Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I’m loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I’ve collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! ?
Kathrynne flew to Kansas last Tuesday to help my sister with her three little boys this week.
How is it possible that my “baby” is now old enough to be babysitting other kids? And how have we entered the season where we’re discussing getting a job and where she wants to go to college??
(And yes, she’s only 13, but she’s a planner and has already mapped out where she wants to work at age 14, what job she hopes to get when she’s 16, and what kind of college she thinks she’s interested in. Since I’m all about goal-setting and living with intention, I’m trying to wholeheartedly support this… even though I want to be all, “Could you just chill out and pretend like you’re going to be a kid forever?!?”)
I’m so grateful for the privilege of being this girl’s mom. She doesn’t like having many pictures or stories of herself on the internet, so I always respect that and that’s why you don’t see a lot of her on my blog and social media.
But man, we love this girl something fierce and our home was too quiet last week without her here!
My resident handyman! 🙂 He loves fixing things for his mama!
I took this girl on a little date to Barnes & Noble on Wednesday. I love getting to spend one-on-one time with my kids whenever possible!
Kaitlynn made a handwriting notebook for her cousin Archer (6) to work on school with him (she flew to KS on Saturday to stay with my sister — more on that below!)
She has so.much.hair!!!
Mamas, I know that it’s often easier and more comfortable to sit on the sidelines and watch your kids play.
I sat on the sidelines for a long time, too. And I may have gotten a lot of reading done. I might have gotten some good pictures of my kids. And I earned a reputation with my kids of a mom who isn’t into playing.
But I’ve been working on reversing that reputation. Because deep down inside, I AM a fun mom… or at least I have intentions of being so.
But good intentions aren’t enough; you gotta actually get up out of your comfort zone and act!
On Friday, I took Silas to the pool just the two of us. We don’t have a neighborhood pool or a pool close by. So this meant researching pools that were open to the public, driving 25 minutes to a new pool to try it out (traffic was bad!), and paying a $6 entrance fee (which I thought was very reasonable!).
When I asked him earlier in the day if he wanted to go to the pool with me, he said, “Just the two of us? That won’t be any fun since I know you’ll just sit on the side and read.”
What did I tell you about that reputation I have??!
I told him that I was coming to the pool to swim WITH him. He didn’t believe me, but I made good on my promise!
We had a blast — and I topped it off by stopping to get him a doughnut on the way home.
Oh and we had so much fun that I’m pretty sure we’re going to buy a summer membership to this pool so we can come multiple times per week!
I think there’s going to be a lot more swimming with my kids in my future — and I’m excited about it!
On Saturday morning, we got up early and took a flight (just the two of us) to go to Kansas so I could pick up Kathrynne and leave Kaitlynn to take her place and stay with my sister to help her.
She has inspired us so much with all the fun ways she fixes her hair… so I’ve been practicing learning how to do more with French Braids and Dutch Braids and updos.
I’m thinking of dubbing this the Summer of the Updo… and challenging myself to learn and perfect multiple quick up-dos. (Anyone know any fantastic YouTube videos of quick updos? If so, send ’em my way!)
When we made it to Kansas, we only had about 3.5 hours before Kathrynne and I had to get back on a plane to get home so I could be home by Saturday evening since we had some commitments on Sunday. So we tried to make the most of those hours — spending time with my sister and her husband and boys.
Atlas is something else! He is the cuddliest 17-month-old I’ve ever met!
Archer (6) was so excited to have the girls staying with them so he had more people to talk to (he’s such an extrovert!!)
And I got to meet my new nephew, Talon!
We also got to spend time with my mom and dad and sister and then we headed back to the airport!
Our flight to Dallas ended up sitting on the tarmac for 30 minutes and we had 10 minutes to try to make a mad dash to the gate to make our connecting flight. It was way far away and we just missed it by a minute! But we were so grateful that we were able to get a ticket on a later flight and were home by 11 p.m.!
Sunday was spent serving at church, taking a nap, reading, and having dinner with Roger & Kathi Lipp who were in town for a conference!
2018 Goals Update
Personal Goals
1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.
**Progress: 23 books read so far this year
2. Read through the entire Bible.
**Progress: I’m using the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!
3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.
**Progress: 25 notes written so far this year
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 201 miles run so far
Marriage Goal
5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.
Family Goals
6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.
**Progress: I’ve finished one book so far.
7. Take the kids to South Africa.
**Progress: We bought our tickets!
8. Go on a family road trip.
**Progress: We’ve been researching some options for this. Stay tuned!
Financial Goals
9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.
**Progress: We’re working on finishing out the workout room.
10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)
Business Goals
11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.
12. Launch 5 new courses.
**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, and Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April.
Jennifer says
My favorite times have been with my son in the water. Even when he’s splashing me terribly!
Also, I need to know the details on the dress you’ve got on in that picture of you and Jesse and that other couple. It’s super cute and totally my style.
JH says
This tutorial was a great help when I needed to put my daughter’s very thick, very wavy hair into a neat bun.
https://youtu.be/RK0pZxcQn60
It’s a lot easier than it first appears! Your daughter’s hair looks very cute in braids. Love it!
As someone who has hair like your daughter’s (and my girls do, too), my best advice when she wants to wear it down is to find a product you like to define the wave/curl and tame the frizz, put it in when the hair is wet and use a pick to comb it through, and then leave it. Brushing through curly/wavy hair when it’s dry will only make it bigger/frizzier/harder to control. It make take some experimenting to find the products that work best on her hair, but once you find the right one, it’s a life-changer. (I use a volumizing mousse to tame down and control my big hair – it’s the only thing that I’ve found that works. Go figure!).
Crystal Paine says
Yes! Since I have sisters with curly hair, I’ve learned lots of great tips for how to work with curly hair. Kaitlynn currently doesn’t like using any sort of gel or mousse or product and doesn’t like how her hair looks down and curly, so I just let it be and let her fix her hair how she prefers. But I hope she’ll eventually come around and decide that leaving it curly and using gel and mousse is the way to go. 🙂 Because her hair looks amazing when she lets it air-dry with gel or mousse!
Adeline says
I cannot speak highly enough of the DevaCurl products. Pricey but worth it!
Luba @ Healthy with Luba says
Crystal, how sweet of you to allow your girls to help your sister. She must be so grateful to have excellent help as they adjust to live with a newborn.
I love your hair up! I wear mine up every day so that it stays out of my way and need some variations in how I do it too.
Crystal Paine says
Thanks so much for your kind words!
Brittany Vaske says
This may be a strange question, but what does Kaitlynn’s hair do with a curling mousse/spray and/or a diffuser? I’m so curious at the curl potential with that hair!
-Sincerely, a girl with stick-straight hair. ?
Crystal Paine says
Her hair looks AMAZING with gel/mousse… but she currently doesn’t like it like that so she rarely wears it down and curly. I’m hoping her mind will change about that eventually!
Brittany Vaske says
I don’t blame her, at that age I didn’t want to fuss much with my hair either?