Send a Mom to Rwanda?

It's no secret I love Noonday Collection. I've spread their love all across my facebook, instagram, pinterest, and twitter feeds since I first met them. I can't seem to remember exactly how we met, but it came through my son's preschool teacher-turned-friend, whom became an ambassador for the company, Kristen Kimball. The first products I saw, I loved. Then I heard their story, their mission, their vision. A gal named Jessica hosted a trunk show from her home in order to raise funds to bring her son home from Rwanda. The style and purpose drew a huge response and it quickly became more then a fundraiser. To this day, Orphan Care and Prevention remains a core value. The vision took off, a partner was added...and boom: A dream was built...a business that would alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship. Today Noonday is styling us gals and changing the world as they do. It's a beautiful partnership. 

While I fell in love with what Noonday represents and they are some of my favorite accessories these days, I have no desire to become an ambassador. It's not my fit to be in that role. Then I opened an email from Noonday that invited people to come apply to come to Rwanda with them and TELL the stories of the artisans there. I couldn't shake the stirring in my heart. I'm not a sales girl, but I am a share girl. I love to connect people and things and communities and places with each other through...WORDS. It's why I blog, why I write, why I hang out on Social Media in this trenches of motherhood season. For good to be given to people's hearts as they live day to day in this ever changing and fast moving culture. I started to pray about what this journey might look like for me.

The journey to Rwanda might be one I take as virtually as the next person...or it might be one that has me flying to a place I had to look up on the map. Either way, for the next 10 days I am going to share my Noonday trip voting site and a.) bring awareness to their cause b.) support my friend, Kristen, as she establishes Noonday in our community c.) annoy a few people with my daily reminders to go vote d.) learn more about what Noonday means for us gals that like to buy pretty things to wear e.) possibly end up in the middle of Africa missing my kids, second guessing myself, and being rocked to my core as I experience what Rwanda and God have to teach me. 

So... check out Noonday Collection here.

And vote for me to go to Rwanda here. (You can vote everyday until May 28th and share it with your Facebook feed, too!)

Sometimes we can't ignore the nudge to jump. I've already been blessed to go through the application process and learn a few things for my life that I didn't know before. So to me I've won. To actually go to Rwanda would be a new journey with a whole new application process...one that would solely involve my heart. Right down to the core. 

TGIF

 Some weeks go so fast you find yourself in Friday before you even realized where Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday went... Making for a PJ's day at home with these littles of mine just what I needed. 

And thank goodness for naps that fell at the same time today...a little gift from them to me, TGIF!

drive-way days

It's been an off and on start to spring. With summer only about a month away, this spring is finding us mostly in the drive-way. Last spring at this time we put in cement to finish off our drive-way and build in the basketball hoop. The littles mostly use it for their driving days though.

Here's our drive-way days this spring. The back yard is pretty wet many days, so on dry land and hard surfaces we play...

 Carson with what he refers to as "my guys". "Please I take Jake"... "Please I take Curious George"... "Jake crying" followed by a swaddle or "Curious George hungry" followed by him lifting his shirt and feeding him :) These guys go everywhere. And if one is missing at bed time, lets just say somebody isn't sleeping. Well, that makes two of us actually. 

Even of wet and cold days, these boys and their wheels can fill an afternoon...

Finally, more friends then foe...

Sometimes I look out and find this...

Or I am chasing after this...

He can pedal many bikes these days and heads straight for the neighbors...

And Sis... spends a lot of her drive-way time here...chasing and following the big boys... well, until she can keep up ;-)

almost 1

Sis turns one in just a couple weeks. I've never had a first year with a newborn go this fast. Seriously, I can hardly tell you how we got back to this time of year already since the day she was born. Savannah has been just the sweetest addition to our family. We absolutely have loved our days with her here...

Since she will be 12 months soon, I suppose a quick 11 month update wouldn't hurt.

She is a happy camper. A mover. A monster of an eater. A chatter box. An easy go lucky kind of gal, thus far.

She doesn't stay in one place long once you put her down or unbuckle her, but I wouldn't have it any other way :)

She actually has some hair growing finally. A little. As in if you look closely you can kind of see it blowing in the wind!

She has the best bear crawl. We can't decide if it's the knee's she's trying to save or the creativity of getting where she wants to go...either way, the bear crawling baby is fun to watch!

 She's got a mouth full of teeth, which makes for interesting nursing sessions, but she's so cute grinning back up at me with that mouth full of pearly whites.

 And her biggest milestone this month...she's started walking! She will give you a few steps all on her own, a whole yards walk with assistance, and her green tractor gets plenty of miles in as she pushes it around. Big girl...here she comes.

it's time!

We've lived here for ten years this spring. From day one we had a vision for this old deck to be turned into an expanded living space... a comfy, casual family gathering place to build relationships, community, and our sports watching agenda. :)  For ten years we have pinched away pennies into a "Be Your Own Banker" account and it is really exciting to say... "It's time"! That account has grown enough that we can finally build our deck into the family room we've desired so long. Beyond thankful for stability to do so, an ever so time-giving father-in-law, and a very, very hard working husband. Phase one started a couple weeks ago with tearing down of the old deck. Stay tuned! The rest is coming down soon!