WEARING | Black Friday

Dollar Tree skirt (for real) | Target plaid top |  LOFT sweatshirt
Land's End Jacket |  GAP jacket |  Claire's head-wrap

On Thanskgiving...

"Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. 

I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. 

But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing.... Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.

I hunger for filling in a world that is starved.

I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep. And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.

And Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle."

Favorite quotes from One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp

Suburban

HM dress (similar) |  LOFT blazer (similar) + belt |  Nine West wedges |  AE watch + shades

Wearing: Mish-Mash

Yeah. So, these pictures should give you a good idea of what the one-horse town I live in looks like (oh, wait...I think we might actually have two horses now!!).

This abandoned pick-up is right across the street from Walmart, which as you know, is the shopping mecca for any good, two-horse town...hehehe

I'm wearing pieces from everywhere, practically...

trying again with the whole neutral color palette.

Hmm...what do you think?

It's just not very natural for me, so it never really looks, I don't know...Kristina-ish?

Note to self--

MUST KEEP TRYING!!

(H&M Dress, reworked, original post here, LOFT Cardi, ICING belt, GAP tights, MIA Cadet Booties)

Wearing: Gap Maternity Dress

I've birthed three children, but didn't buy this maternity dress until after my three pregnancies, when I saw it on a very un-pregnant little sales-clerk at GAP. When I asked where she bought it, she whispered conspiratorially,

"Go upstairs to the Maternity section. It's on clearance for $12 right now!"

I obediently marched myself upstairs and fell in love with the print, cut, and comfort factor. The only alteration I made was to take in the sleeves. It blows me away that designers think a woman's arms are going to explode exponentially with her belly while she's prego.

I mean, really, who's arms get THAT big?

No one that I've ever seen...

I

Photos courtesy of Janelle Miles

(Gap dress, LOFT double wrap belt, Nicole Miller Boots)

Reflecting

Aaahhh...Sunday.

I love the opportunity it brings to go to church

and reflect on the week.

Am I showing a grateful spirit for all the intangible riches in my life (as well as that new pair of shoes)? Have I walked towards God in measurable ways? Do my children, who are with me all the time and see me at my worst, enjoy being with me? Do I give to my husband unselfishly?

These are things I love to sit on a park bench and ponder...to celebrate every victory of the week and, if realizing I've fallen short of some personal goal, determine that this week will be better.

(LOFT dress and cardi, JCREW belt and flower, Kenneth Cole Reaction Sunglasses)