The Good Life

Back in May, I created a new blog called 'Calico Road Confessions'. My hope was that this space provide a place for me to document our journey, as we transitioned to our new home on Calico Road. What better place to start a story than from the very beginning, right? Well, with no internet connection and the entire process being a little more overwhelming than I bargained for...I wasn't able to document a single entry on the journey. This journal entry was written on May 9th. I am sharing it here and picking up where I left off. I'm so happy to be back... Matt and I bought our house in October 2013. We knew it would not be our forever home but we also knew that God was calling us here for a season. Our home has provided everything we could have needed for our family in the past 3.5 years. Colton was 9 months old when we moved in and we got to witness his first steps here, his transition to a big boy bed, potty training and so many more "firsts". This home is

Matt and I have been dating since 2008. In that time, we've talked about so many of our life ambitions and our dreams and our goals. We have talked about our struggles, our failures, our weaknesses and our losses. In this (seemingly short) amount of time, we have experienced some dig down and face it 'lows' and some incredible, I don't want this to end 'highs' and it's all added up to a beautiful journey that we call our life. In 2012, Matt and I moved (back) to Tennessee on a hope and a prayer. We were jobless, homeless (well, not totally thanks to Mom and Dad) and full of the desire to make it work. When we found our house in 2013, we knew that it would be a great transition house. The house needed work (that we could do) and we saw it as an good investment. It has been perfect for what we have needed over the past (almost) 4 years. One of the goals/dreams that Matt and I have had for ourselves, is to purchase a piece of land that we love and build a h

I attended If:local this past weekend and it was so amazing. It was challenging and inspiring all at the same time. I have not allowed myself to ever be challenged in that way, so I left with my head spinning and feeling extremely hopeful. This particular post is not to go into the details of what If:Gathering is, but please follow the link to the website and take a look (especially if you're a woman). I am not speaking towards any agenda - at all. I'm speaking as a woman, who believes we have a very special and important role to play. Is it different than a man's role? Absolutely. Is it less important? Absolutely NOT.  I believe that we, as women, need to get back to the basics. We need to be solid partners for our significant others, we need to mother our children, we need to lift and encourage the other women around us, we need to stop pursuing attention from people of the world and start pursuing God and most importantly, we need to not be afraid to be bold in our ac

People are upset. Everywhere I look, people are upset. It's been almost a week of the non-stop (not-so-friendly) banter. As I watched the inauguration of our new President, I had a lot of mixed feelings. I felt sad that so much negativity was surrounding the transition. I felt so extremely proud to be an American and proud that we are able to have such a strong and united change of power. I felt excited for a fresh vision and new ideas. I felt scared at how easily people are persuaded to believe something with no effort to research or verify information. I felt grateful that we live in such a place, where we can voice our opinions. Out of all these feelings I have been experiencing over the past week, the biggest one is a sense of peace. Weird that I feel peaceful at a time like this, but I totally do. People are putting so much responsibility and expectation on Donald Trump. He is just a man. He's a man just like Barack Obama and George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and George Bu

Y'all, this morning was a complete disaster. Ryleigh was up all night with the croupy croup so I woke up tired. It was Colton's first day back to school and he slept in (which never happens). I decided to let him sleep and just wake him up about 10 minutes before we had to hit the door. I thought we could manage to eat a breakfast bar, brush teeth, get dressed and out the door in 10 minutes. We can't. Poor Colton. I rushed him through everything. From the time he opened his sleepy little eyes, I was rushing him. Get up. Go eat. Get dressed. Brush your teeth. Blah, blah, blah. I poured him milk in a "big boy cup" because I was too lazy (and in too much of a hurry) to put a lid on anything and said "don't carry that cup around, you could spill your milk". Sure enough, 3 seconds later I'm yelling about spilled milk all over the living room rug to a sweet little face, standing there in shock that his milk was all over the rug. It wasn't his fau