simple joys

Here in our new town, we live just up the road from the very small local airport. We pass the runway on our way home. Several weeks ago, as we were heading home, we noticed several planes and gliders waiting to go up, so we pulled in next to the runway so we could watch. The kids loved being so close to the planes taking off. OK, so did Michael and I.

We recently happened to drive by when the local skydiving chapter was meeting at the airport and people were parachuting left and right. It was so fun to watch! And all the colorful parachutes made quite a beautiful sight!

A few days later we saw more planes taking gliders up...

It is still so amazing to watch the gliders as they soar through the air without the help of an engine.

Watching these planes and gliders has become one of our favorite things to do. We get excited when we drive by the runway and see that they are out. Last week we drove by just as a plane passed right in front of us to land.

We really are enjoying this simple little joy we have found in our new town. What are you enjoying these days?

birthday number nine

I love this fella. I can hardly believe that he is now nine years old! And like many nine year olds, he loves Legos. Not a day goes by that I don't find at least one stray Lego brick somewhere in our house. As a matter of fact, I can see one right now on the kitchen counter. When I asked what theme he wanted for his birthday, I was not surprised to find that he want a Lego theme. So, like so many others, I started pinning ideas.

I found this banner idea here. I downloaded a Lego font, then colored around each letter with a yellow marker and then cut around the yellow to give the letters the yellow border. I then pasted them on red cardstock and threaded them onto black ribbon.

Before we moved, I found these candies at my favorite bulk food shop. I went ahead and bought them for the party. You can even snap them together!

I decided to use them as cupcake toppers. I think they are so cute!

Now, for a dose of reality. I was so excited when I found this cake idea on Pinterest. Click on the link for the full effect. Now, here is my version of said cake. People, it was hard. I don't know if I just become incompetent when icing is set in front of me or what, but my cake did not turn out like the photo in that link. But, you know what? I asked Larkin to come look at it and he was so excited. He told me it was awesome. And that is good enough for me.

Plus, it tasted great. The lesson here, moms? If it makes your child happy, then you have accomplished your goal. Don't be hard on yourself if your cake wouldn't fly on Cake Boss.

I really did try to get some shots of Larkin opening his gifts, but there was such a frenzy, I could hardly get near him. When I was finally able to get down on his level, I sat right down into a drink that someone has spilled. Good times. I love how excited all the kids get, even when it isn't their party!

All in all, it was a great day. Larkin was surrounded by people who love him and wanted to celebrate him.

linking up with

settling in

News flash: Moving is hard. When I announced that we were moving, I thought it would be really great to blog about the process. Not about how to pack boxes or in which order to pack them (although sometimes it felt like it would be helpful if someone would just tell me those things), but more about the emotional parts of a move. The good and the bad. The fun and the not so fun.

But I was hit with a pretty big dose of reality. In December, Michael was on tour and for two weeks we had various band members and their families staying with us (which was a lot of fun). The tour lasted until December 23 and then we went to visit family for Christmas for a week. We then returned home to a whirlwind of packing and preparing for the move. I was still homeschooling during most of that time. I was determined not to get too far behind. Did I mention that I was sick through Christmas, too? Because that makes things cleaning and packing easier.

Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot of time to sit and really digest all that was going on, much less be able to blog about it.

{At this point Michael and I decided we had all we really needed in the moving truck.}

The good news? We are on this side of the move and mostly settled. I found this photo on my phone after Lucy had it the other day. Apparently she is enjoying our new back porch...

As a matter of fact, this picture is a great representation of how we feel right now. Happy. Very very happy.

announcement

So, my short blog break turned into weeks with not posts. And breaks like that overwhelm me. For starters I was without my computer for nine days. Much longer than I expected, not to mention a bit inconvenient. Then we were with family for Thanksgiving. I am that weird girl that actually has a harder time starting back with the blog once I take a break. It is like I don't know if I should "catch you all up" on what has been going on or if I should just jump right back in. I know it doesn't really matter, but, for whatever reason, those thoughts just make me avoid the blog. I sound really lame, I know.

Anyway, as you may have guessed from the picture, one thing that is going on around here is packing. We are moving! At the beginning of the year we will be able to call ourselves Georgians again. Well, truth be known, I will always be a Georgia girl no matter where I live, but we will physically be back "home."

It is a very busy time to be packing (and purging). We have guests arriving tonight for the week, Christmas is right around the corner, and then we move! Whew! While it is a busy time, there is a whole lot of goodness in the mix. So, I am going to try and enjoy it all. Yes, even the packing (more so the purging). But, mostly, I want this busy time not to distract me from the wonder of Christmas, and the time to celebrate the birth of our Savior. It could be so easy to get overwhelmed with "busyness" that I forget to rest in Him and celebrate Him.

May we all be able to focus on the beauty and true meaning in this season...

linking up with

smalltown poets christmas giveaway

I have mentioned the release of the new Smalltown Poets Christmas album. Well, the day has finally arrived and we are so excited! I must admit that my husband's voice sure is dreamy. The whole album is amazing. You can even here my smalls lending their voices to the last track.

There just happens to be a very large stack of boxes full of CDs in my foyer, and since I think it is imperative that you have a copy, I am giving one away right here!

All you have to do is leave a comment telling me your favorite Christmas song. For an extra entry, tweet about the giveaway with a link to this post (my Twitter handle is @abjohnston) and leave a comment saying you did.

This giveaway will close on Sunday, November 13 and I will announce a winner on Monday, November 14. If you just can't wait to add the album to your Christmas rotation, you can order a copy here or you can download it on iTunes.

Merry Christmas!

linking up with

pink lady day

Wow, I missed a whole week on here! I have good reason, though. My mama came last Monday and stayed with us all week. I had not seen her in over three months. I am almost positive that we have never gone that long without seeing each other. So, I soaked up every single second of our time together. Ya'll, I love my mama.

We visited the apple orchard a few weeks ago, but the pink lady apples weren't ready yet, so I have been calling to make sure I was there the first day they were available. I really love me some pink lady apples. Friday was the day and I termed it, "Pink Lady Day." Truth be told, I squished the cheeks of each of my family members while squealing, "It's Pink Lady Day!" I know they loved it.

{I really think he is so handsome...even while up in a tree.}

{Someone wanted to be like Dad.}

{Someone else also wanted to be like Dad.}

{We went home with a bushel of apples. That is a whole lot of apples.}

{There are a couple of horses at the orchard that are more than happy to take an apple or two.}

There will be lots of apple products coming out of my kitchen in the coming week. Tonight we started things off with this apple crisp that I found on Pinterest. It is delicious! There is a good chance that I will have some of it for breakfast in the morning. Shhhh, don't tell anyone!

linking up with

ok with that

My, this has been a quiet week here on the blog. I have thought about posting, but every time I would think of something it seemed kind of boring. For me, sometimes when I read other blogs I get a bit overwhelmed and I feel a sense of pressure to post something amazing.

The truth is, in the past few weeks, my days have looked a lot like the photo above. By the way, Lucy took that photo with my phone and I was really impressed with the composition. I haven't created any amazing dishes, or sewn anything, or worn any outfits that would make you all drool, or made an amazing craft to make my home sparkle. And I am trying to be ok with that.

I do remember the day that this photo was taken. I was in a bit of a grumpy mood and I was being very short with the kids. And it made me feel horrible. After I sat and read to them and I got up from the couch, I felt a sense of peace. Kind of like I had a chance to start the day over.

The only thing my children have been concerned with me creating is time with them. Well, and meals. I think they care about me creating meals. But seriously, I am learning that, while crafting and baking and the like do fulfill me, knowing that my children are happy and feeling loved (or, as we call it around here, that their "mommy tanks" are full) fulfills me way beyond those things. And I am more than ok with that.

linking up with

simply connecting

Today is a rainy day and I am pretty happy about that. I love how rainy days seem to slow us down a bit and make us enjoy simplicity. Michael is home and we actually did a lot of our school together as a family and I really enjoyed it and I know the kids did, as well.

I love spending time with my family. I guess that is a good thing since I homeschool my children! And I love "date nights" with my love. Last night was one such night and you can see from the photo, I really dressed up for the occasion. By the way, I know it is perspective, but my feet look huge. I do have long feet, but they are not bigger than Michael's!

We don't get a lot of date nights out of the house, but at least once a week we have one at home. Once the kids are in bed, I pull out the air popper, mix up a mean batch of popcorn, hit the secret dark chocolate stash and we watch a little television. Ninety-nine percent of the time we watch re-watch episodes of Psych (Hey, I told you that we are addicted. Watch Shawn and Gus and you will be, too.). The other one percent allows for movies and Project Runway. He watches Project Runway with me...I love him.

These date nights may not look like much, but I cherish them. Don't get me wrong, I love a night out as much as the next girl, but I am so very thankful that we can connect in such a simple way. And how often do you get to take your dog on date nights? (See bottom right corner of photo).

So, as this day nears to a close, I am thankful for my family who are happiest just being together, even in tattered pjs on the couch.

linking up with

singing in the trees

Last Christmas I mentioned that my husband was working on a Christmas record. I am very excited that the new Smalltown Poets record is almost finished! I got to hear the (almost) final mixes tonight and I am in love. The album is so amazing.

The guys are working on a video in bits and pieces and Michael filmed his portion this weekend. We got up squirrelly-early on Saturday morning and traveled a little bit north to visit one of my best friends from childhood because her husband owns a Christmas tree farm (a great place for a Christmas video, right?)

First of all, it was so great getting to see her as it had been WAY to long. Second of all, does anyone know how much I love Christmas trees? People, I was surrounded by them on all sides and it was heavenly.

Can't you tell I had been up since 4:45?

We had a lot of fun amongst the trees and crickets. I even got to pick out my Christmas tree for this year. In August! How exciting is that? This beauty is now tagged for my family. Eep!

And I just have to post one more photo of my love. I just find him so swoon-worthy...

linking up with

insta-friday :: week 5

Another week in Instagram photos! And this time I am actually posting on Friday! As I mentioned last week, we we took a little trip this past weekend to Virginia. We spent Saturday in Colonial Williamsburg. We all loved it, but you really need more than one day to experience it, so we hope to go back very soon.

{Who knew the kids would love the hoop and stick game so much?}

{This was our audio enjoyment for the ride home. Fitting since we were in Virginia.}

{The ride home was quite rainy.}

{My girl's drawings of our family and my boy's first diagrams!}

{He loves reading and listening to audio books.}

{She wore this vest everyday this week except for when she wanted to dress like her owl.}

{Roasted sweet potatoes are nothing new, but these were particularly delicious.}

{Possibly the strangest thing I have every seen at the thrift store, and I've seen a lot.}

I hope you all had a great week!

linking up with

reaching up :: a repost

Twice in the past week I have read someone's blog and had this post from several years ago come to mind. And honestly, it is on my mind today, so I thought I would share it (or reshare it, I guess).

At the time of the original posting, my grandmother was battling with leukemia. It was about three weeks after her diagnosis and about two months before her death.

From February 18, 2008...

We just returned from a visit with my grandma. The night before we left, a huge storm came through the area. My parents received over five inches of rain overnight. Michael, my cousin, Jamie, and I went back to the pond on their property to check to make sure the water level was decreasing since it was so near the top of the dam, which is not good.

After removing some tree limbs from the spillway to ensure that the water was able to easily move from the pond to the creek, we decided to take a walk by the creek. With the recent drought, the creek has been pretty much non-existent. However, yesterday the water was actually rushing through the creek! It was a beautiful sight and the sound was so soothing.

While walking, I found these two trees growing right next to each other. When I looked up to the sky, the tops reminded me of hands reaching up. I realized that is how I feel. All I can do right now is reach up to God and be filled with His hope and love. He is so good.

happy ten

Last week Michael and I celebrated our ten-year anniversary. And I must say, they have been amazing years. I have a wonderful guy. I remember when I was much younger and would hear of someone celebrating their tenth anniversary. I thought it was such a long time. And I guess it is quite a while, but man has it flown by! You can see a little bit of our wedding day in this post from Michael (and the very sweet thing he had to say about me :) )

We didn't have big plans for the day. It was very low key, but nice to just do whatever we wanted for the day and not have to be anywhere.

That morning Lucy and I got out our new paint because she wanted to make something for us. While she was painting I decided to make a little something for Michael (Obviously, I am not a painter). You can see a bit of it up above.

Lucy made us a sweet little painting.

I absolutely love it. Can you see where she wrote mom and dad at the bottom? Sweet. And this little bird it just too cute...

She also picked up this little birdhouse at the craft store the other day and painted it for us. I especially like the blue around the inside of the hole.

I love that we are a family who likes to make things for each other and I hope that value sticks with our kids. I don't expect all of our gifts (received and given) to be handmade, but it is nice to take the time to create something for someone else or to know someone took the time to make something especially for you.