Oh My Godwins

This week has been one of reflection for me. My sweet Granny passed away and we laid her to rest in a beautiful service. I feel like anytime you have to deal with death closely, it brings up thoughts about how you are living your life. After all, none of us are promised tomorrow. Throughout the week and the service I kept thinking about my Granny and how she lived her life. As sad as it is to have to let someone go, there is a peace I have because I know she lived a long, full and happy life. She did this not because her life was always full and happy, but because she chose to live that way. If I can take one thing away from my Granny it would be her ability to find contentment . In my memories of her, she was almost always smiling or laughing. Not because she never had anything to be sad or angry or upset about, but because she chose to focus on the good parts of life. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in things that don't really matter and let the obstacles or the stress take o...

Happy July 4th week! Today I want to share one of my favorite (sort of new) hobbies! Just before Jax was born, I asked Matt to build me a chalkboard to hang in our dining room. He did an awesome job and I've used it so many times that all of my begging him to do it is cancelled out. We picked up the chalkboard sheet and a drawer pull (turned it upside down for the chalk holder) from Home Depot and used some old trim we still had for the frame. Our cost was under $15 since we had some wood stain at home already too. Matt used wood glue which would probably be enough, but also a few screws to secure the frames just in case. The chalkboard sheets are really cool and are a 2'x4' sheet, so you can make the frame using that size or cut the sheet down smaller.  Here's the first one I did about a week before Jax was born that shows the entire board and chalk holder. Since then I have been THOROUGHLY enjoying my chalkboard time. It is actually really therapeutic for m...

I'm back for part 2 of our anniversary trip! We checked out of our TN cabin and headed to Whitesburg, GA. The drive from Benton to Whitesburg was right at 2 hours and 40 minutes. We made it to our zip-lining/lodging loc ation about an hour and half before our scheduled tour. I found this place online by searching for zip-lining in the southeast. I had never heard of it before, but was intrigued by it's Guinness Book of World Records Longest Canopy Zipline accolade. Once I looked further into the place I was totally sold.  Historic Banning Mills  is an 'adventure resort' and offers lodging from cabins to tree houses! They have many activities including rock climbing, horseback riding and team building. They offer kayaking and use of the putt-putt golf course for free when you are staying with them!  When we arrived, we checked in for our tour at the lodge. Our room wouldn't be ready until after our tour, so we had some time to kill. I had bravely and  ...

Matt and I recently celebrated our second anniversary (June 10th), and we love a good excuse to travel! For our first anniversary, we spent a few days in New Orleans. We love it there, so I'm sure there will be future trips/posts about NOLA. This year we wanted a more active adventure. Our full trip was 4 days/3 nights, but I'm going to break it up into two sections/posts. Our first adventure took place in Benton, TN. We dropped Jax off with his sitter early on Friday and headed out. Nana was awesome enough to pick him up and wrangle him for our trip (Thanks Nana!). The drive takes just under 7 hours going straight through. We took advantage of the long drive to actually talk without having to stop and tell Jax to stop doing something or save him from falling off of something lol. We also enjoyed the quiet and scenery some too. We stopped for lunch and we lost an hour due to the time change, but it was perfect as we arrived at our cabin in Benton just after check-in. When...