One month home with Magnolia. Dang. My name is Stefanie and I am a slacker. I had all kinds of plans to post frequent updates after we got home, writing it all down and taking all kinds of pictures like I did with Clementine. But that just hasn’t happened. I don’t think I factored in the constant level of crazy… Read More
Christmas 2015
We continued this year with our theme of breaking away from our traditional Christmases past. And we continue to be surprised at how the Lord has blessed our meager efforts to reprioritize our time, our energy and our spending. We completed a third year with our wonderful Advent book, every night taking turns guessing which object would be the one… Read More
most days
Things are usually a little crazy around here. Because, honestly, homeschooling seven kids is a pushing-this-mama-to-the-limit reality on most days. And since Clementine came home, the crazy has just gotten stronger. (In an adorable way, of course.) It has limited our outings significantly. And limited the time I have to spend one-on-one with my girls. So they’ve just had to… Read More
2014 in review: 24 of my favorites
It’s become a bit of a thing around here, I suppose: going through my pictures at the end of the year and plucking out a few favorites. It’s laborious. It’s time consuming. But I love it because it’s a chance to look back at the year, as a mama, and see how my babies have grown. Cherish important milestones. Remember… Read More
letting go
My oldest child is 25. My youngest child is 1. And I am mama to 10 more that fall in between. My 1 year old cannot feed herself. Hold her cup. Walk from one end of the room to the other. I get to do all that for her. My 25 year old, on the other hand, no longer needs… Read More
christmas 2014
It was noisy. It was chaotic. It was wonderful. And the best part? Having this little one home. Be still my heart. To have her here, with us this year, was the greatest gift we could have ever imagined. But the kids wanted toys, too For some crazy reason. Tallula got a Frozen snuggle-thing. Whose one-size-fits-all sizing is evidently for… Read More
how do I love thee…
Seriously, I love this dog. Okay, confession time. I love all my dogs like a crazy-dog-hoarder-person. Thankfully (I suppose?) I married someone who had only a mild affinity for dogs… comparatively speaking. Because it’s kept my wild love for dogs in check. But then came Noah. I know, I know. I wax poetic all the time about this dog. But… Read More
unwrappable
In my last post, I promised I’d share about my birthday gift. The extra-special-something-I’d-asked-for. And here it is. Or more appropriately, here she is. Last fall, just a few months after bringing our beloved Noah home, I knew that someday I’d want another boston terrier. I am, if you haven’t already noticed, kind of an animal lover. I’d have a… Read More
my turn (aka that cake!)
For all of one week, my husband was married to a younger woman. Then it was my turn. Forget the cheesecake and the ice cream cake. I wanted a girly cake. And – thanks to my beloved oldest child – a girly cake is what I got. I also got 11 handmade cards, created just for me by each of… Read More
freedom
Yesterday was the 4th of July. Sun shining, high temps in the mid 80’s and a light breeze blowing. We had the picnic basket ready to go by 11 AM. By 12, our picnic lunch was devoured. And we let the kids – souped up on bologna sandwiches, cheese sticks and Cherry Coke – run wild. Freedom. Glorious freedom. A… Read More