Welcome to a new week! I’m feeling particularly excited to get going on a fresh week. Honestly, last week was a bit of a roller coaster ride for me emotionally. On the uppest upside there is, my beautiful niece was born!
Lacey Mckenna came into the world last Monday, perfect as can be with that flawless complexion. She had a little trouble with her breathing and spent a few days in NICU, which had me feeling all sorts of helpless and calling constantly for updates. Fortunately she is now doing great and settling right in at home with her excited big sis. I can’t wait to meet her!
Not to make any of this about me, but between my concern for my sweet niece and reading into every detail of the horrific news stories from the past week, my psyche was seriously affected. I withdrew a little bit to try and get my feet back under me and refocused just on spending time with my people.
Hailey had her first dance recital last week and it was as cute as you can imagine. My little rule follower had to make sure she was standing on the right number and it totally threw her off for the first half of the dance, which made me giggle pretty hard. But of course in my opinion? She rocked it!
Mema came up for the recital and Hailey loved having her here. Mema even took one for the team and joyfully went swimming with Kaitlyn during swim team practice so I could spend one morning out of the pool. I’m getting quite water-logged being in the pool everyday!
Friday came and with the afternoon free for David, we set out on the lake.
We hit up the early bird special (not a real thing) at The Blue Parrot for mojitos and grub.
We finished early enough to enjoy a leisurely ride back along with some island exploring and swimming.
Today is the first official day of summer and I can tell it’s going to be a fun one. Both girls are really into exploring and swimming. We’ve also been having a lot of fun with our garden and even harvested our first zucchini!
Saturday started off on the right foot with cinnamon rolls.
That bed head though!!
We ran some errands and stopped by the grand opening for i love juice bar in Mooresville. One of my best friends just opened it a week ago and so far the response has been extremely positive!
If you are in the area, you should go try them out! If Alison is there, tell her Brittany sent you for 25% off (I’m just kidding, but I’d laugh to see her face if you said it anyway ;)).
For the afternoon we decided to have some summer fun.
my favorite swim tops for being active
We spent Kaitlyn’s nap time on the dock with Hailey, who is such a fish now and loves nothing more than to jump in over and over and dunk David over and over too.
When everyone was up, we made homemade ice cream and didn’t realize how ridiculously easy it was to check that off of our summer bucket list.
The girls were so excited and we enjoyed dessert on the back porch as the sun was setting.
I was grateful for such a family-focused Saturday because David ended up having to work all of Sunday. The girls and I let him open his present (this great summer shirt and a new pair of shorts) then baked cookies and had a little welcome home display ready for him that evening.
We sure do love him so much and are grateful that he is our family’s rock. Some days I don’t know how I got so lucky, but there is no one I’d rather raise our girls with. He’s such a great dad!
Whew, that’s quite a lengthy catch up, isn’t it?
I’m hoping that by focusing in more on the people I love and my gratitude that I can avoid the sad funk I got into last week. I love being informed with what is going on, but when the news starts giving me true anxiety about the world I’m raising my kids in, I know it’s time for me to step back a little bit.
My mom came in last night so we have a fun day ahead and before the week gets rolling I have to give a Father’s Day shout out to all the great dads I know that are making such an amazing difference just by being who they are. My wonderful father-in-law and brother-in-law, my brother who is now an incredible dad to two little girls himself and of course, my dad, who has been a loving and steady presence in my life since day 1. Such strong men make a real difference in a family’s strength and I’m forever grateful to have so many great men in ours.
Now that I’ve chatted your ear off, chat back!
What was your favorite thing you did over the weekend?
Have you checked anything off your summer bucket list?
Do you have to turn off the news occasionally too?
Karen says
My husband drives many miles for work everyday and has found that the news really effects his attitude toward life. So we started getting audio books and this has helped him so much.
I rarely watch the news since it is so darn depressing. I figure if something major happens you hear about it from everyone else anyhow, so I just live in the moment and thank God everyday that nothing tragic happens near us….yet!
Kate says
What a fun-filled weekend! I’m always amazed at how much you can fit in a weekend! Ours was slow and quiet, but great nonetheless with lots of family time with my parents and the in-laws.
I have a very ambivalent feeling towards the news. On the one hand, I really like to know what is going on in the world and I feel like it’s my responsibility to care about that, but on the other hand the news are sometimes too much to take in – especially since becoming a mom. Sometimes you do have to make that conscious choice of turning it off for the sake of your own sanity…
Kat says
Love that striped dress you are wearing in the picture from the juice opening. Where is it from? Tshirt style dresses are the BEST for summer weekends (I work outside of the home fulltime).
Brittany Dixon says
Hi Kat! The dress is actually a few years old and a hand-me-down from one of my much more fashionable friends- ha 🙂 I am on the look out for more like it though because I agree, they are the best and so comfortable!
John J. says
You are so beautifully real, sensitive, and loving! Thanks for your energetic sharing!
Stephanie says
I got overwhelmed with the news this past week as well. I had to stop and tell myself to turn it off and focus on something else as well. I remember feeling similarly around 9/11. It can be overwhelming and I try switch my focus into participating in something that can possibly help those affected. Even if it’s something small it makes me feel like I can do SOMETHING to help.
Heather says
While I know it’s important to keep somewhat up to date on the news, for the most part I do try to avoid it because of the anxiety and upset it causes. If I start clicking the stories get worse and worse and I have to look away otherwise I feel helpless and overwhelmed.
It looks like you all had a wonderful weekend! I would have loved to have had a boat this weekend as it was hot and humid. Instead we had a water fight on our deck and my kids played in their pool despite the fact that the water coming out of the hose was FREEZING. My favorite kind of day.
Elizabeth says
Wow, your family is so cute. I remember you wrote “these are the days” somewhere on something recently, and it really looks like you’re making the most of them!
I can’t watch or read too much of the news. I’m exposed to enough of the highlights by scrolling through social media, reading and talking to friends. The political scene is out of control, there’s nothing but negativity on the news, I don’t want to pollute my brain with all of that right now.
Your niece is so cute! Have a great week.
Carolyn says
I’d love to know what recipe you used for the ice cream. We are without an ice cream maker (and no plan on buying one) and am looking for an easy recipe I could make w my kids. Thanks!
Elizabeth says
This is exactly what I was going to ask. Would love to hear about recipe. Thanks
Brittany Dixon says
See above, but we actually had an ice cream machine that someone gave us years ago. I think this one looks like a great no machine option though! http://lovegrowswild.com/2014/08/churn-vanilla-ice-cream/
Brittany Dixon says
I actually used an ice cream makers that we’ve had for years but never used. However, I’ve seen several recipes similar to this one that seem to do the trick, no machine necessary! http://lovegrowswild.com/2014/08/churn-vanilla-ice-cream/
Nicole says
Thanks for the update! I’ve been really enjoying reading your blog and just want to say thank you for all the time and energy you put into it 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
Can’t tell you how much that means to mean Nicole- thank you!
Sarah says
You’re not the only one bummed about the recent news. 🙁 It’s awful!
Do you have a recipe for the homemade ice cream?!?
Brittany Dixon says
We used a recipe in the booklet that came with our ice creamer maker (that we’ve now used twice in 7 years ;)), but I’ve seen some recipes that don’t require a machine that look really good. Like this one! http://lovegrowswild.com/2014/08/churn-vanilla-ice-cream/
Christina says
i love love love the pic of you guys at hailey’s recital!
Alyssa @ Renaissancerunnergirl says
Looks like an awesome weekend. Lake Norman is such a great area to live by, it seems! My weekend highlight was attending the West Point wedding of a dear childhood friend 🙂
Natasha says
Well our weekend was very laid back and relaxing, I am still recovering from the operation I had, so its been home bound for the past 2 weeks, not that I mind, been nice not having to go anywhere 🙂
We are in the heart of winter right now, so its movies, and warm foods and not much bucket list ticking going around here.
Living in SA you have to lock yourself out of the news, crime is seriously bad in our beautiful country, I sometimes take a break from our “Whatsapp” groups too, just not too see what is going on in our area, it makes you extra paranoid and scared. It is heartbreaking to see, but there is nothing we can do other than not letting the criminals get us down.
Joni says
I am so with you on that. I start getting really sad that I have brought children into this world – how awful is that to feel?! I had to step back from the news and from Facebook especially and re-center. I follow Bunmi Laditan on Facebook (Honest Toddler’s mom) and she wrote a great post about how she fell into the same funk and realized that it’s simply that we are bombarded with these messages of bad things happening and miss all the good. She asked everyone on there to share a moment where people were being kind and big-hearted and got thousands of responses – it was SO refreshing to read. I then realize it’s our responsibility to raise our kids this generation to make the world a better place 🙂 I really like to think that even though there is evil happening everywhere, there is more good, and the world is a far better place than it was before – we just have access to every bad story everywhere so it SEEMS worse. Perspective is refreshing for me, but so is getting off Facebook lol! Wishing you a good week and congratulations on the beautiful niece!