Farewell, May!

May is almost in the books, so I thought I would do a little recap of happenings I haven’t mentioned before and an update on how I did with my May Goals!

I knew May would be busy for us, so I kept my goals on the simple side.

1.      Purge Closets & Drawers – Well, we did and we didn’t. We purged our two clothes’ closets but not the hallway closets and spare bedroom closet. (I have a feeling we won’t be touching that one until we have to make the room into a nursery one day.) We took 4 trash bags full of clothes to Goodwill; and I’m sure we’ll have close to that many more once we go through our drawers. So, it wasn’t a complete check-off but it was half. That’s a start and I’ll take it!

2.      Finish 2 books – YES! I was half-way through Melanie Shankle’s “The Antelope in the Living Room” when the month started so I knew I’d be finishing that would start another. I LOVE Melanie’s books. Girls, they are just REAL. Her first book, “Sparkly Green Earrings” was about motherhood, this one was about marriage and her newest book, “Nobody’s Cuter Than You” is about friendship. She hits the nail on the head. I couldn’t agree MORE to her chapter about her husband being “man-sick”. Preach, sister, preach!

After all the rave reviews I heard about Paula Hawkin’s “The Girl on the Train” I decided to give it a whirl. I was sucked in FAST…and finished it fast. Y’all. This book. I spent the whole book going back and forth on who I thought was the “good guy and bad guy”. My suspicion that I had at the very beginning ended up being right in the end, BUT it did have me guessing back and forth throughout the whole book. Such a good read.

3.      Celebrate Colin’s Birthday with Sleepover! – YES! Colin turned six at the end of April but we knew we couldn’t schedule anything for a few weeks because of everyone’s busy schedule. We finally picked a weekend that worked with everyone and the boys were able to spend the night with us and go to the movies. I shared about our weekend here.

4.      Enjoy graduation month! – Boy did we ever!! We spent the first three weekends in May celebrating graduations. The first weekend, we traveled to Chattanooga to celebrate Ann Marie’s graduation. Click here to read about that and here to read all about our sweet Ann Marie.

The next weekend, Stephen’s brother graduated from college as well as being commissioned 2^nd Lieutenant in Army. That ceremony was on a Friday. Their Dad and Grandpa were able to pin his new rank on his uniform at the ceremony. The next day, he graduated and we celebrated with a Low Country Boil that night.

The following weekend (which would be the THIRD weekend if you're keeping tabs) we celebrated a special young girl's high school graduation at a dinner party in her honor. Paige is such a sweet, intelligent (high five for her 4.4 GPA and graduating HIGH SCHOOL with 21 COLLEGE credits already under her wing), witty young woman. She has a great head on her shoulders and has an outstanding Christ-like attitude that she's carried with her for so long. I'm so excited to see what's in store for her!

5.      Organize January – April receipts. Nope. Didn’t happen. This one’s rolling over to June Goals.

A few other things that happened in May…

I got to spend time with my best friend and her son. What is it about newborns?! I could just snuggle with him all day!

Who else saw the I Love Lucy special?! CBS aired two episodes in color and one of them just happened to by favorite episode of the entire series! (Have I shared that I’m a huge I Love Lucy fan before? I am. I just LOVE it!)

Oh be still my heart. She's the greatest. Sometimes I secretly think that I was born in the wrong era.

We celebrated Mother’s Day at my sister and BIL’s house with a lunch on that Sunday. Riley was premature to go change his clothes after church. Hence, the orange tie-dyed tshirt and basketball shorts. He didn’t care. We do lunch at their house on Mother’s Day & Father’s Day. Our parents, grandparents and my BIL’s parents all come, so we’re able to celebrate several great parents and grandparents in our lives at one time!

Colin seemed to find his way in front of the camera quite often this month….

We were at my parents’ house and I heard him say, “Hey Erica, look at me…I’m Granddad.” Mower. Hat. Shoes. Keys. Nailed it.

He finally got to pick out his new bike that was promised to him for his birthday. Helmet and all.

Annnnd….he and Stephen did what they do best….be each other’s best buddy.

Our yard seemed to grow a foot overnight and Stephen mowed it no less than 5 times this month.

We bought a new mattress for our guest bedroom. I also thought it needed new bedding. Here’s a sneak peek. The room is being painted today…I can’t wait to see it all come together. After a year of living here, it’ll finally feel like a finished room.

Stephen surprised me one day at work with these beauties. I had been having a couple of hard weeks where life just wasn’t fair, fun or easy. So when the little old man at the front lobby desk called to tell me I had flowers to pickup, well….it made it all better.

And last but not least, I wanted to share this photo I posted on Instagram. My dad is a preacher, and has been for longer than I’ve been alive. I’ve grown up listening to his sermons and many other preachers’ sermons. I know I’m biased, but my Dad can deliver some POWERFUL messages. These were words he shared ending a sermon a couple weeks ago. I’ve gone back almost every day and re-read these in my notebook.

So friends, that was May! Whew. Our calendar isn’t very full for the Summer, which might just be perfect!! Next week, I’ll be sharing my June goals….after I decide what they’ll be!! Come back tomorrow for Friday Favorites!