project 52.23

influential.

Back in May we had your baby dedication.  

It hit me during the service just how influential your daddy and I will be in your life.  

You will hear how we speak.  

To you, to each other, about other people.  

You will see how to act.

With love or disrespect.  With a willing heart or begrudgingly.  

You will learn where to find your purpose and worth in this life based on where we find our purpose and where we search for worth.  

I want to influence you to live big.  To love well.  To find joy in all things.  To confidently be who you are designed to be.  

I read this recently and it set in again, how mindful I have to be of the influence I will have in your life. 

The author writes this about her dad:

"I think people like him because his default setting is open delight.  He's prepared to be wowed - by your humor, your smarts, your white smile, even your handshake - guaranteed, something you do is going to thrill him.  Something is going to make him shake his head afterward, in disbelief, and say to me, "Lovey, what a guy!" or "Lovey, isn't she terrific?"  People walk away from him feeling like they're on their game, even if they suspect that he put them there. 

He does that for me too.  He makes me feel smart, funny, and beautiful, which has become the job of the few men who have loved me since.  He told me once that I was a great talker.  And so I was.  I was a conversationalist, along with creative, a notion he put in my head when I was in grade school and used to make huge, intricate collages from his old magazines.  He defined me first, as parents do.  Those early characterizations can become the shimmering self-image we embrace or the limited, stifling perception we rail against for a lifetime.  In my case, he sees me as I would like to be seen.  In fact, I'm not even sure what's true about me, since I have always chosen to believe his version." 

- The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan 

I want to put you "on your game".

I want to make you feel smart, funny and handsome.

I want to influence you well.

itty bitty.

I came across this picture of Crews tonight.  

It was the first time I got to hold him.  

 Look how tiny he was!

So thankful he's getting big. 

brain dump.

So, there's some random stuff that I've been meaning to post but nothing long enough for it's on individual post!  How about a brain dump?

• On yesterday's post, BonBon was the only commenter to guess the correct babe!  It was Tate!  In fact, when I started to type this out, I looked back again at the other pictures I took in the same setting and it was in fact, Tate.

• I had a few comments on the Bowl Cover post asking if I would be making any to sell.  I am happy to make these to sell if anyone is interested.  Just shoot me an email (jenny.s.conklin [at] gmail [dot] com).  I think it would cost too much to ship the bowl so if you would like to buy your own bowl and let me know what color the bowl is, I can send you some fabric options!  I would also need to know the diameter of the bowl.  I would be willing to make them with a monogram or name for $18.  

• My grandma is in the hospital.  And has been for 40 days.  Please pray for her.  She has had quite a time.  Thankfully, the doctor was semi-encouraging yesterday after a hard few days.  Please pray for healing and for wisdom for the doctors.  And for rest for family who are staying with her.  40 days is a long time, y'all.  And the road to recovery is going to be long.

• My mom bought a statue of brothers (we're calling them twins :)) for her back deck and we had to get of picture of the twins with it.  So funny.  And random.

Okay, I think that's all for this random Thursday.  

Have a good one y'all!

a baby and an old bald man.

Since the twins were born, I have played a little game with my parents and Jordan's parents.  I will text them a picture of one of the boys and they will guess which baby it is.  

Although they do look different when they are together, we have all gotten them confused when they are separate.  Not so confused that you panic.  But just confused enough to do a double [or triple] take.  

[Thankfully we would never have to actually panic.  Crews has an umbilical hernia so if all else failed, we could just check the belly buttons :)]

My dad is rarely wrong.  Which is quite an accomplishment since he uses a phone one generation newer than a bag phone.  Kidding.  But he does still use a flip phone.  With a screen that is about an inch and a half square.  But, with his reading glasses and his tiny screen, he's still typically dead on.

Well, over time the pace of the game has slowed.  The boys look different.  But, there are still occasional pictures that are difficult enough that I send them along.  

I got one on Monday night and sent it out.  I knew this one would stump someone.

So, my dad immediately called me.

"Jenny, I haven't figured out which baby that is but, who is the old, bald man holding him?"

This is the picture he opened

(in about the size it was on his phone)

And bigger...

That's right.  It's me.

Wow.  Thank you, dad.  I mean, I know that a picture of a reflection is a little blurry.  And canning spaghetti sauce all day doesn't do the best of things to your hair.  And that this angle is like the worst possible of my face.  

But really?  A old, bald man?

So the question remains, which baby is the old, bald man holding?

project 52.22

free.

Freedom is not something I ever want you to take for granted.  

That is hard.  To live in a place where you have always had freedom, it is easy to forget that so many others don't.  Daddies and brothers, sons and best friends are protecting our country every day.  So that we can live the way we want to live.  And worship the way we want to worship.  To have rights. And to be protected.  I want you to be ever grateful for that.

I also want you to come to know the freedom that Christ offers.  It is easy to live a life of bondage.  To sin of all kind.  Sins that pull you away from Jesus.  And sin that ties you to the idea that you must be good enough to be accepted by Jesus. But Christ offers freedom.  For you to come to Him, unashamed.  Just as you are.  

I pray that you accept that freedom, too.

wedding gift.

My childhood friend, Ellis, and his beautiful bride, Sarah, were married this weekend.  The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and lots of fun.  I thought I'd post a picture of the wedding gift I made for them.

As NC State grads and huge football fans, they spend lots of weekends tailgating.  In fact, I think they even had a tailgating shower before a football game last year where they received lots of fun NC State gear :)  Such an awesome idea!  

Well, you know how you fight and fight with saran-wrap to get it to stick to a bowl?  

And then you take it off when it's time to eat but if there are any leftovers in the bowl, good luck, because you've already wadded up the saran-wrap and thrown it away.

I decided to make them a bowl cover!  I thought it might be a good addition to their tailgating supplies!  Or even good for grilling out - to keep the bugs away from the baked beans until the rest of the food is ready.  And of course, a little embroidery never hurts :)

To go along with the bowl cover, I monogrammed some kitchen towels.  I feel like there's something fun about special kitchen towels.  I always love having fun ones and thought they may like to have a few with their monogram :)

I found the tutorial for the bowl cover on Finding My Feet!

individuals.

As the boys start to get a little older I'm starting to realize this Parents of Twins thing will be challenging.  I am honestly not too caught up on milestones.  I want the boys to thrive, don't get me wrong.  But I am also not up in arms if they aren't sitting up or crawling at a certain number of months. 

 It has proven to be good that I'm not overly stressed about these things since they are preemies but honestly they've been developing well, so it's not been hard to be low key about things. But, I'm sure this will get more difficult. 

What has been difficult is separating them as individuals for other people.  People ask if "they" are crawling or if "they" are teething and want a yes or no answer.  Not, "Well, Crews is starting to crawl but Tate isn't as interested."  Or, "Tate is getting another tooth and I haven't seen a new one for Crews lately."  That's too much detail.  They want yes or no.

And, honestly, I've found it most challenging to make sure people see that I love the boys equally.  That sounds weird.  But it's true.  People see twins as very "tit for tat".  If I say something about Crews, I have to say something about Tate.  And visa versa.  If I post a picture of Crews, I have to post a picture of Tate.  Yesterday's blog post was pictures of Tate.  Only Tate.  So today...pictures of Crews.  

But I want them to realize that they are two individual people.  I want to raise them as individuals.  I want them to look back and see pictures of just them.  By themselves or with me or their daddy.  Without their brother.  And not in the exact same setting just a different baby.  

I know children have to be parented differently.  Based on their personalities and their needs.  I pray that God gives me the strength to be the mom I need to be to both of them.  To meet their individual needs and to love them as individuals.  

daddy smiles.

I walked in to the bedroom last night and Jordan was talking to Tate.  He was just so excited that I had to grab my camera.  

I love that he already adores his daddy so much.

I could just eat him up.  He's one of my most favorite boys in the whole wide world.

project 52.21

lucky.

Your daddy and I both grew up around lots of family.  There was always a birthday to celebrate or a holiday potluck.  Or just riding four wheelers on Sunday afternoon with all the cousins.  We attended each other's ballgames and dance recitals.  Birthday parties and high school graduations.  I had friends who didn't have families like that.  Their families were small or they lived too far away or they just weren't close.  I was always so glad to have such a big family. 

And so, you are lucky.  To have cousins to grow up with.  To have things like Cousin Camp every summer.  And birthdays.  And holidays. 

Do not take this for granted.  

Not everyone is so lucky.

one of my favorite things.

One night last week we did one of my favorite things during the summer.  We went to the pool and ate supper and then swam.  It was so much fun.  The weather was perfect.  The lighting was perfect.  And the company was perfect.  I took some pictures and then my sister-in-law, Gretchen, took some :)

Emma Claire learned how to swim this week.  So, she and Poppy spent time going down the slide.  He's so sweet with all his littles.

Nonny, aka - Superhero of the week, and sweet Anabelle.

Me and Tate

Jordan and Crews.  I loved his expression in all of these so I had to put them all on here :)

Me with Tate again.

An in-action shot of Poppy and Emma Claire.

Daddy and Tate :)

Anabelle and her princess float!

Jordan and his nieces.

Me and Crews.

Tate and Nonny.