I never went far for college. Never packed my belongings into a handful of suitcases, bags and boxes, minimizing what was important based on what I could fit into a car and then fit in a dorm space. I never had to watch my parents drive away from me in a car out of a town in complete excitement and fear. Instead, I stayed close to home and enjoyed the perks of living college out with home cooked meals and my Dad available any weeknight evening for a math or science tutor session.
Our Backyard Renovation
I started this post well over a month ago and then saved the post for a rainy day. Well, Let me tell ya what – it is raining and suppose to rain all day, through the night and into tomorrow. Can you say, weekend wash out?
So, back to our renovation.
Nathan and I moved into our home roughly eight years ago. Slowly we have renovated nearly 85% of the house. Some projects have been big as each bathroom received an overhaul, and we completely transformed half of the basement which was at one-time concrete cinder block exposed walls and concrete floors. Some projects have been minor in the grand scheme of things but made a bigger impact on us like new flooring and painting throughout, outdoor light fixture swaps, exterior painting of our home and back deck and then came the landscaping.
I Wish For My Daughter
This past week we took a much, let me emphasize, much needed little family vacation. More to come on that later this week as I dive into some of our time spent in the Outer Banks. It was our first time visiting and it was quite lovely.
Over and over my little girl (in between meltdowns because let’s face it, life is not all it seems to be on a beautiful Instagram feed) would look at me with a huge grin and say, “Momma, I have fun.” It made my heart melt, actually, I would just melt into a puddle after that.
2 Going on 13 – Giveaway!
Special thank you to GabbyBox for partnering on this post!
Parents, listen up. When you are sitting in that hospital room looking down at your perfectly swaddled newborn baby and that first person walks in and makes a comment about how fast this itty tiny baby will grow. Do not ignore them. Do not underestimate the power of their words. In fact, they are correct, time flies when it comes to your own children and before you know it, poof! they are a toddler.
One day I looked up and realized my “baby girl” (which I often refer to her as) was really not a “baby.” No, instead, she suddenly didn’t even look like a toddler but a kid. A kid!!
I mean, seriously? Look at this picture.
Five Things Five-Years of Marriage Has Taught Me – Plus a Giveaway
1 – We give love differently and we love each other differently.
Have you ever heard of the five love languages? Words of Affirmation, Touch, Time Together, Acts of Service and Gifts. When Nathan and I were engaged we attended a few weeks of marriage classes with our pastor as we prepared for the big day. Part of the prep work was learning and understanding love languages and exploring what our personal language was and our partner’s. It was the first time I realized that we loved different and needed each other’s love in different ways. Five years later, that has not changed. Understanding each other is different is not enough. Instead, I have learned that having an underlying appreciation for the fact that we are two different people and knowing what may make each other tick is actually part of marriage success. I gauge our situations by trying to say things such as, “I feel this way because…” instead of starting on a “You did this…” By taking the blame off of the other person and expressing the way you personally feel is super important in validating the fact that we know each other thinks and feels different; therefore, we love differently.
My New Season With God
Nearly two years ago, give or take a month or two, I was baptized at the age of 28, alongside my 5-month-old daughter. It was a special day for me for many reasons. One, I was standing before our church alongside Nathan, and proclaiming that our daughter would be raised in a Christian home, honoring our Christian faith and proclaiming our love for Jesus among our Church family, and two, I declared publicly my love for Christ and made an outward statement that I believed in the power of God and that I accepted God into my heart and life. I was spiritually connected to God and my Church, more strongly than I had ever been in my life. I enjoyed Sunday mornings, I sought worship, learned from the sermon and walked away from service feeling revived and energetic.
Summer Bucket List
It is summertime! Well not like officially, officially, that happens – June 21. In my mind though, it is summer and that happens when the temperatures decide to stay in the 70+ degree digits and the kids are out of school. Now, Lo is always out of school, so I live through my friend’s children.
And, while I pretend like Fall is my favorite season because I like the weather, tall brown boots and fall foods like hot cider and warm homemade soups, really deep down, I am a summer girl. I am pretty sure if things went my way, I would live poolside in a zone that stayed 70+ degree digits year round.
Parents Say The Darndest Things
Our dear friends just recently had their first child. We were invited down to their home to spend some time with their week and a half-year-old little guy and to introduce him to our very ornery, can’t stop – won’t stop, two-year-old, Lo.
I was a nervous Nancy watching my daughter bounce from step to ground, fearful she was just a mere tumble away into the peaceful newborn’s bouncy seat, where he so quietly slept. As I watched this beautiful boy stretch and yawn and wrinkle his oh so tiny nose, I looked over at my rowdy, rambunctious daughter, “No, Logan, we do not lick the concrete,” I calmly announced as my daughter was on all fours on my friend’s patio, lapping up the hard surface. In that moment, I turned back to the newborn so peaceful and dependent and then back at my puppy, I mean daughter and thought well gee this is my motherhood.
Lately, I feel like I run around chasing my daughter saying “No!” Our dialogue with our child has totally shifted and now I just find myself and my husband speak and think nothing of our dialogue until a moment later when it hits me, “Did we just say that?”
So I started this list – Parents Say the Darndest Things – with our recent conversation at our friend’s house when I asked my daughter to stop licking the concrete, in mind.
Darndest Thing #1 – The same night as the concrete and moments later Lo ripped a leaf off our friend’s hedge bush that lined their patio and placed the leaf in her mouth, “Lo, stop eating their landscape.”
Darndest Thing #2 – After a quiet moment, my husband walked into our daughter’s bedroom and found her on the floor playing in a small travel bag I have packed which contains band-aids, thermometers, and an extra toothbrush. My dear husband yelled, “No, that was in your butt, get it out of your mouth.” Hmmm… I thought from our bedroom across the hall. Turns out Lo had placed the reserved anal thermometer in her mouth. Then Nathan asked me, “Right? This goes in her butt?” Holding the red and white thermometer in his hand in our doorway. “Yes, dear, that typically goes in her butt.”
Darndest Thing #3 – One morning while playing with chalk on the front sidewalk that leads to our house, “Logan, chalk is for sidewalks, not for faces.” She had bright blue dusty chalk painted on the tip of her nose and was holding the red and outlining her face as I caught her.
Darndest Thing #4 – I dressed Logan, I gave her a bottle, her blanket and set her on the couch with a TV show so I could water my annuals in our front yard. Nathan yelled, “Ashli, did you change, Lo?”
“Yeah, why?” I call back.
I turned around to see my daughter with her top on but completely naked from the waist down standing in the front door looking out at me. “Logan, no, we do not walk around pantless.”
“Yeah,” said Nathan scurrying her along. “And, we don’t stand at the front door when we do,” I heard Nathan say as they walked away. 😐
You know how they say kids say the darndest things, well clearly us parents do too. Just another day, another dollar (no – wait) and another moment in the life of parenthood. And, I cheers to you on that!
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The 30 Day Hair Challenge
Y’all, I feel like a real life beauty blogger tonight.
I know what you are thinking, “Ashli, we see you.” You are not fooling us with your NEVER penciled in eyebrows and Miss “I don’t wash my face” before bed look. I actually commented on another Blogger’s Instagram this weekend when she shared her favorite face mask and asked her readers what their favorites were. My reply, “the last face mask I wore was in the aisle of WalMart at Halloween, about 10 years ago.” Yeah, that’s me.
So when Hairstory asked me to participate in a 30-day hair challenge, I was that girl looking over my shoulder for the hot blonde with epic waves flowing as she tossed her head and locks from side to side. She wasn’t there. Instead, it was me. A young (I am young still, right?) Momma in desperate need of some beauty hacks and love.
What is HairStory?
Hairstory is a new brand of hair products. They produce four products that are “simple, straightforward, and deliver beautiful results.”
What is New Wash?
A hair cleanser that completely replaces shampoo and conditioner. “New Wash cleanses with a proprietary blend of essential oils and naturally derived saturated cleansers, which respect the body’s natural moisture barrier that detergent destroys.” It works on ALL types of hair versus hundreds of traditional, specialized shampoos – and transforms hair that has been ritually abused by detergent, styling, and bleach. It is paraben-, pthalate-, sulfate-free, and detergent free.
How does it work?
1) Wet your hair.
2) Coat all of your hair.
3) Massage your scalp.
4) Shower as usual.
5) Rinse, or as Hairstory tells you, squeegee your hair.
The Challenge
Hairstory sent me a free bottle and asked me to replace my shampoo, conditioner and all products for 30 days and share my journey.
My Journey
Pre-Hairstory, my hair tends to be dry and a bit brittle. I do not dye my hair, so I have never had a lot of products in my hair. I have ombre’ed these locks about four or five times, but that is it. I have a bit of a wave that never dries too great but instead needs a nice style, due to my natural frizzies. I would consider myself low-maintenance (although my husband would total disagree). I use no after shower products, shutter, I know. And, a curling iron is my best friend whether I add wave or use the hot burning iron to straighten my hair.
But here is the real scoop – I am a busy Momma and I want easy – with a capital E, so EASY!
OVERALL
I took the #takeashowerwithus 30 Day Challenge and I have pros and cons. I noticed that during week one, my hair seemed greasier than usual but as the 30 days developed my hair did start to change.
PROS:
- My hair was smooth, like ridiculously smooth. When I got out of the shower, I could comb my hair with my fingers and there were no tangles.
- My hair air dried better than ever! No more, weird “natural” frizz!
- Fewer products in the shower. No conditioner, just an all-in-one product.
- The scent! I adored the scent.
CONS:
- Maybe I did something wrong but after one day my hair began to look greasy. While it did get better it never seemed to last more than a day or two and I use to be able to get three or even four days in without a hair wash.
- Cost is a bit high but if you really do the math like the other bloggers out there, eliminating the need to buy shampoo, conditioner and after shower products, well you may find, money saved.
Overall, I would give this 3.5 out of 5. Why? The greasy factor I experienced made me feel like I had to shower more and as a busy mom, I just have no time for that. The Pros though are super strong, and I feel the need to fully disclose that I do have well water and that may have impacted the product and my hair. Other bloggers rave about the fact that their need to wash their hair was cut down. I do however adore this product’s thought and mission. Providing a healthy, natural product is really important to me and I would very much be interested in continuing this product or experiencing others as part of their brand.
Thanks to Hairstory for partnering with me on this post!
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Memorial Day Weekend Sales
It has been rainy every single day this weekend.
This post contains affiliated links. That means I may earn some money when you buy things.
I know Lo, I feel your pain. We are all cooped up inside because everything is wet, it is spitting rain on and off and the fog seems to settle in. I need you sunshine, I really need you.
I was half tempted to just pack up and head to the nearest ocean, and convince my hubby to detour at the nearest shopping outlets to ease my frustrated mind. Instead, realizing that reality is really just a dream, I located some of the best online sales for the Memorial Day weekend and will instead sip on my lemonade while indoors, in my pajamas and allow some retail therapy to make everything feel better.
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