Monday, August 21, 2017

Jackson is 2!

Dear Jackson,

Happy 2nd birthday my awesome boy! We had a lot of fun celebrating your birthday. On your birthday, we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch. We met your grandparents there and then took them to our house to see our chicks and keets. We had pizza for dinner and I made brownies that I decorated with some trucks.

Saturday, we had your 2nd birthday party. It was a construction themed party that we had at our house. We invited your friends over and everyone had a great time. We served lunch and cake. Dad described your party as the ultimate playdate. What one could hope for when they invite lots of friends over.  We had 26 people over. 7 of your friends and their siblings (if they have them) and a parent or two. I set up stations inside and outside for kids to explore. Some of the favorite stations were the hammer and nails, playing with truck area, and just playing outside. Your friends got to see the chicken chicks and guniea keets and many of them got to go on a tractor ride around our property to see the animals. 

Favorites at 2:

Food: Crackers, macaroni and cheese (mamamoni); guacamole (mamamoli); pizza; banana (nana); grapes, oranges, watermelon, yogurt, chips, and hot sauce
Songs: "Jesus Loves Me" and "Happy Birthday"
Friends: Caden (Caycay), Grace, Brandon, and Emi
Books: You are really into books! I hope you develop a love of reading. Some of your favorite kind of books are the finger puppet books. For a while they made you laugh and laugh. Then you went through a stage of being terrified of them. Now you're back to loving them. You also like lift the flap books and books that I sing as well as interesting picture books.
Toys: Trucks, tractors, cars, and balls.
Outside Activity: Riding on the tractor or mowing with dad, playing in the sand, digging in the dirt, and playing in the backyard.
Inside: Playing with mom, brother or sister, reading, playing with toys, or eating.

Jackson, you are so smart and have a very good ear. When ever an airplane flies over us, you excitedly jump up and tell us, "plane! Plane!" as you point up toward the sky. When you hear a train, you excitedly, exclaim, "train! Train!" You will stop whatever you are doing to tell us about planes and trains. When we pass train tracks, you love looking for the trains. When we see a train, you love pointing at the trains. 

You also are very determined. If someone has something you want, you are not afraid to go and take it. Size doesn't seem to matter. I've even seen you become pretty aggressive, for example, you've pinch and even hit (not good) a few kids who refuse to give you what you want. We are trying to teach you to be kind and gentle. We pray you continue to learn self-control while keeping your determination for good things. 

You have a smile that can light up a room. You are quick to make friends and are a bit of a charmer. You love being our helper. You help mow, helped dad put in the circle driveway, help with the animals, help water the garden. In fact, another thing you love is WATER! You seem to always find a way to get wet. There's rarely a night that goes by that you are not wet from outside before bath time. You love water. If we had a pool, I'm pretty sure you'd already know how to swim. You are anxious to go under water.

Next week you'll have you two year check-up and I'll get your stats then. I'm thankful you have made it two years nursing. I'll be weaning you soon, which will be hard. But my ultimate goal was to try and nurse you until you were 2, if you wanted to. We made it! :)

We love you Jack! Happy birthday!

Love,
Mom

Birthday morning!


Your bedroom door

God put a beautiful rainbow in the sky to end your birthday.

You gave me a kiss!! :)




I caught you getting into these yummy things!




Party favors

We gave you the big digging toy



You love the digger!

Friends and their moms!
Ryder, Genevieve, Zeke, Jackson, Brandon, Emi, and Jackson
(Ellie and her mom weren't there yet when we took this)

Dads!




Food! Fruit, chips, and dips were on the othe side of the island

Ryder, Grace, Jackson, and Zeke
Hammering golf t's into styrofoam

Big brothers building Lego's












Ashlyn, Jackson, Ryder, Nickolas, Ellie, and Grace






Brandon, Nick, and Jackson

Zeke and Ellie

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

How Many Clothes is Too Many?

Too many clothes! What do I really wear?

Ever since living in Europe, I have separated my clothing by season. I try and keep my closet as clutter free as possible. I've been trying to do the one item in, one item out but have been failing. I just counted my short sleeve/sleeveless shirts and I have 62! 62 shirts that are hanging in my small (for American standards) closet. This is not including my winter shirts or my dresses. 

62 shirts hanging
My minimalist side would love to pair down to about 15-20 great shirts. I've been trying to embrace the minimalmist lifestyle for a few years now. I still have a ways to go. When I designed my closet in my new house, I decided to go with a larger shower, door to the laundry room, from the closet, rather than a larger closet. I truly want to only have what I love. I want to only see shirts that I would love to wear no matter what. Shirts that if my husband ever surprised me with a weekend getaway, he could easily pack my clothing and I would not dread wearing a single thing he packed. And if I'm really honest with myself, 15-20 shirts is still too many. I probably wear the same 5-8 shirts most days. So that's allowing me to have a few extra shirts. 

So how is my weed out plan working? Every tme I wear an item and wash it, I hang it on the very left of the clothes line. Slowly, items I haven't worn in a long time get pushed to the left. You can even flag the shirt on the left and move the flag over if you end up wearing that shirt. I've done this a few weeks now and I'm going to give myself another month to see where I'm at. Then it's time to purge! 

Last weekend my husband asked if I needed any jeans. I looked in my closet and realized I have 5 pairs. So really, no, I'm good. I need to try on all my pants, especially before going into Fall and see what I love and don't. What fits and doesn't fit me. I do this about once a year. Below is a picture of my pants and shirts. I think I'm done to one skirt which I'm about to give away. I tend to wear more dresses than skirts and tops.

How to you organize your clothes? What do you think is a good number of clothing items to own?