Didn’t.

I didn’t take my comfy pants off for days till last night. (Not the same pair all that time, mind you. Eww.)

I didn’t put bows on the presents. Wrapped and done.

I didn’t even use many tags. (Just coded them by wrapping.)

We didn’t have a beautiful family picture for our Christmas cards – I ended up making a collage so all four of us would be represented.

I didn’t get out of bed before 9 a.m., ever (even on Christmas morning – our children ROCK.)

I didn’t make “real” cookies with cut outs or beautiful icing (and Santa still liked them just fine…he told me so.)

The Bub didn’t change out of his Christmas jammies for more than 24 hours, and that was just to change into new ones.

I didn’t cook anything on Christmas eve. (Pizza. Thank you.)

I didn’t take enough pictures – I was too busy being in the moment. (But I’ll probably regret it.)

I didn’t pick up the millions of itty bitty legos that have been underfoot for days. (Still haven’t. I kind of surrender.)

I didn’t make the bed once, even with tons of family here.

I didn’t take one piece of Christmas decor down. (But I’m feeling the itch.)

I didn’t mind one single bit when the whole family sat down and watched Despicable Me during Christmas dinner. I loved it – it was easy and fun and relaxed and US. (We love that movie!)

I didn’t break out into hives when the house was trashed for 36 hours straight.

And then I still didn’t clean it after 36 hours – I just left and went shopping. :)

My husband and I didn’t exchange gifts – because being debt free is going to be our gift to each other and our family. (SOON.)

 

Every year, I have all of these visions of what our holidays will be in my head -- usually there’s a soft glow around everyone, birds are singing (somewhere) and I look 15 pounds thinner…it’s a great vision. In my head. :)

And those visions pretty much never happen. It’s never perfect. I never accomplish all that want to. Every year I say, I’ll make a list of those things I want to get done and make sure to do them. And every year life gets in the way.

A whole lot of “didn’t” happens.

And every year I realize how very OK with that I am. Our holidays don’t end up our like my visions -- they always turn out so much better. So sweet. So close. So much family. So much big, fat, LOVE.

I hope your holiday was all you (didn’t) envision and so, so, so much more. :)

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with an update on my office redo!

Didn’t.

I didn’t take my comfy pants off for days till last night. (Not the same pair all that time, mind you. Eww.)

I didn’t put bows on the presents. Wrapped and done.

I didn’t even use many tags. (Just coded them by wrapping.)

We didn’t have a beautiful family picture for our Christmas cards – I ended up making a collage so all four of us would be represented.

I didn’t get out of bed before 9 a.m., ever (even on Christmas morning – our children ROCK.)

I didn’t make “real” cookies with cut outs or beautiful icing (and Santa still liked them just fine…he told me so.)

The Bub didn’t change out of his Christmas jammies for more than 24 hours, and that was just to change into new ones.

I didn’t cook anything on Christmas eve. (Pizza. Thank you.)

I didn’t take enough pictures – I was too busy being in the moment. (But I’ll probably regret it.)

I didn’t pick up the millions of itty bitty legos that have been underfoot for days. (Still haven’t. I kind of surrender.)

I didn’t make the bed once, even with tons of family here.

I didn’t take one piece of Christmas decor down. (But I’m feeling the itch.)

I didn’t mind one single bit when the whole family sat down and watched Despicable Me during Christmas dinner. I loved it – it was easy and fun and relaxed and US. (We love that movie!)

I didn’t break out into hives when the house was trashed for 36 hours straight.

And then I still didn’t clean it after 36 hours – I just left and went shopping. :)

My husband and I didn’t exchange gifts – because being debt free is going to be our gift to each other and our family. (SOON.)

 

Every year, I have all of these visions of what our holidays will be in my head -- usually there’s a soft glow around everyone, birds are singing (somewhere) and I look 15 pounds thinner…it’s a great vision. In my head. :)

And those visions pretty much never happen. It’s never perfect. I never accomplish all that want to. Every year I say, I’ll make a list of those things I want to get done and make sure to do them. And every year life gets in the way.

A whole lot of “didn’t” happens.

And every year I realize how very OK with that I am. Our holidays don’t end up our like my visions -- they always turn out so much better. So sweet. So close. So much family. So much big, fat, LOVE.

I hope your holiday was all you (didn’t) envision and so, so, so much more. :)

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with an update on my office redo!

Autumn in Indiana

Hello there! Hope your Halloween weekend is going beautifully!

A couple of weeks ago, my Sis and I took a day off from the decluttering around here to take in some of the fall beauty around us. It was her last day before heading to her new job and my last day having her around all day. :( Sniff.

I do love being with her – I don’t just use her for manual labor. ;)

I’m so proud to be a born and raised Hoosier, and this time of year I am madly in love with Indiana. It’s quite beautiful. Most think we’re just flat fields – and we do have our fair share. But there’s more than corn in Indiana -- some really gorgeous parts too. :)

My Sis, the Bub and I started our day out by driving through one of our very favorite “drive by” spots – the Meridian Kessler area of Indy. We ooohed and ahhhed over the fantastic houses, and took some hi-I’m-not-crazy-just-obsessed-with-your-house pictures along the way:

We had to be fast and stealth-like so the owners wouldn’t call the cops on the crazy women taking photos. :)

Some were decked out for Halloween, and the Bub would alert us by screaming “STOP!! HALLOWEEN STUFF!!” at the top of his lungs and freak us out every. single. time.:

Some were just plain gorgeous with some simple mums:

 

Some didn’t need much of anything – they were gorgeous all on their own:

     The addresses have been blocked to protect those who live in the gorgeous houses :)…

    

Oh my. Grey siding, white trim, red door? LURVE.

Because it was such an amazing day, we decided to head over to what has quickly become one of my favorite spots in Indianapolis – Holliday Park:

It’s a fantastic park – complete with a nature center, beautiful architecture and gardens, tons of (HUGE) playgrounds and trails that take you through some gorgeous sights, down to the White River:

You can’t help but completely breathe it in. It reminds me of the camping trips we took almost every single weekend throughout the summer and fall growing up. The smell of wet leaves is seriously intoxicating.

No cell phones. No emails. Someday I’m going to take a fold up chair, hike down to the river to sit and just get lost in nothing.

What a great reminder to just STOP MOVING. Look around. Be quiet.

It was a perfect day, spent with two of my very favorite people.

It gets me so bad when I think about how much his Aunt loves him:

It makes my heart melt that our son is so loved by so many other people other than us. He is surrounded. :)

I had some fun with Picnik with this one:

That’s a framer for sure. :)

Hope you have a HAPPY and SAFE Halloween!!

The Before and After Party will go up Monday night! 

Autumn in Indiana

Hello there! Hope your Halloween weekend is going beautifully!

A couple of weeks ago, my Sis and I took a day off from the decluttering around here to take in some of the fall beauty around us. It was her last day before heading to her new job and my last day having her around all day. :( Sniff.

I do love being with her – I don’t just use her for manual labor. ;)

I’m so proud to be a born and raised Hoosier, and this time of year I am madly in love with Indiana. It’s quite beautiful. Most think we’re just flat fields – and we do have our fair share. But there’s more than corn in Indiana -- some really gorgeous parts too. :)

My Sis, the Bub and I started our day out by driving through one of our very favorite “drive by” spots – the Meridian Kessler area of Indy. We ooohed and ahhhed over the fantastic houses, and took some hi-I’m-not-crazy-just-obsessed-with-your-house pictures along the way:

We had to be fast and stealth-like so the owners wouldn’t call the cops on the crazy women taking photos. :)

Some were decked out for Halloween, and the Bub would alert us by screaming “STOP!! HALLOWEEN STUFF!!” at the top of his lungs and freak us out every. single. time.:

Some were just plain gorgeous with some simple mums:

 

Some didn’t need much of anything – they were gorgeous all on their own:

     The addresses have been blocked to protect those who live in the gorgeous houses :)…

    

Oh my. Grey siding, white trim, red door? LURVE.

Because it was such an amazing day, we decided to head over to what has quickly become one of my favorite spots in Indianapolis – Holliday Park:

It’s a fantastic park – complete with a nature center, beautiful architecture and gardens, tons of (HUGE) playgrounds and trails that take you through some gorgeous sights, down to the White River:

You can’t help but completely breathe it in. It reminds me of the camping trips we took almost every single weekend throughout the summer and fall growing up. The smell of wet leaves is seriously intoxicating.

No cell phones. No emails. Someday I’m going to take a fold up chair, hike down to the river to sit and just get lost in nothing.

What a great reminder to just STOP MOVING. Look around. Be quiet.

It was a perfect day, spent with two of my very favorite people.

It gets me so bad when I think about how much his Aunt loves him:

It makes my heart melt that our son is so loved by so many other people other than us. He is surrounded. :)

I had some fun with Picnik with this one:

That’s a framer for sure. :)

Hope you have a HAPPY and SAFE Halloween!!

The Before and After Party will go up Monday night! 

Remember

Almost exactly nine years ago, my husband took me to New York City for my first visit. I had a feeling about the city – even though I had never been there. I just knew I would fall in love with it.

And I fell…hard.

I always say I must have been a New Yorker in a past life. :) It felt like home to me, from the very first trip.

That last week in August nine years ago, we took the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty, climbed to the top and my husband snapped this shot:

It is still so eerie to me that you can barely make out the twin towers in the background. Two weeks later they were gone.

If you’ve read this blog for long,  you know we visit the city whenever we possibly can. I’ve been so fortunate to visit twice this summer – the last trip with a couple of my girlfriends. I took them to see Ground Zero, and we decided to visit the Ground Zero Museum.

It was so incredibly powerful, terrifying, humbling, inspiring and well done, I wanted to share some of the photos I took with you. I’ll let them speak for themselves:

  

            

      

Heartbreaking.

And yet at the same time, I was so filled up with LOVE. I couldn’t help but cry and cry and cry.

I know it gets harder every year to remember, but we can’t forget. We can’t forget the pain we felt, the devastation, the sorrow, the love.

When you didn’t know a stranger, because we were all hurting the same way. We can’t forget that desire to want to do anything…anything…to help.

The feeling of being so proud to be an American, you could just burst.

Out of my hundreds of beautiful pictures of New York City, my favorite isn’t a picture of Times Square, the park or the views from the Empire State Building. My favorite picture was taken on a trip about two years after September 11th, when the area around Ground Zero was filled with handwritten notes on the temporary walls from people from all over the country and the world:

Amen.

This weekend, fly your flag high!

God Bless America!