Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Sixty-Five

Highlight of the Week

On Wednesday evening, we went to the annual Norwin Chamber Business Showcase. In the past, it’s been held at Norwin Highschool. It’s half food and half expo – so you walk around to the different restaurants that have samples & eat, and then walk around to the different businesses that are set up & (basically) enter drawings for free stuff. This year, they moved the location to Vangura & turned it into a cooking competition between the different restaurants. They still had businesses set up around the room, but it was so cool to stand and watch the chefs fly around the counter spaces & ovens & stovetops chopping, frying, cooking, and plating each of their dishes. They were judged by a panel of judges and were under time constraints – it was like being in the live audience of one of those cool cooking shows! The food we sampled was delightful and overall, it was such a fun & unique experience!

This week was also Tuesdays Together! My favorite day of the month! It’s so much fun to meet with like-minded creatives (most of whom simply need to get out from behind their computers or away from their kids for some adult-interaction) and hang out. Seriously, it’s my favorite.

Yes, This Happened

• I can’t think of anything that would test your salt as a parent more than a toddler throwing up in the car, in the dark, along a back road where there’s nowhere to pull off, with an hour left of your trip. Or a way to make a Mama move faster than to remove her iPad from said toddler’s hands at the first sounds of throw up. Or a more uniting, team-building activity than cleaning up said toddler with 8 napkins & some wipes. Poor Braelynn. Thankfully she seems to be doing much better this morning!
• While we were driving along on Tuesday, Braelynn said: “Mommy, drive faster!” And I said, “I can’t drive faster baby.” And she said, “Drive faster Mommy!” And I said, “Baby, Mama can’t go any faster right now.” And she responded, “Why Mommy?” And I said, “Well, there are speed limits on the roads that Mommy has to obey to keep us safe.” And she said, “Mommy, we should take the speed limits, and throw them in the garbage.” *dying*
• Another “Braelynn-ism” for the week: we were at my Mom’s & I was giving Ruby a piano lesson when Braelynn came over and in an excited whisper she grabbed my leg & said, “Mommy, mommy! Look!!” I looked to see what she was pointing at & saw she had discovered a green sparkly butterfly that is clipped to a lampshade on the table beside the couch. I said, “The butterfly?” and she excitedly nodded. “Ohh, it’s so pretty, isn’t it?” I asked. She bobbed her head up & down. Then she looked up at me & whispered, “Can I go talk to it?” I said, “Sure! You could go say something to it.” And then she got a little bit of a confused look on her face and said, “Mommy, I cannot talk to it. Butterflies can’t talk.” And I asked her why, to which she responded: “They have no faces.”
• One more “Braelynn-ism”: she discovered a pair of “light-up” sneakers in one of her dresser drawers this week. They’re stashed away with some other shoes & clothes that are the next size up, so technically they are too big for her. She was so enamored with them though that she just had to try them on. She was in love. Head over heels style. I told her that she needed to “keep growing bigger and bigger” in order for the shoes to fit right & I suggested to her that that was why she needed to always eat her food. We had just come upstairs from breakfast & she hadn’t finished her cereal. Suddenly, she was bounding back downstairs & she reappeared back upstairs about 5 minutes later claiming that she was “bigger now” because she’d “finished all her food”. Not quite yet baby, don’t rush it!
• Potty training is the WORST.
  Let me clarify: potty training for 6 months is the WORST. I think on Monday we’re going to start all over from scratch.
• So, remember last week when I mentioned that I was thinking I might have a slight gluten intolerance? Turns out, I was right. I had a follow-up appointment with the natural doctor I saw earlier this summer & I asked him if he could test me for food allergies & so he did. He called it a “gluten sensitivity” – and related my particular level with “brain fog or not being able to think straight”. And wow, he totally hit the nail on the head. I’ve been staying away from gluten for the last 10 days (with 2 exceptions), and I truly do feel like my brain is clearer – like I can think better. It’s crazy.

Feeling Blessed

So, I’m feeling super blessed this week. The first reason might be kind of silly, but it’s still making me happy, so I don’t care.

1. I had bought a set of bracelets off of Amazon a few months ago & only wore the first one. I never took the second out of it’s packaging – it just sat on my dresser. About 2 weeks ago, I realized that I really wanted to wear that second bracelet, but when I went to grab it, it was gone. I had either moved it or little fingers had. Either way, it wasn’t a super huge deal, I figured I’d just keep my eyes open for it. 10 days pass & I still haven’t found it & now am wanting this silly little bracelet more than ever. I start digging around looking for it with no luck. Finally, on Tuesday morning, I stopped and asked God where my bracelet was (something I probably should have done from the beginning). That’s when I decided to go look in my suitcase (maybe I’d grabbed it & packed it for a trip?) and as I was looking with no success, I looked down in the corner of my closet (which is where my suitcase is) and there it was.
2. I’ve been passively thinking about a certain business purchase over the last few weeks. I say “passively” because it’s simply been an idea that’s been rolling around in my head – I hadn’t really acted on it yet. Well, this week, since I had a little extra free time (no wedding last weekend, yay!) I decided to do a little research. I narrowed it down to these two different options and was at a stalemate. Both were equally reviewed well, both seemed that they would function very similarly, and both would accomplish what I needed them to accomplish. The trick was: both had a monthly/yearly fee, but one had a “lifetime” plan with a one-time fee. That wasn’t really the trick, the trick was that “lifetime” plan option, was going away. In fact, it was going away on Friday (yep, yesterday). Let me lay this out: if I used the program for more than 2 1/2 years, the “lifetime” plan would pay for itself & be totally worth it. It was just a lot of money. See my dilemma? What if I went with the “lifetime” plan & ended up not liking it? What if the other option truly was the better one? “Lifetime” is a long time!
   Anyways, I talked to one of my friends who I was hoping would have some insight & lo and behold – she did! She actually had a solution to the whole situation that in the long-run helps both of us! It’s a little confusing, but I don’t want to completely spill the beans on the specifics quite yet – just know that it’s an awesome solution & I am so so so excited!
3. I ask each of my KAP Couples if they’d write me a sweet review after all of their wedding-work is finished up & this week I had FIVE 5-star reviews come in! It was incredible! One after another after another, I am still floating on cloud 9 from all the kind things my brides & grooms said about me!