Being a Mom

Needing Jesus

July 2, 2017 by Michelle Filed Under: Being a Mom, Faith, Life, Marriage Leave a Comment

(Reader’s note: this was written originally last Monday, 6/26…but this is how long it takes me to finish things these days… ☹)

I always think it’s funny when something happens by “coincidence”.
I just happened to forget I wasn’t supposed to take a lunch today, and ran an errand to Trader Joe’s. Then I happened to run home to drop off all my goods, etc. and strolled around my house to see what the cleaning lady did while she was there this morning (it’s always fun to see how she reorganizes things!!).
Then I happened to get a notification that a sweet girl, that I’ve known from way-back-when, Jess Connolly, was doing a live video on Instagram.
And I happened to turn on my car’s blue tooth so I could listen in on her little video.

Jess’ husband worked in my office, what seems like, a million years ago. Back when he was this sweet guy dreaming of marrying this gorgeous gal named Jess.
Dreams do come true.

They have an amazing ministry…she’s killing it all over the place – praise be to Jesus alone, I know she would say.

So here I was in my car listening to her pouring out her heart about being “Expectant” about all things Jesus…which includes us as fallen humans and how we can be expectant to still need him and she said this one thing that I repeated over and over in my head until I got to a stop light and could email it to myself so I didn’t forget!
“What if..you still needed Jesus?”
She was recalling a conversation she had with a dear friend of hers from the other day, about all these things we plan out and set out as goals etc. And she said something like, But what if, at the end of all the planning and goal-setting that we still needed Jesus.
I sat there thinking, that’s mind-boggling to me. We DO need Jesus. But do we admit that in the every minute – every day?

What if, in your every day, everything, you still needed Jesus.
Instead of thinking, I’ve got this. I’ve got all these things to do in XXX time, or whatever, what if you still needed Jesus.
What about this moment, this day, this week…would be different?
What if you acknowledged that you still NEEDED Jesus. Needed Him like you need breath. Every moment of every hour.
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” The Psalmist says (Ps. 42:1).
What if that were true.
How would your thoughts be different.
How would your words be different.
How would your heart be different.

How would your hopes be different.
How would your perspective change.
Would you have more peace?
Would you have more joy?
Would you lay all the burdens down at the Savior’s feet and leave them there?
Would you, like Mary, sit. Still and quiet and wait to hear from Him?
Would you keep rushing around like Martha, trying to get all the things done, while harboring an attitude against those you love?
Would you still be holding that grudge against that friend that hurt you so many years ago?

I think it’s so easy for us to just get up every morning and get going that we forget we need him. I need him to be joyful. I need him to have grace and strength and patience with my kids, my husband and myself even. I need him to be KIND. I am a sinner. I am not even remotely in the same solar system as perfect, and therefore, I need Jesus. To be more like him so that others might slightly like me.

What if, you and I went to bed tonight resting in Jesus. Needing him.
What if, tomorrow morning, when we woke up, instead of grabbing the phone to see how many likes or messages we got during the middle of the night, or doing whatever thing you do when you first wake up…we said, “Hey Jesus. I need you. I NEED.You.”
And then we waited to hear from him.

What if we did that? I wonder how tomorrow might be different.

Something to think about on a Sunday night. Hugs for a sweet bedtime…hopefully the fireworks where you are aren’t too loud tonight…

A Mom Moment…

June 13, 2017 by Michelle Filed Under: Being a Mom 1 Comment

Kids know just how to punch you in the gut, don’t they?

I’m not talking about the “I hate you, get out of my life” drama that I PRAY hard we never deal with…

I’m talking about the bedtime, “No, MOMMA, I didn’t want YOU to put me to bed. I want DADDY!” drama.

It’s often Reynolds who gives me the boot out of his bed {and seemingly out of his heart…}. And I’m sort of okay with it, some nights. Whatever, he wants his dad. It’s a guy thing, sure. Okay. I can get on board with that.

But Eliza Jane…seriously. The girls need to stick together here. We’re outnumbered….she’s supposed to be on MY team right?!

Tonight was going along great, she got in her nightgown, hopped into the bed and {flip! the switch}, she lost it. She screamed that Mariah Carey scream {that makes my ears start to bleed}, shoved her face into the bed and burst into tears. I sat there completely unaware of anything that had just happened…. Bewildered beyond anything.

“MY NOT WANT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY WANT MY DALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Seriously.

She punched me in the gut. The heart. I was shattered. She was so completely distraught that I was the one to sing her songs, pray her prayer and wipe those sweet curls out of her face to kiss her goodnight.

HE didn’t push you out of the smallest hole in his body and provide your sole nourishment the first four months of your life, but whatever. Fine. You can have him.

I’ll go sit on my favorite couch and drink a straw-berrita while eating a half-pint of icecream. I’m not hurt. I’ll be fine.

sniff.

I walked out of the banshee’s room and into Reynolds’ where the boys where having a lovely story time and recounted to “Dally” what had just happened.

“She wanted YOU, she just said it!” he stated, confused as I was. I’m pretty sure Reynolds laughed at the drama I had acted out for them.

“Well. She no longer wants ME, she wants YOU.” and I stood there with my pout-pout face on. And then I walked out.

And back into her room. I had debated going back in. She was still crying over Dally…

Somehow I got her pulled back from the proverbial cliff. She smiled and laughed at me…she told me she loved me with her tiny hands holding my face. She kissed me and said “night night momma, lus you” as I walked out the door and blew her a kiss.

I guess I did something right. My gut feels better…my heart no longer shattered. Maybe she does love me after all.

This was taken last week at the beach…the night we got caught in the rain!

Praying you feel loved by the crazy people in your life tonight…Sweet dreams friends…

The Blue Apron Meal…

May 22, 2017 by Michelle Filed Under: Being a Mom, Cooking, Food & Drink Leave a Comment

Finally! I am getting to this post! We are on week three of our Blue Apron meals (what?!?) and man, that time went by fast! I really wanted to share with y’all about Blue Apron because I know I was really curious so I figured if I was, someone else must be too…right?

Here’s some background info for you. We cook at least three, if not four nights a week and frankly, I have been getting bored with the same.ol.food and needed new options. Options that we like {read: flavor] and that my kids will eat {read: not be afraid to try}. We try not to eat out a lot because it really is so expensive and a lot less healthy… So when I finally bit the bullet to do Blue Apron, the cost was calculated out to be less than $9/portion {I purchase the 4-portion option}. For us a portion actually equals dinner for all of us plus at least one additional meal, be it lunch or supper for another day. With that in mind, the cost really comes out to be just under $7/portion, which isn’t so terrible.

Our first box arrived three Saturdays ago…and here’s how it went down…mostly in pictures.

You get this really great box

That tells you that cooking is happy…and in the process you get really happy/excited.

Then, you unload all the goods and get even more excited.

The first meal I chose to make, out of the two that came in our box, was the Crispy Catfish and Sweet Potato Fries. Now, I’m a Georgia girl and my PawPaw had a catfish pond in South Georgia so I grew up eating catfish. I grew up FISHING for catfish on hot Saturday afternoons…where you had to sit perfectly still and quiet. Do you know how hard it is to sit still and quiet as a child…? I have sweet memories of sitting on the bank of that pond fishing for what seemed like an eternity…to catch just enough fish so that we could fry them for supper.
So here I was taking my stroll down memory lane, and thinking that the only true, proper way to eat catfish is with honey… That’s how I grew up eating it!

There was no honey included in this recipe. We were trying something new. And I was still very excited.

I followed the instructions to a “T”, even using the same bowls that my pictures showed!

These sweet potato fries…man, was that a workout! I took a selfie that I will spare you, but it was of my “angry face” because these dang potatoes were so hard to cut through! That was not included in my recipe notes! Let it be known to you out there, who may be novices to cooking, sweet potatoes are hard…so get yourself a really sharp knife, and be careful in the cutting!

Along with the sweet potato fries was sauteed spinach that I had to mash out all of the liquid {which was kind of sinky…}.

But Y’all. This was SUCH a good meal. Simply delicious.

One Eliza Jane was so excited she could barely stand it!

A few things I learned:

My kids LOVED this meal.
You need to flip the sweet potato fries mid-way as they cook {else they’ll be charred a wee bit like mine}.
The 35-ish minutes they said it would take to cook the whole meal was slightly under the almost hour it took me…and I’m not sure if that was due to my lack of experience as a cook or the fact that maybe I wasn’t as organized as they were when they hit their start button.

Nonetheless….this meal really was delicious. The catfish was better than I thought it would be considering there was no honey involved at all. The sweet potato fries were simply amazing and yes, I’ll certainly make those again!

Has anyone tried Blue Apron and had success? What about any of the other food/meal delivery services? I’d love to know your favorites!

Oh, and if you’re interested in trying Blue Apron, shoot me a message and I’ll give you a code that gets you a free delivery! Woot!

Much love!

May 2017…so far

May 17, 2017 by Michelle Filed Under: Being a Mom, Life 1 Comment

Y’all…I have so much to write about. So many things I haven’t had a half-second to put down on paper {or type in a blank box} and I truly fear that I never will!!! So much I want to say and tell y’all!

But…tonight I’m just going to give some updates because it’s been a couple of months. In my favorite kind of fashion…here’s the latest with our Lucas clan.

Reading: Magnolia. It’s seriously the greatest magazine {in my little opinion} since Real Simple came out. It doesn’t help that I, along with the rest of the ship-lap-loving-world, am completely infatuated with Chip and Jo.

Playing: What all of my motherly dreams were made of…playing baseball in the front yard with my kids. Y’all! I remember so very fondly playing ball in the yard with my mom and my dad that I have just been waiting {patiently?!} for this day. And it happened just a week or so ago and has been a recurring thing since…and it’s just bliss.

Watching: Oh I could just watch these sweet babies for days and days, but apparently I’m not in reality! If I take my eyes of Emory for a millisecond, he’s rolled himself under a chair! But seriously…I love watching all three of these sweet kids. They absolutely adore each other and it’s the best seat to the most wonderful show…

Trying: I’m really trying to run. I don’t like running. I will walk for miles…and that’s just how I want to do it. In running there’s too much bouncing. My ponytail whacks me in the face. I get WAY too sweaty and I feel so gross afterwards. But I’m trying. I’m supposed to run a 5k on Saturday…we’ll see how that goes.

Cooking: OH! This is fun. And a future blog post to come…I have done a couple of Blue Apron meal orders! So I have a lot to say about that…and will leave you hanging here on this little cliff!

Eating: {see above comment…and I will leave you waiting to hear all the yummy details!}

Drinking: Straw-Ber-Ritas!!! The perfect little something at the end of a hot day.

Texting: My friend Meredith and I both got our new Ban.do agendas today (YAY!!) so we were texting each other about how great they are and how fabulous we are for getting the same amazing stuff!

Pinning: I feel like I’ve been pinning a lot of plants and flowers recently. I have been working on the shade bed in our back yard {it’s coming along quite lovely} and we recently had two trees and several dead azaleas taken out of the front yard so there’s a lot happening in the gardening department.

Tweeting: I think I like the idea of tweeting better than I do actually tweeting. I’m not one to share my every thought like the Donald… so as much as I’d like to be a hip tweeter, I just don’t think I am…?

Going: I love to go. I love to pack a bag and GO. We are going…in just a couple of weeks. We are going to the BEACH for a WEEK with ALL the KIDS. Y’all. Pray for us. haha. I’m kidding. It will be great. It will be fabulous. I seriously cannot wait.

Loving: So much. My husband. My kids. Amazing people who are just so incredibly self-less. I want to be more like them.

Hating: I hate spiders. I don’t like bugs. And I loathe mosquitoes. I’m starting to feel like I don’t really like summer because with warm weather comes all the things I don’t like. I don’t like sweating either…oh I think I already said that…

Discovering: I can’t really say that I am discovering anything new… But Emory is and it is SO fun to see and hear him figuring out these new things!!

Thinking: You know…it can be dangerous when you think…ha.

Hoping: I am hoping my husband reads this tonight and sees my hint about a quiet date night Friday night… yes, we have a sitter.

Listening: It’s actually quiet right now as I write this. The dishwasher is running, the monitor echos the white noise playing in Emory’s room… There’s nothing else causing a stir. Now…just five minutes ago Eliza Jane was screaming like a banshee because “my want you” for the 37th time tonight… But I guess she’s finally given up.

Celebrating: There’s always something worthy of celebrating, right? Last Friday Reynolds got his trophy for t-ball and last night Eliza Jane got her medal for completing a season of gymnastics!

And yes! We just celebrated Mother’s Day…and all the moms and being a mom. And I celebrated my sweet Momma in Heaven. I miss her something terrible, but I trust she’s having a blast up there with Jesus.

Smelling: Have you stopped to smell the roses recently? I did a walking meeting with a co-worker a few weeks ago and we found this amazing rose along our path…and of course we stopped and smelled it! I wish I could have bottled up the scent and passed it out with this photo!

Ordering: I need to order a swimsuit! Did you see the post I wrote for the Columbia SC Moms Blog? So many options! I’ve narrowed my choices and now I just need to swipe the card! I also need to check to see if the kids need new suits…

Starting: Oh there’s nothing to start…and no time to start anything!

Finishing: There’s a lot to be finished. Flower beds, laundry, ironing…all the things I’ve already shared including writing more blog posts!

I’ll save all of that for another day. I’m off to bed while the littles are sleeping.

I hope you have had a joyful May so far. If you haven’t celebrated anything today…look around and find something to be excited about. I trust you won’t have to look very far…

Much love!

Reynolds’ Birthday Fun!

May 10, 2017 by Michelle Filed Under: Being a Mom, Events 1 Comment

Oh my gracious! What a fun birthday Reynolds had!! It was nearly 3 weeks ago, but who’s counting!? It’s taken me quite some time to get all of this together with the kiddos, work and all the other whathaveyous, so I’m sorry for the delay, but I think this will bring some joy to your beautiful eyes tonight!

I just want to say, if your birthday starts off with homemade chocolate chip waffles, made with immense love by your momma, it’s going to be a really incredible day.

The first sweet picture of my “Captain”…anybody else think he’s huge? He’s huge. 44 inches tall, confirmed last Friday by his pediatrician, who looked at us and said, “So…he’s grown FIVE inches since his last check-up.” Then smiled with this, “I really don’t know what to say.” look on his face. HA!

The plan was for him to go to school for a half-day and then I would pick him up around 12:15 to go to the Zoo. “Surprises” were in store for him as we let him know in the morning. Mommy and Daddy had surprises for him, and we would let him know as they happened.

As I picked him up from school and helped him change from his camos into shorts I told him we were going to the zoo. His sweet face lit up and then he said, “is sister going with us?” I replied, “No….did you want sister to go with us?” Secretly hoping his answer would be “no” so that he wouldn’t be disappointed…

“Yes!” he said, enthusiastically…

“Well…she’s not coming, baby. Mommy planned for just you and me to go to the zoo and that way you can do whatever you want to do!”

Somehow that won him over and he was all smiles leaving school.

Kids and adults alike love to gaze at the lion..

His best tiger face.

I’m not kidding when I tell you that we stood here for 15 minutes watching those sweet sea lions swim in circles. He asked me questions like “why can’t I go swim with them?” and “where do they sleep at night?” It was wonderful.

The reptiles are my least favorite…I sort of have to stare at the dirty carpet as he searches for these fascinating creatures – are they on a branch, under a leaf, in the water…not my kind of hide and seek…

The shark led most of the kids to start singing “Baby Shark…”

We counted the Galapagos turtles I think eight times…just to be sure no one was trying to get away too quickly to hide..

I sent this picture out to a few friends with the caption, “Guess who is going to ride the pony on his birthday?!” I was giddy with excitement and nervousness that he would get up to the platform and somehow change his mind.

I literally stood in shock and awe that he just put his foot in the stirrup and hoped right on that sweet pony. I was completely amazed at how big he seemed…and was.

He was so happy, with his head bobbing up and down at the gait of this sweet animal.

I was nearly jumping up and down by the time he got off the pony and he had a massive smile on his sweet face. Proud and excited all in one four-year-old’s body…it was beautiful!

Next up was the train, and in the three years we’ve had a membership to the zoo, this was my first time riding in the little train! We had so much fun!

Oh, and if you notice the book “Farts in the Wild”…that was a gift we got for a friend. hahaha

Oh the carousel…we rode it twice…and the rhino was his favorite because he didn’t move up and down.

Because everybody needs a little ice cream on their birthday.

We went into the little bird sanctuary and he looks at me like, why don’t I have anything to give these birds, when all the other kids did. So I stopped and looked at him like, are you for real not going to scream and run when they all attack you for your two ounces of nectar? He said no…so we went out, back around to the front, paid the what ever dollar or two to get our nectar and back in we went.

This kid. He just kept surprising me. He held up his little cup and let them drink right from it. Not the least bit scared.

Of course he kept a safe distance, and was in his flight stance…but it was all good.

Then we ran over to see the gorillas…because there’s a momma expecting any day. And there was this sweet lady that kept saying (out loud), “that must be the pregnant one because she has the breasts.” So that was fun. And amusing.

After the zoo we went home for a little rest time and for daddy to bring Eliza Jane and Emory home. Once they arrived, Daddy got to tell R his last birthday surprise….a night at the baseball field with the Fireflies and Tim Tebow. You can’t see it, but on our row, there was a seat #15, which is Tim’s number, so of course that’s where he decided to sit.

We tried for a family selfie, is that called a famfie or something? But you can see that someone is missing…

Oh wait, there’s Eliza Jane…and now you see why she was missing. #breakdown. Reynolds was not amused…

Eliza Jane pulled herself together and we got one of the guys behind us to take a family pic for us.

Great memories for a really fun birthday.

Hope y’all enjoyed his birthday as much as we did! How do you celebrate birthdays in your home?

Thanks for reading this sweet post! xo,

Easter Weekend In Macon

April 24, 2017 by Michelle Filed Under: Being a Mom, Faith, Life 2 Comments

Last week, in the post about Grammy’s Cake, I told y’all how great our Easter weekend with my dad, brother and his family was…so here are the pictures to prove it!

Our trip to Macon started off with playing with some new Dr. Seuss color and flash cards. Thanks Aunt Mimi for these – they were a great hit, and provided at least 2 hours of entertainment! :)

Once in Macon, Dad and I took selfies and texted them to sister-in-law, Joey. Your welcome.

My mom’s Amaryllis…hoping my dad digs up a big chunk of these for me to bring back to Columbia…they are certainly stunning!

Can you tell that my mom liked flowers? I remember her ordering Irises from California one year…and I think these were some.

Saturday afternoon we had a few egg hunts…Bert’s basket wasn’t quite big enough for all his eggs!

Trying to get a photo of this motley crew was fun…

“Too loud!” – Eliza Jane

Uncles and nieces <3

Ha! #1 babysitter right here!! Love you, PopPop! ….zzzzzzzz

Then some good clean egg-dyeing fun!

I just love Emory’s smile in this one!!!

It’s not the end of the day until somebody burns a Grammy cake. Read more about that post here: Grammy’s Cake and How She Played a Trick On Me.

This picture makes me laugh so hard. I got up at 5 a.m. to feed Emory Easter morning and this is what I saw leaving our bedroom. Kids so exhausted asleep he has no idea that his foot is on her face, and she doesn’t even care. When we showed Reynolds this photo later in the day, he belly-laughed out loud!

Easter morning at church…

The cross at Dad’s church was really beautiful, but the sun was incredibly bright! We all needed some shades!

Sweet PopPop in his new dapper blazer! {I love Eliza Jane’s hand wrapped around is arm}

Our precious neighbor from my child-hood home…

Two of my Momma’s dearest and closest friends <3

A proud PopPop with all his grandbabies. {My heart is a pool on the floor around me…I just adore this picture so much}

I love all of this. And know Grammy is smiling down on all of us.

You know it’s a good weekend when less than 5 minutes into the drive, the big one is out cold.

“Let them praise the LORD for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them.” Psalm 107:31 He has been so good to us and for that we praise and give thanks to Him.

As you reflect back on your Easter weekend – I hope and pray it was as filled with joy and laughter as ours was.

Much love,

A Night With The Princesses + Cinderella

March 8, 2017 by Michelle Filed Under: Being a Mom, Events, Life Leave a Comment

Last night was a night I hope not to forget for a long time.

Andrew got us tickets to the musical Cinderella, along with the additional ticket for the pre-party with Ariel, Elsa and Belle.

We were all so incredibly excited!

We had no idea ahead of time which princesses we were going to meet, but when Eliza Jane came around that little corner and saw that beautiful yellow gown…”My see BELLE! Momma! My see Belle!!” Her eyes and face were lit up with glee.

First we got to meet Ariel, and Eliza Jane was a little shy with her.

Then Elsa was next.

And then moment she’d been waiting for…a chance to hug Belle.

I have to say, I was really, REALLY proud of her for sitting and taking a picture with her!

After we met the princesses, they did a little etiquette class teaching us how to properly clap and say, “bravo”.

Side note, I didn’t have a safety pin with me so I had to use a bobby pin to hold her dress tighter…a new use for an old thing?

And then this is when Eliza Jane started crying because Cinderella wasn’t there and we’d built this up to be all about Cinderella and “other” princesses. It was nearly a #momfail but we pulled it together and got excited again about the anticipation of seeing the most beautiful of all princesses.

I told it over and over again to my girlfriends today how great Eliza Jane did thru the play last night. She sat on my lap, completely fixated on what was happening on the stage. Turning her head just so, so that she could get the perfect view of “My Cin-rella”. In those brief moments where Cinderella wasn’t on stage I heard, “My Cin-rella? Where my Cin-rella? Where my Cin-rella go?” And I would have to reassure her that the princess would return.

During intermission we took a break to watch Curious George with a sweet little girl sitting next to us. She told me she was four, and loved M&Ms. She even shared a few with Eliza Jane.

I tried to get her to laugh or even smile…but this was the best she would do. In my heart I knew she could make it through the second act, but I have to admit that I was a little nervous that a breakdown was just around the bend.

As the second act started, I said a little prayer that she would make it through to the end. Throughout the play I told her how proud I was of her – that she was doing great and hoped she was having fun. “Ummhmmm, my Cin-rella” was often her reply.

The play itself was fantastic. It’s been since I was a little girl that I saw this version of it, and not much did I remember. There was laughter and surprise! The creative “magic” was truly wonderful to witness.

I’m pretty sure I was more excited than Eliza Jane last night. The anticipation of seeing her face as she got to see princesses along with Cinderella nearly sent me over the moon. By the end of the play I was slouched down in my seat, with her head on my chest, but so that she could still see her “Cin-rella”. I imagined her loving it and I think she did. She talked about it on the way home and was so sweet telling her daddy all about the princesses once we were there. She even wanted to sleep in her princess dress, but we decided that there would be an overload of glitter in her bed if we said yes…

Today as I picked her up from daycare, her teacher said that they had called her Cinderella all day. I’m not sure if that’s because she talked about the princess all day long or what. But I sure hope she felt like a princess last night…

Hoping you have a wonderful evening…we’re half-way through the work week!

much love,

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