Well, hi there, guys!

This past week has been a wild ride. I fully intended to blog about many things, but–given the ridiculousness that was my schedule last week–I should haven’t intended any such thing. Because it was never going to happen.

So! Why so ridiculous, this week of mine?

Well, my sister-in-law, Hannah, has been hard at work creating THEE most adorable stick-horses you ever did see (plus lots of other handmade children’s goodies), and she and I thought it would be fun to partner up on a couple of Christmas events (her with her handmade items, and me with Paint and Prose).

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(See what I mean about the stick horse adorableness? Hannah made two of these for my twins for their birthday, and they LOVE them. And I bought two from her for a double birthday party I mention below, and they were the one thing that both kids played with immediately out of a plethora of brightly colored, exciting toys. If you need one of these in your life–c’mon, you know you do–email me at blogabbie{at}gmail{dot}com, and I’ll get you connected with Hannah).

Well, turns out, two of those events (one of which was a 2 day affair) ended up being on the same week. Turns out again that Lindsay and I had agreed ages ago to be part of an event (that I’d completely forgotten about) at Moss, a local fair-trade flower shop (pretty much the cutest little flower shop), and–guess what!–it was the evening of one of the events that I’d already committed to. (hashtag yay)

And double guess what! Shaun (who always helps out with printing and organizing for said events when they come up) ended up having a work trip scheduled starting last Tuesday.

Oy!

It was a doozy of a week, y’all. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. My saintly mama, who had already volunteered to keep both Hannah’s and my kids during all of this, got more than she bargained for once the “extra event” rolled in plus Shaun ended up being out of town.

She handled it like a champ, but I’m pretty sure I owe her a vacation on a deserted island.

Basically, my side of things looked like lots of late nights prepping things for various booths and early mornings hauling them to various locations various distances from my house, setting up, working the booths, breaking down, and then doing it again the next day.

Oh! And there was that one time I thought I had the rug for our booth I’d promised at our house only to discover that–nope!–I’d already taken it out to the new property.

Of course, I discovered this only 10 minutes before I needed to jump in the car and haul all remaining stuff to our booth for setup, and OF COURSE, when I got to the property, the gate was locked (duh, Abbie). So, I proceeded to RUN (or hobble awkwardly, as that is the closest a 33-week-pregnant woman gets to running) in heeled boots, no less, down our forever-long driveway and then haul a 35 pound rug back down it to the van. And did I mention that I climbed a fence? Twice.

And the whole time, all I could do was chuckle (and sweat) and think: “If someone videos this, I’m not sure if I should thank him for the laughs or kill him on the spot.”

The cherry on top of the crazy was that my husband told me later that day on the phone as I was giving him quite the visual of my trek down the driveway that the gate wasn’t actually locked that day. It just looked like it was. #thanksalotbabe

The true cherry on top of the cherry, though?

As Lindsay and I were busily working the table at the Moss (flower shop) event, I heard a voice I would know anywhere behind me, but my brain simply could not register what my heart had already recognized until I turned around and saw my husband standing there behind me, flowers in hand, home from his work trip, in the flesh, a full 24 hours earlier than I had expected to see him.

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(He had finished his work more quickly than expected and bent over backwards to get himself an earlier flight).

Y’all.

I pretty much shrieked and threw myself at him. And then I cried against his neck. #darnpregnanthormones. I don’t think I had any idea how tenuously I was keeping it together until that instant when it felt safe not to have to.

The poor customer behind me was just kind of staring at the hysterical pregnant lady, but Lindsay–with whom Shaun had conspired to keep me from eating any real food until he got there (even though I kept saying how hungry I was)–was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

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{See? I, by contrast, look half-asleep}

Honestly, it was one of the best moments of my entire life. That may sound silly. But to realize how well my husband and best friend (who had been bringing me apples and little bites of this and that to hold me over just so Shaun could take me to dinner) loved me in that moment was very sweet indeed.

Lindsay shooed us off, and Shaun whisked me off for a date. And it was a very good date.

The next day was the Heritage Syrup Festival in Henderson (my hometown), but–if I’m completely honest–it was a complete bust (as far as sales for Paint and Prose). Completely wrong demographic + a bit of an awkward booth location.

The upside was that the slow booth traffic allowed me to walk around for several hours with my parents and the kids–whom I was missing like crazy–taking them to the bouncy houses and the petting zoo and buying them overpriced fair food.

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(Theo was festivaled out, apparently)

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(What is on Della’s face? A wolf? A warthog? A horse? For $2, animal accuracy was clearly not required)

Sunday was another packed day with church plus a birthday party in the afternoon and then prep for homeschool co-op today, but having Shaun back in the mix definitely felt like a great big, “Aaaaah” of relief.

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Our neighbors throw thee best parties, complete with bouncy houses and yummy food. Plus, their property is just dreamy.

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See what I mean?

I actually got out there and played soccer for 15 minutes–a foolish decision for which I was rewarded with a pulled tendon and some rather impressive Braxton Hicks contractions. But it was tooootttally worth it!

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(Theo was super sad to have Daddy home, obviously)

The thing is, as much as I would not have planned last week’s schedule like it ended up if I had known/realized all of the individual moving parts ahead of time, I am challenged by what our pastor said yesterday morning: “What if, every time you were tempted to complain, someone jumped up and said, ‘Wait! First think of 5 things you’re grateful for!'”

And I thought: “Whoa. So simple but so good.”

Of course, way more than 5 things immediately popped to mind, but the most obvious five are definitely: my husband, my mom (and dad who helped a lot too), my children, my freedom, and my Jesus.

When I view a long (not bad, but definitely long) week through the lens of gratitude, it sure does take on a different shine.

So, now you know what I did last week. What about you guys? What have y’all been up to?Any gratitude lists you want to share?

P.S. Thanks so much for those who took the time to email me about my election post–whether or not we agreed. I appreciate you.

3 Comments

  1. i am hoping to see about the hammock you gave your hsb. a few months ago. I really thought I had saved the info to be able to get one fr a relative for Christmas. but I have searched my archives and no luck. thank you.

    what a nice reward you received for your busier than busy time period by having Shaun show up early

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