Celebrate Easter!

Celebrate Easter!

1 Farm Fresh Eggs by Katherine Maries

2 Easter Egg Hunt Bags by The Purl Bee

3 Papier-Mache Eggs by Not Martha

4 Easter Surprise Eggs by Not Martha

5 Paper Bag Easter Basket by Our Big Earth

Activities For Your Easter Weekend

{Friday}

Make Stained Glass Crayon Crosses

Read Luke 22-23:49

Talk about Jesus' death on the cross

Crosses photo by Our Family For His Glory |  Cross tutorial by  DLTK's Growing Together

{Saturday}

Make Easter Story Cookies & Resurrection Rolls

Read Luke 23:50-56

Talk about Jesus' burial

Resurrection Rolls by Homegrown Mom

Easter Story Cookies by Eat At Home

Both recipes are a wonderful hands-on way for little ones to learn about the true meaning of Easter.

The Easter Story Cookies recipe includes verses to read and actions to do, which is super helpful in relaying the message to those little minds.

We made both last year and the boys loved it (or they just loved the marshmallows!)

Making Easter Story Cookies

Resurrection Rolls

{Sunday}

Dye Easter Eggs

Talk About the story of salvation using the colors of the eggs

 Black = Sin | Red = Blood of Christ | Purple = Grace | Green = Eternal Life | Gold = Heaven’s Street

Eat Easter Story Cookies & Resurrection Rolls

Read Luke 24:1-12

Talk about Jesus' resurrection; how the cookies & rolls were empty inside just like Jesus' tomb!

And then have a blast doing all the fun Easter things like egg hunts and Easter baskets, explaining that it's fun to pretend and celebrate as long as we know the real reason for Easter.

....

Do you have any special Easter traditions?

Bridge Run 2012

Charleston's Cooper River Bridge Run | 2012

(photo found here)

you kicked my tail. 

seriously.

stats.

charleston, sc 

(I seriously love you charleston... seriously.)

38,000 people

corralled like cattle

1 hour delay

 1 second: the amount of time lapsed after having crossed the starting line before I had to go to the bathroom

bowling balls: what I felt like were attached to my feet after having stood in the same spot for over an hour

4: the incline grade of the bridge

1,265: the number of times I wanted to quit

 1,265: the number of times I told myself not to quit while climbing the bridge

. . . 

The bridge closes at 7am so all runners coming from Charleston (everyone!) must be over the bridge before that deadline. This means you wake up early. 4:30am early. We were pumped though and having a blast. We had our water, coffee, peanut butter toast and our bananas. We had our amazing outfits (insert: 80's exercise attire!!! We were so cute! :)) We were ready to go. We were still ready to go at 8:30 when the announcer kept saying '2 more minutes!'... but somewhere between then and a little after 9am when we finally started the race, my poor body was done. I was exhausted, hungry and pregnancy induced swelling in my legs and feet literally made the first 2 miles absolutely miserable. I felt as thought I were hauling a couple of bowling balls, not to mention the one in my belly. I had to stop within the first couple minutes because I had needed to use the restroom for about 30 minutes, but with the promise of 'only 2 more minutes' coming every couple of minutes none of use wanted to risk leaving to actually go to the restroom. 

I am a self-confessed perfect conditions runner. Meaning, all conditions must be perfect in order for me to run. And every condition was less than perfect. Even my beloved iphone died before I got to mile 2 because I had forgotten to charge it the night before. So, no music or distractions from the pain for this girl. 

However, no matter how difficult those first 2 miles were, around mile 3 my blood started flowing. The adrenaline kicked in and I finally found a rhythm, making the rest of the race fun and so worth all the pain. Crossing the finish the line after such a rough start was joyous to say the least. 

Last year my finish time goal was around an hour and being pregnant this year my goal was to just finish. I finished in 1 hour 11 min (much to my surprise when I looked it up today), that works out to be 11:45 miles which I will take at 32 weeks pregnant! (Especially considering how slow I went up that bridge... that mile alone was probably 16 minutes... ha.)

P.S. I loved running with baby girl inside me. The thought of her inspired me to keep going. I will tell her one day of how I ran a 10k at 32 weeks pregnant and that she was the one who got me to the end. I hope it is the first of many adventures we will have together. It was, after all, her first girls' weekend! And a great one at that.

What do you think of our outfits?! Adorable, right?! I've decided I'm bringing leg warmers back... because they are amazing (a little hot on a 6 mile run, but amazing nonetheless. :))

Ladies, thank you for an amazing couple of days! I had a blast (and I think Adelee did too!)

March Goals in Review

{March In Review}

Personal

+ Continued Bible Reading - Currently in Acts, Psalms & Deuteronomy

+ Trained (& Conquered) 10k Race 

+ Photobooks - Nope. I REALLY want these done before baby arrives in May.

+ Relax - Yes. As much as I can. I think this is a learned trait...

Wife

+ Daily Prayer Time WITH Aaron & Intentional Quiet Time Together - hmmm... there were many weeks in the month of March where we literally had an event or activity we had to be at every night of the week. This made that intentional quiet time together rather difficult. Need to figure out a better plan for this....

+ Daily Prayer FOR Aaron - Yes. Currently reading through A Praying Life and asking God to teach me what daily intentional prayer looks like...

Mom

+ Intentional Play Time - This is getting better. And since Drew had spring break this month it forced me to plan an entire week of play time. I decided that I would much rather clean their room than be still and 'just play' with them in their room. So, in recognizing that I am asking God to help me be more fun and creative in my time with them.

+ Daily Prayer FOR little ones - Yes. Always. 

+ Plan Intentional Play Time - This is getting better... like planning morning of which is still better than not being intentional at all. Really hoping to get a grasp of this in April. :) Aaron has a small group bible study once a week and we call those nights, Mommy Date Nights. I have finally found a fun routine that works great for those nights and I am counting that as a success for this 'planning intentional time' goal.

 

Mommy Date Nights Include:

Dinner - typically something simple & quick at home like soup & grilled cheese = easy and stress-free clean up

Dessert - Ice Cream Sundaes (really just ice cream and sprinkles!)

Movie - We are currently on a Curious George kick. They are fun and silly but still short enough to make our 8pm bed time.

Bath time - They LOVE playing in the bath tub. 

Bed time - Jesus Storybook Bible + Prayer time

I use the time after they lay down to pick up the house, finish up any laundry from the weekend and potentially do a little cleaning (depending on how exhausted I feel.)

I do really like this routine. I feel like I have control over the evening but we still have fun together.

Business

+ Begin Website/Blog Transformation. Nope. It was on the list every.single.day. and it just did not happen. Maybe April?

+ Begin New Designs For All Collections - Yessss! I worked VERY hard on this over the course of the month. All inspiration boards have been created for each collection. The inspiration boards include fonts, color palettes, image inspiration, etc. that I will use for the collections. This was especially tedious for the AadenSage and Inspired Collections because they both include scripture that needed to be compiled. But even that part is done! The Everyday Collection is even complete on the design front. Now to just finish all the additional aspects that have to take place before I can show them to the world.

 Hopefully your March was super amazing and your April is off to a great start!

Excited to make big things happen this month!

Goals for April.

Goals for April

 What are your goals for April? 

I am currently sitting in paradise thanks to a mini vacation with the family. 

I am thinking and planning the next few weeks trying to make the most of my time before baby Adelee arrives. I hope to have a March goals re-cap post up later this week along with some pictures from my amazing weekend in Charleston!

Free Printable for You!

I created a little monthly goal printable for you as well (just click on the below image, save to your computer and print!). I left blanks for you to fill in four areas/roles in your own life. Use the space below the blanks to list out a few actionable goals you would like to pursue this month in each area of your life. It's in a 5x7 layout so you could easily print it out, frame it and then place it somewhere that you would see it daily. This way you are easily being reminded of your goals through this next month.

I would love to hear about your goals for April and to see how you use your monthly printable!

Enjoy!

Running!

 +

I am headed to Charleston, South Carolina today for a much anticipated weekend away with a group of very special women who I love so much. We will be running in the Cooper River Bridge Run tomorrow along with about 46,000 other people!

I ran the race last year and it was so much fun we vowed to make it a yearly thing... 32 weeks pregnant or not. :) (Don't panic, my doctor gave me the ok!) You can check out some of these fun posts (here, here and here) about the race last year and the amazing restaurants that we had the pleasure of dining in.

If you happen to be running too and see a cute group of women rocking some 80s workout gear and one of them happens to be very pregnant, say hi! (...that would be us!)

Recipe: Strawberry Scones

 Recipe from Simple & Delicious

It's strawberry season! I love finding wonderful recipes for my strawberry addiction!

. . .

Strawberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

·       2 cups all-purpose flour

·       2 tablespoons sugar

·       1 tablespoon baking powder

·       1/2 teaspoon salt

·       5 tablespoons cold butter

·       1-1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, divided

·       1 cup frozen unsweetened strawberries, chopped

·       GLAZE:

·       2 cups confectioners' sugar

·       3 tablespoons lemon juice

·       1 tablespoon butter, melted

·       1 tablespoon 2% milk

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 1-1/4 cups cream just until moistened. Fold in strawberries. Turn onto a floured surface; knead 10 times.

• Pat into a 9-in. x 7-in. rectangle. Cut in half horizontally. Cut each half into four rectangles; separate and place on a greased baking sheet. Brush with remaining cream.

• Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. For glaze, in a small bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, butter and milk; drizzle over warm scones. Serve warm. Yield: 8 scones.

. . . 

I made this recipe exactly as above (except for the rolling out the dough and cutting into rectangle shapes; I ran out of time and just formed the rectangles with my hands. Messy, but it worked just fine!) I took these delightful goodies to a playdate where they were all eaten up. A good sign of a great recipe!

Weekend Wardrobe: For Boys

 The Proffitt family had a great weekend! Due to our family entering a new season of life with Andrew starting t-ball (i.e. Saturday games) and then kindergarten in the fall we changed up our weekly schedule a bit and for the first time in 3 years, our day off was Saturday instead of Friday. It was glorious because we had a normal Friday evening and Saturday to spend as a family. (My husband is a pastor so his biggest and most challenging workday is Sunday.)

Andrew had his first t-ball game on Saturday where we spent an entire hour laughing at the hilarity that is 4 & 5 year olds trying to play an organized sport. We may have forgotten Andrew's baseball glove... which only added to the laughs. And we cannot forget to take note of the shoes of choice for the first game. We realized they may not be the best choice after he hit the ball, took off running and then slid face first into the dirt. Not to worry a sweet friend is donating a pair of cleats to save him from such tragedy in the future. :)

For this week's weekend wardrobe I thought it would be fun to show you a different side of my wardrobe planning... my boys! I did wear a super cute dress to church on Sunday (thanks to my mama and Old Navy, but you have already seen it!)

All the below pieces are from Target (except for the black skinny jeans that are from Old Navy, however I scored Drew's from Salvation Army for $0.50! Woohoo) where I love to find inexpensive but super cute pieces for the boys wardrobe. Layering is my favorite and makes even a typical piece look more put together.

What do you think? Would you dress your little guy in one of these outfits?