Wedding Prep:Reception Tables and Flowers

The wedding is now just hours away.

We've had a wonderful week.  Our family has been arriving and we've enjoyed having them near us to help us celebrate!

I wanted to thank you for your prayers.  It means more than I can say.

I decided to show you a sneak peak at the tables and flowers for the wedding.

We're all set.  We will be up early tomorrow for hair and make up and then off to the church to get dressed.

I hope to post some photos tomorrow evening.  Thank you for being interested in our wedding and for praying for us.

We are so excited and ready!

The Last, Few Quiet Moments

before the wedding this weekend.

Tim headed out to work early today so he can leave work early and go pick up his Mom and brother in law at the airport.  Our first out of town guests to arrive for the wedding!

Lindsay had an eye appointment at 8:00 am, and took Rachel along so she could take her to her cello lesson (thanks to her teacher for doing a 9:15 am lesson today) which is just down the street from our eye doctor.  Then they will grab some food and head to pick up Lindsay's wedding gown!  She had her final fitting last week.  She's beautiful, and the dress looks wonderful on her!

This past weekend, I put away the last of the winter decor and brought out my white things and we added in some blue.  That was Rachel's idea, and it looks fresh and welcoming.  I moved my silver tray and pots to the top of the bookcase and I really like it there.  Sometimes just moving things from one room to the next freshens things up.

Here is the view out of my kitchen window this morning.  We are getting a dusting of snow.

I wanted to show you what Lindsay and I made yesterday.  These are the table cards so people know how to find their table!  Aren't they cute?  Different greens, as we are using varying shades of Joseph and Lindsay's favorite color for their wedding.

Now I must run!  I have some fluffing to do in my bedroom, and I need to mop my floors!

3 days to go!  Thank you all for your prayers.  I feel them!  We are relaxed, laughing, and enjoying these days together.

Wedding Prep: The Final Week

We've entered the home stretch.  5 days to go.  Last night Lindsay told me she looked down our row at church and realized that this is the last time she will sit there as an unmarried daughter.  She is saying her 'farewells' to her life as it has been, and welcoming it as it will be.

I wrote Tim a note in church and said, "I'd like to go out to lunch." We don't do this very often, and it was what I needed.  Sarah played with my phone and took this photo and the next one.

 My sweet girl is growing up.  She'll be 12 this year.  She's a mixture still of little girl in braids and young lady.  I love her so.

Our van has been making strange noises and it doesn't surprise me too much considering it has 245,000 + miles on it!  Tim found it needed a motor mount and a wheel bearing.  These two, along with Joseph's brother Daniel, made the changes and Tim says, "Your going to love driving the van now!"  He was amazed at how much of a difference those two things made.

 Meanwhile, I stayed nice and clean and texted with my friend who is doing the flowers for the wedding.  We are making a change to the table decor and we got that all worked out - she is a genius, and got my creative juices flowing!  So I tried out a few things with some flowers that I had that were left over from Lindsay's shower.

Then I made about 4 dozen pancakes that were devoured in about 15 minutes, and took myself off to my room for the evening.  I mostly had the time to myself but I was also Kyle's consultant for Balderdash.  He thinks I'm a genius and I'm happy to have him continue to think so!

This post sounds like it should be titled 'Scenes from Sunday" but really this is all prep for the week ahead.  It is the final week of having Lindsay in our home on a daily basis.  There are things to accomplish this week, but I think we have achieved our goal of a no stress final week.  Just busyness, which is a part of our daily life.  

Today, Lindsay has an appointment for a trainer/animal handler job at Sight and Sound.  She'd dearly love to get this job, as this is what she was doing when she injured her knee last June.  She's excited but trusting God to open and close the doors.

Our family from Florida and California arrive on Wednesday and Thursday, friends from out of state on Friday.  We are all so excited!  We pick up the wedding dress on Wednesday, get manicures and practice hairstyles on Thursday, and do the table settings at the church for the reception, Friday morning is making the flower arrangements for the tables, the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  

Then Saturday is the wedding.

It'll be over in a blink of an eye.

Twenty-two years we have worked to raise a daughter to love Jesus, to serve others, to be ready to be a wife and mother, to love her family and her home, not just ours but her own home.  She's ready.  It's a joy to see.  

 I won't lie and say that there have been no irritations or frustrations along the way.  We are human after all, and prone to self focus and for me the expectation that my priorities should be everyone else's.  But our relationships are all good, and we are still smiling and laughing here.  We are holding onto the JOY of our family life.  It's a beacon and a blessing to us all.  

This last week before the wedding?  Bring it on!  We're ready to enjoy it in all its potential craziness!  You'll forgive me if I am scarce here, I know, but I promise lots of photos and stories to tell this next week.

Wedding Prep: Kids Activity Bags

When my nephew married nearly 8 years ago, his bride thoughtfully made up activity bags for all the young children attending the wedding.  Rachel and Sarah were the recipients of two of these and they were happily occupied during the reception.

With a lot of kids attending this wedding we opted to do activity bags for children 8 years old and under and we currently have 28 on our list!  Wow!

I am using simple brown lunch bags cut down in size a bit with a decorative edged scissor.

 On the front will be each child's name, and the bags will be placed on the table where the child is sitting.

 I found these great coloring books on Etsy quite by accident and knew it was perfect for us!  I ordered a mini size so they would fit into the bags.

 Wedding things to color, mazes, color by number, things to check off…lots of activities to keep the little folk occupied.

These were purchased as a digital download for $4.00 from Sugar Pie Studios.  It was easy peasy!

Also going into the bag some little note pads, stickers (purchased inexpensively from Target during Valentine's), really cute 'ring' erasers and crayons packs bought from Oriental Trading.  Four crayons in a pack and a specialty sticker on the front with Lindsay and Joseph's names and their wedding date.

The cost per bag is about $1.00.

This is one of our best ideas for the wedding and one that doesn't break the bank!  That's always a good thing.

A Thing I Haven't Talked About

My dear friend Tracy commented on my last post that, "you aren't talking at all about what it's going to be like without Lindsay there  each day."

She's right.  I haven't.  It's not that I am so sad and not wanting to face reality, I guess it is because in so many ways life will go on as usual.  School with the younger kids, watching Kamryn, cello lessons, piano lessons, meals to cook.

But there will be a place without my firstborn girl in it.  She will be happily married and keeping a home of her own.  She is going to be working part time for awhile as well, and so we know that even though she is only 10 minutes away, we will likely only see them on Sundays, at least for a while.

I think that it will take time for it to hit me that she's not just away - and I hope that it will hit me as change and not a loss.  I know I haven't lost her - the relationship just naturally changes.  In some ways those changes will bring us closer as women, and in some ways those changes will rightly separate us.  She will now be Joseph's wife, not one of my right hands!  She will be doing what we helped prepare her to do.  She is ready and excited!

I am thankful for what the Lord has brought along this past year for Lindsay.  I am thankful for her knee injury, too, as it caused her to not be able to work for nearly 16 weeks.  She was home during those weeks, and we also got to travel to Scotland together!  Those extra special days together are a gift that God gave to Lindsay and I!

In a practical way, I am going to miss her cooking, and her nearly always making sure there is a pot of tea.  I will look forward to inviting them to dinner, and being invited to their home for tea and conversation.  I look forward to shopping with her, and to seeing her furnish her home, and one day prepare for a baby to join their family.

I will likely cry at her wedding - but not selfish, or sad tears but tears of joy and pride.  For I am proud of Lindsay and Joseph.  They both have chosen well and they have made good choices to honor God with their lives both before the wedding, as well as for their future as well.  

Will I miss her?  Oh yes!  But I am thankful for the 22 years we have had her in our home, and it is right for her to move on to her own family and home.  I remember how I was ready for that too, and how 'right' it felt to be joining my life to Tim's.  I never want my children to feel badly that they are ready to be adults.  I remember my grandma asked Tim and I after we were married for a short time if we weren't sorry that we were married. Did we regret getting married?  We weren't and we didn't and we still don't.  We are happy to be married.  And Lindsay is happy to be marrying Joseph and he is happy to be marrying her!

Our family is expanding.  Another branch of descendants is beginning.  I hope that one day my grandkids and great grands and great greats will look back and talk about Grandma Dee who loved her family so much, and could plan a good party and shared Jesus with them!  I don't care if I do crazy things and they laugh about it because we do that about my grandma and she is remembered with much love and affection.

I can truly say that I am laughing at the years to come!  Joy, real joy ahead.

What I Did During The Storm

You all know that I am a tea lover and that in my inherited, but not valuable, china hutch I house most of my tea things.  I've been wanting to freshen up the interior of the hutch for quite sometime, and since I had quite a bit of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint left, I decided to take the plunge and just do it!

Here is what my hutch looked like in 2007 before I painted it.  It had water damage and so I used to drape that fabric and cover it up.

I painted it white and have loved it ever since!

The interior was painted a light green and it looked pretty with my tea things.

Seven years later it is looking pretty beat up and I was no longer loving the green.

 Here is the beginning of adding the Annie Sloan "Emperor's Silk." It is lighter here than it looks in person.

Here is the finished look, and the red is more true to color.

As you can see my collection of teacups and teapots has grown since 2007.  I'm a happy girl!

Happy Valentine's Day Tim!

We had our first kiss 27 years ago on Valentine's Day and I'm still crazy about kissing him!

Here's to many, many more years together and lots and lots of kisses!

Scenes From a Snowy Morning

Tim shoveled a path out to his truck and then left for work on the unplowed roads. (you can see that it has already started to fill the space he shoveled already!)  He made it safely in about the same amount of time he normally does.  He is pretty amazing.

Since we homeschool we don't really have snow days, so I am letting the kids sleep in this morning, as a treat.  I have spent lots of time on Pinterest and reading blogs.  Its been quiet and relaxing.  I may even take a nap!

I do know that I will not be headed out anywhere today.  I am planning lots of reading, some knitting (maybe I'll finish that hat today!), some cooking, and some Valentine making.  

Should be a fun day!

A Bit of This and That

Life has been on fast forward around here, but I am not feeling rushed or stressed yet!

This winter has given us 40 inches of snow and now we have more on the way.  We are possibly going to get a foot of snow tomorrow night into Thursday morning.  Sigh…

 This is the road on the way to Becky's house on Monday, while taking Rachel there to help make candles.  We had had a few more inches of snow on Sunday afternoon.  I have lived here for 20 years and never have we had a winter where we have had snow every week, and multiple times a week!  Crazy!

 I consoled myself at home with a cup of tea and some cinnamon sugar toast.  Just the right snack for a cold morning.

 This sweet thing went outside with Uncle Kyle for some fresh air and fun in the snow.  She took her gloves off and was miserably cold.  She cried all the way back to the house, but I picked her up and get her out of her snow clothes and then snuggled her in a blanket next to Auntie Lindsay.  She was better then!

Last night some of the couples from church got together for an evening out.  We ate at a nice restaurant called Loxley's.

We went out ahead of Valentine's Day.  We had a fabulous time!  We've decided to do it again, and not wait a year!

I have a few preparations to make for the storm coming.  We are good food wise and water wise.  I will fill the bathtubs up again, in case we lose power again.  I want to make sure we have some things that do not require cooking.

We have 17 days until the wedding!  I have to find shoes for myself.  I was going to go out on Thursday but I think I may run out today.  Here's to hoping I find something!