image via my instagram feed

There's something kind of wonderful about a great workspace.

When I was in graduate school and studying for my board exams the right spot could make the difference between a mediocre day and a creative, stimulating, productive day. And it's still true! A beautiful workspace focuses my mind, fills me with ideas, and makes me want to sit right down and create.

This little table and chairs did that for me. When I looked at it I saw art projects and playdoh, puzzles, and lego towers. So, I've been thrilled that it seems to have the same effect on Michael! He loves to sit at his table and stack his blocks and play with puzzles. (There's been a decent amount of climbing on the table too, but we're working on that....) 

In the photo above he had just finished lunch and he went straight to his table, 

climbed up in his chair and started writing like it was his job. Just taking care of business.

Makes my heart happy :)

A song

Have you ever sung in a stairwell? 

Loud and clear with people who have voices like angels? I have. 

It may sound a little crazy but it's a beautiful thing, with the music ringing all around you.

This makes my heart ache to do it again.

(spotted on nat the fat rat)

Rooms I love {and some ramblings about the weekend}

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Good morning, lovelies! How was your weekend?

Ours was pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. My parents came to town. We grilled out, played in the pool, stayed up watching Olympics and chatting, danced to Motown during breakfast, smothered Michael with love and attention, went to visit our house-to-be and poked around a little bit (I hope the neighbors weren't watching - but we couldn't resist!), had a really fun evening with good friends, went to worship together on Sunday morning, and lunch with friends Sunday afternoon. 

Pretty standard for our life lately, and I LOVE it!! Blessings, blessings everywhere. 

My heart is overflowing with thankfulness.

On another note, last night I made a couple of surprising discoveries. 

Michael has two new molars (so that's why he's been especially "challenging" lately!),

and there is a teeny little lizard living in our bedroom. Well, there was a teeny little lizard living in our bedroom. 

I took lots of pictures, and toyed with the idea of letting him stay since he was probably controlling the bug population in our home. Ultimately, when I imagined him scampering across my face in the still of the night, I decided he had to go and my sweet hubby kindly released him into the wild. Texas. So many little critters. 

(I have this uneasy feeling that the cute little lizard was the first of many, 

and that there are lots of less-cute things to come.)

Finally, I came across this room on pinterest this morning and fell right in love.

Oh, the things my son would do to this room.

(Off the top of my head: build some sort of structure he could climb to get at those animal heads mounted on the wall, 

get his head stuck in the beautiful bedframe, put marks and stains of unknown origin all over the snowy white linens, 

mash crayons into the cowhide rug....)

Happy Monday! xoxo

I love him so

goodnight moon / his new favorite / after a fender-bender, no injuries and he's still smiling

just like Daddy / handsome man in my kitchen / breakfast time 

found the missing milk in an empty cabinet / afternoon snack / I love this!

~ linking up with Life Rearranged ~

(If you'd like to follow on Instagram I'm mtchristi)

* * * * * * * * *

Happy Friday, friends! Can you believe another week has passed? 

I'm kind of in shock at how fast this whole summer has flown!

I'm off to clean and run some errands before the weekend fun begins. 

See you on Monday! xoxo

Faves

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My number one fave this week? The summer Olympics! 

Every night we settle in on the couch with snacks and get totally into the competitions. It's so fun!

(A fave within a fave: our ladies gymnastics team. How cute are they?! They make me proud!) 

A super cute baby announcement from a super cute blog.

My new friend Erica featured me on her blog which was awesome (thanks Erica!), 

but I love her post about forgiveness even more.

Wise (and funny!) advice about careers and blogging from the great Joanna.

 Minted has the cutest moving announcements. Can you guess which one we're getting?

Cheeky inflated/deflated balloons. A good friend of mine took this idea in another direction for her husband's birthday - she sent a ballon to each of his friends, asked them to write a birthday message, and then deflate the balloon and send it back. She inflated them all again for his birthday. Cool, right?

Instagram photostrips!

And a colorful reminder of what it's all about. 

(I'm using it as the wallpaper on my phone!)

~ linking up with lowercase letters, and covered in grace ~

lone star state of mind by mtchristi on polyvore.com


I have a thing for cows. And that works out well because we're now official residents in the land of cattle.
I also have a thing about homes, and how they should have a sense of place.
Like, a home in New England shouldn't look like a home in Florida shouldn't look like a home in Colorado. Know what I mean?
So, in our new home I'm hoping to embrace my beloved cows without letting it feel like a dairy farm, or a petting zoo.
Or just a house full of a bunch of random cow paintings.
(Aren't they great, though? And that landscape of Marfa? Fantastic.)

~ linking up with the paper mama ~

Rooms I love

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Cute in the very best way.