I’m a person who handles changes very well. I’ve lived in 8 states in 40 years, moved more times than I can count, and generally I am not afraid to try (at least once!) just about anything. I’m a person who tends to embrace the change, live it, love it and learn from it.

It is a season of changes for me right now. Some are simple like getting a few bangs cut in my hair last week. It might seem simple at first, but after the fact I realized I have not had bangs since college! Oh, those were some pretty tall bangs too! It is amazing how a small change in hair can really make a difference. If there had been more time the other day I feel certain I would have come home with some change in color too….but on a whim haircut we (my fab stylist Sandy!) could not pull that off.

Instead I colored it myself by somehow getting lots of paint in my hair over the weekend! Paint? Who me? Yep, I can’t sit still, I’m at it again. Again, when I’m feeling restless about changes in my life I turn to paint therapy…..

Kitchen...last week

Here is a shot of my cluttered kitchen last week.  The color on the walls is Sherwin Williams Fenland. It is a nice gray green. It actually holds the record for the longest color to be on any wall in my house.  I think it dates back to 2004!  The only room that has only been painted once!  Wow..it was time!

Previously in this post I talked about how I really wanted to paint the cabinets.  I mulled it over and decided I was not ready to take that on in my life quite yet.  The door is still open….

I’m still working on it…but here is a sneak peak picture to show you some of what I have done so far…..

sneak peak

I’m out of control with that Linen White paint!  Did you expect that….white?!?  Don’t worry I’ve got some color going on too.  I love how the painted black pantry door came out!!

More Changes…

I do have some news.  After much prayer and discernment my precious friend and business partner, Trish, and I have decided that our website Seek the Triad is taking too much time from our families.  I would not trade the last two years of working on this awesome project for nothing.  We have had more fun that I ever imagined, met more incredible people and learned so much!!  It has been a journey that I will cherish in my heart forever.  I gained an incredible friendship through it.  If that is all I walk away with I will forever be grateful.  I know we will still have some great times “seeking” lots more in life together!

A new chapter begins….

My first born is 9 today! WoW! Where did the last 9 years go? Some days have been very, very long with this precious boy, but in total the 9 years have flown by! He is half way to leaving for college!!!

I had a pretty easy pregnancy. I worked until the last 2 weeks when I caught a horrible case of bronchitis. I felt like I was going to cough him right out! I was due March 29th. The week before I was sure it was going to happen any minute. The waiting game started….on April 1 I was sure “it” was happening. It seems he was playing an April Fools joke on me. After 1/2 a day in the hospital getting IV fluids it was deemed that I was just dehydrated from my bronchitis and was sent back home. For the next 3 days I was had horrific back pain (which I later learned was due to him being backwards inside!) and spent my days trying to get comfortable between pacing around in my house. I completely freaked myself out!

Finally on the morning of the 4th with thoughts that I perhaps my water had broke (which it did!) we headed to the hospital. When they did the “check” I was at 1 cm. OK….what the $&*#(%(&#$*(#&$(*#&???? I thought! 6 days overdue and only a 1?? I was so expecting them to say at least a 5? So, they hooked up the pitocen at about noon. Epideral at 3. Each time I had the “check” I was at a 1. I then spiked a fever and by 8 pm….now at a whopping “almost 2″ we made the C Section call!

Ethan Morgan Taylor was born at 9:23 pm on April 4th weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces and 21 inches long with a very full head of jet black hair!

The new journey begun……

Growing up!

It is not an easy road….it frustrates me most days. Many days I feel like the biggest failure of a mother there ever ways. The good far outweighs the bad and I would not have traded this journey for anything!

Brothers

23 months later we added another boy Grayson! I am just smitten being a mom to boys. I always wanted boys. I’m not so sure I could handle a girl!

I gotta say that Christmas 2010 was just about as perfect as it could get! We found a fabulous no refrigerator roll out gingerbread cookie recipe and made our cookies for Santa…

The cookies came out great. We never did get around to frosting them, but no one seemed to care. Less sugar and food dye right?

On Christmas Eve we hosted a small dinner with my parents and our good friends The Nicosia’s. I was blessed to receive the gift of a Heritage Turkey from a local farm. I was very nervous cooking this guy! Heritage Turkey’s have much smaller breasts, hence they can reproduce without assistance! Anyway, that changes the cooking time because I did not want the breast to dry out while the rest got cooked. It came out good and I was quite impressed with the flavor!

Ethan wrote Santa the most precious note on our Santa plate. Love how he was concerned if Santa had eaten healthy this year! He left him some of our gingerbread cookies with Juice Plus+ soft chews on top! Santa ate it up!

The boys had an incredible morning with mom, dad and their grandparents and dogs!

and then the magic begun mid day…..it started snowing….and it did not stop….we got a White Christmas!

The dogs LOVED it!

I got out with my camera and took soooo many pictures….here are just a few….

yes, there was sledding….

and snow eating…eeeewwww….

Pure Christmas Bliss!

She did IT!

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

She did it. Mary did this. She fulfilled prophesy. Wow.

My Christmas to do list is just as long as yours. {I’m baking cookies at this very moment!} The same stress of every year lingers over my head to set the stage for the season. To get the perfect gift for each person on my list. To have a beautiful Christmas card to send. On and on. You know. You do it too.

Every year I read beautiful words about what the season is really about. Words urging us to put the stress aside and focus on the real meaning of Christmas. Do I ever put that attitude into full action mode? Honestly, No! Not completely. I put lots of stuff in, but I don’t think I necessarily take anything else out.

This post is not to remind you to do this. It is not a place where I’m going to brag about all the selfless acts I did or planned to do this season. It is just a few wonderful moments where I am blown away by what Mary actually did. It was not about the one day in her life. It was about her entire life. A reminder that I can’t do it all in one season. It is a lifestyle. It is keeping the attitude year round.

Have a blessed day my friends!

the real deal

Oh my goodness another Christmas Tree post. It feels I blinked in December 2009 and opened my eyes in 2010. Can it really be tree time again? After 5 year of my fake prelit tree a real one was calling our name. I spied some beauties for $25 at our local Southern States and tossed aside the fakery this season.

shining beauty

For another $15 they let you have the iron stand that it is screwed into the bottom and a water tray attaches. What does this mean for you? It means you bring it home and set it down on the floor, attach the tray and start decorating!!! Hello, no tree stand stress! I think we all have had those tense moments between our beloved when you are trying to get the tree in the stand.

tree top

Last year I invested in a whole new tree theme of brown and green. I went ga-ga last year in Total Bliss here in Summerfield and was so excited to break out my tree topper ribbon and streamers from last year!

Yummy Ribbon

I added another “must have” for your tree from Total Bliss this year. These things rock and they give you more bang for your buck on your lights. Any reason you can find to get to Total Bliss this year is worth it!! It is by far the best place in the Triad for your holiday decor!

more bang for your buck!

They look like little brillo pads and they come in either silver or gold. I purchased 2 boxes of 12 for $14.99. You just push them over your tree lights and then you have these glowing balls all over your tree!!! Unbelievable how the tree lights up with a few of these on them!!!

The 2010 Tree

And there you have it. The official {and very real} 2010 Taylor Christmas tree! Everything from last years Investment, plus $30 is light enhancers and she is glowing beauty. I’ve got the light on right now enjoying it.

Oh yes, I failed to document her skirt. It is just a few yards of burlap set around the bottom with a sparkly green burlapy kind of overlay!

I hope you are enjoying your tree as well! My motto this year is Giving Joyfully. That is was Jesus wants us to do! Have a blessed day!

I’m linking this post up today with Julia over at Hooked on Houses for her Holiday House Tour! Check out the awesome tree’s over there too!

show me your baby teeth!

I’m linking up with Chatting at the Sky today for her Snapshots of Grace Linky Party! How fun!!

I shot this photo with my old point and shot last year. Our family had been grocery shopping at Earth Fare on a Saturday and ended the trip with lunch. I looked over at Ethan and had a moment over the fact that he still had his precious little chicklet baby teeth in the front. I knew they were getting loose and would be gone soon. I wanted to capture them so I would never forget what his face looked like with his baby teeth. It is amazing how much the look of their face changes once the permanent teeth come in.

An innocent face of grace!

Blowing Rock, NC

This past weekend was declared a girls retreat! Trish and I had much work to do on Seek the Triad. Life’s interruptions have really been challenging the Seek to do list. We packed “the show” up and headed for the NC Mountains. MacBooks, iPhones, and chocolate were at top of the list of things we brought to the precious mountain town of Blowing Rock.

the work gazebo

There was a lovely gazebo in front of our little mountain inn, that did indeed have free Wi-Fi. We set up our mobile office in there and got rocking and rolling. {Ok, we might have eaten a fabulous dinner and done a little shopping first!}

The soothing sound of water!

The soothing sound of this little waterfall next the gazebo was so refreshing!

The view from the work gazebo!

The view was great too!

The country look

Our choice of places to stay was limited due to a art festival that weekend, who knew!  We were not going for pricey and romantic. We settled for a comfortable and reasonably priced motel right off the main road of Blowing Rock. It was clean and comfortable {and had free WiFi), but I did almost pee my pants when we opened the door and Trish declared it a state of “pattern overload”. You know we mentally decorated the room several times over during the weekend.  If I could of I would have painted and distressed all the furniture!

the shelf of tchotchkes

Trish was quite fascinated by this little shelf of “tchotchkes”. The word tchotchkes was cracking us up so of course we googled it and found this from the Urban Dictionary.

“A small piece of worthless crap, a decorative knick knack with little or no purpose. Side note: Chotchkie can be pretty, sentimental, or even occasionally useful though it usually breaks easily if useful. If you are having trouble identifying Tchotchke just look around your house or someone else’s and whatever you see that a burgler wouldn’t steal is probably Tchotchke.”

Oh my the stuff we found on Urban Dictionary was pretty stinking hilarious. If you have time to kill take a look yourself!

Coffee and Scones!

We hit the local coffee shop a few times. However, the first morning we were there a town wide power outage occurred for several hours! It was a town wide hunt for coffee for many that morning. If you saw someone with a cup on the street you were instantly bombarded with a “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT???” I knew instantly that there would be no latte or fancy smancy drinks for this chick. boo hoo. It was drip only with water that was heated on a gas stove! But, a girl has to do what a girl has to do for her morning fix, so I resorted to drip.  sigh.

A little shopping!

The glorious weekend ended with written and scheduled articles, answered e-mails, and we even planned our entire Fundraiser Blasting for Boobs scheduled for November 6th!

We then treated ourselves to a few rugs at Capel and declared it a victorious weekend and headed for home!

It is amazing how a weekend away can do wonders for your soul.  Laughing with girlfriends is so important!  I’m so blessed that God has given me the gift of being able to steal away and get time with awesome women friends!

Good Morning Birdie!

It is 8:36 am and I am whipping out a quick little good morning post! I’m at Wrightsville Beach, NC (since Sunday) with my man. We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary that is actually tomorrow! I’ve been a good little techo girl and have not done anything but spend time with him, except a little Facebooking on the iPhone!

I have not even gotten my new camera out! I just shot these few pictures from our room, a walkout to the beach, while the man is still sleeping.

I could stare at this all day!

So, while I was waiting for this picture to download into my post a bird flew into my room! Oh my goodness, so glad he flew back out! I have now shut the door!

good morning tree!

It is now 8:47 am. Keeping my time online short and sweet! I’ve got a few hours before we depart back home. It was the perfect little getaway. I’m ready to return to the kids and dogs for a few more days until the weekend!

Blessings to all and have a wonderful day!

Today I want to share a very special moment I had last week with my oldest son, Ethan. A few weeks ago our pastor talked about how our church was partnering up with the African American church a mile away to help feed the children of Haiti. After service I went straight to the sign up table and signed Ethan and I up for the friday night session.

www.feedthehungry.org

I told Ethan all about what we would be doing and he was very excited. Well, Friday night came and I was EXHAUSTED, typical huh? All day long I thought in my head how I could get out of going. My husband was out of town and I needed to drop my younger son off for my parents to watch, and then all the way back over to the church. It just seemed like too much to do after a long day.

I knew deep in my heart that I had signed us up because I wanted to teach my son how we could help others. I focused on that desire and mustered up the energy and arrived at our church with him at 7:30 pm. We had almost an hour of worship, meeting new friends, and learning about the organization called Feed the Hungry we were packing the meals for. We learned how each packet contained rice and important added minerals and vitamins.

This boy makes me proud!

We then were issued our hair nets and headed into the gym to start packing with our new friends. Ethan thought the hair nets were so silly! Or course I had to whip out the iPhone and get a few quick pictures!

Our Team!

Our team started cranking out the manna packets! Ethan was in charge of the sealer while I held the bags in the sealer and then passed them on to be boxed. We were jamming to all kinds of Christian music! Everyone singing and dancing together while we worked. Each team would shout out when they completed a box. My precious boy looked up at me with such excitement and said “Mom, God likes what we are doing here, I could do this all night long”. It was true, I could have done it all night as well. My weariness had disappeared and I was renewed by what we were doing and who were were doing it for, the precious children of God.

Completed Packs

We worked for 2 hours and our team of 9 made 378 bags of rice, which totaled 2,268 meals! The entire room ended up boxing over 338,000 meals that will feed 93 children in Haiti for 1 year! There were several other shifts throughout the weekend. What a great feeling to know that 2 different very different groups of people came together to do God’s work and made such a huge difference in so many peoples lives.

I’m sad that I almost missed the wonderful blessing of doing this with my son because I was too tired.

Today is Be Still Linky Day. I would love it if you would link up anything you would like to share! Have a blessed week!