christmas in black and white.

 

it was perfect. <3

it's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!

Last Christmas I was 7 months pregnant, in extreme nesting mode, and our house looked like a Christmas museum.  I loved it.  Ahh the sheen of freshly waxed floors in the candlelight.

This year Finn is 9 months old.  Our house has certainly lost it's museum status.  I didn't manage to get the Christmas wreaths outside on all of the windows.  But I did manage to put candles in them.  The floors boast lots of crumbs and little footprints.  But we did get out all of our decorations.  And despite the fact that they are not perfectly arranged... I love it even more.  Our house feels like a home this Christmas. 

I made a pot of chicken soup and put it on the stove to simmer until dinner time... and planned to bake a batch of Christmas cookies next.  But I thought I'd stop and take it all in a little bit before I jumped to the next task.  We have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. <3

little finds.

a quick post on a couple of new little finds i scored for our master bedroom...

 a small handmade rug from one of the craft tables at joanna's furnace...

it was $10 and i love it!

and a couple of new quilted pillowcases from the shop...

according to southern living this month, quilts are very "in" right now, mmmkay? 
well, i'd love them even if they weren't.
<3

good housekeeping.

i read a piece of marriage advice one time that said to always set the table.  even if you're late getting dinner ready.  that way, when your husband gets home he thinks he'll be eating very shortly, even if you're still scrambling.

obviously this advice was straight out of june cleaver's kitchen circa 1953.
and i wouldn't necessarily call it "marriage" advice.
basically, it's kinda ridiculous.

that being said, there is something to be said for always setting the table.
if the table looks great, the meal can kind of be sub-par and you can get away with it.

it's like busting out a mediocre essay the night before it's due, but having a really nice cover page on linen paper.

 

we're having pizza.

call me old fashioned...

this time of year i always start to suffer from technology overload.

black friday sales kind of kick it off advertising super "low" prices on flat screen tv's, computers, nooks and ipads and a zillion other technological devices.  then it runs throughout the whole holiday season.  everyone seems to want the "new" kindle or the "new" ipad or a bigger and "better" tv for christmas.  i just don't get it!  i come from a family of techies, many of whom work for big techy companies!  but i am just not one of them. 

don't get me wrong, i love my iphone.  but that's pretty much it.  i mostly use it for the camera.  we are a one tv family, and i am proud of that.  and more often than not, when the tv is on it's because it's playing one of the music channels (solid gold oldies, what what.)  i am a firm believer in no tv's in the bedroom (grown ups and kids alike), and i think computers belong in your home office. 

as for the new technological reading devices, those scare me the most.  first i should say that i am a big proponent of reading no matter how you do it.  i realize that reading on a kindle is kind of the writing equivalent of journaling on a blog. but i just can't do it.  isn't one of the best parts of reading a book the way the book smells?  and holding the pages between your fingers and feeling the sense of accomplishment that you get when you're over halfway through a book and there's a thick chunk of pages behind you and a small chunk waiting ahead?  that's the best feeling!  i could never give that up.  books, books, well loved, well read books.  with worn bindings and soft edges that tell a story all their own. 

in a fast paced technological world, i want to be one of the families that holds still.  i want to spend christmases around our piano singing... not taking turns on guitar hero.  i want to use our tv to watch old movies snuggled up in blankets on the couch together... not in bed falling asleep with infomercials on.  i want to glance over at billy reading the paper in the morning while i make coffee.  i want to take finn to the library.  i want him to grow up to be the kind of kid that wants a swingset for christmas and not an xbox.  call me old fashioned, but that's the way for me!

thankful.

thankful for one great, big, happy family.

thankful for a happy baby.

thankful for a husband with a great sense of humor.

 

thankful for a week of gorgeous, sunny weather.

thankful for cousins that made my job easy.

thankful to be our own little family amidst our amazing great big one.

thankful for a great thanksgiving!

we really enjoyed our time in virginia with the isaac family.  it is always a blessing to be able to meet with everyone each year and give thanks for everything God has blessed us with!  this year was filled with so many blessings throughout our whole family and we are so so grateful!

we are gearing up for the holiday season here at edges mill and couldn't be more excited about finn's first christmas.  hopefully there will be lots of blogs to come!

finn has been doing great the past week or so.  he is on amoxicillin which manages his repeat ear infections but doesn't upset his stomach the way the last round of augmentin did.  we are looking ahead to his tube surgery next week and praying it will be a good solution for him.  we don't want him to have to live on antibiotics and after lots of research and doctor visits we've decided having tubes put in his ears is the safest and most natural solution so that his little ears can drain fluid on their own.  if you think of him, please pray for his surgery next wednesday!

hoping everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and is gearing up for a great holiday season! 
xo

gross.

one thing they don't tell you about motherhood is how many different varieties of bodily fluid you are guaranteed to have on your person at any given time.

it's uncanny. 
i'm constantly sporting at least three. minimum.

you know that baby shower game that everyone likes to play where they melt the chocolate candy bars in diapers and you have to guess which candy it is?  and everyone giggles and says "ew gross!"

well, they should change that game to a forensics type black-light CSI crime scene game where you have to positively identify the bodily fluids on your favorite jcrew cardigan. 
because let me tell you, there will never be a time when you open your babies diaper and cry "oooh a snickers bar!", but there most certainly will be a time when you're in the grocery store and you look down at yourself and think "what is that? no seriously, WHAT IS THAT? is it from me? from my baby? which end of my baby?"
and then you inevitably realize, oh shit, that's pee. 
or, oh shit, that's breastmilk. 
or the worst one, oh shit, that's shit.

there's also spit up, snot, and drool, just to name a few. 
i'm just saying, if they changed the baby shower game to a CSI game it would be much handier down the line.  if you can learn to positively identify, on your way out to the grocery store you could look down and say "ehhh, that's just snot, i'm not changing."  or, "that's definitely chunky puke, we're gonna need a wardrobe switch." 
it's an acquired skill.

hey there!

remember when i used to write blogs like all the time?  i kind of do! wow i wrote a lot of them.

the past couple of months have really been a whirlwind!  for more reasons than one.  actually, for two!

1) it's the busiest time of the year at the shop.  this makes work very awesome and fun, but it also leaves very little downtime, i.e. no lunchtime bloggy blogs.
and
2) finn was sick for a month and a half.  this was very not awesome and not fun, but it also left for very little downtime.

i missed you blog! i used to write blogs when i needed mommy advice or a laugh or just a word vomit outlet, but i had to swallow all of that word vomit in the past couple of months because i didn't have time to do normal things like brush my teeth, nevermind write about it. 

the good news is, finn is finally healthy.  the shop is still bonkers, which is also good news, but hopefully a healthy baby will leave me a little bit more free time. 

let me just say that there is officially nothing worse than when your baby feels bad.  for a long time. and your pediatrician acts completely incompetent. 
basically he had an ear infection for a month and a half that didn't go away with amoxicillin but proceeded to get more and more infected, and our doctor called it a "virus" until we ended up in the emergency room after a week of 104.5 fever. 
more on that later. 
oh believe me, there will be an angry mommy blog.

we have had lots of little happy moments amidst the struggles of the past few weeks, including halloween and fun fall festivities! say that three times fast!  i can't wait to post some pictures!  more on that too. less anger involved with that one.

we are also working on some house projects, like putting up storm windows and some fun little decorating things.  the holidays are fast approaching wheee my favorite time of year!

in other exciting news, my little sister, my only sister, is getting married in a few weeks in hawaii and we are throwing her a bridal shower this weekend that i am oh so excited about as well!  lots of happy things going on!

plus thanksgiving is coming, my favorite holiday and a finn first this year! whoopee!

i haven't synced my iphone in like 700 years, so instead of filling this blog with updated photos, i will simply leave you with this vintage classic:

thank you, and goodnight.

isn't it ironic.

when i was little i always hated getting up to go to church on sundays. 
and not really because i wanted to sleep in. 
there were other (more dreadful) reasons than losing sleep.

when i was very little it was mostly because i HATED wearing panty hose, and mom always made me wear them. 
mandy, on the other hand, loved wearing panty hose so much that she wore them to bed under her pajamas.  just looking at her sleeping made me itch. 
i went to bed on saturday nights dreading the suffocation and nonstop tickly twinges that would cover my legs for two grueling hours the following morning.

i think eventually i freaked out enough that mom gave in and let me wear really frilly ankle socks.  (the clear alternative).
and by freak out i mean run out of church whimpering, clawing at my legs, rip my stockings off in the car crying kind of freak out.  not an exaggeration. 

nowadays i don't really mind wearing tights so much. 
but i can still vividly remember just how much i hated them when i was little. 
they just don't feel quite the same way.

as i grew a little bit older and our church grew a little bit less conservative (i could wear pants), i began to dread church for a different reason on sunday mornings. 
this reason was just as unbearable as the pantyhose.

in the car on the way to church, my dad HAD to listen to bluegrass on the radio. 
"stained glass bluegrass" was the special radio program. 
all the songs were old school southern bluegrass hymns.  they all had plenty of twang. 
like over the top twang. 
it was like nails on a chalkboard to me. 
i wanted to bang my head against the side of the car window, claw out my ears, and run home to the sweet sweet comfort of spice girls. 
clearly i was the one who knew what music was all about.

it's funny to me now, just how much i hated and dreaded those five minutes in the car with stained glass bluegrass.  i mean seriously, it was a five minute drive. 
and the reason it's funny is not because it was so silly, but because the older i get the more i... well not just tolerate... not just like... but actually prefer bluegrass music.

it's kind of hilarious.

it was a slow evolution from getting hooked on some of dad's old school records... a little emmy lou harris on vinyl. john prine. johnny cash.
and then billy, with a very heavy willie nelson tendency, lended to the occasion.
the old greats started sneaking in our regular playlist.

and now if i'm scanning the radio i always stop if i hear a banjo or a mandolin.

now i'm hooked on some of the more recent bands, like old crow medicine show, gillian welch, and the devil makes three.  i just love it all.  it's so raw, so organic, so soothing. 

it's like an old sweater i just want to curl up in.
it's my childhood.

funny how some of the things you fight the hardest you end up appreciating the most.

paris in the park.

monday marks two blissful years of marriage for me and the most wonderful husband in the world.
yay!

on our honeymoon, we went to paris, and it was amazing.

the past few weeks finn has been really sick, and the past week he's been so sick that he has been up all night.  there is lots of screaming, crying, snot sucking, saline spraying, standing in bathrooms with hot showers running at 3 a.m, and lots of wishing we could run away to paris.
if for no other reason than to sleep on the plane.

i wasn't expecting to do anything for our anniversary because 1) we are so sleep deprived right now i consider remembering to brush my teeth an accomplishment and 2) the only thing that sounds appealing to me at all is sleep, pillows, pajamas, sleep, naps, and sleep.

but billy surprised me today with a picnic.  he had spent all day saturday scouting this picnic locale, and it was perfect. 

we packed a bag with some of our favorite french things... a delicious bordeaux, a fresh baguette with fromage blanc and raspberry preserves, chocolate croissants... and we spent the entire afternoon on a blanket by the river eating, drinking, and being merry.

eventually we became a little tipsy because of the wine/sleep deprivation combo.
heck, we earned it.

enjoy the pictures.
i love you, billy!