Monday Thrive June 19

Happy Monday! 

1) I hope all you father's had a special Father's Day yesterday! I am so thankful for my amazing dad! The older I get the more I realize just what amazing parents I had growing up! I was closest to my mom growing up. I remember a change in my relationship with my dad  when I was about 18. 

I had left Michigan where we lived to go to college in California. I went to college about 30 minutes from where I live now. I remember the second day I was at school l became horribly homesick. I had asked to come home. I didn't want to be there and so far away. I cried so much in those 2 weeks. I am not sure if i had ever cried that much in my life. lol My parents said I had to finish the semester. At the time it sounded like the end of the world to a 17 year old. I had no friends, was in a strange place, and I was almost 2,000 miles away. Back then I didn't realize I needed to stay because 7 years later I would end up moving right back there! I didn't know this until later, but my dad told my mom to let me come home. My mom was the strict one this round and said NO. If I had known my dad was the softy in this situation I would have talked to him more about coming home. lol 

My dad told me after I came home at some point that I was the first person he missed so bad and how hard it was on him when I went away to college. This past summer he told me that story again. I dread the day G goes away to college. 

I have spent a lot of time with my mom over the past few years. She has come to CA to take care of me when I've been sick and when I had G. She stayed with us for a few months when I went back to work, so she could take care of G. Last summer I stayed in ND to help take care of my dad after he had open heart surgery. I really cherished that time that I was able to spend with him and my family. We spent a lot of time watching the Olympics. I told him I will be coming back every 4 years during the summer Olympics, so we can spend some time watching it together. He is less than thrilled to spend time watching the Olympics. lol He said he never would have watched it if he hadn't been recovering. 


2) G started preschool last week. The first day he barely had time to even tell me good bye. When I picked him up he ran to give me a big hug. I asked him did you like school? He enthusiastically said YES! I asked would you like to come back tomorrow? Again I got a loud YES! He really loved it! He had to tell both sets of grandparents all about his day. He played with trucks, had cheese sticks and crackers for snacks and there were lots of dinosaurs. He was a little clingier the rest of the day. I asked him did you miss momma? He said yes, then gave me a tight hug. I told him it was ok to miss me, but I would always come to pick him up. 

They do lots of crafts, play with toys, play outside, have snacks and read stories. When I picked him up I loved how calm everything was in the room. It is a room with about 8-10 two year olds. Everyone is playing or reading stories on the bean bag chairs. The teachers are really fabulous! The staff is all so friendly too. I am so happy that we found such a great place. 

3) I recently bought these earrings from Mia & Mac. I follow her on Instagram. She posted these adorable gold hammered earrings on her IG story the other day. She was selling a few different designs of earrings for different price points. I loved the plain hammer gold hoops. They are about the size of a nickle. The perfect size! They are lightweight, dainty and simple. Just the perfect touch for all my gold jewelry. I am always looking for earrings to go with different necklaces. I need a plainer type of earring because sometimes I just wear my G Silver Wren tag necklace and other times I will wear a big statement necklace. I have been tending to lean more to more simple pieces since I stay home with G. 

4) Heather from My Life Well Loved started a series called Holy Grit. She talked about it on her IG stories. I was like meh I don't know that I really want to do a 30 day Bible series. I decided to sign up for the emails on it. I need some Holy Grit in my life. I am soooo glad I signed up for this series. It is so amazing! Each day I take the time to read the emails and read the verses. It has been such a blessing to me and helped me so much. There is still time for you to join in. I highly recommend you join in if you need some encouragement, positive influence or just are looking for a new type of devotional to do. 


5) We are planning some water activities this summer. I decided to buy G a puddle jumper. I keep seeing kids wearing them on social media. I am hoping he likes this and it works well for us. We have a small pool in our backyard. He is cautious in it. He would rather just stand in there with no one else and splash around just a little bit. What type of flotation devices do you use for your kids?