarked on this journey without a road map of any kind, and A JOURNEY IT HAS BEEN.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I have a million and one thoughts about homeschooling, but I’ll cut straight to the chase and say that I absolutely, positively love it 95% of the time. I’ve come up with that percentage because 19 out of 20 days I am filled with gratefulness for the wisdom I was hit with in the kitchen that mid-July day to homeschool.

But there’s that one pesky day every so often where Jamie comes home from work and I’m either crying, super moody, or just don’t want to talk because I’m done, I’m done, I’m done and I just can’t do all of this at the same time anymore.

But inevitably, the next day I’m over it and we have the very best homeschool day. It just goes in waves. Bless my husband.​​​​​​​

Another thing I’ll cut straight to the chase about: all three girls are definitely going back to in-person school next year if conditions with COVID have improved to allow for some predictability and new normalcy. While I love many aspects of homeschool very much, I can’t continue to homeschool and work from home. If it’ll be another year like this year though, they’ll be homeschooled again.

Now that I’ve summed up how we feel about homeschool as a whole, here are some smaller, broken down details about how the last five months have been. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Pros and Cons of Homeschooling this Year

Pros (in no particular order):

  1. The girls get to be with each other all day, every day, and their friendships with each other are rock solid. All three of them are obsessed with each other.
  2. No more rushed mornings of a sleepy Hadley waking up to her alarm clock, arguing over her eating breakfast (she’s rarely hungry first thing in the morning), or rushing over getting dressed and out the door. Our mornings are calm and a sweet time for our family.
  3. No more packing lunches! Praise.
  4. No more keeping up with school schedules (i.e. what themed day is today, what do I need to send in for this or that, etc.) Mentally, our schedule is so much lighter, and it’s WONDERFUL.
  5. We’ve saved so much money on clothes! The big girls have plenty of clothes and shoes, but I probably would have bought them more if they were in school. Now I don’t care if they mostly rotate the same 10 outfits that they love. Whatever!
  6. I get to be their teacher, which has been very gratifying for me to watch them learn and apply new concepts.
  7. We get to move at a tempo that is right for them academically. If Hadley nails a concept easily, we move right along. If she’s stumbling a bit on something and it’s not clicking quite yet, we slow down and work on it until she gets it. First grade is such a crucial “learn to read” year, and teaching her how to really do it has been AWESOME.
  8. No more getting off the bus and seeing her occasionally sad because someone left her out, or hearing her say a phrase that she learned at school that I’m not too happy about. I get to keep her in this protected little wing just a smidge longer. 😉
  9. School only takes about two hours each day. Sometimes less, sometimes more.
  10. We have extra time for an additional dance class, weekly private speech therapy, and piano.
  11. We’re able to spend more time with grandparents.
  12. We’re unaffected by the constantly-changing school situation (i.e virtual, then in-person, then hybrid, back and forth quarantined, etc.)
  13. I generally love that we get to do everything together. I feel like they’re learning so much just by going about my day with me. We try to make as much into a learning opportunity as we can.

Struggles of Homeschooling

  1. Trying to get into a rhythm of what time of day to do school, how much school to do each day, etc. has literally taken the entire semester, but now we’re good.
  2. I’ve occasionally felt curious if I was keeping Hadley on par with what she should be learning and where she should be. Thankfully my neighbor (who also has a first grader) sends me screenshots of her daughter’s work so that I know if we’re where we should be!
  3. I literally couldn’t do all that “I” do if I didn’t have help. I try to be very honest that I have a lot of help from my right-hand girl Erin, who comes 15 hours a week. My mother-in-law comes over all day on Thursdays, and my mom comes over at the drop of a hat whenever I need her.
  4. Homeschooling means that the kids are with me all day, every day unless I bring in reinforcement to help us out, and it’s a lifesaver.
  5. Deciding to homeschool three months after I launched a business that I’d invested SO much into was an insane idea, and it’s been hard. I had to give up my morning workouts so that I can work from 5 – 7 a.m., and then from there I just squeeze in 2-3 hours of work when I can. It’s really hard though.
  6. Homeschooling a pre-k student and 1st grader with a baby/toddler at home is REALLY DIFFICULT, and honestly, I don’t think we’d be able to do it well without another adult entertaining Jillian. I’ve read that some families that have a baby/toddler at home wait to do school until that long afternoon nap, but for me, I need that time to work. Again why I need those helping hands that I’m so grateful for. Nobody can actually do it all. Something has to give.
  7. I miss seeing the joy the girls would have as they shared what they did at school. They have both always LOVED (!) school and every little thing about it. I look forward to them enjoying all of that again.
  8. I miss the joy of seeing them make their own new little friends in their classes. Thankfully we’ve been able to give them time to play with and be around kids their ages 5+ times a week, so I don’t think they’re missing a beat socially. But again, I miss hearing them come home and tell me about a new best friend they made on their own. :)
  9. If school takes longer than an hour, Hadley will sometimes start complaining, and we’ve had to really work on that. We take stretch breaks or play outside or have a snack. In general though we’ve had to work on expectations and learning that first grade is tough stuff and that school is her job right now, and it might take more than an hour that day of working on it.

Other swirling thoughts

  1. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God was preparing me to homeschool for a while without ever realizing it. I remember asking my good friend Kayla (who also homeschools) questions all the time about it just because I was curious. I NEVER wanted to homeschool (ever!), but all of our conversations (just out of “curiosity”) really helped me set expectations for what homeschooling should look like.
  2. The flexibility is the best. thing. ever.
  3. I do think that having a background in education has helped me in this journey. My former teaching strategies come out all the time, which have been helpful.
  4. One reason I’ll for sure send the kids back to public school eventually is because the material is going to get too tough for me to teach. 😉 I know that I could teach it, but I imagine that giving them a more quality education at home would take more of my time than it does now, and honestly the “extra time” is just hard to find.
  5. I think homeschool is a really, really, really great option for a lot of families who don’t even realize it.
  6. I also think that lack of accountability with homeschooling (at least in Alabama) is terrifying, and there’s a lot of families that are homeschooling that probably shouldn’t be.
  7. I really look forward to the girls going back to public school next year, but I will also really, really, sorely miss so much about homeschool too. Such great options that are so different from each other.

Ah, that was a whole heck of a lot of rambling. Like I said, this has all been a complete whirlwind and truly a “learning as we go” kind of thing. I’ve tried to give my kids the absolute best while also working a new job that I love (so much) and run the house, etc. etc. etc. You know – all the things that we ALL juggle in one way or another! :)

If you have questions about homeschooling, feel free to get in touch! I’m no expert and could surely do a lot of things better, but know the few things I know and would be happy to talk more privately.

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Little Things to Remember from our Thanksgiving 2020

November 27, 2020 by Erica 1 Comment
Little Things to Remember from our Thanksgiving 2020

It’s a quiet post-holiday Friday morning here, and I’m immensely enjoying being up before my loves, sipping coffee on the couch with the fireplace on, and typing this. (Long-time readers already know that Teddy is snuggled up firmly against my leg.) I usually size myself up as an extrovert because I love being with my people, but quiet moments like this remind me that this is how I actually recharge. Ahh.

Another major holiday amidst COVID down.

Yesterday was a sweet day. Low key but enjoyable. We feasted and we rested. This was only the second time since 2011 that we’ve hosted the big Thanksgiving meal, and we enjoyed doing it.

Yesterday morning, I woke up feel inspired to go for a jog. My dad and I ran the Turkey Trot 5k several years in a row when I was in a college, and I always loved starting the holiday that way. I threw my headphones in, knocked out 2.5 miles (I’m kind of sore today after not running in 2.5 months!), walked in to the smell of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls coming out of the air fryer (the only way to cook them in my opinion!), and cleaned up before throwing on comfy clothes to cook in.

Jamie smoked two turkeys last holiday season, so he was excited to smoke another one yesterday. I made a bunch of sides (also burning the heck out of my left hand after grabbing the handle of a sauce pan that I didn’t know was hot!) and watched the Macy’s parade on and off with the girls.

They played hard, got dressed mid-morning, and then we welcomed just a few guests to dine with us: Jamie’s parents and my grandmother (COVID and loneliness have been especially hard on her, so I’m really glad she could join.)

Our families get along very well which I’ve never taken for granted even for a second.

I’d set the dining room table days prior after getting in a few boxes I’d ordered online from Walmart Home. I’d logged on to place a grocery pickup order last week and this beautiful tablescape popped up, which linked to everything I needed to recreate it.

I’ve shared so many times on this website that I’m very visual when it comes to decorating and need to see it all laid out in front of me. I have a hard time envisioning interiors on my own.

After seeing the prices from Walmart and realizing that we needed a good chunk of it anyway (all of our dinner plates are chipped and a mess!), I ordered what I needed to create this look. I’m glad I set it up a few days early because the site of it made me happy all week. I never keep our dining room table set because we usually use this area for homeschool, but gosh I sure did love the look of it all pulled together (a deep contrast from the rest of my life that I feel like I never have all pulled together, LOL!)

Almost everything you see in this picture is linked below!

We ate a big meal, enjoyed dessert, cleaned up the house, and then relaxed for a few hours. My mother-in-law and grandmother hadn’t been to our new house yet since they started building it, so we went over there for about an hour to give them a tour. I never mind an excuse to run over there!

My grandmother sipped a cup of coffee and then headed home around 4:30 so that she could make the seven-mile trip home before dark. My in-laws left around 7 p.m.

We started a tradition several years ago to gift the girls Christmas pajamas and all wear them for the first time on Thanksgiving night. Everybody really loves this.

The girls were bathed and in bed by 7 p.m. and out cold by 7:15. Jamie watched some TV while I browsed home inspiration (and put up a fun poll on Instagram!) before we both crashed hard around 10 p.m.

All in all, a sweet day!

I am keenly aware that people from all over the country (and the world) may be reading these words, and that they may be met with all kinds of emotions and thoughts. Some of you had a beautiful day yesterday celebrating in a way that was right for your circumstance and family and some of you may have really struggled for a slew of circumstantial reasons.

No magic words of encouragement, just solidarity in that this virus is really hard. We are “all in this together”, but also so drastically divided because of how we are uniquely affected in ways that we don’t quite understand about each other. I don’t know what is going on in your personal life and how this is all rocking you in a way that’s different from me, but just know that I wish you much peace as you tackle this very unique holiday season. I love you all.

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Why We Decided to Build a New Home

November 2, 2020 by Erica 9 Comments
Why We Decided to Build a New Home

Good morning! I’m writing this post in real-time like I used to do in the Stone Ages of blogging. It’s currently 5:02 a.m. and I’m weirdly wide awake after an exhausting weekend (I crashed early last night). Jamie is fixing me a cup of coffee and then he’ll head to the garage to work out while I work behind my laptop, except this morning I’ve decided to share on this page versus All Things Madison because I’m simply feeling inspired to do so.

It’s interesting how much this virus has changed so many of us and the trajectory of our lives in ways that maybe we don’t even realize. One of the many ways that the virus has caused a Domino-effect of decisions is our recent choice to build a new home.

While it was a decision we faced years earlier than we expected, we’re not totally surprised by it (and neither are any of the people who know us the best). We’re currently feeling very, very excited and grateful and I’d love to document how (in the world!) this came to be.

In early September, we had a very direct COVID-19 exposure. Jamie and I both had zero symptoms and tested negative, but we still decided to quarantine for a while. During that tight quarantine time, we got out one evening and drove around to two neighborhoods: one that I’ve had my eye on and one that Jamie’s had his eye on. We started looking at them through a different lens of potentially building a custom home in one of them one day.

In fact, let’s back up. Why were we even talking about custom home building in the first place? I thought we were in a home we loved that we could stay in for decades? Yes and yes.

But also, yes and no. There is no doubt about how much we love our current home. We really, really love it. But do we want to stay here for decades anymore? No. We bought this house firmly believing that our family was complete with two girls, and then we had our (best) bonus baby (ever).

And while this home is still phenomenal for a family of five, the layout is not going to be conducive for how we like to use our home. We’ve known for a while that we wanted a different layout. Square footage wise, we didn’t want anything much bigger. We just needed to have space that was more comfortable for our family.

There were four things that our current house is missing that we desired in a future home: a better bathroom situation for our daughters, some kind of permanent office space for Jamie and I, a second story so that we aren’t all completely on top of each other every second of the day, and no homes directly behind ours (just a personal preference that I’ve realized I really enjoy since I like being in our backyard constantly. I love a serene, quick backyard). Our current house has large bedrooms, a dining room, an expansive entry way, and two master closets, and though we love all of that, we would rather the square footage be more tailored to how we use our home.

Okay, back to quarantine. So we drove around and kind of realized that the neighborhood I’d been eyeing isn’t actually one that I could see myself moving to one day. Jamie agreed.

So we drove over to The Village of Oakland Springs, which is a traditional neighborhood development in Madison that Jamie has loved for years. In fact, when I first saw the plans online in 2017, I immediately knew that we’d be moving there when we moved to Alabama in 2018. I loved it. I remember calling my mom and my friend Amira and telling them about it, and they were both kind of underwhelmed by it. The neighborhood was basically nothing at that point, and we just couldn’t see the vision yet. Plus, there was only one home at the time with a three-car garage (Jamie’s MUST HAVE), and it was out of our price range. I loved it though. (That same house just went up for sale for $221k more than when it was for sale in January 2018. Wow.)

Throughout the last few years, we’ve kept our eye on that neighborhood, driving through it every few months gawking at the beautiful new homes. Jamie continued to talk about how much he’d love to build there.

And that’s the other thing about this neighborhood and the street we liked: it’s a custom home builder. So we knew that one day we could sit down with an architect and really map out a home in our price range that functioned how we wanted it to without the elements that we didn’t want/need.

After driving around that evening, we emailed the agent and asked if she could give us details about what some of the current homes are going for so that we could start setting our expectations right. It’s the type of neighborhood where very little info about the lots and homes are online, so we had to inquire.

We knew absolutely nothing about custom home building, so we figured that we’d probably need to save a lot of money between now and 2025 (ish) if we wanted to make this a reality down the road. Basically, we needed to be financially prepared.

Long story short, the realtor surprised me by sending two floor plans of homes that were set to be built. Both were gorgeous, but one of them wasn’t quite the home we were looking for.

The other one was perfect. Perfect. Like, I CAN’T UNSEE this floorplan. It had the DeSpain family written all over it. If Jamie and I were to take all of our conversations over the last couple of years and map out our dream home, this would be it. Every single square inch. I kid you not. It’s not 95% perfect. It’s 100% perfect.

They needed a large chunk of money down though to custom build, so we figured we’d hold onto that floor plan and build it down the road because we didn’t have that much cash. But then the builder surprised us with taking less down. I remember hanging up the phone with the realtor who had just shared the “good news” and laying my head on the counter as Jamie was like “Oh crap, really?”

But honestly, we just did not want to move. I didn’t want to leave my neighbors. I didn’t want the headache of moving. So for a bit, we decided that this wasn’t the right time to move, and that we would just start saving extra cash like crazy. I remember we said that we wanted to save $50k extra to put down to build that exact house in five years.

Two problems with that though.

1.) The lot our dream home was slated to be build on would be gone. You cannot replicate the lot we’re getting. It’s on the perfect street, one block from future retail and restaurants, two houses away from ponds, no backyard neighbors, the house faces west (which is a must have for us), one street away from the future neighborhood pool and fitness center, etc. etc. etc.

Even if we wanted to build this exact house, we would lose the lot, and this felt like a huge dealbreaker for me.

2.) Say we went bananas and saved an extra $50k to put down on the house. We know without a shadow of a doubt that that exact house will be $50k higher in five years, if not way more. It’s just that type of neighborhood and city where the housing market is going to continue to go nuts for a while. So if we put that $50k down on a house that’s priced for $50k more, we’ll be starting right back at the same place that we are now, but we’ll be five years behind in paying off the mortgage. Plus, the increase in our new mortgage is less than it would cost to save $50k.

At this point, we were kind of freaking out. I even had a big boohoo fest with my neighbors and confessed what was going on. LOL. I’m very, very close with a few of them and so are my kids. So I needed them to know what was up!

We just kept wanting to throw in the towel because “we just didn’t want to do this right now”. We had no reason to move. But when we looked at five years down the road, we know with certainty that we’ll be very, very itchy to custom build and move. And then we wondered if not hopping on our literal dream home now would be a huge financial mistake.

So the next step was meeting with the builder himself. I brought over 100 pictures I’d printed from Walgreens, and we basically went through and asked what we could get for the price of the house. Sam Bryan with Jimmy Bryan Construction has been so great to work with, and he basically went through my pictures and said “Yes, we can throw that in” or “No, that’s a $25,000 cast iron door”, LOL. In that initial meeting, he was able to tell us that we could absolutely customize the home for the list price.

Oy. We really thought that meeting would deflate our balloon and that we’d be done talking about it. We figured all of our “wants” would be massive upcharges, but nope.

During this time, we were driving out to the lot constantly. Friends and family would ask us if we’d prayed about it, and we’d just laugh and talk about how we’d been sitting out there praying together for weeks.

After about three weeks of walking through this process, we finally sat on the couch to make a decision. We’d felt heavy about it all day because we knew that night was “the meeting” we scheduled to have with each other.

We had every single piece of information we needed to make a decision, and we had done a deep, deep, deep dive into our finances. And everything was pointing to “Yes! This is an amazing opportunity and a well-thought-out financial and family lifestyle decision.”

But we decided that we just didn’t want to do this. We didn’t want to go through the process of selling our house, and we were worried about fluctuating interest rates (what if they skyrocket in 2021?) We also wondered if this type of decision is something that should be well-planned out over the course of a few years, not a few weeks? Were we rushing this for no reason?

We felt a great sadness in deciding that we just didn’t want to go through with it. When push came to shove, we were just scared about making a bad decision. But we just felt so sad about it. Thankfully we were on the same page though. We decided to pass on the house.

The next day, I texted Jamie and told him that I wanted to revisit the conversation again that night. He said that he wanted to talk about it too. We just felt unsettled after saying “no” to the house without a concrete reason beyond “it’s just not a good time”.

That night, the girls and I sat down to eat dinner because Jamie was running late. He walked in, gave me a kiss, and apologized for being late. He sat down at the table with a huge smile and his face and said “I’m late because I wanted to drive over to the new house to see what my new commute is going to be like. Let’s buy the house.”

I erupted into a fit of giggles, kept asking if he was serious, and told him I felt the same way.

The next day we paid a lot of money (which did make us question everything all over again LOL), but man oh man are we excited. Very, very, very grateful.

I absolutely, positively love home design. Exterior, interior, you name it. I’m not good at it by any means, but I love pouring over Pinterest and Instagram and designing room by room. My passion for this began in our Kansas house as I tried to update it on a shoestring budget and then spilled over into this house as I’ve overhauled and designed one room at a time.

The opportunity to do that with an entire house as it’s being built is so fun! Maybe it would be overwhelming to some, but I could not love it more. I already know that I’m going to be so sad when it’s over. But I can’t wait to see the finished product.

As for my neighbors, we feel solid enough in our friendships that everything is going to be okay. 😉

A home functions differently for everyone of course, but we really put a lot of weight into our home. I remember looking at homes with our realtor in Tennessee right after we got married in 2011. We saw the home that we would end up buying and talked about how great it would be to have our friends over for dinner or have our friends and family come visit and stay a weekend with us.

I firmly (!) believe that if you intentionally foster an inviting space, that people will come (whether that be seating at a table for dinner or a comfortable bed and fresh towels for guests who stay overnight). It doesn’t matter how big your space is, but rather what intentional decisions you’ve made to make your home a place that others know they welcomed and not any kind of extra hassle or burden.

So, there’s the story! We expect the house to be finished in May(ish). We will list our house about 60 days prior and hope that everything lines up well with timelines. If you think we’re bananas, just know that I don’t blame you. 😉 My whole family knows that we’re nuts and definitely march to our own beat. But we’re happy! And excited! (Have I said that 10 times?)

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Where Do I Begin? + the First Three Days of HOMESCHOOL!

August 14, 2020 by Erica 13 Comments
Where Do I Begin? + the First Three Days of HOMESCHOOL!

Well hello my friends!

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve logged in to chat here, but I have a bit of a pep in my step today after a pretty stinkin’ great week, and if nothing else, I want to document it.

Most of you know the story behind my blog title, but if you don’t, here’s a super (!) quick recap. Every September I seem to find myself in a place that I would have never, ever believed I would be. It’s almost scary how it keeps happening. For example, if you would have told me in September 2018 that in September 2019 I would have a two-month-old, I would have said YOU ARE A JOKER – WE ARE DONE HAVING KIDS, DUH!

But then came our perfect Jilly girl. In September 2019, if you would have told me that in September 2020 I would be homeschooling my two oldest kids and be in month six of a global pandemic (AND be in month #5 of running a brand new website/business), then I would have really, really said that you are OUT OF YOUR FLIPPING MIND I TELL YOU.

But hello (almost) September 2020: You are whimsical and unpredictable and kind of awesome, depending on the day. 😉

I have so much I could share with you guys. You know that writing is my therapy and that so much of what swirls around in my brain just craves to be spit out in the written word. 

But how could I possibly share what our summer has looked like? Is there a publishing editor here that wants to hire me to write an entire novel? Because that’s what we’re looking at.

I hope to recap the highlights, such as the many ways we’ve put our personal touch and style on our home, a few of the wonderful getaways we took out of town, some details about my new business and how it’s solidified in my heart the career direction that I will follow, and just the very simple ways that we have managed to keep our mental health on the upswing while navigating a moment in time that just downright sucks. We didn’t have a magical, big family vacation or do anything overly noteworthy, but it was honestly a sweet summer because we made it that way.

I’ll say this though: there have been a handful of days this summer where my head has pounded so hard, I had to put myself to bed at the same time as my kids. I’ve dealt with insecurity via this website and my social channels like I have never dealt with in my life, so I basically shared nothing (and loved that honestly lol). The virus has posed some serious frustration in my heart as it has really affected core parts of who I am (i.e. my extrovert side AND my “glass half full” personality because it kind of feels like you have a target on your back during this season to be extroverted and optimistic.)

Anyway! I would love to ramble just a bit about our first three days of HOMESCHOOLING! Because we are HOMESCHOOLING! WHAT THE HECK!

“Erica, how did you come to this decision?”

Well, how much time do you have, because the answer is not short. 😉

I’ll possibly dive into this another day. All I’ll say right now is that I never ever even for one millisecond considered my kids doing the virtual option. If schools were going to open, they were going. But something happened during a conversation with my neighbor bestie that literally left me doubled over in my kitchen with my arms resting on the countertop and my forehead on my hands as I was hit with an 18-wheeler truck about the idea of unenrolling our children from school and homeschooling. In hindsight, I know without a shadow of the doubt that the Lord spoke to me and laid on my heart in that very minute that He had a different direction for my family, and I fought it so dang hard. But every single door just kept swinging wide open, and here we are.

And it’s been the absolute best first three days of homeschooling (we started Wednesday), and I’d love to share about it here if you’d interested.

On Tuesday night, we celebrated the night before school with two families that we are super close with. They both live four houses down in each direction. We took goofy pictures, had cupcakes, and let the kids play while we decompressed and reflected in the backyard on the longest summer ever – one none of us could have survived without each other. 😉

The sweetest first graders!

On the first day of school, I had to wake up both big girls at 8 a.m. Let’s go, babes! They never sleep this late. 

Daddy made them special homemade chocolate chip pancakes and we enjoyed talking with Ms. Erin, my new assistant, who now comes at 8 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. She started with us on Monday, so this was our third day with her. 

All three girls really love her, and I mean REALLY love her. Jamie and I are so grateful for her. I choked up on my interview with her because she made all of the dots connect for me.

I can’t wait to tell you more about her, but I will say right now that the Lord showed that He is so good by sending Erin to our family. She is way too talented and smart and wonderful to be spending as much time with our family as she is because this girl could be taking on the world right now.

But she’s choosing to be with my family, and we are just so grateful. She is challenging me with All Things Madison and making me think outside of the box. She doesn’t have children, but I swear she’s a better “mom” than I am because of how much she knows about kids. I could say so many things, but my goodness do we love our Ms. Erin!

We took first day of school pics because why the heck not. :)

Sadie is looking so big to me! She is turning into such a big kid. I don’t know how much I shared this time last year, but August 2019 was one of the hardest months of my life due to the season we were in with Sadie. It was short-lived, but August 2019 was hard. But wow – August 2020 is easy. She is my sunshine girl and is like a magnet for everyone. She has the most infectious personality and makes me SO PROUD to be her mom. 

I thought these two were close prior to COVID, but they’ve taken things to a new level. I am very thankful they have each other. 

Quick family pic with our pantsless Jilly. She never gets her PJ pants put back on after her first diaper change in the morning. We lazy. LOL.

And here she is again! Our shining star, Ms. Erin!

Sideways pic, but I’m writing this too quickly to edit photos. 😉 Our church’s children’s ministry delivered Crumbl Cookies to the families with children, and boy oh boy was it a treat! Thank you Building Church! We love you and couldn’t do life without ya!

My mom is working full-time right now, but she did make time to bring Dairy Queen blizzards to the big girls when she got off work around 3 p.m.! We love you Grandma!

On the night of the first day of school, the five of us took off for our local outdoor mall (Bridgestreet) for dinner at Red Robin (the girls’ request and just like we did last year) and to get a bath bomb from brand new Lush. Dinner was awesome, but Lush was a bust because it closed at 6 p.m. I’m worried about this outdoor shopping mall and so hoping it survives the pandemic. 

Our back-to-school family dinner was hard last year with a three-week-old baby but look at her now. She was perfect. 

This song has been blaring in our house this week. I recommend giving it a listen!

Okay, so the homeschool specifics. We’re giving ourselves grace and time to figure out a more cemented routine, but school will mostly be a 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. thing, which includes snack time, breaks for playing in the playroom or outside, and lunch.

Every day we will do reading, handwriting, math, scripture memorization, and art and then alternate science and history every other day. Hadley is taking two dance classes, private speech therapy, and piano lessons, and Sadie is taking one dance class and piano lessons. Fridays will consist of two hours of school and then an intentional school-related outing.

Of course, all of this could change, but this was all pretty well thought out, so my guess is that it’ll mostly stick this way. I’ve done a lot of research. LOL. No surprise there from my regular readers who know I am an overthinker and research to my core.

On Thursdays, my mother-in-law is going to come over and help us with all of the things. We will look forward to her every Thursday! LOL! In this picture, she is teaching Jillian the word “hot” with my Volcano candle. Ha! And she actually did learn to say it!

Today (Friday), we scooped up my dad after we finished our school work and headed out to Decatur to the Cook Museum of Natural Science. We loved it and ended up buying a membership!

Speaking of buying a membership, I’ve had some people ask me on Instagram how we are affording the homeschool curriculum because they’d heard it can be pricey. They’re right! We spent about $300 on Hadley and Sadie for 1st grade and Pre-K, and we could have spent way more than that!

You guys know that we are cash people. We pulled ourselves out of debt entirely except for our mortgage about two years ago and are super strict with only buying what we can pay for in cash (I need to thank my husband for his strictness with this because it truly has been the best thing we’ve ever done financially).

So with that being said, we saved for the last 12 months to pay for Sadie’s five-day-a-week private preschool so that we could pay it in one lump sum and get a tiny discount for doing so. Well, now we won’t be paying for preschool. So that’s the money we are using the pay for the girls’ curriculum, for the first few months of Ms. Erin, and for things such as the museum membership. 

That wraps up our first week! Let me know if there’s a certain topic you’d like me to dive into sooner than later that I may have missed this summer. :) I’d be curious what you want me to share because honestly, I have so much I could blab about. I’ve missed writing in this space but I knew for certain that I needed to take a pause and focus on just a few keep things, which is what I did. If you’ve made it this far in the post, God bless you for sticking around with my spasticness. 

See you SOON! Sending all of my love to you and your families as well as a macho high five for putting one foot in front of the other and getting through FIVE SOLID MONTHS of this crap. LOL. Be back soon. :) <3

http://whimsicalseptember.com/2019/09/acts-of-kindness.html/

 

Back to School Excitement For the Whole Family

Filed Under: Family Matters, Family Time Tagged With: Back to school, First Day of School

Our Daughters’ Hall Bathroom Makeover: A Quick Weekend Project

May 18, 2020 by Erica 6 Comments
Our Daughters’ Hall Bathroom Makeover: A Quick Weekend Project

Tell the DeSpains to stay home for the next few weeks (errr, months!) and we’ll get ourselves neck-deep in more projects than we know what to do with!

We’ve lived in our home for just over two years, which has given us enough time to envision how we want to put our own touch on our new-construction home. Being in quarantine was just the extra time (and excuse) we needed to hit the “play” button on some of these visions and bring them to life. Has been fun!

Here’s a look at the girls’ hallway bathroom.

Hall Bathroom Makeover

I shared on Instagram yesterday that this entire bathroom makeover was kicked off by the towel rack ripping out of the wall. Hadley and her best friend were using it as a gymnastics bar back in January, and though Hadley kind of knew better, I can also see why this seems like a valid idea when you’re in kindergarten. 😉

I replaced the bar with a set of hooks from Wayfair that ended up being junk, junk, junk. Despite good reviews, it was flimsy and ripped out of the wall within a couple of months.

Fast forward to March where there were now two massive holes in the wall that needed to be patched and re-painted. This was the “play button” I needed. I discussed with Jamie going ahead and repainting the bathroom after doing the patchwork and then using a set $500 budget to makeover the room. He agreed, and I went to town. 

I have never seen a room that I didn’t love that was painted Benjamin Moore’s “Simply White”, so this was my base. It’s a true, soft white and looks great in rooms with plenty of natural light as well as rooms like this with zero natural light. 

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

mirror | light fixture | shelves |  shower curtain | towels | hooks

I then grabbed a mirror online from Studio McGee’s collection at Target. I adore Studio McGee’s decorating style and was pumped to snag this mirror for $80.

(P.S. The items I want online from Target are often out of stock. I’ve recently started signing up to receive updates when they are back in stock, which is usually super quick. If I don’t order them right after receiving the email though that they’re back in stock, I lose them again. Just a tip to sign up for the notification, and then hop on it! This was the story with this mirror.)

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

mirror | light fixture | shelves | hand towel

The room’s color scheme – white, gold, and pastels – was inspired by the bath mat from Urban Outfitters (sadly no longer available) The large ruffle shower curtain is also from Urban Outfitters. I purchased a clear liner to go behind it as well. I kept the same oil-rubbed bronze rod and hooks.

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

mirror | shelves | shower curtain | towels

Since we needed new hooks, I looked no further than Pottery Barn. We hung extra-large Pottery Barn hooks in our entryway and have been beyond satisfied, so I figured we’d stick with what works. These hooks were so easy to install and are simply perfect.

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

hooks | towels

I read a tip once about mixing metals in a bathroom that advised to group metals together that are on similar eye levels. For example, the light fixture and mirror or the faucet and cabinet hardware. This advice helped me feel okay with adding the gold light fixture, breaking away from the oil rubbed bronze that’s prominent throughout the room. 

I did a good chunk of research when looking for a gold fixture, and this one from Joss and Main had the best reviews for the best price. The Edison bulbs are from Home Depot. 

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

mirror | light fixture | hand towel

Here’s a better look at the light fixture itself. 

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

mirror | light fixture | shelves | shower curtain | towels | hooks

After a bit of browsing inspiration pictures on Pinterest and Instagram, I knew that I wanted shelves over the toilet. My eye just kept gravitating to this look. I initially assumed I’d just grab some white wood floating shelves, but then Amazon showed me these, and I was undone. The gold plus glass was just perfect for this room, so I snagged two!

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

mirror | shelves

I framed the girls’ infant bathtime pictures (Hadley’s needs a bigger frame) and picked up a few other items to decorate the shelves with as well:

  • a white unicorn with gold horn (because both of our big girls love all things unicorns)
  • the faux lavender (to tie in with the shower curtain)
  • the light pink ceramic ball (because Studio McGee says that every room needs different/interesting textures, shapes, and sizes of decor, and I just generally do what they tell me to do, haha!)
Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

shelves | shower curtain

The framed picture was shopped from my small bin of extra decor. The print was a bridesmaids gift from my best friend’s wedding in 2017, and I thought it was the perfect, soft addition to this space. 

The pink and gold chicken wire basket is from Hobby Lobby and houses wipes and a spare roll of TP (much easier for my little girls to grab instead of reaching under the sink).

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

While I was on the kick of purchasing bathroom things, I grabbed a toy organizer from Amazon. It’s worked out well and has stayed in place. It does cut off a couple inches of “play space” for the kids, but otherwise I’d highly recommend this one. 

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

toy caddy

The hand towel and bath towels are from Pottery Barn Kids. The toothbrush/paste holder is actually a pencil holder but does its duty just fine in the bathroom functioning as so. 😉

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

hand towel | mirror

And here I am! Hi! Hope you enjoyed this quick run-through of the girls’ bathroom makeover. It was a lot of mental work designing and finding the right items around budget and physical work with taking things down and re-hanging everything (and getting rid of all of the shipping boxes and packaging – OY!) , but sometimes things are more gratifying after you’ve worked hard to make it a thing. :)

Hall Bathroom Makeover for little girls: This hallway full bathroom follows a white, gold, and pastel color scheme and was completed for less than $600. All sources included for the mirror, light fixture, shelves, shower curtain, shower curtain liner, bath mat, towels, bath hooks, and more. Enjoy!

More: the girls’ bathroom refresh in Kansas <—- a hot mess but I sure was trying! haha

Budget (with tax and shipping): $500 

Shower Curtain: $42.32

Curtain Liner: $11.10

Mirror: $84.80

Towels (3 bath + 1 hand): $54

Hooks (3): $57

Light fixture: $111.65

Toothbrush holder:  $6

Spray paint for stool: $6

TP Basket: $5.50

Shelves (2): $68.90 

Shelf decor (6 items): $32

Wall paint and supplies: $59.34

Toy caddy: $14.03

Bath mat: $42.32

Total: $594.96 ($94.96 over budget)

Let’s chat!

Have you used white paint on your walls that you’ve loved? What is it?

Filed Under: Home/DIY, House Projects Tagged With: Bathrooms, DIY Projects, Girls Bathroom, Hallway Bathroom, Painting Projects

Finally Launching My New Website

May 6, 2020 by Erica 12 Comments
Finally Launching My New Website

It felt SO GOOD to finally rip the Band-Aid off last Friday and wake up to see that “Coming Soon” countdown replaced with a full-functioning website on AllThingsMadison.com. It was the culmination of months of hard work and tons of time (at least 15 hours a week just on that site), so to see it all come to fruition was just so dang cool!

You may remember that I decided to really go for it and create this website back in early January. In early February I set the launch date for Friday, May 1st. I’d even looked into an event space at our new minor league baseball stadium to throw a launch party that night and was so bummed when I saw that they’d be playing away that evening.

May 1st was going to be my date, and once I set that date, I started to hustle to make it a reality.

Date Change Consideration

The reality of the pandemic and societal shutdown mid-March made me stop dead in my tracks and heavily consider pushing the date back to August 1st. I was just so in my head about all of it, trying to make sense of how to navigate this pandemic like the rest of us: I questioned if I would have content, if I was being “tone deaf” to the pandemic, and if I could realistically handle the creation and then the maintenance of having a new business with three kids suddenly home full time.

After heavy consideration, counsel, and prayer, I began to feel fully confident that May 1st was a great date to do so. 

I would have content because my original business model never focused fully on events. My website was going to be so much more. It would be a storyteller, a place for businesses to get the word out, and a place to connect our community around various happenings. And when the events start popping back up, All Things Madison will be established enough to help them get back on their feet.

Was I being “tone deaf” to the pandemic? As a blogger, I have always (!) tried to be a mindreader to some extent and predict how my words and actions could affect others in negative ways. I will never be perfect but I really do try not to hurt anyone or be a poor example.

With this in mind, I wondered if launching a new business was insensitive in any way? This is where I sought counsel from other entrepreneurs. They all agreed that this was the opposite of tone-deaf: that it was inspirational. That it showed that life can still go on and that we can still fight for our families and our long-term dreams when everything around us feels scary and unpredictable. I heard from people that starting this would be a great way to encourage and entertain others in our community and that it will hopefully help businesses when they begin coming back to life and rebuilding when leadership says they can.

And then finally, how would I do this with my kids in tow? My mother-in-law comes over twice a week and gives me 3-4 hours each time to work in peace in my room. My mom is back to work three days a week but has selflessly offered to help me in any way she can on her days off as I try to get this off the ground. I also wake up at 5 a.m. every morning and work until between 7:00 – 7:30 while Jamie tends to the kids before he has to log on for work.

And then besides that, I just string together work time throughout the day, like what I’m doing right now: typing this while Jillian takes an afternoon nap and the big girls have quiet playtime in their rooms. 

About building the site

Building the website felt like building a house. So much attention to detail, so many things to fine-tune, and tasks that just. kept. breeding. I feel like I have been self-taught in an entire industry the last decade running Whimsical September (and the other various names it was called prior to 2014 – haha!), so applying all of that knowledge to one website was super fun and super exhausting. Seeing it all come to life though via my ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL site designer Jacki was better than Christmas morning.

About the content

I am so happy to be writing, maintaining, and building All Things Madison. It has been SUCH A JOY. I love the journalistic style of writing. Reporting, sharing, connecting face-to-face, and storytelling has been the only career I’ve ever wanted to do career-wise with my life.

And I freaking love this community, so diving right in and telling stories has been just the very best thing. I think I’ve hung up the phone from every interview and squealed with Jamie about how much I enjoyed the conversation. Ugh. It’s just been great and I’m really, really happy. 

I got a text the morning that I launched inviting me to cover a neat event at a local senior living community. My attitude right now is to say yes to everything, so I made arrangements and made it work. It was so much fun!

Costs Associated

I put a good chunk of money into the upfront costs, which included hiring my site builder, my logo and general branding, a formatted contract, stickers, window clings for businesses, business cards, launch giveaways, a PO box (necessary to have an email list), my email list via FloDesk, etc. It’s been a lot! But you know what… this little blog paid for the whole dang thing. And so for that, I am very grateful.

Thanks to those who have supported me with this new venture. I’m happy to share some of the launch details with you here, and don’t worry, Whimsical September isn’t going anywhere. I can’t promise to post a certain amount or anything else concrete, but this site is like another child of mine (haha). I’ve birthed it, refined it, watched it grow, and just love it. It tells my family’s story, so I want to continue to come here to keep on telling it. I hope you’ll pop in and catch up with us every so often. :)

Hope you’re doing well amidst all of our new normals. We are doing well here. xo

More: Announcing on March 5th about All Things Madison

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: All Things Madison

Sadie’s 4th Birthday and Parade

April 23, 2020 by Erica 4 Comments
Sadie’s 4th Birthday and Parade

Over the weekend, we celebrated Sadie turning four and fabulous! 

And my goodness, was the weekend fabulous. Just browsing through my pictures selecting which ones to include in this post made me feel so happy; We made some very special memories.

For Sadie’s birthday this year, she asked for a High Point Climbing Gym birthday party. Jamie took her and Hadley climbing back in November when I was in Savannah, GA visiting a friend, and Sadie saw some of the party rooms and kids having fun.

She immediately told us that she wanted a party like that for her next birthday, and she never let up. In February I booked it, and we were going to go all out. 

We’re big fans of simple, enjoyable, extended family birthday “parties” around here and stuck to these types of celebrations for her first, second, and third birthdays. (Her first birthday was in Kansas and just the four of us, and it was a really precious day.)

At nearly four years old though, she’d been to enough birthday parties to know that she wanted one too with “aaaaaaaall of my friends, Mom!”

But obviously we needed to cancel her party and didn’t want to reschedule and give her additional false hope of when/if a High Point party would happen in the future. 

Since her day was going to be more low-key, my mom asked if we would like to come over the day before her birthday for a small lunch/tea party. I thought that was the sweetest idea!

Their new home has the most beautiful yard, and couple that with the most beautiful Spring day, and we had ourselves a picturesque, most enjoyable lunch together. Thank you Mom! It was a real treat. 

I like to take some intentional pictures of the girls around their birthdays each year, so we used this event to knock those out too. 

Of course my goofy girl gave us 10 of these silly faces for every “normal” one we got. This is Sadie Rose DeSpain TO A TEE, ladies and gentlemen!

She has been dying to wear this hand-me-down dress from Hadley, but we were waiting for some excuse to do so. When I told her to pick a dress for Grandma’s house and pictures, she grabbed this one immediately! She calls it “the heart dress”. Hadley wore it to a father/daughter Valentines dance in Kansas in 2018. 

That night, we gave Sadie her first present, this new book called The Night Before My Birthday. We read it right before bed, and then I crawled into her bed with her until she fell asleep. I usually don’t do this since I know it’ll create such an expected habit from her (I can’t lay with three kids for an hour each every night, imagine that LOL), but gosh did I enjoy it.

Sometimes the idea of just how little and precious she is hits me like a ton of bricks, where all I want to do is just wrap her up and hold her close to me so I can physically feel how tiny she is. Birthdays are so much fun and such special days but they sure do give me a good dose of reality that my girls won’t be little forever. 

After the kids were all asleep, Jamie got to work putting together a couple big gifts and I tied up loose ends with wrapping a gift, making this quick balloon decor, and getting out her birthday plate. 

The next morning, the birthday girl (and her excited big sister) were awake by 6:15. She was super excited to finally have her own vanity, though in true Sadie fashion, she immediately asked “Where’s my stool?!” (Backordered, my friend.)

We use this electric air balloon pump and absolutely love it! It took just a couple of minutes to blow up 20 balloons and put this together.

She requested doughnuts for breakfast and rode along with Daddy for some one-on-one time to get them. 

{similar ceramic birthday plate}

We spent the morning playing with some toys she’d gotten the day prior at my parent’s house and FaceTiming with relatives. Very relaxed and chill morning!

PS: I have to brag on my little brother David. When he called that morning to wish Sadie a happy birthday, he said to open the front door. Sure enough, there were two Target bags full with gifts that he’d order via his Shipt account. SO SMART!! I thought this was such a thoughtful way to get gifts in a timely way to someone out of town. Thank you Uncle David. <3

At lunchtime, we loaded up and took her new motorized “Elsa sleigh” (a gift from my generous in-laws) for a spin a few streets over to grab lunch from a food truck. It was cool and windy out, so we grabbed the food in a bag and headed home to eat it. 

Sadie’s birthday outfit was a gift from Hadley. She asked me about a month ago if she could get Sadie a gift, and I suggested an outfit. She was all about it and hopped on Amazon with me to pick it out. She was so proud to give it to her!

Around 1 p.m. Sadie’s cake was delivered by the sweetest local baker, Veneranda Cakes.

And at 4 p.m., the big event was here: Sadie’s birthday parade! It was 70 degrees, sunny, and the perfect afternoon for a little bit of drive-by fun with friends and family.

Sadie technically knew about the parade but also didn’t really “know” because she had no idea what to expect. I think we exceeded her expectations!

(I’ve had some questions about how we set this up. Easy. I created a private Facebook group, explained the situation, and asked everyone to meet at our neighborhood’s clubhouse parking lot at 4:15. I explained that gifts and decor were not necessary because I didn’t want our loved ones in stores if they were uncomfortable. I told my parents to leave the clubhouse at 4:15 and that everyone would follow them. We weren’t really sure how it would work out, but it was so easy and perfect!)

We wanted to give out party favors as a thank you to our dear friends, and long story short, Jamie and I decided on pizzas. 😉 We’re so weird! Here he is with Jillian strapped on his back in our Ergo handing a pizza box to our friends as they drove by.

We had 21 cars filled with families that we could not live without. I asked them all to circle around twice if they’d like just so that we could see them a little extra.

Having all of our local best friends right there at arms reach and not having them just park their cars and stay for a cookout was absolute freaking torture. It broke my heart more than I expected! We’ve missed our friends. But seeing their smiling faces and extending love through car windows made me that much more excited to be together and do life together hopefully soon, soon, soon. 

20 cars looping around two times only took half an hour on the dot. It was a wonderful 30 minute parade that ended in tears for Sadie when I lightly booty-bumped her and she fell to the ground, resulting in tears likely from just being overwhelmed by all the chaos. LOL. Some of our friends in the last car saw the whole thing and died laughing. Poor girl was getting a little overtired!

After the parade, we invited our parents to stick around out front for an hour or so for pizza and cake.

I had set up platters ahead of time with disposable plates, cups, silverware, a cake cutter, candles, a water pitcher, etc. so that all I had to do after the parade was run inside to grab the two platters and sprint back out front. Worked well! We are all still being hyper vigilant about social distancing, so I wanted to eliminate having our families together inside our home unnecessarily. 

Right before we packed things up and said good night to our families, we heard the ice cream truck blaring Silent Night. LOL! Christmas in April! Grandma to the rescue with cash, who dashed off with them to get ice cream when me and Jamie initially rolled our eyes and stated that they’d had enough sugar. 😉 Grandparents are so much cooler than Mom and Dad. 

My heart just explodes with love for this girl. My silly, smart, sweet little love who is nothing like me but so much of what I dreamed she would be. 

One of the happiest moments of my life occurred in the middle of the night about 12ish hours after she was born. I was nursing her and holding her in the dark, quiet hospital room as Jamie slept nearby. I found myself choked up as I thanked God for this baby. I remember the emotion of that moment so vividly. 

I thought about how now that I’ve held her, I couldn’t imagine ever living without her. Being her mom is a gift I’ll never be able to fully express my gratitude for. She is just a really, really special kiddo. And now she’s four!

More

Sadie’s Birth Story

A 1st birthday love letter to Sadie

Sadie’s first birthday (a quiet family day)

Her second birthday (a family weekday dinner “party” at home right after we moved to Alabama)

Her third birthday (another family weekday party at Chuck-E-Cheese).

Let’s chat!

Have you participated in or seen any local drive-by birthdays?

Filed Under: Birthdays, Motherhood Tagged With: birthdays, Sadie's B-Days, Sadie's Bdays
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Meet Erica

Hi! I'm Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you!

I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today's ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what's on our kitchen table, what we're hanging in our closets, where we're traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos.

I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I'm here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it's going so well!) I'm a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 5, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason - they're pretty great!)

I'm so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo

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