Family & Lemons Go Together

Does anyone else feel like a blog post is like a long lost friend you can say anything to?...lol...I go to write a post, and it turns out to be 20 paragraphs long. I have to go back and delete half of what I say.

Here's goes nothin....

Yesterday I turned 29! {dun...dun....dun}

This time last year I was pregnant, and I am happy to say now, my cutie is 9 months old. I am GLAD I am not pregnant right now. This 100+ degree heat is killer!

My husband spoils me often, so for my birthday I didn't recieve any one specific special thing. One of the most rare happenings was that he actually remembered it....lol

(In the 5 years we have been married, we were apart for 2 of my birthdays, and he forgot the rest. It seems he knows it is on the 24th, but when the 24th actually comes, he doesn't know it.)

I was able to take advantage of Yankee Candle's semi-annual sale, and got a few lemon candles I love. All of the lemon scents smelled funny to me, except this one...I love it! Something about lemon, and the color yellow- they are just 2 of my favs that I don't think will ever change.

Another thing that will never change is how much I love my little family. To me a birthday isn't anymore special than any other day.
Every day of the week, family truly is the best present ever.

us after church in the Arizona heat

This is our bunch of 4...in a state where we have ZERO family. In fact, we are so alone, I had to bring this camera to church so that I could have a stranger snap it for us quickly so I wouldnt have to resort to using the autoflash later...lol

Family doesn't have to be related to you...this will be another topic for another post to come ;)

Sometimes it's easy to get out of focus in life...almost like living in a little bubble. You start to think the world revolves around nap times and reminding your kid to use the potty. Or maybe you struggle with the desire for things...more time...or those cookies you saw online.

I struggle with all of this.
Recently another blogger I admire voiced sadness in not being able to complete "summer to do lists" like other families/bloggers she had seen. {Type the topic in on Pinterest and be prepared to be overwhelmed}. All I could say to her post was:

"I think every family can make their summer be fun in their own way. I firmly believe it is easy to make bloggers on a pedestal and pinterest pinners so admired, that we forget we have homes we should be proud of and share with other people, and forget about the need to be busy and perfect all of the time. Take breaks, don't worry about pinning the latest fad, or missing a few days of blogging....seeing all of the summer to do lists shouldn't be stressfull, because when you are done with your summer, you should look back and say you enjoyed it and not that your merely checked boxes"

Hopefully on this Monday, you aren't waking up just to check another box on your list.
If you have lists, try setting them aside for a day and see what you come up with to do ;)....maybe even do something impromptu with the family ;)

If you had one day to do anything with your family, what would it be?? Comment here, and I will draw a name this evening for someone to receive a secret lemon-related freebie I also bought at the yankee candle store ;)....{its not a candle...hint hint}

Thank you for reading and happy monday!