31 bits{a giveaway}

I'm so excited to tell you about a special organization called 31 bits, which enables woman in Uganda to market and sell their beautiful and stylish handmade jewelry.

The name 31 bits perfectly reflects this business: "31" derived from Proverbs 31, and "bits" from the bits of paper used to make the jewelry. Cool, huh?


I love the team of talented people behind 31 bits. It's impressive to see them use their God-given abilities to help those who are powerless to help themselves.


Plus. They have a great sense of fashion. I get lots of ideas thumbing through their pages. 



To better market the jewelry for these Ugandan women, they pay close attention to current trends and designs in fashion. Love it!



And now, for a moment, imagine that you are an impoverished mama in Uganda, watching your kids run around thread-bare and hungry. You have no prospects. No hope. No future. Just hardship and heartache. 


And then 31 bits enters the scene. 


And they help you feed and clothe your family by teaching you how to sell your jewelry!


For the first time, someone actually cares about you. And they offer to put you through a 4-year-program to give you a future.


You learn English. And how to market your product.
You learn about your health and disease prevention.
You learn about faith and your spiritual well-being.
And more.


Sounds too good to be true. But it IS true. 31 bits is transforming lives!


Ironically my bible reading this week was on Proverbs 31. Verse 31:20 stood out to me--She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.


This is where YOU can help! With your lovely jewelry purchase, you will be directly helping these amazing ladies in Uganda.


And to thank you for being such kind readers, I am so very happy to do a giveaway. You can win your very own piece of "31 bits" jewelry: the Sweet Tart necklace in seafoam, value $28.















It even comes with this cute lil' bag.

To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment below. Winner will be selected at random. 


I'm opening my comments specifically for this giveaway. Shocking, I know. I would love to know who you are! 


For additional entries.
a. go here and tell me your favorite piece of jewelry.
b. watch the video on this page and tell me one thing about it.
c. tell your friends about 31bits.com by blog, facebook or instagram.


This giveaway will be closed next thursday, July 26th. Winner will be announced the next day.


May the odds be ever in your favor.


This giveaway is now closed! 

Life has been a little nutso lately. Mostly with good stuff. But I am looking forward to some time of rest and I would love to be bored for at least one day.


One thing I have noticed about kids: they don't give a rip if you have lots to do. I think this makes them even more clingy. At least that's how it is with Twain.


I was surrounded by a pile of laundry and he just plows through my neat stacks of clothes and plops into my seat.


And he says "I neeeeed you. I want you."


And I realize how quickly he is growing up and that there is nothing I'd rather do than hug him on the floor. Thanks Tweeds, for demanding my attention and making me slow down.


Truly, my work can wait. It can always wait. Otherwise I am missing out on stuff like this.

Busy watching "Mittey Mouse Tlub House"(translated, Mickey Mouse Club House). That is his favorite show this week.







I think I need to get out my fairy costume a good pair of boots. It's been a while.

a pillow

Do you want to see the new pillow that I bought at target?


I like it.

Every time I passed it in the aisles, it caught my eye.



And then it was out of stock. I was a little disappointed.



And then it was back in stock so I grabbed it. $14.99



And it resides happily on the couch.


One by one, each of my boys came up to me said "your new pillow is beautiful" or "I really like your new pillow".


It's kind of a big deal, getting a new pillow and all;)


My boys always notice if I bring something new into the house.


They always ask a bunch of questions about it, especially Ollie.


"Mommy is that new? Why did you buy it? Is it cute? Does it make our house new?"


Daddy doesn't really notice anything new. So it's fun having my little sidekicks enjoy sprucing the place up a little here and there.


In other news. Nobody fell out of a tree today. Or split their face open. 


I have been very busy helping plan a baby shower for Lindsay's twinsies. I am absolutely overjoyed to celebrate the occasion this weekend. 

flight of the tweedle beetle

It was 10 friday night, and the kids were all SUPPOSED to be snug in their beds. 


And everyone was...all except for a certain Tweedle Beetle Twain. 


I was at my computer, ironically, reading a tragic story about a 4-year-old-boy, when I hear hysterical high-pitched screams coming from my little boys' room. As I run to their room I am intersected by Twain who is running toward me with his hands to his face, covered in tons of blood. 


Instead of keeping calm, I start shrieking for John's help, ASAP.


And now Ollie is up and is exclaiming "Twain has awesome blood!"


There was blood on two different door posts of our house, the floor and all over Twain's clothes. It was  coming from his nose and puddling in his mouth. I had never seen so much blood coming from one of my kids.


!!!!!?????What on earth happened in there?????!!!!


It took a while to piece together the story, but it appears that Twain was standing on the BACK bed post and took a flying leap and smacked his face on the edge of the FRONT bed post. 


Let's examine the trajectory of my son, shall we?

After cleaning Twain up a bit, John sent me straight to the ER for stitches. He just knew.


In the waiting room, I dabbed blood from under his nose the entire time. It just kept oozing. 


Twain eventually fell asleep on me, from the exhaustion of it all. 


The doctor examined him and said their was no question about it: Twain needed around 2 or 3 stitches...not glue, because the cut was at a funky "L-shaped" angle. The only question was whether to sedate him or not.


Since Twain was sleeping, I opted for "no sedation". How hard could it be? Twain is fairly mellow, and I figured if Ollie could survive stitches without sedation, then so could Twain. Right?


I was so very, very wrong. In hindsight, I wish I had sedated Twain.


We wrapped Twain in a sheet like a burrito, and the doctor numbed the area with a needle. Twain started kicking and thrashing so frantically, it took all my force to restrain him. And I can still hear his high-pitched frantic screaming. Poor baby was FREAKED OUT.


The Dr. said the worst was over. He wanted me to snuggle Twain back to sleep so he could stitch him up in peace.


By now Twain is in no mood to sleep. He is listless and keeps whimpering for a band aid...and to go home. 

I don't think have even seen a more meager picture of Twain. 100% Meep.





Have you ever tried rocking a baby to sleep to no avail? It was stressful. He was not going for it. But I was nervous about sedating him, so I continued on, trying to get my wired child back to sleep.


He kept thrashing on me, and he got blood all over my hair. And all I could think of was that scene in the pub from Tangled where Flynn is asking the thug "Is that blood in your mustache?" And "Goldie, look at this. Look at all the blood in his mustache."

There was def blood up in this kid's mustache.






I finally got Twain asleep and it was now time for stitches. Twain woke up the minute the Dr. glanced at him. He was too wise for our tricks. He started screaming again. And kicking. And screaming. It was a high-pitched blood curdling scream that will haunt my dreams. I'm sure everyone in the hospital heard him.


Normally I can just power through these kinds of situations. Just part of having boys. 


But this time it was different. It kept going on and on and on. I started laughing. Because otherwise I would cry.


"Should we sedate him?", I asked the doctor, in between stitches and screams. 


He kind of shook his head no, and said "I'm almost done". 


It was a long time before he finished. And by then I was completely shaking. All for two measly stitches!



The whole thing was just very unnerving. Next time I will sedate him. If there is a next time. I sure hope not.


By the time we got back in the car, Twain was happily chattering as though nothing had happened. Kids are resilient like that. I was still shaking as we walked in the door at 1:20 am. 


We had a stern little lecture with Twain about jumping on his bed. "I will stay on the "helfy"(healthy) part of the bed next time...the part that makes me NOT hurt", he said as he patted the soft part of his mattress.


I hope you learned your lesson Tweeds.

our 4th of July

Proudly wearing red, white and blue(with the white being my pasty skin).

I blame Lindsey entirely for my red saltwaters. I was minding my own business, when she linked straight to their site. Perfect for 4th of July though, I must say.





Our 4th of July was WINDY. We went to my sister Jessica's house and got blow around all over the place. 

The little sparklers were shooting sparks everywhere, so Jess and I had to shut that operation down, much to the dismay of the children and husbands.


And where are all the pictures of these festivities and children, you ask?

Hmmmm. Not sure.


Just photos of John and Davi this time around.


Mama was too busy stuffing her face and admiring her sister's workout regime(the two go hand-in-hand right? Stuffing one's face and exercising?) to photograph the day.


I went on the elliptical at Jessica's house for 5 minutes and about died.
Then ate some more.


Then went on the elliptical for another 5 minutes. And died again. I wish I had one in my house.


I was very inspired by my sister to get in better shape. She is whipping my tail. 


I hope you had an equally inspiring 4th of July, my fellow countrymen! God bless America!

ollie's 5th

Do you ever feel like you simply cannot do it all, no matter how much you'd like to?


Story of my life this past June.


Ollie turned FIVE June 18th.


And as much as I would have LOVED to throw him a cute kitty party(Black Apple style)...



...this year it was not destined to happen.

I was just too tired, broke and overwhelmed to muster up any sort of themed party. 


Maybe next time. 


I think it's wonderful if you have the time and money to throw a great party to make your kids feel special. Truly, I do.


But if not? Do the next best thing! Just do something generic and have a great old time while doing so. Most likely, your child could care less whether or not the party was very "pinteresting".


While Ollie was napping, I sent John out to buy a bouquet of balloons. Because my boys adore balloons.

"Hey Ollie, where do you want to go out for dinner", we asked him when he woke up. Mama is THRILLED at the prospect of dinner out. No stressing about food for a party over here. Woooot! This is the life!


"Mexico!", Ollie replies.


Interpreted, Ollie wants to go to Burger King. 


For whatever reason, Ollie equates Mexico with Burger King. On the way to Mexico last November, we stopped at a Carls Jr. right before the border, and it had a playground that Ollie loved.


Anyway, our Burger King HERE has a playground too...therefore it's the same as Carls Jr. and is therefore Mexico. Clearly.


So we gave him his options. "Ollie. Do you want to go to In-N-Out Burger(please, please) or Burger King?" we ask him.


"I would like to go IN" he says.


"What Ollie? Did you say In-N-Out?" we ask rather hopefully.


"No. In, not out, of Burger King", he said.


Very well then. Burger King it is. I knew that in his heart of hearts, that is where he wanted to go.


After fine dining and playing at BK, we summon our dearest neighbor friends to help us celebrate our boy.



I like how Ty adds nickels to Ollie's card: 5 nickels for our 5 year old. Very clever Ty.



Ollie and Twain dancing and prancing over the balloons. They are thrilled!






I was supposed to make cupcakes...but that didn't happen, so daddy bought ice cream sandwiches. 

Three things to point out here. 
1. Ollie is picking his nose. Sweet.
2. John just stuck a candle in the ice cream box.
3. The ice cream is not even a name brand. Market Pantry=Target brand.



Look at Ollie's face. He's stoked.

This same smile was plastered on his face all night long.



Ollie had the best night ever. I had the best night ever. It was SO relaxing. And we paid nickels, rather than hundreds. 


The next day, Twain said something like "I had a great time at Mexico last night".


So. The next time you are feeling stressed over a party, just throw your kids in the van and head over to Mexico and stick a candle in a box of ice cream. It will be grand. Trust me.

lately.

here's what I've been up to lately...you know...when i'm not chasing kitties out of trees and all. (p.s. peach and ollie have made a full recovery, thank you Jesus)

1. watching a LOT of Tangled lately. twain wakes up from his nap with a major storm cloud over his head and begs mama to sit on the couch and watched "tandled" with him. 

i happily oblige. after all, it IS one of my favorite movies. and i DO sound exactly like mandy moore while singing "at last i see the light".


um. that would be false. i can't even keep a straight face for one second. i am the world's worst singer. i literally cringe when i sing in the shower. it's true. so sad, considering how much i love to sing. 


2. we went to visit my sweet new friend sarah, and one of her daughters showed us some of her incredible duct tape creations...purses, wallets, and more.  i was totally impressed. and apparently, so was finn. back at home he started busting out these bad boys like there was no tomorrow.



some of them are a little janky with the coins falling out. 

but i still think they are swell and would totally carry one with pride. i currently carry my {dave ramsey} envelop money in a dilapidated plastic photo file case and sometimes get scornful looks from teenage cashiers at target. whatevs. 






3. every time i pass the fridge, i smile at this rainbow libby colored.



so i decided to color one too.

if anyone can guess the drawing to the top right, then i will buy you a real one. 


4. had fun making some arrows for my arrow-lovin' buddy. i wanted to make real live deadly arrows...worthy of katniss and the hunger games...but alisha said "no" and directed me to this tutorial.









5. doing lots of cleaning and organizing. i especially like to mop with my new bona floor care system. i feel like a school janitor when i stack my chairs on the table.









6. we went to feeding hope on friday.


some of these kids blow me away.


last year, there were these little girls that would bring their little baby siblings with them.  i still have visions of them coming through the door pushing strollers, and feeding them bottles. babies taking care of babies I tell you. 


some of them came back this year. young Aracely came, taking her 4 younger siblings with her. whenever I'm tempted to complain about how hard my boys are, I think of her and all grumbling comes to a complete halt.


i was thrilled to see them all again, thriving. they were so cute i wanted to take them home with me. 


7. i went up to "help" Lindsay and the twins on saturday. within minutes of arriving, i almost caught her house on fire. i put a taco shell in her toaster and walked away. and when i walked back, there were flames coming out of her toaster that went so high, they burnt the bottom of her cabinets. 

i just stood frozen in horrific fascination while mom tried to blow out the fire. i have a terrible head in emergencies. mom unplugged the toaster and jim rushed the flaming toaster outside, until my taco shell burnt to smithereens.

well. that is one way to wake up two sleep-deprived parents. i never saw Jim hop to it so quickly.


honest. i really did mean to be helpful that day. 

the moral of this story: don't put your taco shell in a toaster.


8. i took a speed walk tonight. you shoulda seen me swinging my arms back and forth like a total dweeb. whenever I hear someone coming behind me, i quickly drop my arms back to my side to preserve my dignity--which was completely shattered tonight, as I heard the pitter patter of feet behind me and realized I was being smoked by an old man with a scraggly grey beard. and for the first time in my life, i was totally jealous of an 80-year-old for leaving me in the dust.