Laugh. Love. Learn.

For Tanner’s first birthday, we wanted to choose a unique theme…so we chose Bumble Bees! Just to clarify, they are NOT yellow jackets. Cake #1 contains six layers of dark chocolate cake with yellow buttercream icing in between the layers.

Here’s a picture of the layers in process…it was a fun surprise when we cut into it. The cake was at least 8 inches tall, and the sides were completely covered in mini-chocolate chips.

Cake #2 is a beehive cake! It’s made of vanilla poundcake with a royal-icing-type glaze on top.

Here’s a close-up of the bumble bees….lemon jelly beans with black icing stripes. (p.s. i cheated and got black icing here…the rest is from scratch, but black icing is just too much trouble to mess with.) The next picture is of Oreo bumble bees…

Vanilla sugar cookie bumble bees…
and peanut butter bumble bees, which were totally a hit!

Here’s a close up of the peanut-butter bees, followed by the Bumble Bee Treat Bags…Graham Cracker Bees, Honeycomb, Yellow M&Ms, and Chocolate Jelly Beans.

I also decorated the flower arrangements with these fun pipe-cleaner bumble bees…dusted with glitter and suspended with floral wire.

Our Bee-Day party so fly. Ha Ha.
We have the cutest bee ever!

One of my friends likes me to share my cooking disasters so she feels more “normal.” So, in the name of authenticity, check this out. Today I planned to make 3 cakes.
Cake A: Made a lemon pound cake from scratch. Fresh lemon zest, fresh squeezed juice…etc. It was about 5 minutes from done and we had to leave. We were already late to an activity. Surely the hot pan would continue cooking the cake a little, right? Wrong. Cake A wasn’t done in the center. Cake A is in the trash.
Cake B: 6-layer chocolate cake from scratch. I figured I’d just make that one and let it cool overnight. Got all the way down the recipe…to the buttermilk. We have no buttermilk. Publix is closed, and we live in the boonies.
Cake C: Vanilla pound cake from scratch. Calls for 3 cups of sugar. Which is great, but I only have two after wasting all my sugar on failed Cake A and stalled Cake B.
Cake A, take Two: Not enough baking powder left. Or vanilla.
Score? 0 for 3. Yep, that’s ZERO for three.
How’s that for productivity?

So if you’re bored at 7am tomorrow, send me a tweet. Cause I’ll be standing outside the door at Publix waiting on them to open. It’s always fun to watch your excessive pre-planning crumble in your face. And remember…next time you screw something up in the kitchen, think, “hey! at least I didn’t screw this up as bad as Rebecca did that time!”

so i’ll have to admit…this moving stuff is owning me. perhaps it’s a little larger task than i estimated. for the last 48 hours my yard has owned me, but it was so worth it. it’s starting to look like home! nick and my sweet mama and i worked in the yard literally all day yesterday, and then nick and i spread mulch for several hours today. and it’s the bomb. check it:

our new home

front right…daisies, lantana, petunias, verbena (those geraniums are just chillin in the pots…they actually hang; they aren’t a part of that bed.)

random bushes, more verbena, a crepe myrtle, a gardenia, two hydrangeas, calla lilies, and phlox

isn’t this hydrangea beautiful? i don’t see how people can’t see the Lord in this. He is such an amazing artist! it was just sitting in a greenhouse screaming “buy me! buy me!”

this demonstrates why we can’t have a dog. i’d feel bad for it and want to buy it a friend. hence this pretty lace cap hydrangea is also living in my yard.

the name of this phlox is “Laura.” that’s my mama’s name, so i needed it. (that’s the name on the tag…as in the name of color of the plant. i do name Macs…but not plants.)

by the chimney…Katelynn loves shasta daisies, and i liked this pink yarrow…

and here’s the color bowl we made for the front door. portulaca, marigolds, wave petunias, and you see that lime green sweet potato vine? it reminds me of my Gran. she always had those in her color bowls. and they were beautiful because she watered them 4 times a day!

i love it. love it, love it, love it. flowers are my favorite.

Heather said, “don’t even act like you have time to sit down and answer these questions.” (She’s right; I don’t.)

And my mom responded, “Heather has the best one. What makes you think you have time to answer anyone’s questions right now? Oh, I already know, “Make time to do what you want to do.” Think I have heard that.”

That’s right mom, you have heard that. You see, this is a philosophy issue. Because the requirements on my life will never go away. The laundry is never done, the dishwasher always needs to be unloaded, the vacuum lines on the carpet always disappear… BUT… I have to hang on by a thread to activities that refuel me and contribute to who I am. Luckily for you, one of those activities is blogging. Ha Ha. I’ve always admired parents who’ve successfully raised well-rounded, Christ-following, pleasant-to-be-around kids…and maintained their identites. I love my girls. With everything I am. But one day they’re going to go to college, and get married, and have families of their own. If my only identity is based in my girls and the corresponding chores necessary to take care of them, what will I be left with? Practically nothing. That’s how I feel when I don’t do anything Rebeccaish. Like Nothing. A shell of who I long to be, or who I used to be. A shell is far from abundant…in fact, it’s desolate. So, sometimes the laundry may sit for two days. Or the dishwasher might not get unloaded. Or (gasp!) my pantry may become unorganized. But chances are it’s because I’m reading, painting, listening to music, baking, or blogging…long after the girls go to bed. It makes me love life more and be a much better mom for them when they wake up in the morning.

(p.s. I think my mom understands this whether she always follows it or not, because she sneaks into her garden whenever possible. Right mom?)

I’ll have to admit, the more I watch my husband be a father, the more I fall madly in love with him. Nick is an outstanding father — so outstanding I have trouble putting it into words. This Top Ten list won’t skim the surface of the depth of excellence, but it will give you a glimpse.

1. He does all things baby. Diapers, laundry, feedings, baths, bedtime, all of it. With joy.
2. After our second daughter was born, he realized how badly I wanted to stay home with her. And he wanted me to stay home with her too. So he did whatever it took to make that happen. Major sacrifices.
3. He works two jobs to provide for our family. And he has never complained once.
4. He plays with the baby in the floor. Her toys, Her books, Her eye-level. No distractions. He makes her laugh constantly, and she LOVES her “DaDa!”
5. He practices softball in the yard with Katelynn for hours. Literally hours. Not because he’s that guy in the bleachers who needs his kid to hit a homerun for his ego…he just wants to spend time with her because she asks him to. He takes her to gymnastics as well.
6. He helps me around the house more than you could possibly imagine. I didn’t realize how unusual this was…until I’ve heard other girls discussing it. In addition to all the traditional “manly” stuff (cutting the grass, taking out the trash…) he sweeps, polishes hardwoods, vacuums, uses windex with precision, picks up toys, puts away laundry, cleans the bathrooms, unloads the dishwasher, hangs things, assembles things, goes to the grocery store….seriously….it’s amazing. I never ask him…he just does it.
7. He models servant leadership for the girls. He serves us, serves tirelessly at the church, helps his friends, family members, random people he doesn’t even know…he has a true servant’s heart.
8. He puts up with me, which can be quite the challenge. Putting up with me involves things like long photography sessions, girly music, lots of Food Network, paint in the carpet, glitter on the floor, endless construction projects at church, always taking longer than I should when running in for “one thing” at the grocery store…it’s never-ending.
9. He protects us and kills all creepy things including spiders, ants, flies, and any other insect who dares enter our home.
10. He wants our girls to have the best lives possible, and be the best versions of themselves they can be. No matter what that requires. Including installing custom beadboard for 20 hours.

I am so thankful to Jesus for him.
And thankful that my girls get to see a picture of His love.

Ten Reasons My Daddy is Amazing…

1. If I find him in his rocking chair, I still crawl in his lap and he holds me. Without complaining. And I’m sure I’m heavy.
2. I remember him singing me to sleep every night…”Because He Lives” and “Something About That Name.”
3. I always find toasted almonds and pecans in his kitchen…and he shares! (my favorite)
4. He substitute teaches everyday at a high school, which is a thankless severely underpaid job, and the kids LOVE him. They request him by name. And when I’m around, they say, “Hey, isn’t Mr. Hayes your dad?!?”
5. He watches every Georgia Football game (on mute) while listening to Larry Munson on the radio…100% sold out to the Dawgs.
6. He loves to read the Word. Frequently. With Discipline. Actually, he’s disciplined about everything he does.
7. He’s the most wise person I know.
8. He’s a Mac convert. Yea-yeah! And a fan of all new tech gadgetry.
9. I have fond memories of riding around in his truck listening to the Oldies station…and I now know lyrics like “Sittin’ on the dock of the bay…”
10. He loves my kids. And they love their Papa. He plays with them. And reads to them. And talks to them. And prays for them.

I understand (from a human perspective) how much God loves us, because I know how much my daddy loves me.
*so thankful*

i know you’ll find this exhilarating.



welcome to my pantry. like my own little Publix…
i’m practicing for the day i get to work at a co-op

Perhaps you should get your toes done at Classy Nails & Tan!

Nikki’s Question #2: Do you ever want to go into full time ministry (paid)?

Yes, more than you could possibly imagine. But I think the reasons might be surprising. They’re complicated. I do not doubt my calling into ministry at all. Specifically, I think God created me to serve at The Vine. When I look back at everything that’s happened in my life, in conjunction with the way I’m wired and where my strengths and giftedness are, it’s really kind of crazy to see how things have lined up. To make sure there’s no confusion, I want to serve with everything I am, 100% of the time, with the most excellence possible, every single day…whether I ever get paid fulltime or not. The Lord and I have had long, drawn-out conversations about this, and I decided a long time ago that my worth in advancing the Kingdom and the amount of money I get paid don’t really have anything to do with each other. What matters is that I wake up every morning and say, “Yes, Lord. I will do whatever you say.” I know that God created me with purpose – and that purpose is making things happen. I found a great post I completely identified with the other day, so if you’d like to read more about that click here.

The reason I’d love to have a full-time paid ministry position is so I can be singular in focus and be the most effective I can possibly be. This is related to the blessing/curse of having both Achiever and Responsibility in the top 3 of your StrengthsFinders…but basically, I can’t do things half-way. Whatever I sell-out to becomes who I AM, and I can’t “leave things at the office” or turn my brain off. That’s what scares/frustrates me the most about going back to teaching fulltime – though I realize that’s how the Lord is providing for my family right now, and I will be obedient to and appreciative of that provision. Also, I’m sure there are teachers and students at my new school who are desperately in need of Jesus, and I will embrace the chance to love them like Jesus. I’ve worked fulltime before, and I’m not proud of the way I handled it. The Lord has taught me so much in the past year about the importance of family, and that the first place I need to minister and represent Him is in my home. When I used to teach fulltime, and work with a campus ministry, and volunteer with the youth at church, my family often got pushed to the wayside. And that’s not okay. It’s sin. The problem is that, because I think the Lord expects us to perform with excellence as though we’re working for him, I work really hard at teaching. I’ve promised myself I won’t do any extra curricular activities, but “just” teaching (and grading and planning) will take at least 50-60 hours a week. Minimum. And then I still want to serve at the church, which will now be my “free” time. So when we go to church conferences, etc, and the speakers talk about putting family first and creating boundaries and sabbathing, etc….though all of those things are valid…and Biblical…those principles are difficult to establish when all of my ministry “work,” if you can even call it that, has to be done during my free time. I’m pretty sure what it will come down to is me choosing between my family, church work, and sleep, and if sleep loses out then I won’t do anything 100% because I’ll be exhausted…IDK. It’s an endless cycle; one I think many full-time bi-vocational ministry people struggle with.

So, in conclusion, I feel a little weird about getting paid fulltime (or at all) to do what the Lord created me to do, but it would be awesome if He decided to make that happen because it would enable me to focus on ministry without feeling so fragmented, it would enable me to feasibly separate “work” from family time and honor my commitment to them, and –the coolest reason—“work” wouldn’t feel like working at all, because I absolutely love serving at The Vine, and outside of being with Nick & the girls, it is definitely where I feel the most fully alive!

I trust that His timing is perfect, and if it is His will for me to do ministry fulltime, it will be in His time. If it’s not His will, then I don’t want it to happen anyways. I just want to be obedient to whatever His plan is for me for the present.

You can still ask questions…

I figure this would be a good time to introduce some of you to my blog readers. Nikki and I are blog friends, which is a little weird, but I did get the chance to meet her in person, which was cool. She’s crafty; she has fun hair, spunky kids, and I totally respect her because her job would be second to last on my rather-be-completely-broke list…(first on that list is a dental hygenist…sorry, Kelly.) Nikki is a pediatric oncology nurse. I couldn’t do it. I don’t do medical stuff; I loathe the C word, and I really just don’t know that my emotions could handle it everyday. Nikki serves the Lord by serving her patients…therefore, she’s completely rockstar.

Nikki’s questions were: Do you ever want to go into full time ministry (paid),
and do you get much flack about your nose ring? Let’s work backwards.

The nose ring. Well…I catch less flack for the nose ring that I used to for the tongue ring. Apparently some people think that’s deviant. I wasn’t ever deviant to me – just jewelry – but I don’t have it anymore so that’s a non-issue. But for the nose ring…not much flack. I think it might give people false perceptions of me if they judge me before they get to know me, because I’m pretty much the opposite of wild or adventurous, but that’s what they get for being judgmental.

I did, however, accidentally wear it to a final interview with a CEO-type (whoops) and when they called to tell me I was hired my new boss was like, “I do need to mention one thing…I feel silly even discussing this, but I was asked to let you know that we have a dress code and nose rings aren’t allowed.” Ha Ha. Good thing that wasn’t a deal breaker, huh? I had really planned to take it out (I didn’t wear it to my first two interviews) but I got nervous before this one and just forgot. That’s the most flack I’ve gotten, besides general comments by parents of students like “great, my daughter’s going to want her nose pierced now.” What most of those poor parents don’t realize is that they should rejoice if getting a (removable!) piercing is the “worst” thing their kid ever does.

And…that’s long enough. This will be a two-part response.