Spoonful of Imagination

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What is an easy YES for you??

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Over the weekend, we were headed out on a little family walk.

Taking family walks is one of my favorite things to do together.

It’s a time to unplug, enjoy nature, get a little exercise, and connect. As we were headed out, I turned around and saw Caleb had a camera. He wanted to take pictures of this winter walk. I smiled to myself and only said, “very fun!”

What are things that are an easy yes for you? When you think through a situation or a plan and there is an obvious alteration to it, what is an easy yes?

In my situation, getting off technology, a screen, and devices is part of my heart for these walks. Yet, Caleb had a camera and I allowed it.

One of my family values

As we walked and I thought through why I allowed the camera, it hit me. An easy yes for me is creativity. I will always welcome the creative process.

For example, we can be pulling out of the driveway, running late for something and Reagan asks to run back inside for markers and a notebook….and I stop the car and allow it.

I can have just vacuumed the house and be ok with Reagan pulling out cardboard boxes, hot glue and making all kinds of little shavings on the floor in her creative project.

Jeremiah might ask for chalk markers to use on his chalkboard wall, instead of the messiness of regular chalk, and I add it to my shopping list.

I can have a sewing project out and someone wants to paint and I clear off my whole desk or table to get them started.

Caleb may want to take a camera on a walk to make this reel and in the process give me all these pictures that I have turned into this post, and I am so proud.

The creative process is something I value and always say yes to.

What is an easy yes for you?

Has something come to mind that is an easy yes for you? Here are a few ideas of things that it could be…

  • heart level talks: will you stay up later, if your kids are wanting to talk?
  • healthy food: will you say yes to a snack at any time in the day if it is something healthy?
  • sports: will you sign your kid up for a travel sport and be ok driving and giving weekend time, if it’s keeps your kid doing a sport he/she loves?

When we normally think of family values, honesty, perseverance, responsibility, character, and kindness might be some that you automatically think about. I think there are also others that you might not realize is also a value. If you start thinking about it, and process through how other families treat that same thing, you can begin to see it as a value.

These pictures help me see the world like Caleb does. What caught his eye, the angle he captured it, and even the placement of his subject is interesting to me.

I will always encourage the creative process. It’s a value to me. What is a value to you?

It’s important to know your values

Life is going so quickly, and I think it’s important to know your values so you can treat and honor it as one. Just because it’s important to you, doesn’t mean it is to everyone. So, to get you thinking more about what you may value, think through these questions:

  1. What makes you really happy?
  2. When are you most proud?
  3. What do you spend free time doing?

Maybe you already know what you value and what is an easy yes for you. If you do, I hope this is just an encouragement that it’s good to be YOU, even if you prioritize something others may not treat with the same weight.

If you don’t know what a unique value that you care about may be, I hope it gets you thinking.

Honoring your family values is a form of creating a connection that matters.

**If the idea of forming a deeper connection with those that matter most to you, sounds like something you would be interested in, I’d love to invite you to join my Create More Connection digital course. I will be back to tell more about it soon, but you can enroll today right here!

The Beauty of Country Living

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the beauty of country living

Do you ever dream of a life you don’t live? Maybe you dream of living…

…in the 90’s with big hair again

….or maybe it is early colonial days when big puffy dresses were the fashion

…or maybe it you don’t like big things at all and you are content in this era

you just dream of a different location.

Sometimes a different location can seem like a different world. I love our new house because it is surrounded my cow fields and animals, but we are still in a neighborhood. I often dream of living REALLY in the country. We visited my sister at her home in Arkansas about a week ago. Although it is a good 12 hour drive to get there, it is a trip I will do at least once a year.

Visiting Olivia and her family is like visiting another world. The ways and systems in their daily life are just different from ours. Life is simpler and it is something I dream about. I want to share a few things about the beauty of country living that we got to experience on our trip. Some of these are things we do here, but they may be harder to implement and have to be intentional in my world (living in the metro Atlanta area).

farm funIn the country, you may…

…look out your window and see the Chick-Fil-A cow everyday.

…change outfits four times a day due to sweat, water, dirt, etc.

…start and end your day milking a cow.

…chase chickens and try to catch a baby without the mama pecking you.

farm kidsIn the country, you may get bored and…

…have to find something to do rather than be entertained.

…walk through a field picking grass to feed it to a thankful horse who gets a break from grazing.

…sit on rocks and just talk.

…play with kittens.

…explore old barns.

farm

When you live in the country…

…fire pits can be part of your nightly routine.

…you might burn your own trash.

…you can pee outside.

…you drink from a hose.

…you wake to roosters crowing.

…dirt roads don’t surprise you (so you prob don’t own a mini van).

…you can yell “yea haw” while really riding a real horse (Reagan was thrilled).

…driving to get a sweat tea may take a little longer.

horsesCountry living is appealing to me cause…

…it’s a slower pace to life.,

…the to do lists may be long but the priority of them really seem to matter.

…hard work requires sweat most of the time.

…the natural way of life has you outside more daily.

…experiencing the simple rawness of nature and its beauty is energizing.

…family can stay together easier than all going different routes and places regularly.

family farm funWe had the best time visiting my sister and her family. We are already trying to figure out how we can go back this fall. I love the way of life the country brings.  I probably drive my brother-in-law crazy with all my questions about his lively hood, but it fascinates me and is all new! I could see us moving to have more land and country living someday, but for now I am thankful we can escape to my sister’s whenever we want.

farm animalsWhat about you? Is there a way of life that appeals to you? Are you more of a city, mountains, beach or country lover? Thank you so much for checking in! Tomorrow, I will be back to show you one of the projects we made while at my sister’s!

old barn on farm

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The Big Slide

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In my last post, I told you we had a great “family date” over the weekend.  It really was a blast.  As I have sat down to sift through and edit the over 600 pictures we took, I realized it was impossible to sum up this outing in one post.

Yes, that is a heck of a lot of pictures!  They are all beautiful too, so it is a big task to not post you a picture book today.  I am going to try to get all my info to you in two posts.

We went to a corn maze about an hour away from our home in Roswell.  The first 45 minutes of the corn maze was a complete blast.  Once we realized we were really lost, things got into survival mode.  More of that later.

Some of the best parts of this corn maze were all the other things they had to do!  There was a bounce house, a little cow train, a corn shooter, a corn kernal hut, a playground, manual four wheelers, and even more!  The activity we liked the best was the huge slide.

The slide was a really long and wide plastic slide that we all loved.  You went fast, yet it was the perfect amount of thrill with out being scary.

Well, to Reagan it might have been a little scary.  She opted to not go down again.  No matter how hard J tried to coax her to go down with him, she wouldn’t have it.  🙂

Ours boys ran up this hill countless times to be able to go down this slide.  This place was only open for four hours on a Sunday, and I think we might have spent a good two of them right here.

So, have you been to this place?  Any guesses at what it is called??  I have a clue for you.  It was a recent Half Off Depot!

I’ll be back tomorrow with more gorgeous pictures and the information about this wonderful place, so you too can go check it out!

In the mean time, there are only two days left to enter my awesome giveaway for this Embroidered Owl.

The winner of this owl will be announced on Friday.  Make sure you enter for a chance to get him!

**Neither Half Off Depot nor this fun place has compensated me in any way for writing this post. Neither one even knows I exist.  I paid for my coupon like everyone else.  We just had a great time, and I wanted to share it with you.