Lucy's Graduation Day 2018

It's here!!  She is graduating.  So many emotions on this exciting day!!  She is celebrating her success, I mean 36 on the ACT isn't bad right 😉😉😉, and looking forward to continuing her education in the fall!  We are so proud of this beautiful young lady!  Although we will miss her at home, we are excited for all of the new adventures she is about to experience!!

Love this family of mine ❤❤ and all of the things we get to do together!!

Happy Graduation!

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Heather

DIY Paver Patio

Our project this year was to create a new flowerbed, a paver patio, a retaining wall and a fire pit.  Man was it alot of work!!  We started out by visiting our local nursery to find out what kind of stone we wanted.  My husband had a design in mind and we just need to get our heads around what we needed in terms of material and labor.

We ended up getting a kit for a paver circle and a fire pit and then measured how much more square feet of pavers would need.  We watched alot of you tube and asked alot of questions to the professionals.

We decided to use a couple different kinds of paver.  We used Belgard pavers in a couple of different variations....Cambridge Cobble, Holland Stone and the Stonegate retaining wall stones. We were able to get our pavers from Amcor, but if you are not a contractor, you must go to your local distributor to get them.

We took out the grass, compacted the dirt...leveled it and compacted it some more.  We brought in about 12 ton of 3/4 in road base and leveled that...compacted it again, added some sand and then finally laid the pavers and the retaining wall stone.  Once that was done we back filled the space behind the retaining wall, compacted the patio again, cleaned off all of the existing debris...added some polymeric sand.  Make sure you clean off the excess sand and then wet it down.  We let it dry for 24 hrs.  Once that was done we added our fire pit  and then we added a sealant to make the stone look wet and shiny rather than all dried out.  We added weed fabric and plants in the flower beds and put down bark and had curbing put in to tie it all together.

It took us about us about 6 weeks to finish it all!  There were a few missteps and things we didn't expect like a honey bees swarming on a tree we had to pass under while bring all of the road base and sand down, adding retaining wall pieces to help keep the patio level, and even flipping over the sod cutter machine!  But...in the end, it was definitely worth the time it took to build!

Watch the video to see the transformation!!

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Heather

God Loves Broken Things

I am constantly looking for other women who are going through or have been through the same things I am struggling with.  Blending families, divorce, remarriage, raising kids...whatever it is.  It seems like it is always easy to find the negative or discouraging things out there, and I know that is part of the journey, but its so special and uplifting to me when I find someone who can be in the midst of a trial, but still be trying to find happiness. And can show that happiness throughout their struggle.  Not every day maybe, but more than they are projecting negativity, and also that they can show they are making it through and so can I.   It's the way I want to live, the way I am trying to live, although I know I need to work on that a lot!

Yesterday I came across Calee Reed.  She is a motivational speaker and a songwriter, singer.  She spoke in Time Out for Women in 2017 and talked about a song she absolutely loves called "Broken" by Kenneth Cope.  She also talked about a form of Japanese art called Kintsugi.  It means to repair with gold; the art of repairing pottery with lacquer and gold or silver powder, understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.



She goes on to say that she hopes that as she comes closer to the Savior that He can make something beautiful of her broken pieces.  And I just LOVE THAT!  Don't we all feel like we have so many broken parts of us?  There are so many things that we find ugly within ourselves..things we want to just hide away, but with the love of our Savior and His refining power He is able to put those pieces back together in a way that is beautiful and powerful and we can see His light within ourselves.  I love this image and imaging His love woven through the cracks in our lives and the love that we feel knowing of His love for us.  And hopefully others will be able to see that too!

I love this message.  I love that others help us on our journeys.  I love that God loves us so much that He uses us to help each other.  I love that through our brokeness (Is that even a word??)  that we become better beings and closer to what He wants us to become.


Here are the words to "Broken" and also a link to her cover of the song:

BROKEN (Words by Kenneth Cope; Music by Kenneth & Eliza Cope) —inspired by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Broken clouds give rain
Broken soil grows grain
Broken bread feeds man for one more day

Broken storms yield light
The break of day heals night
Broken pride turns blindness into sight

Broken souls that need His mending
Broken hearts for offering
Could it be that God loves broken things

Broken chains set free
Broken swords bring peace
Broken walls make friends of you and me

To break the ranks of sin
To break the news of Him
To put on Christ till His name feels broken in

Broken souls that need His mending
Broken hearts for offering
I believe that God loves broken things

And yet, our broken faith, our broken promises
Sent love to the cross
And still, that broken flesh, that broken heart of His
Offers us such grace and mercy
Covers us with love undeserving

This broken soul that cries for mending
This broken heart for offering
I’m convinced that God loves broken me
Praise His name—my God loves broken things
So, broken cloud—Give rain
And broken soil—Grow grain
And broken bread—Feed man for one more day

Calee Reed cover of Broken



Happy Wednesday Everyone! ❤

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Heather

Spring Break 2018

This is the last Spring Break before our daughter heads off to college.  We offered a few choices of where we might go for spring break and she chose to see 4 National Parks; Kolob Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Park.  They were awesome!!  So amazing that these places exist....Beautiful beyond belief!!  Make sure to see the petroglyphs in Canyonlands at Newspaper Rock.  We all loved seeing those.  Amazing that they have survived this long!!

We decided to get the America the Beautiful Pass.  It's basically a year of unlimited access to any National Park.  It was $80, but well worth it.  It saved us time when entering the parks and we only had to pay once!  If you are visiting enough parks to make it worth buying then you definitely should.  They sell them at most of the visitor's centers.  I have linked the website to the pass above that you can check out and see where to buy them!!

We did 4 parks in 5 days with 4 kids, 2 parents stuffed into a Toyota Highlander, 24 hrs of driving, 2 stopping places and LOTS of fun!!  The kids were great!  I prepared ahead of time with some car games.  I found some great websites, Landeelu.com and Mum in the Madhouse for some games to play while driving.  And of course we played some of the classics..the alphabet game, the name game using the alphabet, and the license plate game, which we found all but 12 states!  Everyone wanted Hawaii, but no luck!!  We even drove around the outlook parking places looking for different license plates!!  We had a lot of fun just being together and seeing all of the beautiful landscapes of the national parks!  We had to stop at the Visitor's Center of each park and get a window sticker for our oldest to put on her hydroflask.  Of course there was time for sleeping and also for using their electronics.  I did like that most of the time there was no cell service.  It really gave us a chance to interact and spend uninterrupted time together!  Here are a few of the sites.....

Kolob Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Mesa Arch at Canyonlands

Capitol Reef

It was so much fun to hang out with our kiddos and make some memories!!  I treasure each family vacation we take.  Not only do we get to see cool things, we get to grow closer together as a family and build our family relationships.  If you read my blog you know that we are a blended family.  It is essential to me to spend as much time together as we can.  We only have a few short years to live all in the same place & build our relationships so these times are priceless to me!  Love this family of mine!!

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Heather

Rainbow Love Notes

Sometimes as a stepmom I wonder if I'm doing it right, if I do enough, if I am enough, if these littles (and not so littles) entrusted to me feel enough love and support.  Its a challenging situation when you are blending families.

This weekend my daughter and I were out of town at a dance competition.  And when we came home, this is what we found....

What a precious little gift.  My cute little 7yr old made this adorable card for us during sacrament meeting and had each of the family members sign it.  Such a sweet sentiment for this mom!  I love this family.  I love being a part of it and I love that as time moves forward we are able to share more love and kindness with each other...especially ones with handmade rainbow love notes!!

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Heather

Ding Dong Ditched

We are working on creating unity in our young women's group at church.  To follow up with our lesson on Sunday, the group I get to work with, 12yr-13yr old girls, did a fun little activity. 

I found these cute tags at Poppies at Play and we wrote little notes to each girl in our group and doorbell ditched them!  It was a fun way to let the other girls know we were thinking of them and for the girls doing the ditching it was a fun activity!  So much laughing and encouraging each other to run fast and not get caught!

I had ditched the 12 & 13yr olds earlier in the week to give them a hint at what we would be doing for our activity!

Check out the link above to get the free printable!!

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Heather

Italy 2018

Italy has never been on my bucket list...but it should have been!!  We had the wonderful opportunity to go to Tuscany this year.  We found an amazing deal that we just couldn't pass up!!


I get emails from a website called Travelzoo.  If you don't subscribe to them and you love to travel, you really should subscribe!!  They have some really great opportunities to travel on a budget. This particular trip caught us by surprise.  Next up on my bucket list was England.  When the deal for Italy came about I sent it to my husband just joking, but SURPRISE...the joke was on me...he said to book it!  So after some research, we did!  We did extend the trip by a couple of days so that we could also go to Rome.  We ended up visiting Montecatini, Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Venice and Rome in 10 days.  It was beautiful.  The weather was great.  We were a little worried going in January/February as it is their rainy season, but it only rained for a couple of hours one day.  I would definitely go again during the off season....less crowds, much cooler and still so many amazing things to see!

We rented a car in Milan and drove to Montecatini, Venice and back to Milan.  It was fun to see the actual country and make pit stops wherever we wanted.  They drive on the same side of the street as we do in America so that wasn't an issue.  They do have toll roads and learning to navigate those was a little tricky since we aren't accustom to them in our neck of the woods here in America, but you can pay either with Euros or a credit card.  The city streets are a little harder to get around on as they are curvy and the streets aren't well marked in some parts of the country.  We didn't drive into most of the cities in Italy.  I would definitely recommend taking public transportation.  Their transportation system is superb.  We took the Metros, the high speed trains and the buses.  Its very easy to navigate & using Google Maps makes it simple to know what form of transportation you need & where to pick it up! 

We got some of the passes to see things while in Florence and Rome.  The Firenze Pass in Florence and the Roma Pass in Rome.  They essentially get you into some museums, skip the lines and allow you to take public transit for less money.  They both have time restraints so be sure to plan ahead with the things you want to see & do them according to your passes.

We used Rick Steves ' Italy book ALOT!!  He has so much good information and we followed alot of what he says.  His maps of the cities were very helpful and just his details of the cities made it much easier to get around and to determine what was a priority to see.  I would recommend at least giving it a quick read of the places you are thinking of visiting!!

My favorite city was Venice.  There is something about a city on the water.  Bridges connecting you to everything.  Old buildings and the smell of baked goods wafting through the streets.  The old architecture of the buildings and the stories of the infancy of the city.  Its rustic and charming and beautiful.  Oh and it's where I had my first taste of Italian Hot Chocolate...its sooo good!  Thicker than American Hot Chocolate...creamy...mmm...delicious!

My next favorite thing to see was the Colosseum!  Its exactly what you see in photos.  Its old and run down and missing some of the elaborate details that once made it a masterpiece.  But, it is also so massive and solid and has stood the test of thousands of years.  Its inspiring, a sign to all that you can withstand even the hardest things in life and still be beautiful....Amazing!  The Romans constructed some awesome things!!  Rome is filled with a lot of things to see...the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Forum, Palatine Hill (another one of my favorites) and lots of museums and culture to explore.  It was more of a city feel than I expected, but the history there runs deep!

Florence is filled with soo many museums and places to shop...and leather...LOTS of leather, very reasonably priced I might add...It's a busy town with lots of wonderful things to see.  I loved the stories of the Medici family.  They eventually became one of the most influential families in all of Florence, they even produced a Pope...Leo X.  Check out the Pitti Palace, which was one of their residences!  Incredible!!  The other cool place was the Florence Cathedral where you can also climb the Duomo or the Bell Tower.  Tickets to the Duomo sell out quickly so check early if you are interested in climbing it.  We ended up climbing the bell tower, which is just as exhilarating!!  The views of the city are spectacular!! Take a look...

Pisa and Lucca were fun cities as well.  Lots of shopping in Pisa and of course the main attraction, The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  We climbed the tower, which was fun and gave you a beautiful view of the surrounding city.  It was much less crowded than the other cities of Italy.  Lucca is famous for their intact Renaissance Era walls that were never breached.  It's now a pedestrian walkway which circles the entire city.  Its amazing!  Lots of families and people using it.  Such a quaint little city.  We really enjoyed visiting it!

I'm so glad we came across this trip.  It was completely unexpected, but so worth it.  I loved every second of my time there.  10 days was obviously not enough, but now we have a better idea of what we would spend more time seeing on our next trip there!  And since we rubbed the nose of the boar in the Mercato Nuovo we will be returning!!

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Heather