right now.

+ am so thankful for all of the sweet comments and emails about our sweet new arrival and her being able to come home last week :) thank you, thank you! we are settling in and are grateful she is healthy and home :)

+ am constantly thinking about how thankful I am for my hubby, my boys and my girl, friends, and family.

+ am enjoying this time with our new daughter. it is definitely a challenge as we settle into a new normal. but it's good.

+ am ready and excited for a new routine. excited to get back into the swing of things.

+ am anxious to finish up autumn journals for the shop. still taking it very easy. but ready to work on some crafty and creative things.

+ am thinking and planning blog posts and shop ideas when i have quiet and sleep time with my sweet girl. loving watching her sleep in my arms.

where I've been...

The past two weeks have been a little... crazy ;) Our sweet girl came into the world four weeks early -- she was born last Tuesday, August 14 at 9:33 am :) I was having some serious complications and it was decided she needed to come early, for her health and for mine.

Since she was early, her lungs needed help to finish developing, so she was placed in the NICU immediately after birth. The doctors were confident about her prognosis of being able to fully develop and to be able to come home within a couple weeks. She had a few minor setbacks the first day after birth (which was expected), but made incredible progress each day after and we are grateful to God that she was able to come home yesterday!! After one week! 

We are absolutely grateful for the incredible team of nurses and our neonatologist, who were always very understanding, very patient, and very kind -- when we were asking tons of questions, when I was crying and anxious, or when I was calling in the middle of the night to check on her. 

We are incredibly grateful for an amazing group of friends and family who blessed us, encouraged us, checked on us, prayed for us, and helped us so much during this (relatively short, but also long) time. 

I am beyond blessed to have an incredible husband who calmly, lovingly and strongly led us through this. Who would stop everything and pray with me as I became nervous and anxious about what was happening. Who was patient and comforting. Who was, of course, also hurting and concerned and wasn't afraid to say it, but was quick to remind me that this was all in God's hands. And that God is our ultimate peace and comfort.

Most of all, we praise God for His graciousness to us and our sweet Hannah. For His peace, comfort, and abundant mercy during this time.

garden: an update

After our massive heatwave several weeks ago, and leaving town when our air conditioning broke, I pretty much thought the garden was through :( Most all of the plants wilted in a matter of a day (even with lots of water). But, we pulled all of what was left (we lost several squash plants, lettuce, some carrots) up onto the deck and kept watering. And kept watering. And then watered some more. A lot of the plants revived. And somehow, the oregano and parsley were completely brown and wilted and started sprouting new leaves! Yay!

We have been able to harvest lots of herbs, some (very baby) carrots (my sweet son loved pulling them up out of the dirt!), cucumbers, and onions are not far off. I have some sort of squash plant that is flowering, except I'm not sure what squash it is (pumpkin or yellow?) - the marker got lost ;)

My tomato plants are three feet tall, and flowered, but never produced any tomatoes :( I've been researching as to why this happened... I'm still excited that I grew tomato plants from seed. But not so excited that I didn't get any fruit from them ;)

So once again, a season of learning with the garden. I think the containers were a bit too small. Maybe larger containers next season? Also may try out organic fertilizer? Maybe we just need a larger, sunny plot of land to grow directly in the ground? :)

baby journal kits: in shop this afternoon

*Edited to add: Journal kits and add-on paper packs are now available in the shop!

A quick note to let you know I will be listing baby journal kits in the shop this afternoon. I will also be listing add-on paper packs for baby boy and baby girl :)

yep. i now have instagram.

So I now have a smartphone (!!!) and am having a lot of fun with instagram. Go here to see some of my recent pictures and follow if you like :) I will mostly be sharing pictures behind the scenes of crafty stuff in my workspace, things I am cooking, garden-related stuff, and other everyday happenings :)

working on: sweet baby journals

Finishing up working on these sweet baby journals for the shop. Hoping to list them this weekend or early next week - adding a few more pages (including a fun custom die-cut page!). So excited about these :)