joyful, joyful we adore thee

Joyful, Joyful we adore Thee!

"The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with Joy." - Psalm 126:3

We have been more intentional this year about preparing our hearts and minds for Christmas. The kids have been excited to read our Advent calendar each day and read the coordinating scriptures. And eat the chocolate of course:). Our Sunday school class has also been studying Max Lucado's "Because of Bethlehem." We have truly enjoyed this study. 

I hope and pray that you have a wonderful Christmas filled with God's presence and love. 

"God took on your face in the hope that you would see His" - Max Lucado

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

up-close Christmas

One thing I think we all love about Christmas is traditions. I enjoy putting our Christmas decor out each year, especially the ornaments that we have collected over the years.  My Christmas decor does not change all that much from year to year, but I like adding a few new touches each year. I do not have a complete house tour to share, but here are a few   

up-close shots of Christmas around our house. 

Twinkle stepped us his game this year!

colonial christmas home

Our halls are decked and now the race begins to get everything accomplished before Dec. 24. One of my favorite things to do this time of year, when I need a break from all the craziness, is to drive around and look at everyone's Christmas decorations. I look forward to all of the Christmas home decor magazines too. This colonial home in Charleston, SC,  featured in Southern Living, is a show stopper. I'm sure it is even prettier in person. 

the table

pinterest

So many have already rushed right to Christmas, but I still love Thanksgiving and what it represents. We have been singing The Table at church recently and I just love the words to this song.  What a perfect song to reflect on the upcoming holiday. 

Come all you weary

Come and find

His yoke is easy

His burden light

He is able, He will restore

At the table of the Lord

Happy Thanksgiving!

my cup runneth over

I have so much to be grateful for. We all do.  But sometimes it is easy to lose sight of this, especially when our main focus is on following the lives of others rather than concentrating on the life that God has given us to live.  Social media drives so much of this. I have never really taken an extended break from Facebook or Instagram, but have wanted to remove it from my phone for some time.  I got home from work on Friday and Paul had purchased new phones for us. I do not get too excited about new phones, but I did see this as a perfect time to remove Facebook and Instagram from my phone. I truly see so many benefits for both of these social media platforms, but I also see the dangers. Addicted sounds harsh, but I would have to say, sadly, I felt addicted to Instagram. The only way for me to find a happy medium with it, is to remove it for a while and then slowly reintroduce it to myself.  November is a perfect month to reflect on our many blessings. I really enjoy getting to see and experience the happy moments in my friends, family and others lives, but I am excited to take a month to focus on all the joys I have in my own life.

I hope your November and Thanksgiving are filled with joy, peace and full hearts (and tummies too:)! 

My cup runneth over. 

jj horton

forcing fall

It is still 80 degrees here in North Carolina, but we are still forcing fall around here! Have a wonderful weekend! 

soft and beautiful

Here is a soft and beautiful home for you to view. The whole portfolio is lovely. This particular home has my favorite color scheme - lots of blues and greens. 

Happy Weekend! 

pizza party baby shower

I know what you are thinking, who serves pizza at a baby shower? Pizza has really grown up over the years though. I love a traditional baby shower for that first baby, but when you want to shower someone who is on baby number 2, 3, 4, etc... and most likely has most of the 'big' items, it is nice to have a more laid-back, smaller shower. 

My friend Amanda is expecting her 3rd baby in a few weeks and our circle of girlfriends wanted to get together to celebrate our mama friend and her baby girl. We all have children so our Saturdays and Sundays are filled with soccer games, birthday parties and other commitments so we decided to have a Friday night baby shower. I must say, it was so nice and relaxing. I was hosting, so I tried to think of something a little bit different and pizza just kept popping up in my head so I decided to go with it. I told all of the guests that it would be a build-your-own pizza party. I supplied all of the dough, sauce and toppings. I think the guests had a fun time making their own pizza. The only tricky part was timing because I could not have all the pizzas in the oven at the same time so I made two pizzas before the guests arrived so we could start eating some pizza and salad while the others were in the oven. The two pizzas I made were a pesto, artichoke and spinach pizza and a prosciutto, pear and arugula pizza. They both were delicious. 

I squeezed all 11 ladies in my dining room.  I knew it would be close quarters, but there is something so special about sitting around a candlelit table together, so we made it work. I decorated the table with small white pumpkins along with greenery and flowers that I picked up at the grocery store. I arranged the flowers in our moscow mule mugs and tumblers.  I thought it was a nice, subtle fall centerpiece for a baby shower. 

I was not good about taking many pictures, but below gives you just a little taste of the lovely evening we had! 

mesh cabinets

I love the idea of breaking up the heaviness of cabinets with open shelves or glass doors, but I really like the look of these mesh cabinets.  For me, I feel like it provides a lighter and more airy feel while still being modern. This is definitely a design idea that I plan to file away and possibly incorporate in my own kitchen one day. 

all via Pinterest 

On a completely different note, I am certainly keeping all of those affected by Hurricane Harvey and those in the path of Irma in my thoughts and prayers! 

sister/brother shared bathroom

Decorating for a shared sister/brother space can be tricky. The kids share their bathroom and this bathroom serves as a guest bathroom as well. I wanted this space to be soft and not overly kid themed. The bathroom is painted balsam by Porter Paints. It is a light shade of blue/green. I found the round mirrors and the shower curtain at Marshalls. The mirrors really add a custom look to the space.  I am thankful there are two sinks too, especially if we are still in this house thru the teenage years:) 

slow, summer weekends

I love a good slow, summer weekend and that is just what we are having. I came across the picture below while perusing Pinterest this morning with my coffee.  I wish I could find out who to give decor credit to. This sunroom is everything! Oh how I love those chairs. I hope you are having a relaxing summer weekend as well! 

six.

Georgia turned 6 last week! We celebrated with friends and family at a local horse ranch called Bit of Hope Ranch.  What a special place it is! It was such a fun party and honestly it was one of the easiest parties I have thrown! The ranch provided most everything. The kids rode horses, painted, decorated bandanas and even had a water gun fight. What a hot, but super fun day it was to celebrate our sweet July baby.  

Georgia and I made necklaces for all of her girlfriends. A Pinterest find of course! 

Kudos to the Ranch host - Mr. Alan (aka my best friend's dad)

our garden grew

One of many fond childhood memories that I have, is of our little backyard garden. Georgia asked us several times if she could have a garden so we decided to give it a try this year. It truly has been a fun little project and both kids have looked forward to watering and checking on the garden each day. Back in April, Paul built a 2X6 raised garden bed. We planted tomatoes (beef steak and big beef), carrots, bib lettuce, rosemary and parsely. We were complete amateurs at gardening, but everything grew really well. I think our rainy June  definitely helped. We have enjoyed making salads and lettuce wraps with our lettuce, flavoring foods with our herbs and eating our tomatoes. 

Day 1

First tomato sighting

One of our summer bucket list items was a lemonade and produce stand. We have already made some sweet summer memories with our little garden that grew!