Five on Friday: Summer Celebrations And Building Projects

1) Anniversary Dates

We celebrated our anniversary last weekend with a day date of some shopping at a local outlet mall and sushi/Asian food.  It was so fun to have a few hours away from little man, even if he did make things difficult by completely refusing to take a bottle and giving his grandma a run for her money.  I got a bunch of fun new flowy tank tops that will be perfect for nursing in the summertime, as well as some new shorts and two new dresses for some weddings we have this summer (gotta love Memorial Day sales and cheap prices at TJ Maxx!).  Later that evening we went to a wedding shower for an old friend of Jordan’s.  Caleb fell asleep in the car immediately after we left so we enjoyed some yummy sweet treats from Sonic while he slept! It was a fun day with lots of silliness and sweet time with my hubby and I am so, so grateful for that.

2) Summer Celebrations

Another fun celebration…we celebrated the end of a great year of small group with a party at a friend’s lake house.  It was a gorgeous night with a beautiful sunset and I would have loved to stay there until long after dark like we did last year, but that was not in Caleb’s plan for the night.  It was the first time we’d taken him somewhere at night (instead of just having people come to our house) so we knew it might be an epic fail.  He took a five minute nap in the car on the way there, was fine for about an hour while we hung out, and then started to meltdown and fight sleep with everything in his being.  We ended up passing him off while we each quickly ate dinner and then heading home around 8.  He fell asleep in the car immediately then nursed when we got home and fell asleep for 11 hours.  So I guess we can’t complain too much, but it was definitely a reminder that as parents, our needs no longer come first.  I’m grateful for our little guy, but sometimes making those sacrifices is tough, you know?

3) Morning Routines

I am a creature of habit and I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten a bowl of cereal for breakfast every day since I was about five years old (my cereal of choice is Smart Start, if you were wondering).  My hubby is the complete opposite! One of his favorite things about summer is waking up early to do morning runs with the cross country team and then coming home to make an epic egg/veggie/avocado creation before we watch some Jimmy Fallon on the couch.  If I had any interest in a huge savory breakfast like this, I would be all about it too!

4) Organizing the Garage

One of Jordan’s big goals for this spring and summer was to organize our garage, and he has done such a great job with it even just in these first few weeks.  He’s built some amazing shelves that I’m excited to share pictures of soon and he has put a lot of time into cleaning and organizing that space.  This week he built some bike racks for his bikes out of pallets and I love how they turned out! I love seeing this guy explore some of his passions and learn something new.  AND our garage looks stinking amazing!

5) My First Sponsored Post

It’s been a dream of mine for a while now to turn this space into something that could make a little income. I love writing and investing in you all through this blog, but running the blog takes time and some money and I’d love to see that investment give back a little.  For now, that means I might be doing a post or two that incorporates a product or tutorial from brands that I like and feel could be useful to you all.  I hope you wonderful readers know that my heart for this blog is still the same – that it be a place of honest, real community.  That will never change, even as I do try to make some extra income for our family with the occasional sponsored post that references a product or brand.  I will still write those posts with the goal to encourage and inspire you, and I hope Monday’s post did just that as Father’s Day gets closer and closer!

Have a wonderful weekend!