Days 9 and 10 of Onetober and 31 Days in the Life of Me.

October:

For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here and here.

Days 9 and 10

Hello Friends!

[caption id="attachment_522" align="aligncenter" width="558"] Dress - TJMax
Scarf - Hand painted from a Boutique
Hat - Holiday craft show
Jacket - Target[/caption]

Are you bored yet? If so I am sorry. Since I don't always go out a whole bunch my dress doesn't get "dressed up" very often. Not a whole lot to write about either, but maybe you are getting to know me a bit better. Getting to know our life and what motivates us.

A few pictures from our week so far.

I took a break from making dollies today and made some zipper clutches for my friend's sister. I love getting to be creative and working with fabrics and patterns that inspire me.

Goose and I went to Bible study yesterday and afterwards went to see Grandma at work. Goose love's helping her at the bookstore! :)

They cat got highjacked today and dress in a Build a Bear shirt. Shockingly he still has it on and doesn't seemed to be bothered by it. We really did get a super cat.

Monday was our due date for the baby we miscarried back in February. We are taking it slow this week and giving ourselves lots of grace and time to process. I'm sure I will have thoughts on all of that to share in a few days, but for now I'm ok letting that just sit and percolate.

I hope you all have had a wonderful week so far!

Tiny Prints Holiday Card Give Away!

October:

For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here  and here.

So apparently I am not the only one with Christmas on my mind after last night. I woke up this morning to down right cold temperatures. 47* people! That's cold. Especially for October in Va. I will be honest I wore my sweat pants and sweat shirt as long as I could today, but then I had to go pick Bear up from school. So I put on my dress and one of Josh's zip up sweatshirts. Now I am home but since I have to go back out at 9 tonight I'm still in my dress but with majorly fuzzy socks.

Now if only I could get away with wearing the socks out tonight.

What with the weather and my internet browsing last night I am so ready to start planning for Christmas. And apparently I am not the only one. Today I got an e-mail from Tiny Prints all about their new Holiday Cards.

I was so excited when I stumbled across this card. The perfect blend of photo card and Holiday letter! Now all that's left to do is decide what picture to use and information to include. It's been a busy year over here. I'm so excited to get these cards. I am told they are beautiful and very high quality. Want some or your own? Well you are in luck. Tiny Prints is offering $50 off total order to one lucky Redirected Dreams Reader. (Does not include shipping & cannot be combined with any other promos.) Want to win? Head on over and check our their huge selection of Holiday Cards and then come back and fill out the entry form bellow. Good luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored blog post/give away but I have offered a genuine and legitimate product review and share my own, honest opinions on any and all products.

 

Day Seven (Onetober and 31 Days In The Life Of Me)

October:

For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here  and here.

Day Seven:

No pictures of the dress today. I'm sure I will get pictures of the same outfit though as it turned cold today and I paired it with my favorite sweatshirt jacket and hat. Warm and comfy for church then home to snuggle into the sweatpants and sweatshirt and fuzzy socks.

It was a lovely afternoon of naps, and tv, and dolly making. Also spent a bit of time online and may I just say I am so excited about Christmas! So many fun ideas! I'm all of the sudden in love with Martha Stewart stuff.

I am particular in love with these stocking stuffer ideas. But I love a lot of the other galleries as well.

Thinking about Christmas reminded me how much I want this book.

Which then reminded me that I bought this book last summer and can't wait to browse through it again.

Also spent some time on Pinterest and I am loving this Joy printable.

The Joy in the Journey printable can be found here.

Pen and Paint also has an amazing fall printable. Check it out Here.

Day 6 (Onetober and 31 Days in the Life of Me)

October:

For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here  and here.

Day 6

I am LOVING having my mom hear. It is such a blessing whenever she comes and visits. No matter what we do it's just comforting to have her near.  A lot of times we don't do much but this weekend has been packed. We have done a lot of just simple things, like buying Halloween costumes, and shopping for groceries. We also got the chance to do some extra special things like seeing a play and going to lunch at one of my favorite little local places the Farm Basket. We were also able to meet up with my in laws there. My girls love the time they get to spend with both sides of the family. This is the weekend we were due and it has been such a blessing to just do life with my mom and have her near.

After lunch we let the girls play by the creek. Maddie loved the black walnuts. It is truly fall here and the down town area is the perfect place to enjoy all of that.

Today the dress was paired with my favorite blue flats that I bought over 5 years ago from Steve and Barry's and still wear at least twice a week and a long pearl necklace Hubby bought me for Christmas a few years back.

Day 5(Onetober and 31 Days in the Life of Me)

October:

For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here  and here.

Day 5

If we were having coffee I would tell you I didn't blog yesterday or post my Onetober picture because I seriously over book, over planned, and over stretched myself this week and something had to give.

Then I would have to bite my tongue to keep from telling you about the fun stuff I got to do for the magazine yesterday, because you are just going to have to wait till December. But I might share an instagram picture.

I would tell you how my Onetober dress was worn with sneakers today for Bear's first field trip. I was so nervous and she was so excited and in the end it was a wonderful experience and I am so glad I got to share it with her.

I would tell you how excited I am to have my mom hear.

I would tell you how cool it was that we got to go see a play together for the first time in years. And how fascinating and almost disturbing I found the play. It was an interesting study in choices and consequences and blame and raised a lot of questions but answered very few of them. It's definitely something I will be thinking over for a while. Perhaps a more detailed description will follow.

If we were having coffee I would tell you all of the things big and little that God has brought into my life lately to amaze and encourage me.

Linking up with Alissa over at Rags to Stitches weekly coffee date again this week.

Mama I want to be Pretty or Day 3 (Onetober and 31 Days in the Life of Me)

October:

For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here  and here.

Day 3

Me and my Bear.

Those who have been reading my blog know that we are sending Bear to a private school this year. Because she is in the Pre-K program she doesn't have to wear a uniform most days. However, Wednesday is chapel day which means wearing the school's red polo shirt. And she hates it. This child is not cut out for uniforms let me tell you. She puts up a fight every time we tell her it's red shirt today. Today I found out why.

Josh and I were driving down the road when he informed me that she doesn't like it because "It's not pretty." We talked about the things we can do to help her understand that "pretty" isn't what she wears but simply who she is. And that she is so much more than physically pretty. She is smart, and funny, and kind, and oh so more many other things.

And then I thought about the first night of this and how I was discussing my insecurities with Josh and comparing how I look now with how I looked at our wedding. All he could talk about is who I have become since then, what I have accomplished, and how much more me I am now.

And it hit me. This isn't just about the words I am speaking about and over my daughter. It's about the words I am speaking to, and about, and over myself. And even deeper than my words are my actions and my thoughts and how I interact with others and her. And it all just sort of settled. I may not love how I look, but I love what brought me to this place. My beautiful, smart, funny, kind, amazing Bear and her sister Goose and everything else in my adventure.

***There have been a couple posts floating around on facebook today about moms being in photos and being comfortable in their own skin. You can read them here and here if you want to read them since they both are far more eloquent then I am.

Day Two (Onetober and 31 Days in the Life of Me)

October:

For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here  and here.

Day Two (Onetober and 31 Days in the Life of Me)

Here is my official Onetober picture of the day. Not the best picture of me or the dress I'll admit but since I forgot all the adults I saw to day to take a picture it was up to me and the kids. Here a few of the rejects for your viewing amusement.

My arms are too short.

Goose's attempts to take a photo.

Bear wants in on the all the picture taking.

(Interesting fact Bear's first ever "picture" was taken at The Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center the center we are raising awareness for)

Today was a rather wet and gray day so the dress got a splash of color from my favorite (and only) rain/trench coat. A crazy bright yellow number from Target.

Because of Josh's schedule Goose didn't go to the baby sitter today and staid with me. She was less then thrilled with going to Bible study/childcare but enjoyed having lunch with the "big girls" when I met up with a dear friend and mentor for lunch. Miss Kriss spends the summers working at a camp with her husband and their grown children so we always have lots to catch up on in the early fall.

I am a busy person by nature. The good thing is I thrive when there is a lot on my to do list, but side is I often put far to much on my to-do list and work myself up into a lot of anxiety. Life is, as always, about finding a balance. And so I am keeping my eyes open for those little moments to slow down in the midst of the busy.

Like text messages with my sisters.



And bed time stories.

And blogging about nothing and everything.