Embrace the Mess

Not long ago I came across a quote that instantly spoke to me, "Embrace the Mess!" These 3 words nearly slapped me in the face when I read them. You see, I'm a bit of a neat freak. Okay, maybe not just a bit; I'm a total neat freak! (I get it from my mom, she's the same way.) Some people would call it OCD. I like things to be in their place and for everything to be clean, picked up, and neat. While this can be a good quality to have, it can also sometimes drive a person crazy. As other moms know, it's almost impossible for everything to be in order all the time when you've got a busy toddler at home.

So, I decided to make this "embrace the mess" a new goal for myself. I even had the above print made to hang in our gallery wall in the living room as a reminder. I'm slowly trying to teach myself to embrace the mess. It's often much easier said than done, especially when you prefer things to be in their proper places. My husband often reminds me that Southern Living isn't coming for our home photo-shoot. The fingerprints on the doors, stainless steel appliances, and windows, along with the toys in the floor, are little reminders that our house is filled with joy and love. These little things are also reminders that we are blessed with the gift of being parents to a healthy and precious child. Once every other week, the fingerprints and smears are gone for maybe a day or two after the housekeeper makes her stop by our house. During the time in between her visits, I'm learning to let it go and embrace it all. Our house is a home, and it's the place where we live. I want Mac and our other future children to have good memories from home. I want them to feel like we lived in our home, and have fond memories of it. I want them to remember the times that their mama played with them or cooked their favorite meals, not all the times she spent cleaning up their messes.

Now don't get me wrong, I am still a neat freak. I struggle with embracing the mess almost daily. At the end of the evening before I go to bed, I pick things up and put them in their proper places. We're also teaching Mac how to pick up after himself, and put things away once he's finished with it. I'm just trying to loosen up and live in the moment instead of worrying about the house being in perfect condition all of the time. Because as much I hate to think about, I know deep down that far too soon this little boy will be a big boy and one day our house be too neat and too quiet, so for now we will embrace the mess.

Creating Our Gallery Wall

As a lot of you know, we moved into a new home this past April. With time, patience, (which I'm always short on), searching, and funds, it's slowly coming together!

I knew once we got our new living furniture that I wanted to do a gallery wall on the big wall in our living room. In our previous house, I had very minimal things on the walls but since this will be home for several years I want it to feel that way. I searched Pinterest pinning lots of different pins, and finally found my inspiration to create our wall.

I created this whole gallery wall, from frames to photos for under $100. I already had a few of the frames I used which were wedding gifts from our Pottery Barn wedding registry. After 4 years, I finally put them to use! I purchased all the other frames at Target. I had a picture on my iPhone of a layout I liked, so I kind of used that to "guide me" when creating the layout for our wall. I laid all the frames out in the aisle of Target to ensure I had what I needed before heading home. I'm sure people that walked by wondered what I was doing. Ha! After purchasing the frames, I then went home and filled them with our photos. I laid everything out again, this time on our coffee table. I used it because it's big and is close to the width of the space I was going to fill on the wall. I then added a few initials and a couple of small starburst mirrors to the arrangement. The G's came from Hobby Lobby and the starburst mirrors I already had; they were purchased a couple years ago at Target.

Once I got it all laid out, I took each piece and traced on the back of wrapping paper. I didn't have any craft paper, so I made what I did have on hand work. After tracing each piece, I then cut everything out, and arranged the paper on the wall how I had it laid out on the table. This is what most of the "how-to" posts I read showed to do.

After I got it all taped up on the wall, I made a few minor changes to the arrangement. I then got my hammer, nails, and command strips to start hanging the pieces where the paper was. Once the nail was in the wall, I took the paper down and hung the frame on the wall.

I am so pleased with the finished product! It adds so much to our living room, and makes this house feel more like home. I'm also pretty proud that I did this project all myself! It's exactly what I was wanting.

The 3 G's hanging on the wall are symbolic because we're a family of 3, and obviously our last name starts with G. There's a variety of pictures, and a print that states "embrace the mess". As our family grows in years to come we can add to it, and as we get new pictures all the frames can be changed out and updated.

This is one house project done on my to-do list of many. I'm planning to do another gallery area in the hall way one day. The next two projects to get completed are our home office and entry way.

August wrap-up.

It's hard for me to believe we're already almost half through September. Fall is my favorite season for many reasons; football, pumpkin spice everything, boots, and sweaters just to name a few. 

August wasn't too crazy around here. It was a pretty subtle month, and was pretty low key. We kicked the month off with Clete's 10 year high school reunion. That was a fun filled weekend spent with his friends from HHS and former classmates. Mac and Honey went to my parents' place at the lake that weekend, while mommy & daddy had some adult time. 

Other highlights of the month included; Mac's second hair cut, the Campbell wedding, Mac bringing home his first artwork from school, lots of time playing outside, Mac's first school pictures, a VIP lunch at a new local restaurant's grand opening, and at the end of the month we found out Clete got a promotion at work! 

Overall, August was a good month! We're looking forward to the cooler temperatures September should be bringing. Until next time, that's a wrap.  

Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps

I was recently searching Pinterest for some new clean recipes since I've burned us out on grilled chicken and veggies. I came across this one and snapped a screen shot on my phone and put it in my recipe folder. It was a huge hit at our house, and with the response I got from my insta-pic of this delicious dinner I decided to share here. I'm not certain where the original pin came from but the actual recipe I followed was slightly different. I always like to add my own twist to things and can never fully follow a recipe verbatim. We had this meat mixture as lettuce wraps in butter lettuce and also over the top of brown rice. It was tasty both ways, and it will be making an appearance on our menu again.

Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps

ingredients

1 lb extra lean ground turkey

1 package broccoli slaw

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp garlic salt

1 head butter lettuce

reduced sodium soy sauce to taste

instructions

1. In a skillet brown turkey until cooked through.

2. Once turkey is cooked; add broccoli slaw, chopped onion, 

and teriyaki sauce to skillet. Place lid on top of mixture 

and let simmer (occasionally stirring) until broccoli slaw and 

onion are soft and tender.                                       

3. Serve in butter lettuce or over the top of rice. Enjoy! 

Life with a 16 month old.

This week our little nugget turns 16 months old. He's growing up right before our eyes, and some days it doesn't seem possible that over a year has gone by. Mac is Mr. Independent! He is so much fun, but can also be quite the handful at times. Getting to watch him learn new things, and grow is one of our greatest blessings! He is in to everything, eats like a big boy, and can say lots of words. At his 15 month check up, he was in the 90% for weight and 95% for height. He is a growing, busy boy!

Being a mama to an active toddler some days is just flat out hard. At 16 months, he knows exactly what he wants but just doesn't know how to always tell us. This little boy can have quite the temper at times, and knows how to throw a mean fit when things don't go his way. He understands everything we say, but doesn't always make the best choices. Discipline has been challenging, but we're learning what works. He tests his daddy and my patience almost daily, but is the funniest little. He runs fast and screams loud. We've had to fully "child proof" our house, as he is in to everything. He's now tall enough to sit things on the counter tops, and just recently learned he can open doors; so he keeps us on our toes. He is quite the ham, and is ALL boy!

Mac, we love you to the moon! XOXO

July Wrap-Up.

HOLY MOLY! Is it just me, or is 2015 literally FLYING BY? It's now AUGUST, which means that this year is more than half way over and we're getting closer to Christmas. ;) WOW! However, I am just about over these 100+ degree temps and I'm getting the itch for fall to get here! But enough about all of that... let's talk about what happened in July.
July was a busy and exciting month around our house. We started off the month with our first annual McGriffey family vacation. We spent a full week in Seagrove, Florida and we're all already looking forward to going back again. Lots of great memories were made, and we all had tons of fun! You can read the full details of the trip on this post.

After we got home from vacation, Mac started a new school (daycare center) closer to our house. It was a little bittersweet leaving his previous daycare, but he's now in a class with several other littles his age. The friends he's making now he could go to school with once he gets older, and we feel like it's in his best interest for the years to come. The first couple of weeks were definitely an adjustment, but he's adjusting well and really likes his new friends and teachers.

It's been HOT here in Oklahoma this summer, so we've spent a lot of time around the water this summer. Mac enjoys the water, and when it's so hot you might melt the only way to be outside is in the water.

Mac completed his first year of ISR swim classes at the end of the month. I cannot say enough good things about ISR, and would highly recommend. Our instructor, Marcy, is awesome! It was dedication and commitment for 8 weeks of lessons, 5 days a week, but I now am completely comfortable with Mac being around the water. If something were to happen and him fall in, he knows exactly what to do!

That's a wrap on how July went down around here!

A Letter to Myself...10 years later

This year, 2015, marks 10 years ago we graduated high school. Tis the season of reunions, so I wrote a letter to my high school graduate self. 

Dear Lyndi,

You just finished high school, and you feel like you have accomplished one of the biggest goals in life. Yes, you have as graduating high school is major milestone. There were days you thought you'd never not have to see the walls of Muskogee High but those days are now gone. You're on the verge of opening a brand new chapter. The days ahead of you will bring home sickness, sleepless nights of studying, and new friendships. On the days you want to move back home, just listen to your mother. You're getting an opportunity of a lifetime and you should cherish every minute of it.

If you knew today what I know now, you would be way more appreciative than you are today for the opportunity you're being given. There are other 18 year-olds that would give anything to be your shoes.

In 10 years you'll look back and think about how fast the time went by. You'll be in at a place in life you never imagined you'd be in just 10 years. You and Clete are married for over 4 years, you have a beautiful home, and the most adorable little toddler boy. Your heart and home are filled with joy, and lots of love!  You earned your degree from OU in less than 4 years and now have a successful career in the world of accounting, I know it sounds bizzare.

There will be days that you ask God, why me? And there will be some decisions you make that you'll question if they were the right ones. But you'll later learn that someone out there is always fighting a bigger battle than you are, and heartache and hurt are just a part of this life.

There isn't anything we would change. All the things we've gone through are what have made us who we are today.

So when the days get hard, hang in there! There are better days ahead, and great things in store for you. "You can do all things through Him that gives us strength."

XOXO