We did a little family bonding yesterday afternoon and into the evening. Malia celebrated another birthday…so we all had to celebrate along with her. Do we really need a reason to celebrate? Life is a reason to celebrate most days. 😜
By the time we headed back to Hannah’s, I was exhausted. I am not sure I have laughed that hard in quite some time. Not sure if the kids are getting funnier or if I can appreciate their humor more. Haven’t figured this conundrum out yet. Still gathering and collating information on the topic. 😂
Donovan is extremely amusing to me most days. Same with Mr. Mitchell Man. When the two are together, it seems they feed off one another. This makes it more enjoyable for me. The stories keep me in stitches…along with their storytelling mannerisms. That is part of the data I have gathered thus far.
That being said…this ole gal had a great time yesterday doing the family bonding thing.
Decorations
Gotta share about the decor. Oh my!!
You know how these “influencers” have to go all out and spend all this money staging events? Like the appearance of whatever they are doing has to be picture “perfect?” Everything has to look just so so?
Well…not here. We do real. Not interested in being somebody I am not or making my family into something we are not. No pretending. Nothing fake and plastic here.
That being said…the decorations are a hodge podge of past events we decorated for. Black and white for Archer’s cow-themed birthday. Pink and blue from a past gender reveal event we hosted years ago. A sash from an old birthday party.
The lettering is courtesy of copy paper, markers for outlines, and colored pencils for coloring in the letters…which Vanessa did by hand for us.
I really think this was way more fun. At least it was a hoot making fun of ourselves and having fun with the absurdity of the theme. 🤷♀️🤩
This is how our family rolls.
Donovan
It seems like Donovan has an endless well of stories with his recent job. I love every single one of them. Absolutely delighted with what Father has been doing with him since he parked the camper back here in Indiana.
Donovan is learning more than he can even comprehend at this time…on so many levels.
A very dear friend of mine is a powerful woman in a local city. My friend has watched my kids grow up…and has personally experienced their work ethic. I always told my kids…I am not raising lazy children. You will learn what a healthy work ethic is. They did. My friend and her husband have always been enamored by Donovan’s work ethic. They have been his biggest cheerleaders over the years in the community.
One of the things I taught Donovan was to give the customer more than what they asked for and they would always be happy with his service. He took that to heart and applied that practically. His past customers were a happy group of people which is why his business grew like it did.
Position
When my friend discovered Donovan was back in the area and looking for a job, she scheduled a meeting with about five or six people in the city who were in charge to meet with Donovan. She was determined to find a job for him in her city. This woman is no idiot. She knew what kind of asset he would be to any company who took him on.
The mayor ended up creating a position for Donovan. Donovan took a HUGE pay cut to take this job. It has been a daily adventure for him. In the beginning, they weren’t sure what to do with him. So much work needed to be done in many different departments. The first few weeks, he was shuffled around in different places to see where he would fit best.
He has been out with both the fire and police departments. Spent time with city engineers. Spending quite a bit of time with the mayor. The water and sewer department. Etc.
He is learning how a city is run…every facet of it from top to bottom. I love this so much.
Newsletter
The mayor recently wanted him to do a newsletter for the city.
This is seriously outside of Donovan’s comfort zone. He is more of a manual labor hands-on kind of guy.
I won’t repeat the details of the story even though they are super funny. What I do want to share is a character trait in Donovan that I am SUPER proud of.
One of the people he was discussing the newsletter with…said to him…do a horrible job and the mayor won’t ever have you do it again.
Donovan said…I can’t do that. If my name is going to be on this thing, then I have to do it with excellence. 😍🥰🤩🔥❤️ Proud Momma moment right there.
While visiting the other day, I wanted to see said newsletter. It looked good. I asked him…well what did the mayor think of it.
He said…with a painful smirk…he loved it. Everyone loved it.
Which means it will become part of his job description. 😂😂 This is going to be a monthly thing now. Makes me laugh. My son is growing in ways he never imagined he would grow in. It is so good for him. 😆
Smartie
I am just going to say this here because it is true. Donovan is a smart-ass.
Sometime during the summer, I was minding my own business sitting in my chair outside while he was grilling out. I was on my computer with my head down. He and I were the only two outside. All of a sudden, Donovan appears…makes a smart comment to me and turns around to walk back to the grill. His comment hit a bit delayed…I popped my head up and said loudly…smart ass. As he was walking away, I could see his shoulders shaking with laughter. He turned to the grill with this great big smile on his face. He was super pleased at getting the expected rise out of me.
I take great joy at times seeing him squirm a bit. A little mean gladness for all the years of pranks and smart-ass remarks from him.
We have gotten to a good place Donovan and I. Loving our bond these days. ❤️
Pizza
Hannah made a couple of pizzas for our party. DELICIOUS!!!
One pizza was made with an almond flour crust. The second one was using chickpea and tapioca flour. She was asking me…what should I put on it besides goat cheese? I told her…fresh basil with your roasted tomatoes and garlic combo. Chunk chicken up and do that for the protein.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!! WOWSER BOWSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So freaking good. For real. 😮🤯
Roasted Veggies
I love roasted veggies. Man…for real. It is my preferred way of eating veggies. I like to do a veggie medley with quite a few mixed up with oil. Love broccoli, red pepper, and carrots roasted together. Love roasting Brussels sprouts with a bit of duck fat. Roasted until they are a bit crispy brown on the edges. Dang…that is YUMMO! Love roasting sweet potatoes in a bit of coconut oil. The coconut oil makes them a bit sweeter, and more candy like to me.
Hannah has this amazing recipe for roasting tomatoes with garlic. I could seriously drink the juice from those babies…and do.
I was telling her…roast them…then pour them with the juice on the pizza. It will be divine.
I wasn’t wrong.
Living with Hannah…is packing the pounds on me. I told her the other day…your cooking is making me fat. Something has to change here. 😂😂
I am feeling the need to move. 😜
Bonding
Super grateful for the family bonding.
Everyone in my life is a treasure to me. I am so blessed. Blessed beyond measure. Life gets sweeter with every passing day. I feel like this is a trend. An uptake in my life. 🤷♀️😜
This morning Father said to me…it is time to step up. I said ok…even though I haven’t a freaking clue what that means. At all. 😂
Who can understand Him and His ways? He is a mystery to me. After thirty-plus years, I still feel clueless about who He is and what He means when He speaks to me.
Would like to understand Him at some point in time. 😂
Spelling
Feel the need to share this story about Donovan and I as I end this post.
I always taught my kids…they were allowed to disagree with my decisions. If they felt I was wrong in a conclusion, I was willing to hear their arguments against my ruling. There was only one condition to it…they had to be respectful to me when arguing their point. If their argument was better than my conclusion, I would change my mind.
There has only been one time when Donovan changed my mind. The newsletter makes me think of this story. Makes me look back at how far we have come.
He was ten before he was reading…due to the gift of “Dyslexia.” Once I got my head and heart in the right place, Father gave me the blueprint to teach him to read how he was created and designed to read.
Since he learned to read later…his spelling skills were behind. This is preschool math, right? Duh.
That being said, I was making him do spelling during his freshmen year of high school. While conversing with friends, he discovered public school high schoolers were NOT doing spelling. TO HIS HORROR! 😜
As soon as he walked in the door, this discussion began. He felt like he shouldn’t be doing spelling any longer since his friends were NOT.
I shared my reasoning for the fact he was still doing spelling. I was trying to catch him up still.
Spell Check
Donovan wasn’t having it. 😂
He came back with a solid argument. This is what he said…Mom…I will ALWAYS have spell check. I don’t HAVE to know all the words because I can always use spell check.
I stood there for a minute kind of speechless. It was like…damn…he is right. Has a good point there.
He wasn’t a horrible speller at this time…I just felt like he could keep building that larger vocabulary of harder words.
I gave in. I told him…ok. You win that argument, son. No more spelling.
Donovan was elated. 😂😂 I let him bask in the glory of that victory.
Makes me wonder if he used spell check at all when doing the newsletter. Probably not…but I think I will have to ask Mr. Smartie Pants next time I see him. 😂
Have a MARVY day! I am myself.