Fruit of the Summer 2021!

So I’ve done this “Fruit of the Summer” thing for several summers now! I can’t even remember what initially inspired this, but I just keep my eyes “peeled” for whimsical ways to incorporate items of the year’s fruit into my life. 2021 is my 5th year of going fruity! 2017 I went wonkers for watermelon! 2018 lent itself to lemons. 2019 was simply strawberrific! 2020 was the perfect year to go bananas! So far for this year, I’ve scored a set of 4 “just peachy” plastic cups from Target, a peach-printed market tote from Dollar Tree, and a peach-tinted glass water cup with a straw from DG! And I have been dousing myself with Peach body spray from Bath ‘n Body Works! Ordering these adorable peach charms from Etsy to make myself a bobby pin is also part of the plan. 

 

At the suggestion of a friend, I made Peaches ‘n Cream homemade ice cream for the Last Day of School Picnic; not sure why I didn’t think of this on my own since I have peaches on my mind! Danielle and I picked peaches at our local orchard, which proved to be mostly a fail. The plucking was fun, but most of our spoil spoiled before ripening properly! Oh well. It was still an adventure! Somehow I’ve never read James and the Giant Peach, so that’s on my summer reading bucket list. Also, I want to find the fabric to sew a knit peach gingham dress! No luck so far, so please let me know if you see such. And last but not least, a cup of peach tea with a spot of honey and a splash of cream is a satisfying way to end the day! All in all, it’s shaping up to be a pretty peachy “Summer of the Peach!”

Loving With Our Eyes Wide Shut

  Ever since our special revivals at Southern Harbor the end of March, thoughts about love, and family, and being there for each other have been drifting in and out of my mind. So when my cousin Sheldon messaged me last Tuesday asking if I would write something on the topic of "The Blessings & Benefits of Church Family," I thought, "Yes! Yes, I would love to do that." These thoughts had been simmering long enough and needed to be collected and written down! So here they are. I really felt like I didn't have much to do with it, that it just sort of wrote itself. It was as if God was telling me what I needed in my own life. 

Loving With Our Eyes Wide Shut

(He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.)

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalm 103:2

Benefits, just the sound of that word has pleasant connotations! God has given us so many benefits; blessed

us richly beyond what we deserve! One of those benefits is our closely-knit church family. We love being

together, singing and worshipping together, and feeling like we are in the battle of life together! But with all

this togetherness, we get to know each other pretty well, just like we do with our own personal families. And

then sometimes it’s easy to forget that being a family is a benefit and not a bother. We step on each other’s

toes and get on each other’s nerves. We can’t understand why people do and say and think the things they do!

Walking along by ourselves in peace and quietness even looks more appealing and stress-free. We just want to

do our own thing! Surely, that would be a benefit. But no, stumbling along on our own in our own littles bubbles

is not God’s plan for us! Satan wants us each to view each other as “heavy” and something that we want to

walk away from, but God has another way. He wants us to have the attitude of the boy back in 1918 at

Father Flanagan’s Home for Boys. When he was asked if carrying another boy who had had polio and was

wearing leg braces was hard, the boy replied, “He ain’t heavy, he’s m’brother!” We need to decide to love with

our eyes wide shut. Not excusing or making excuses for sin, but consciously overlooking each other’s petty

faults and humanness, just like we want others to do for us. Several years ago, Minister Shawn Becker told us

to think the best of each other! Especially of those of whom we say we love. Assume the good and doubt the

bad! When we want to feel overly reprimanded we can decide to think, “She’s not critical, she’s my mother in

Israel, and I’m so glad she’s looking out for me.” And we can go and ask her for more advice when we don’t

know what to do. When one of us is down and out again, we can say “He’s not needy, he’s my brother and I

want to sit with him in his darkness.” We can’t take away the burdens that our church family members carry,

but we can let them know that we know they have a heavy load and that we care. Sometimes just knowing

that we are seen and heard is enough. We can squelch righteous irritation by thinking, “She’s not flighty, she’s

my young youth sister with a heart full of dreams just like I used to have.” And we can tell her that we’ve

been there, and that it’s hard to trust your future to God, but it really is the best way. When we want to

sigh and plug our ears instead of hearing again about the horrible condition of the present world we can

remind ourselves, “He’s not a doomsday prophet, he’s my father, who’s handing down the faith of our

fathers.” And we can choose to empathize with our elders because deep down, they probably feel scared and

helpless because things are so different today than in the world they grew up in. When we can truly love with

our eyes wide shut like God loves us, we will fully reap the benefits of being a whole-hearted member of our

church family. People grow well when they are loved well. We can give grace and grow in grace! The benefits of

this attitude will be never-ending. Like Paul advises in Colossians 2:2-3, “That their hearts might be knit

together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the

mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and

knowledge.”

Let’s all remember that, “We aren’t heavy, ‘cuz we’re family.” We are all just walking each other home with our eyes wide shut.

Written by Sharon Faircloth 4-22-21

WOTY WINNER!!!

 

drumroll, drumroll....

Congratulations, Nette!!! 

This printable is a digital file, so let me know what size you would like, and I will get our order placed! 

Remembering Your WOTY ~ Giveaway!

 Now that you have chosen your WOTY and it's forefront in your mind and your year is just proceeding along swimmingly accordingly, (cough, cough)... OR, maybe you are like me and the year is speeding by and you know you need to be reminded constantly of WHAT your WOTY is and WHY you chose it!?

There are so many good ways to remember your word of the year! I like to scour the web for quotes that speak to me pertaining to my word and then use them for my lockscreen and homescreen backgrounds on my phone. Currently I'm using these two respectively.

And this one sparks joy every time I glance at my Apple Watch.

I also am loving having my lightbox which sits above my pantry in the kitchen proclaim:

Q U I E T

💗

#WOTY

Last year I ordered myself a whimsical little copper plant tag from my creative friend, Priscilla Hibner. I loved it so much I ordered them for stocking stuffers for my mom and sisters this past Christmas! If you want to order one, contact Pris at (270) 590-4895. You won't regret it.

The possibilities are endless for ways to keep your WOTY front and center! Others ideas I've heard of are getting custom stickers cut, (you can sticker up your windows, mirrors, phone cover, insulated cup, etc.) getting a t-shirt or hoodie printed, or finding a worded mug.

This year, I've decided to frame quiet 2021 and hang it in my "new to me" home office that I've moved from my dressing room to a corner of our living room. I wanted something super classy, yet simple and minimalistic, so I chose the printable below from this Etsy shop! 

Because I'm so excited about this wall art for my WOTY, I will buy an extra one to give away when I order mine! If you want to enter this drawing, you have to tell me your WOTY in the comments below! If you haven't chosen one, it's not too late! Since I love long comments, I'd also be delighted if you tell me why you chose your word and what you hope it does for you. 

OK, comment away! 

I will do the drawing on Wednesday, so you have until 12:00 midnight on Tuesday before the coach turns back into a pumpkin. 

Welcome 2021 & WOTY 2021

 Happy New Year! 

Now that it's January 19, I finally feel ready to embrace 2021! I always feel like I need a couple weeks between December 31 and January 1 to get prepped and rallied and revived and to get my lists, aspirations, and resolutions resolved!  

But as the old quote goes, "Time and tide waits for no man."  That being said, I do have my WOTY chosen, and my 21 for 2021 list made. (I'll elaborate on this in a later post.)

Today I want to share my word of the year and the inspiration behind it. 

I chose the beautiful, calming, scary word ~ QUIET.

This year I want to learn how to be quiet. I am talkative by nature, which I embrace, but sometimes, it would do me and everyone me around so much good if I could just be more quiet. I want to live the quote, "If you can't be kind, be quiet."

Another benefit of being quiet is to hear what other people have to say.

I also want to have a quiet heart, a quiet spirit; to not let the voices of turmoil scream loudly in my mind. So many times, I can't change a situation anyway. I want to just trust God and let quietness reign inside.

And last, but not least, I made a WOTY goal to prioritize actual, factual quietness! Instead of feeling obligated or giving in to FOMO if I'm not constantly listening to some amazing book, podcast, lecture etc., I want to just listen to my own quiet thoughts as much as possible. It's not dull to just think! I want to leave my phone and its noisiness at home when I walk down Garrett Road.  

Did you choose a WOTY? If so, please let me know! This is my fourth year wotying and I love it! I try to get everyone around me to choose one too lol. Sorry, I'm so pushy! It just gives the year a bit of whimsy and somewhat of a goal/theme! The idea of a word or phrase of the year was sparked by my favorite author, Gretchen Rubin. I have all her books and listen to her podcast more than any other!

My past words were as follows: 

2018 - Home

2019 - Rest Up & Dress Up

2020 - Balance

I guess I never did blog about Balance, (I'll blame it on Covid!) but it ended up being very much of a blessing for the unprecedented year of 2020. 

So here's to choosing a WOTY and being QUIET in 2021!

Masked Lives Matter!

 

I love wearing masks.

Like these, that cover my eyes or my face minus my mouth. 

But now that it’s the thing to wear them over our noses and mouths, I’m having a hard time finding a mask that doesn’t induce “mask meltdown!” Which for me is feeling panicked that I can’t breath, or see, because my glasses are so fogged! So fellow wearers of spectacles, what masks are you loving these days? 

Short of ordering one like this mesh net with high reviews which IS available on Amazon lol, what would you advise? I’ve tried wearing my cute quilter’s cotton one (sewn for me by my crafty sis Rhonda) high, pinched properly around my nose, wearing it low.... still lotsa fog. The surgical style works no better. 

Please help a girl avoid mask meltdown! 

Thank you in advance! 

😷 🤓 

19 for 2019 (original version)

Once upon a time, I penned a list titled 19 For 2019! Then as I read over it, I didn't think it lined up very well with my theme of the year which was "Rest Up and Dress Up." If you want more details on that, read this old post. So I wrote another list, leaving some items on, adding new ones, and taking others off! In the end, I completed some items off both lists! So this post will detail the the original list, with the restful, revised version coming on another day.

Original 2019

1. Establish Core Wardrobe. This is too vague to know if it should be marked off! I did make some strides, but have realized that it will always be a work in progress!

2. Pottytrain Danielle. Woohoo!!! Several weeks after she turned 3, I whipped out the big girl panties, an old shower curtain for her to play on, and proceeded to potty train! Danielle said, "Panties have holes and Pull-ups don't." Really?! Who would have known?! She already had it all figured out. It was a breeze and I wondered why I had prolonged the process so long with Pullups instead of going cold-turkey panties!

3. Get FLS t-shirts designed and printed. They turned out great! And I've since even gotten another batch done. I highly recommend our local "Boss Man Ink" out of Atmore.

4. Visit London! It's still almost beyond belief to me that Danielle and I really did this! It was amazing; a trip with friends that will never be forgotten and will still hopefully be blogged about some day.

5. Stain the roof of Danielle's playhouse. I have this lovely red stain that I purchased back in 2018 just patiently waiting under the bed to be used. I did go out once, and painted a strip but decided that it wasn't the right day, as a yellow pollen-speckled red was not what I had envisioned.

6. Frame all the things! I just have so many things that need framing! Original artwork, printed quotes, various uniquities. But alas, my perfectionism stands in the way once again. Because of course I need the perfect frame to compliment each piece. Preferably purchased at a bargain at a thrift store. 

7. Grow roses again. And I've only killed and replaced one! See this post to know which bushes I selected. "Malibu" was the one that was laid to rest.

8. Conquer C25K. Thanks to my exercise partner! #heidiharms

9. Bop off my bunion. I decided it wasn't painful or annoying enough to be on crutches for weeks!

10. Buy dog collars & tags. Wasn't this on 18 for 2018 too? Our poor homeless looking dogs...except they are fat, so they look well fed which counters the homeless look of no collars.

11. Go to the Pensacola Museum of Art. Just didn't prioritize this, and wham. The year was over. I still WANT TO DO THIS.

12. Make chandelier that I have envisioned and created for my office/dressing room. Does anyone want to apply for the job of making my ideas come to life?! Will pay with more ideas for anything you need ideas for!

13. Paint the living room and hallway. SCORE! At last I get to use the strikethrough key again! Rhonda and Danielle helped to transform more of our house to the lovely shade of Benjamin Moore's Cloud White.

14. Put a new lightbulb in the globe. I've almost forgotten how lovely it looks lit. But I need to research how to take it apart to see what kind of bulb it needs. Simple, but somehow major enough to not get done.

15. Make the meat thing Danl wants. He saw this most amazing huge meat pocket recipe, and sent it to me. But alas, I didn't save it well, and now can't find it! Hopefully he forgot all about it too.

16. Buy a planner in October. To go through not having a planner come January was definitely not something I wanted to repeat! And I found the loveliest "Eccolo" hello 2020 planner at tjmaxx for only $9.99. It has cool quotes and stickers, and tabs, and everything I wanted! 

17. Attempt to get invited to the SL test kitchens. Just kept on dreaming, but didn't give my dreams any wings. If anyone from SL is reading this, please invite me and my mom to come see y'all! We are huge SL fans and having been making your featured Christmas cover cakes for 4 years now...

18. Get new living room curtains. Down with the chocolate brown, in with the light airy white!

19. Can homemade dill pickles. PTL for Claussen brand dills. #likehomecanned