Updates...

After 8 years of blogging, I never intended on taking a leave of absence, but it just kinda happened.

Since my last post back in February, we’ve celebrated Emma’s successful first year of college. She made the Dean’s List both semesters and she even had a wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Ireland at the end of winter semester with the Social Work department.

We’re so proud of her ability to juggle academia and working two jobs. She’s pretty darn incredible. 

I recently celebrated my 49th birthday. How the heck did that happen? And we’re getting ready to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on Memorial Day. We aren’t doing anything super exciting for our milestone, but we’ll be heading to my “happy place” Aframe and I can’t wait to unplug and get away from work.

Speaking of the Aframe, it’s in the midst of a huge exterior renovation. It now has all new windows and is in the process of getting siding.

We had hoped to save the original exterior wood and repaint, but it was too far gone and Mother Nature kept finding a way to sneak inside. With us enjoying the lake year-round, we decided to go with siding so that we didn’t have any more surprises.

Our next big celebration is Josie’s 11th birthday. If you’ve been a long time follower, you know how much I enjoy party planning.

We’ll be going ALL OUT with a Harry Potter themed event early June. Stay tuned! I can’t promise how often I’ll keep this updated, but I’ll try to do a better job.  Virtual "hugs" from Kim K.

Christmas decorating at the Aframe

Right before Thanksgiving, I stopped at Trader Joe’s and found this gingerbread Aframe kit. 

I just knew it was meant to come to the lake with us.

I know I’ve said this before, but I love our Aframe even more in the off-season. 

It's cozy.
It’s quiet.
. And it’s really fun to decorate at Christmas.  I also love being able to spread out my Christmas collections between two places.  

I know these next few weeks are going to zoom by and December 25th will be here before we know it.  I have a few Christmas projects to share. Josie and I have been busy in my craft room.

We even managed to find a $5 dollhouse that we turned into a Christmas house.

I'll be back!  Pinky swear!

Welcoming winter

I’m sorry if I scared some of you into thinking I was closing down my blog. I’ve got too much invested in my blog (the original purpose was to document our adoption journey) but it’s also been a great way to record our family’s adventures over the years, so I promise to keep this going. Thank you for all the sweet comments. 

 Christmas break was so nice. A bit crazy to start out with. Chris had a kidney stone that took 4 days to pass and right in the middle of his kidney stone issues, we lost power for over 72 hours (which meant candles/flashlights and being camped out in front of our gas fireplace on Christmas eve). I swear we are the only family in our subdivision that doesn’t own a generator.

As you can imagine, my favorite part of Christmas break was getting to the lake.

It finally snowed and we spent every waking minute outside. 

 I know I’ve said this before, but I love our Aframe more in the winter than in the summer.

We are such a winter sports family.

We took long snowy hikes. 

We found new sledding hills.

Emma tested out her new snow shoes.

It was wonderfully peaceful.

So, now we are back into our school routines and my house and brain are disheveled.

Happy New Year to you, friends.  I hope your January is filled with quiet and peace as we roll into 2016.
   

Beauty over the lake...

A busy month awaits preparing for fall semester at my university. The appointments and meetings are plentiful.

We've had some gorgeous sunrises recently at our Aframe.

Mr. Moon has been putting on equally lovely showing.

Remember to take time to enjoy all of nature's beauty around you.

Bday adventures at the lake and a few vintage finds...

Thank you for wishing Emma a happy 17th birthday!  

We did a quick over night and celebrated Emma's birthday at the lake.  

We found these vintage looking signs at our local $ store.

The arrows weren't exactly pointing in the right direction, so I did a little duck tape magic.

Back on Mother's day, we attended the Grand Rapids Vintage Street Market and I came home with a couple of woodland themed items.

Mr.  Bear now resides inside the A-frame and my sister has already informed me that he might end up visiting her home in the near future.

It's another busy work week, but I'm looking forward to the long holiday weekend and my own birthday on Sunday.  Emma and I are exactly 7 days apart in our birthdays.  May is an expensive month for Chris.  Smile.

Take time and smell the flowers this week. XOXO  

  

We have water!!!

With our lovely week of 40 and 50 degree temps, we have running water again at the A-frame!!!

Chris took a trip midweek to check on the frozen pipes and while he was there, he hung a stair railing made out of a rowing oar.  

Doesn't it look fabulous?  

Let the relaxing weekend BEGIN!

XOXO