Ollie

Yesterday, on September 23, 2022, we said goodbye to our Ollie girl after six years with her. She was the sweetest, most snuggly, loving dog I've ever known. She rarely barked, unless trying to warn us of such dangers as the propane guy or the lawn treatment man outside. She loved snow, being petted, Simon, playing with other dogs, rolling around with a good stick in her mouth, playing fetch, eating popcorn, and, unfortunately, digging holes. Walmart sacks, balloons, and new, unexpected items in the house made her anxious. She was our Ollie girl, and she brought so much peace and joy to our home. Her absence today is tangible. She left a big hole in our home and in our hearts.

What happened...

On Monday, she was not eating, acting lethargic, and leaning against the wall for support. We took her in to the vet, and they did blood work and x-rays. The blood work came back fine, but the x-rays showed that she had eaten rocks, and though they had not started moving through her system yet, her GI was very inflamed and angry. She also was running a temperature of 103. The vet administered some fluids under her skin and gave her an injection which, though typically used for nausea, would also supposedly help with the inflammation in her GI. We took her home and hoped she would pass the stones that she had eaten.

As the week went on, her appetite even lessened. She wasn't eating much to speak of but would drink water, broth, and the liquid from canned chicken. She was having bowel movements but not passing the rocks she had eaten. Her energy levels continued to decrease. By Friday morning, she couldn't get up. She would lay on her side and "swim" with her legs. I took her back to the vet (after calling my mother-in-law to come over and help me get Ollie onto a blanket and lifted up into the back of my car, then leaving my mother-in-law to stay and watch Audrey).

Once at the vet, they administered more x-rays. I expected to hear that Ollie would need surgery to remove the rocks, and we were mentally prepared to pay quite a bit of money for this surgery if it would help Ollie.

When the vet returned to tell me what the x-rays revealed, she told me she would show me the scans, but that there was either some fabric in Ollie's system that she had eaten or something was very, very wrong. I looked at the scans and saw where the stones were still in Ollie's system but had barely moved. I also saw the inflammation in her GI, the "fabric" like haziness which was actually the physical representation of something very wrong inside of her. Her spleen was also enlarged, even more so than it had been in Monday's x-rays. I began to cry as the vet explained that something very complex and bad was going on inside Ollie. She believed her inability to stand along with the "swimming" of her legs was actually neurological. Something in her brain wasn't communicating with the rest of her body; perhaps the world felt off balance to her. I heard about how golden retrievers are notorious for cancer, especially cancers that cause an enlargement of the spleen, and were sometimes hit with it even as young as the age of two.

The vet went on to explain very sincerely and kindly that we could open Ollie up and see exactly what was going on, but it would likely just confirm what the x-rays had already revealed: that it was complex and not good.

We decided to let her go.

I have never had to let go of a beloved pet. It was the most sad, yet peaceful and swift process. Leslie and I laid next to Ollie on the floor, petting her, reminding her of our love for her and how good of a girl she had been.

Her tail wagged at our presence and voices even up until the very end. She had started to lightly wimper just before the injections were administered, likely due either to the pain returning or anxiety, explained the vet.

The vet administered anesthesia, followed quickly by the euthenasia. I was petting Ollie's face, ears, and neck, and Leslie was petting her chest. He felt her body go from tense to relaxed. The vet listened to her heartbeat and said, "She's gone."

It was so fast. Six years was so fast.

Tufts of Ollie's fur remain around the house. I know I'll continue to find her hair for a while even after several vacuums. Her collar and leash remain in the basket, her food bowl in the dishwasher, and her Christmas stocking in the storage tub upstairs. On the kitchen island, there's a pouch of chicken broth that we were going to see if we could get her to drink.

Our 13-year-old (14 in a little under 2 weeks) pug Simon outlived his sister. I never thought that would happen.

Thank you, Ollie, for being so good to us. Thank you for loving us unconditionally, always being gentle with Audrey, and bringing so much joy and love into our lives. You will forever live in our hearts.

Apple-Themed Toddler September Morning Basket

 

Hey everyone!

My daughter Audrey is three years old now, and I decided this fall would be the perfect opportunity to start implementing monthly-themed morning baskets for us to work through together, as a way to practice sitting for short but focused periods of time on intentional activities, especially because I am leaning towards homeschooling her when the time comes.

On Mondays and Fridays, we get to have slow mornings with no scheduled appointments, so those are the days we pull the morning basket out for 20-30 minutes. The former preschool teacher in me is having a blast putting these together each month and planning for the ones to come.

I wanted to share what I included in Audrey's September morning basket. The theme was apples and the letter A.

I will try to provide Amazon affiliate links where possible, but mostly I just hope to inspire you to be creative and to have fun putting together your own toddler morning baskets!

Included in this basket:

Now let's break it down a little bit!

The box I'm using came from the Target dollar section. I created the apple name garland, printed the letters for Audrey's name, cut them out, and taped them onto yarn to make the garland. You can download and make your own apple name garland by downloading the pdf file here.

ABC Flash Cards

Ten Apples Up On Top!

Peppa Goes Apple Picking

Wilton Apple Cookie Cutter

I created these play-doh mats using free graphics and slipped them in sheet protectors from the Target dollar section. Download and print the play-doh mats for free here.

This coloring book is a complete DIY project. I used free clipart from a google search to include images of things that start with the letter A and printed them out on regular printer paper. The front and back covers are card stock. I stapled the pages together then covered the staples with washi tape.

Safety Scissors

Post-It Pencil Case - Pink (non-affiliate)

Not included in the morning basket, but a bonus activity for the month of September was this apple pie sensory bin kit. Included are two pieces of tan felt cut to circles for the crust, red and green pom poms for the apples, wooden scoops from the party section at Hobby Lobby, and small pie plates from the Dollar Tree. I keep it all in a shoe box size storage tub from Target.

Audrey and I have had so much fun with our September morning basket! If you download any of the prints, please comment and let me know! I hope you are inspired to make education fun and a little whimsical for your little ones!

This Pandemic Life - Seven Months In

 The world is a crazy place right now.

We are now seven months into this Covid-19 pandemic, and there isn't a near end in sight.

I say that because I just got a news alert on my phone saying Arkansas set a new record high number of Covid cases in the past 24 hours with 1,278 cases. New record high. Seven months in. Awesome.

And have I mentioned there's a presidential election happening in less than a month and the nation is more divided than ever? The division is bleeding into churches, with lots of disagreement and people leaving over issues deemed "political," such as face masks, systemic racism, and a myriad of other things.

Republicans and Democrats are clinging to their parties for dear life and ruthlessly vilifying anyone or anything associated with the opposers. I guess every election year is like that but it's either worse this year, or I'm just paying closer attention.

Schools are back in session, and most places of business (the ones that are still open) and churches have reopened, but masks are required pretty much everywhere and only a limited number of people can be allowed inside buildings so as to allow for social distancing.

For the past couple of months, I've been going to church on Sunday mornings as I am on staff, but Leslie has been staying home with Audrey. The nursery and toddler classrooms open back up this weekend, but we're not ready to take Audrey yet. As a matter of fact, Audrey hasn't been inside of a store or church since we started quarantining back in March.

She has however, started seeing her grandparents again, as my staff team began meeting in person again once a week a couple of months ago. And although I still use grocery pickup to get our groceries and avoid going into the store, I sometimes sneak into a thrift store or Hobby Lobby on a morning my parents have Audrey or on a Saturday when Leslie is home, and I savor those times.

Have we avoided getting Covid thus far? Well, we think so. But we don't really know. We haven't been tested. But the symptoms vary so much from person to person, with some claiming to have no symptoms at all, you could honestly have it and never know it.

The most common way to get tested for Covid is to have a long swab stick stuck up your nose, basically all the way back to your throat. Then it gets swirled around. Pretty sure both sides of your nose get done. I don't know that I could survive that. I come close to having a panic attack during strep tests. 

Ragweed allergies are bad right now and have been for over a month. Did you know the symptoms of ragweed allergies mimic the symptoms of Covid? They do! Including the potential for loss of taste and smell. Isn't that just the darnedest?

The picture below is from July, taken in the parking lot of Target. This was only my second time in a place of business since March. (The first time was in a children's consignment store and went undocumented. I remember no one was wearing a mask so I didn't either. It had to have been in the early days of the pandemic because masks have been mandated since July.)

"This is a Global Pandemic," She Said, in Response to Everything.

We are currently in the midst of a global pandemic. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) began in China and is working its way through the nations. This virus is characterized by a fever and cough that easily works its way into the lungs and causes pneumonia and breathing difficulty. It's killing people.

People are being asked to stay home as much as possible in order to "flatten the curve," which means lowering the statistics of how quickly this virus has spread in other countries.

I wanted to document what things look like right now, on March 27, 2020, for us here in America.

- Some states have been put under a "stay home" order, meaning you can only leave your house for essential business. Arkansas is not one of those states as of yet, but public gatherings of 10 or more people are basically against the law right now.

- Schools in some states have already been shut down through the end of the year. Arkansas schools are supposedly set to return to the classroom on April 17 but I'm almost positive they will end up making the call to not go back this school year. Kids are doing school from home, with online instruction from their teachers.

- Many companies have sent their employees home to work remotely. A lot of locally-owned businesses have either had to shut their doors or rethink how they do business. For example, local thrift stores have started offering online shopping with curbside pickup. (Leslie is still going to work at his office at Arvest despite most of his team working from home. Because he has his own office to quarantine in, he hasn't been sent home yet.)

- "Non-essential" places of business, such as places like hair/nail salons and tattoo parlors have been forced to shut down by the government. People in those professions don't have any income right now.

- Restaurants have closed their dining areas and are operating solely via drive thru, delivery, or curbside pickup.

- Churches are online only right now, which means I am working a lot. We have been prerecording our worship and message to post as live video on Sunday morning, so for the past two weeks, I've been staying busy editing all that together while also maintaining a regular presence on social media. A church's online presence has always been important, but right now, it's more important than ever because people can't gather in person to worship. And a lot of people need help right now, so it's our duty to "be the church" and do what we can to serve those who need us.

- People have been hoarding food, toiletries and cleaning supplies. So toilet paper, hand sanitizer, frozen meat and canned food, among many other things, are hard to come by. It's not safe to go in stores right now because of the risk of catching or unknowingly spreading COVID-19 (because you can apparently have contracted this virus and not display any symptoms for up to 14 days), so grocery pickup and delivery have become so popular, it's hard to find available time slots. For Walmart and Sam's Club pickup orders, I've learned they only open up 1-2 days at time of time slots, and those go live at midnight. You have to have your online cart already filled and either stay up until midnight to book a slot or hope that you will wake up early enough to get one. So I think about groceries basically all the time and try to plan ahead of when we'll need to replenish what we'll potentially run out of before I can make it to a grocery pickup.

- Hospitals are running low on protective gear for the caregivers and essentials such as ventilators and surgical masks, to name a couple. There's a real fear that if the curve isn't flattened, hospitals will be overrun by sick patients and not have the space or means to care for them. Lives will be lost. We are not at that level here in the US yet, but Italy has been.

- The CDC (Center for Disease Control) has recommended "social distancing," which means staying at least six-feet away from other people and staying home as much as possible. People are getting creative with how they visit each other. Lawson and Abby drove by with the kids and stayed in their van while Leslie and I stood back on the sidewalk and talked to them for a few minutes last night. Online conference call apps like Zoom and FaceTime are being utilized like never before as as way to see faces of people you can't visit with in person. Our weekly staff meetings for church are happening via Zoom now.

Personally, I've been self-quarantining for two complete weeks now (beginning on March 12). Audrey and I stay home all day, with our only outings being getting fresh air in the yard, taking a drive, going to pickup groceries (where someone brings them out to our car), or when I go record the Sunday morning message in the evening and Leslie stays home with Audrey.

The hardest part (besides the unknown of how long this will last or the anxiety of how bad it could be if anyone in my household or our family or friends catch the virus) is not being able to see family. Audrey is growing and changing so quickly right now and who knows how long she'll have to go without seeing her grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. She'll be turning 2 in three months and it's very possible this will still be going on and we won't get to invite family over for her birthday party. Experts are saying we could be 4-6 weeks out from the peak of this virus. It's scary to think of that.

It's a crazy thing to be living through. The stock market is crashing. I'm hearing words like "recession" and "depression" being used in regards to the current and future state of our country.

The term "COVID-19" is heard in lots of commercials that play on tv now--even in car commercials.

The world is slowing down though, and that is nice. Calendars are completely clear of social events.

Not everyone is keen to quarantining or social distancing. You will still see full parking lots outside of Walmart. But for the most part, the world has gotten a little more quiet. People are getting outside more and riding bikes and fishing with their families. Children are drawing inspirational messages with chalk on their driveways and sidewalks for passerby to see. People are reaching out to check on each other and make sure they have what they need.

There's beauty in the struggle; we just have to open our eyes to it.

And no matter what, we always have hope if we have Jesus. He's a constant that doesn't waver, and he promises to take care of us. Under his wings is where we are.

I'll leave you with a sweet picture of Audrey getting some fresh air yesterday--which, by the way, ended way too quickly, as the street in front of our house was the only adventure she cared to seek, no matter which direction I attempted to steer her.

DIY Mini Tree Garland

About a week ago, an Instagram account I follow that posts awesome Walmart finds shared a picture of mini Christmas garlands that you could drape over letter boards. I thought they were super cute and was immediately inspired. One was made of little pom moms, and one had tiny bottle brush trees all across it.

I went on the hunt for the tiny bottle brush tree garland but with no luck. I couldn't stop thinking about how cute it would be to have a tiny garland to decorate my letter board with for Christmas, so I got creative and made my own.

This project isn't anything earth shattering, but I hope it reminds you that if you see something you like, you can most likely find a way to make your own version of it, which, in my opinion, is even more fun!

I went to Hobby Lobby and scoured all the 50% off Christmas craft trinkets until I found these tiny acrylic trees. (They did have tiny bottle brush trees that I could've used, but once I saw these acrylic trees, I decided to go that route.)

Now...break for the tiny hands that invaded my acrylic tree photo shoot.

I obviously didn't pay attention to the quantity of trees in each package. Twenty is more than enough - too many actually for this project - so one package would've sufficed to make one or two garlands.

All I did for this project is hot glue the trees to some bakers twine I already had. Boom. Easy.

I didn't measure out the space between each tree; I just eyeballed it and tried to get close, knowing that a little imperfection only adds charm.

There are so many cute variations of trinkets at Hobby Lobby you could use to make your own tiny garlands. I saw cute candy canes, stockings, felt Santa faces, and so many other options that made me want to make aaaallll the tiny garlands.

I had quite a bit of excess garland, so I used small pieces of painters' tape on the back of my letter board to hold the garland in place how I wanted it.

Let me know if you get inspired to make your own tiny garland! I'd love to see what you come up with.

Advent Verse Cards Printable

Hi all! Long time, no see. Er, talk? Long time, no type. Hello.

Today while Audrey napped, I created a set of 24 verse cards for Advent. There are many to be found on Pinterest already, but I was having trouble finding something I loved.

The cards I made are framed in pink and are adorned with fun, whimsical Christmas clip art. They are bright and cheery, and for good reason: all of the verses are focused on LIGHT. Jesus is the light of the world, and I think that's a beautiful aspect of him to focus on as we prepare our hearts to celebrate his birth.

So my gift to you this season is a free download of the Pages file I created. The cards are sized using standard business card measurements, approximately 3.5"x2".

They fit perfectly in Kraft brown mini sacks from Hobby Lobby, linked here, which I taped to the big chalkboard over our kitchen table.

The stamp kit for the numbers I used on the envelopes are linked here.

Get creative with how to use these cute little cards! I would love to see how you display or use them in your own home to countdown to Christmas!

D O W N L O A D   H E R E

And while you're at it, have yourself a merry little Christmas!

An Unhurried Life

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the concept of living an "unhurried" life. Not in a "We're always going to be late" type of unhurried; but rather an "I don't want to miss this moment or these people" kind of unhurried.

Unhurried as in choosing to do my life the way my heart desires - leaning into what feeds my soul - and away from what steals my joy. Evaluating my obligations and tweaking my schedule. To me, this looks like not spreading myself so thin, not filling every free moment, and making it a priority to be home more.

Reading more and scrolling through Facebook less.

Making my home a cozy sanctuary by straightening up before going to bed, having a cup of coffee while watching a Hallmark movie, and lighting candles even if company isn't coming.

Going room by room and decluttering anything that feels like clutter or decor that I don't love anymore.

Crafting more. Baking more. Dreaming more.

People pleasing less (this one is really hard for me and one I need to work on).

Quality over quantity when it comes to friendships.

I don't want to fall into the trap of "this is just what we do" when it comes to being busy.

I don't want to be overwhelmed by stuff or obligations.

I want to teach Audrey the beauty of an unhurried, simple life. Of conversations where we look in each other's eyes instead of at our phones. Of questions asked and time spent learning about the answers. Of joy and contentment. Of snuggles in blankets. Of imaginations at work. Of peace.

I've always been attracted to simple things, but I always thought I had to apologize for it.

God made me an introvert who loves hugs, quiet, creativity, and simple joys. I'm learning to unapologetically embrace that girl instead of trying to morph into someone who needs the world's approval.

Have you ever stopped and thought about what type of life you crave?