shoulders

over the last year i've been asked the following questions {or ones very similar}:

will you teach eli "shoulders"?

will eli do "shoulders"?

when will eli start doing "shoulders"?

well, my friends, the time has come. 

if you are scratching your head wondering what in the world "shoulders" is, thinking maybe you have missed something vitally important, let me give you some background.

the only way to really do this is through video:

this is the original "shoulders 1.0" video shot 2 years ago.

and another, "shoulders: the wedding version":

a few days ago i began practicing with eli:

and now we have "shoulders: the breakfast version":

yes, we will continue to add to our repertoire & yes, i will be happy to post them for all of our fans!

{insta}week

alright, can someone please tell me how it's possible that november is almost half over????

my birthday is next week. {insert big smile here}

thanksgiving is next week.

christmas decorations are popping up everywhere.

i mean, we are definitely having fun, but i feel like i must have missed a few weeks somewhere.

 good thing i'm an instagram addict!

i spent the beginning of this week visiting one of my favorite people, my bff, bethany.

here's eli & i setting out on our roadtrip

then we got stuck in traffic.

buzz kill.

but we made it, and we had a blast.

i love that though we don't get to see each other often, we just pick up where left off.

sure, we have things to catch up on, but we still laugh & laugh & reminisce about the crazy things we used to do. 

{of course post babies, it takes us a little longer to remember some of those things}

one purpose for our visit was to meet eli's future wife, baby izzy.  

 we decided that we needed pictures of them as babies together so that when they get married in 25 years we can break the pictures out at their wedding. 

we tried to get pictures of the boys {she also has an almost 2 year old, bauer}, 

but photographing two active boys: not so easy!

those pics are on the camera & someone borrowed our camera, 

so you'll just have to take my word for it.

we were very sad when it was time to come home. 

oh how i wished we lived closer! 

but it was good to get home to see daddy since last week he had been out of town for work.

lots of snuggling happening around here!

while we were at b's, eli had fallen down {what's new? #storyofhislittlelife} & on wednesday, he woke up with his very first shiner. 

one of my friends & followers on instagram threatened to call social services on me.

sometimes i wonder if i'll have one of those accident-prone kids.

be one of those moms that the nurses in the er have on the radar. 

so about every other week i contemplate getting rid of my facebook account for so many reasons, really, but i haven't brought myself to do it yet. 

and this week, i found one more reason to keep it.

i used it to my advantage to request the donation of old matchbox cars to my car-less son.

within minutes of hitting enter, i was hit up with numerous willing donors. 

would you believe that i searched yard sale after yard sale & found not one little car?

he was so excited! 

he loves them!

i haven't done a great job this week with keeping up with she reads truth, but here's a verse that spoke to me this week.

especially when one of my tasks this week was folding bulletins:

i really don't mind doing it; 

it's hard to imagine that folding paper could be something done "unto the lord". 

but it seems pretty clear: not some things or once in a while or half the time.

WHATEVER you do. 

makes you {me} think about how you {i} conduct yourself {myself} in all things!

recap:: the happy day project {2012}

i've been really excited about writing this post to talk about my experience participating in 

"The Happy Day Project".

before i begin, i have to provide a little disclaimer:

i didn't exactly follow the plan as it was laid out.

for those of you who know me well, i'm sure you're not all that surprised.

i guess it's just that stubborn, slightly rebellious part of me that has to do things my way sometimes.

okay, A LOT of times.

{sorry, jeannett, if you happen to read this!}

 despite this small little detail,  it did not take away from the meaning behind, nor the purpose of the experience.

we started out the week by writing notes to people.

yes, that's right i said, "writing".

remember the days of picking out a card for someone & sending a nice handwritten note?

yeah, it had been a while since i've done something like that.

 i found out later in the week that the people i chose to send notes to had a pretty stressful week.

i was so happy to know that my note offered a bit of happy for them during that time. 

tuesday we were supposed to give gift cards to the homeless, and here's where i went a little "off course".  

i know we have a homeless population in our town, however, i don't think it's quite as obvious as it might be in other places.

at the risk of offending someone, i chose to do something a little different.

the idea for this day was to provide the gift of food for people who may need a little help.

mike & i run a food pantry out of our house, so we do this on a weekly basis.

i decided to treat the people who come to our food pantry with a little dessert while they waited in line.

 i had this yummy recipe for a pumpkin crunch cake.

i also collected information from everyone to participate in an "adopt a family" program our church does through our food pantry.

next, we were to treat someone.

{i actually did this one a day late}

i was helping a friend at church, so i picked up some coffee & while i was there i paid the bill for the person behind me in the drive thru.

i don't know why, but i was really nervous doing this. 

i'm not really sure what i thought would happen....the person would get angry & flip me off because i did something kind?

another project was to put together blessing bags for the homeless.
so again, i changed it up a bit & put together a blessing box for a local church who was sending a truck load to victims in new jersey affected by hurricane sandy.

 

a first grader at our church decided he wanted to collect items for kids in haiti to send with a team that will be headed there in a couple weeks for a missions trip, so i put together a bag of items for that too.

found these adorable socks on clearance at target so i snatched a bunch up.

finally, we were given the task of recognizing those in the service.
there was a virtual component for each day & for this day it was donating to the Wounded Warrior Project.
A gal from our church was raising money through her blog, so i decided to help her out.

now, i really hope this post doesn't come across as "check me out, i'm awesome because i did all these great things this week".  

not my intention at all.

what i learned from this week was the truth in the verse:

"Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered."

Proverbs 11:25

my soul felt refreshed.

i was honored to be serving in Jesus' name.

i felt like i had this uncontainable energy this week longing to be expended through the giving of my time, talents and resources.

early in the week mike had written a note to our neighbor & i dropped it off with some dessert.

she dropped by later in the week to let us know how much she appreciated it & i sneaked this picture:

. 

i just loved her smile.

it made my heart smile knowing what this simple gesture meant to her. 

 and to top it off, on saturday, i came home to this:

 a group of kids from another local church raking my leaves!

this was a HUGE blessing!

we have 2 very large trees in our yard that produce A LOT of leaves.

it takes almost 2 hours to do just the front yard.

5 kids, 30 minutes!

then, these people show up a few hours later asking to take my leaves:

they took 2 truckloads.

blessings all around!

i know this was a really long post & if you've made it this far, thank you for persevering!

i've just been challenged by this little project to continue to look for ways to be a blessing to others & not so that i reap any type of reward but to make much of Jesus.

to be the hands & feet of Christ so that others can catch a glimpse of Him.

to share His love with a lost & broken world so that they might "taste & see that He is good"!

Psalm 34:8