7 quick takes vol. 23 — Everyday Abundant

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Alex has been on spring break this week. He's been trying to do a good amount of studying every day, but we have gotten to see him more than usual which is nice. It's especially nice to have him here in the morning. We sleep in as late as the babies will allow, and then take our time getting breakfast ready, and eat all together. It makes such a difference having an extra pair of hands around in the morning. Especially if that extra pair of hands gets the coffee ready right away!

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Last weekend I threw a bridal shower for my little sister. It was super fun. I love everything about planning parties, sending out invites, menu planning, food prep, decorating, entertainment, it all thrills me. I think in my next life I will be Martha Stewart.

One thing I have always wanted to do for a party is make a photo booth wall. It maybe makes more sense to have a photo booth wall at a wedding, or a New Years party, but I wanted to make one and this shower was my excuse.

Here's Johnny demonstrating how to use the wall.

Here's my sister and me. I can't believe my little sister in getting married in one month!!

Here's my sister and her fiance. They're so hip.

Is it tacky to just leave all the decorations up for the bachelorette party I will be hosting in 4 weeks? I hope not because that's what I'm going to do.

Johnny loves eating his meals under a canopy of streamers.

//3//

We have a Whole Foods a few blocks from our house that is moving to a new location a few blocks in a different direction from our house. Tuesday was their last day at the old location and they were having a moving sale - the whole store was 50% off! Now we are not Whole Foods people by any means. We are Aldi people, with a splash of Trader Joe's and a hint of Target. We only shop at Whole Food if we need something very obscure, like sorghum flour, or if we need milk immediately and don't want to drive to Target. But we decided to go check out the moving sale, hoping to snag some cheap Naked Juice or essential oils.

Well, I think everyone in St. Paul was there. It was wall to wall madness, we got there about 3 minutes after they opened and the essential oils were completely picked over. We did get some Naked Juice though. I also grabbed one of their bakery cakes. We put it in the freezer are we're going to have it on Easter. We got a few of their bulk cookies for Johnny and he stood in the ridiculously long and glacially slow line so patiently just holding onto his little bag of cookies. I wish I had gotten a picture of him. It took so long in the line that I had to leave with the kids to take Johnny to speech therapy. Alex stuck it out in line for another hour before getting out of there with our groceries. Was it worth it? I guess we'll find out on Easter when we eat that cake.

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I finished another sweater! This time for my sister. The pattern was very easy, but very boring, as you are just knitting a giant square of stockinette, and then sewing it together to create the sleeves. I started it before Christmas and it's taken me this long to finish because it was so boring and I kept starting new things. But now it's done and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

In case you are interested I have a Pinterest board of patterns I like. I've made many of them. But most are things I hope to make some day.

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Related to knitting: I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately. They are especially great to have on while knitting, even better than a movie because there is absolutely no visual to keep up with. My friend Jacqui recommend the podcast Stuff You Missed In History Class and it has quickly become my favorite. That and Fountains of Carrots.

This week Stuff You Missed In History Class did an episode about the history of knitting. And I listened to it last night....WHILE I was knitting. I know it will make me seem like a huge nerd when I say this, but I so excited about it! It was the perfect evening.

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I was over at Blessed Is She this past Monday. Check it out if you didn't see it.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

So starts the well-loved Psalm that I have had memorized since I was about six years old.

In verdant pastures He gives me repose.
Beside restful waters He leads me.
He refreshes my soul.

How good that sounds. Green pastures, restful waters, refreshment. But this is not the image I am given to meditate on as the refrain. No. Instead I am to repeat over and over these words:

Even though I walk through the dark valley I will fear no evil; for you are at my side.

Dark valley? Evil? These are not things I want to deal with......read the rest here!

//7//

So, Johnny is really in to trains right now. All things trains, train puzzles, train books, we live near a train line and often see the train while running errands, and he always exclaims "TAAAAIN" from the back seat. It's very cute.

His favorite of course is to build the wooded train tracks. We got him a started kit a while back and since then have been given a ton of hand-me-down trains from some family and friends. We're putting this little beauty in his Easter basket. I am not always very good at playing with kids' toys, but I do enjoy building trains with him. I am grateful that he is into something that we can do together.

I'm actually getting quite good at building cool train tracks. I've been taking pictures of some of my best ones, which I will now share with you.