no more green apron & other random thoughts.

today i woke up to go to work at 5am for the last time. 
today i made my last handcrafted espresso drink.
today i got my last free pound of coffee.
today i turned in my green apron.


for the past {almost} 5 years i used the word, 'starbucks partner' often when telling people about who i am. i have so loved & enjoyed my time as a barista. but even more than that, i am so looking forward to my "new" job - being a stay at home mama. 


i have been so blessed to work for a company that has been so flexible with me & my crazy ever changing life, but oh i can not wait until monday morning {well actually wednesday morning because he took a long weekend...} when my sweet husband goes to work & i get to stay home & take care of our house & our daughter. i love that the LORD created me to be homeward & that i am finally living the desire of my heart, by his grace! 
so, be on the lookout for more blogging, more stories on how i am learning to tackle this life, more insight on what i am being taught by the LORD, more photographs & more recipes & budgeting tips. {i am going to be learning to cook & live on a budget... i might as well share it with you!} 


on another note, we are going to portland tomorrow. i adore portland. {ok, i have only been 1 time, but i loved it with all my little heart.} any places that we must see while we are there?! OH & pray for us, we are taking miss maggie on her first vacation with just us! exciting - yes. nerve wracking - totally. 
looking forward to sharing my adventure with you all! 

a mothers day recap & some really exciting news.

hello friends! i'll start with a little recap of how lovely my mothers day went. i woke up in the morning to my sweet baby girl all ready to touch my face & snuggle me until the end of time. we stayed in bed & snuggled for a half hour & then my sweet husband brought me my gift. he totally heard what i said about cards {i have a thing for really beautiful cards that can double as artwork..} and he gave me 2 of the most beautiful cards i have seen. then i opened my amazing gift of stumptown coffee & 3 {yes, you read that right..} of these amazing anthropoligie mugs. 

 he gifted me the 'a' & the  'n' & the 'm' so that someday we can all enjoy drinking out of them together. {they are so lovely i can not stop using mine.} i was also gifted this lovely perfume that i dreamed of buying to wear on our wedding day, but never actually got around to buying. 

we just laid in bed as a sweet little family of 3 for over an hour before getting up & heading out to starbucks for breakfast. it was a lovely day, even though i had a pretty terrible migraine that left me in tears near the afternoon. i feel so blessed to be a mama. so blessed that while i was putting our sweet pea to sleep that night i had the chance to pray hard for so many things. for her, & for me & for my husband. i spent a good 45 mins trying to get her to sleep all the while praying & talking to my father. it might have been the highlight of my whole day. 

so i eluded in my last post {by the way, how sweet is my husband for writing what he wrote?!} that there were some exciting things to share. i have thought about how to share them for the past 4 days & i feel like its not real so i cant express it, but the truth is that its real, its happening & i couldnt be more thankful.
here is a piece of my heart::
when we discovered that we were having a baby we were so excited. so excited about all the wonderful things awaiting us. we knew it wouldnt be easy & we knew it was not the 'perfect' time. we both worked & needed to be working because otherwise we would be negative every month. & oh how our hearts desired for me to be able to stay at home. they have always desired that. but the timing was not right. so we prayed. we prayed & prayed that the LORD would prepare us for being a working family. we prayed & prayed that he would give us strength & we prayed that he would open up a way for me to stay at home. we were satisfied with whatever he decided for us. & it seemed he was writing our story with me back at work after our little pearl was born. i was blessed to take an 18 week maternity leave & to be able to go back part time. {like super part time...} in about january the LORD spoke to my heart & told me that it was time for me to trust him completely & that trusting him meant giving him control over our money & staying home from to raise our baby girl. what the heck!? i have been known to really idolize money. to think i can not live without it. & the LORD gave me complete peace about giving it over to him. i shared that with my husband & he agreed, but we needed to both pray about it more & work some things out. nick was promoted & i had been just having the hardest time back at work because that is not where my heart was. my heart longed to be at home making a home, praying for my husband, snuggling with my baby. we prayed more & talked more & on sunday the first of may, my sweet husband told me to quit. he told me it was ok to stay home. & my heart soared. not just because i was no longer going to work, but because we were being obedient to what the LORD had called us to do. {i just want to be sure that you all know that if you are a mama who has to work, i do not think it is bad. i admire you because i know it is hard, hard work. this is just what the LORD had called us to do & if he has written your story differently than i think it is ok. i think that following him is far more important than anything else...} so, all that being said, on friday i put in my notice after working for starbucks for almost 5 years. at the end of this month i will become a stay at home mama & i could not be happier. i am so excited to start this crazy journey of living on 1 income {because honestly it doesnt work out on paper...} & trusting the LORD to provide for us. i am excited to spend so much time with maggie p. i am so excited to serve my husband better {because i couldnt balance working & all those other things.} so, that is just a small piece of some things that are going on over here. we are feeling very blessed. 

 

oh monday.

i am tired. today was actually a pretty uneventful day. miss maggie slept for most of the day. {i think she is either growing or getting sick/teething(?)} the worst part was that she wanted to be snuggled up next to me the entire day, and barely let me put her down. {any other mama's know what this might be about?} i am also not looking forward to going to work on wednesday, i feel like a 'normal' person saturday-tuesday and a crazy person wednesday- friday. will i ever get used to it?!

today was a stay in jammies and drink way too much coffee type of day. thankfully i was able to get the kitchen cleaned up and some laundry done {not folded.} in between snuggling a super sleepy baby. thankfully my sweet husband has the day off tomorrow so i can get a few more projects finished. he is so great, tonight he volunteered to watch 'tangled' with me after maggie went to sleep. i am pretty sure he is the best ever. :) speaking of sleep and maggie, last night she slept in her room, in her crib for the first time ever... and SHE SLEPT THE ENTIRE NIGHT! i was certain she would wake up a million times the first time that we put her in her room, but nope, she snoozed straight from 9pm to 7:50am. it was amazing. she has been sleeping in there now for nearly 2 hours and i am hoping she sleeps straight through again. even if she doesnt, its amazing to me how grown up she has become. that tiny girl has completely stolen my heart.

this week i plan to post the following::
- a recap of the sermon i heard 2 sundays ago. {it was amazing}
- a letter to my daughter, and some more updates
- finish the 'lady baby' page 
- link up for mama in focus friday
- start a weekly recap


lets hope that i can get all those thoughts out of my mind and into this blog.


xo,
a


{oh... so my husband still has not found out about the job he interviewed for about a month ago... they are still interviewing one more person and should decide next week... please keep him and this job in your prayers if you think about it! thanks! }

naptime

i love naptime.

today, it almost could not have come soon enough. 

baby maggie was having a hard time being entertained and i was trying so hard to keep her awake (i am working on a schedule). it was silly. my little lady was so tired. so, i put her down and now she is snoozing away and i almost can not wait for her to wake up - she is so fun after waking up. she is full of smiles and and giggles and she loves to snuggle. it is one of my favorite things. 

 

my little sweet pea. 

 last night we gave maggie rice cereal for the first time. it took us a few weeks to really decide that we wanted to do it, and she slept all. night. long. 

so i think that we will be giving it to her every night before bed. she didnt really know what to do with it at first, but soon figured it out, and seemed to like it towards the end. i can not believe how quickly she is growing up. its so insane. 

i have lots of things to blog about this week and i am looking forward to sharing them all with you. my husband and i are working on making a big scary decision and i am really eager to share it with you, but i have to wait - - so stay tuned! :) 

enjoy your monday, and i am going to enjoy a cup of coffee and some house cleaning for the rest of naptime. 

xo,

a

first day back.

so today was my first day back at work. it was so weird showing up and putting on the silly green apron. i don't know if this is terrible to say, but i really didn't miss being there. i did not have a terrible day, in fact it was really good for not working in about 5 months, but i didn't really want to be there. my heart is not there, my heart is at home. poor baby maggie had a rough day. she stayed with my sweet, sweet friend; her auntie kara, but the poor little bird cried pretty much the whole time, and was super uncomfy and gassy. :( i am hoping that next week is better. although i am super blessed to only be working wed- fri.. and super blessed to have amazing friends (and my mama!)watch her. its so comforting to know she is being loved while i am making lattes.

on another note, our anniversary was so sweet! nick planned the whole day and it was lovely. baby maggie girl was picked up by my little brother (who has an cool design blog, read it here!) and then my sweet husband took me to the original pancake house (which is not the same as IHOP. in case you were wondering.) he knows that i adore pancakes, and this place had tons of different kinds. {side note :: a sweet lady in our community group told me about a pancake place in portland that sounds amazing and i now have another reason to dream of portland. thanks liz! :)} i had banana pancakes and they were amazing! after that we went to starbucks because coffee dates really speak to my heart and my husband knows this very well. we sat and laughed and chatted. it was so good. he is so cute. he then drove us to pike place market and bought me some beautiful flowers, and we went on an adventure to find the 'gum wall'. it was really neat, and disgusting all at the same time. nick and i give each other creative traditional anniversary gifts. last year was paper and he gave me a magazine subscription and i gave him a book (which i still need to order... 367 days later...) this year the gift was cotton. i bought nick a bag to carry all his things to work in, and he bought me these: 

 

now i am just awaiting their arrival! (had to be sent to me because nordstroms was out of my color and size!) after all that, we went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. it was a really sweet day! i am posting a ton of photos that we took on our phones. 

yummy banana pancakes!

cute husband.

americanos and laughing. so good for my soul.

reason #20,000 why i love this man.

bubblegum wall

this part was my favorite- -  see the mustache!

my beautiful flowers

amazing dinner at Maggianos

my phone updating and telling me that we were celebrating our anniversary. to be honest, i was just giddy that my phone randomly had a heart notification.

pike place. i am the one in the black. :)

 well, tomorrow is another work day. 

if i can do 1 i can do 2 right? 

i am so thankful for all the prayers that people were sending up for me today. i felt them all. i felt so encouraged by all my sweet friends and family that this day was so much better than i thought. 

xo,

a

coffee break.

last night my sweet mama took our baby so we could enjoy a night off. (oh how i needed that!) we spent the evening getting fancy and celebrating the five year marriage of our friends, josh and lexi. they threw a really fun wine party and there was yummy wine, great people and wonderful food. it was so nice to have adult conversation that didnt have anything to do with diapers, crying, sleepless nights, or baby noises. i really needed that. now this morning my husband is at his weekly guy accountability/fellowship group with some close friends and i am enjoying some time at starbucks, alone, without anything to do. this is such a huge gift! the sun is shining, i am eating chocolate covered madeleines, and drinking a larger americano than normal. it feels like i am on vacation, and i love it. 

i think it is time to try and get back on track with project thirtyone. lets see how well i do this time! 

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day fifteen 

Day 15.  Write to encourage a friend.  Inspire her beauty.

dearest kara::

has it really only been almost 2 years that we have been friends?! it feels like so much longer. you are quite possibly the best friend that i have ever had. you inspire me to be a better wife, a better mama, a better friend, and a better daughter of our king. your beauty shines through everything that you do. the way that you have loved me and my family, is such a blessing, and such an encouragement for me to do the same for others. you have no idea how much you mean to me, to nick, and to miss maggie. i have loved watching you grow in mamahood, i have loved watching you grow as a wife, and i have loved watching you grow as a friend. your sweetness and love for others is evident in everything that you do. your girls are so blessed to have you as their mama, to teach them what real beauty is, to lead them lovingly to the LORD, to show them how to be hospitable and train them to be wonderful wives. your husband is blessed to have you as his wife, to be his best friend, to laugh with (and sometimes at) him, to be in covenant with him for better and for worse. i love you sweet friend, and i hope your feel encouraged because you are such a constant source of encouragement for me. i thank the LORD for bringing us into each others lives, you are so beautiful! 

xoxo::

A

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day sixteen

Day 16.  Write a letter to your daughter, or a young girl in your life.  Tell her what beauty means.

my dear sweet margaret pearl::

oh where to start. you are amazing. you always have been. from the moment that i knew you were growing in my belly i knew you were beautiful. i knew that it didnt matter if you had one arm, or a deformed heart, or anything else that was not developed that you would still be beauty in my eyes. every morning when you wake up i call you my 'sweet pea beauty'. i constantly tell you how lovely and beautiful you are. but miss maggie, beauty is not how lovely your eyes are (but yours are incredible) it is not how tiny your pants are, it is not how shiny your hair is or how white your teeth are. beauty comes from within. beauty comes from the LORD. real beauty is not what is on the outside, it is what is deep inside the heart of a woman. you will always have beauty in your heart, the LORD designed us this way, but my sweet daughter, my desire is for you to cultivate that beauty and grow it into something so lovely that shines for our father in heaven. he formed you in my tummy, he knew what you would look like, he knew what you would act like, he knew what you would love and what you would dislike. he sees you as his beauty. even when the world will get you down (and it will get you down) i desire for you to know that your beauty doesnt come from them. remember always that like i said, true beauty is deep in the heart of a woman and not just on the outside. i will always think you are beautiful, your daddy will always think you are beautiful, and your father in heaven will think you are beautiful for eternity. we love you, sweat pea beauty. i can not wait to see who you turn in to being, and i can not wait to celebrate your beauty for the rest of our lives. you are a gem. 

love you,

xoxo:: 

mama. 

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day seventeen

 Day 17.  Write about 3 things that make you happy.

this one is going to be short, since the other 2 are super long.

one:: disneyland. i know i sound like five year old girl, but disneyland is my favorite place, and it makes me so happy. even just thinking about it, and remembering the sounds, the smell, and the sights. i love it. 

two:: being in love. with anything. i love to love things, and loving things makes me happy.

three::sunshine and bare feet. i love shoes. but more than shoes, i love bare feet. nothing beats walking through warm grass with no shoes on. i love it.

i love onemillion other things. which you will be able to read about on this blog, because i tend to write a lot about what i love. 

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xoxo:: 

a