It’s just a little box—plastic, slightly musty and the stickers peeling off. But inside? A treasure trove of delicious jewel like morsels of childhood. When my mom fished my Strawberry Shortcake house out of the attic, I was immediately familiar with it. There was no flood of memories or emotion–it was just an intimate reacquainting.

I looked at each figurine with the same delight as meeting a long lost friend. I brought the figures to my nose hoping to smell the lingering fruit scent. And I think I did–or maybe I was imagining it or just remembering. I set out Strawberry Shortcake, Blueberry Muffin and Lemon Meringue back in their spots (with an adeptness that only comes with familiarity). Then I presented my old friends to a new one–my 1.5 year old daughter.

She oohs over their bright (or, once bright) colors. She sorts, holds and plays with them like any child would. But she doesn’t see what I see. She doesn’t see and feel the family and love and comfort and security I see encapsulated in that toy–a picture of my growing up years.

But my mother? She sees something that neither my daughter nor I can see. She sees a 5 year old Amanda dumping her treasured Strawberry Shortcakes dolls in her mama’s lap. A gift for a friend from her Daddy’s work. A little girl who’s house burnt to the ground.

Mama wouldn’t let me give the whole house. Not every figurine. But some did go. Daddy took my gift of little Strawberry Shortcake friends to work and passed them on to his co-worker who gave them to his daughter.

And somewhere (I imagine) there is a grown woman discovering her old Strawberry Shortcakes in the attic. And she is remembering them as a gift after a traumatic time in her life. I wonder if she feels the mysterious thread that connects us?

And now I know why this toy of so many is the only one kept in the attic all those years.

{This is an exercise in prompted writing from a Wisdom Workshop at Blissdom. I did not go back and correct anything. Just wrote. Thank you, Amber, Mrs. Flinger and Sara Sophia for the inspiration!}

Mysterious Strawberry Thread is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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When I was little, every Christmas my mom would make let us sing a song before we opened presents. Usually it was a song from our church’s Christmas play. This is one of many amazing photos of Jason and me performing for the fam. Don’t we look excited? And exciting?

Well, besides my beautiful 10 year old self singing a song, there are more wonderful things about this Christmas photo. Care to look around?

1. The gifts. How is it that wrapping paper and bows can look retro? I mean, they are unusually un-trendy!

2. Grandpa. That’s my mom’s dad. He died when I was in 8th grade. I just like looking at him because this was before he got sick. (Notice his excitement at watching his grandchildren sing. We must have been so entertaining!)

3. Jason, my bro. He was 7 here. And boy howdy can he rock a geometric multi-colored sweater.

4. Oh, Amanda. Indeed. The hair. The dress. The shoes. The beautiful expression.

5. Technology. Do you see that tape deck? And the rotary cable box? Suh-weet!

6. The mantle. That’s my stocking—I know because there’s a little doll sticking out of it. We always put little stuffed animals in our stockings until “Santa” filled them up! And the four candles? I mean, how Christmas-y!

What did your Christmas of 1987 look like?

Christmas. 1987. is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Asa is one month old today. It’s hard to believe. It’s been the longest month of my life. But it’s also flown by.  I wish I could write all the emotions and feelings that have been flooding my heart and my mind and my body this last month. They’ve been conflicting, that’s for sure.

I’ve been on the epitome of an emotional roller coaster. The high of a belonging to a newborn baby that is beyond beautiful and soft and sweet and precious contrasted to the low of being unable to care for him, not knowing what he needs and feeling completely inadequate. It’s been a month completely on its own plane. I’ve been in the Land of Asa in the country of the Pirate.

Today I vlogged about Asa’s first month. And it’s not sappy, sweet or even featuring Asa. Sorry. I wanted to do something fun to celebrate Asa each month and I vlogged a few of my ideas.

So, if you’re here from the vlog the pictures are below for your viewing pleasure. And if you’re here because you routinely stalk my blog for cute pictures, well, look below, then head over to newbaby.com to see the reason behind them.

(click here, then view videos then uploaded videos then
celebrating your baby month by month)

the super cool growth chart…

the giant horse…

the babylegs (i got mine from mom4life)…

and one more that didn’t make the vlog…

it’s not a stuffed animal, but when Yancy gets you a toy, it’s going to be a guitar…

So, which one do you like best for my monthly pirate updates?

One Whole Month is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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I remember seeing Super Mario Brothers for the first time. Staci and Mandi had it at home on their big tv downstairs. It was one of those tvs that sat right on the ground like a piece of furniture. I remember they were already in world 8-3 when I was watching it. I just couldn’t believe they were controlling a little man on their screen! It didn’t even remotely connect that it was like an arcade game at the bowling alley. I just thought that first Nintendo was the best thing I’d ever seen.

My brother, Jason and I finally got it for Christmas that year. I was in 6th grade. My mom had just had a hysterectomy just before Christmas so we were stuck at home for 6 weeks. And Jason and I lived in Mario-world. After Mario it was Tetris, Adventure Island and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and any other game we could rent at the video store by our house. We stayed up later than any human should for that Nintendo.

Well, we never got another game system after that. Jason did get the first gameboy which was about as big as my toaster. Les has an xbox which I think I’ve played about 3 times. I’m a girl, so after that original NES, I didn’t have a gaming gene like most boys have. I could never get into those fighting games and fourteen buttons on one controller and all that.

But I thought the Wii looked cool when it came out. I’m kinda partial to bowling. Plus, it looked like a fun party game. Les looks for them all the time, but they are never available. (What is up with that?!) But this weekend there was ONE at Wal-Mart. We had 2 gift cards that had been sitting in my wallet and decided to spend them on a brand new Wii!!

That night we played bowling, boxing, baseball and golf! It is so fun! I can’t wait to have a party and see everyone bowl their little arms off!

But I have to admit the very best part was was downloading (because yeah, the wii is connected to our wireless internet!) Super Mario Brothers from the original NES. I was kinda giddy hearing that first sound of “dut-dut-dud-duh-da-dun-du-dut!” in world 1-1. (I ended up making it to 8-2. Les made it ito 8-4. Hmph.) I had an absolute blast playing it. It was crazy how many memories were connected to playing that game! What can I say? I’m old skool!

Were you ever into video games?

Guess what wii got?! is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Yesterday I faxed a signed copy of a contract on our house in Birmingham. Yes, that means we sold it. After 20 months on the market, we sold it. And funnily enough, I’m not doing cartwheels about it.

For one, our original asking price was 30k more than we sold it for. We picked that price when the market wasn’t so bad. And dropped it about ten times since then.

But mainly I’m a little sad because our house is gone. MY house is gone. That little house was our first house. Les and I have lived in government housing, trailers, apartments, people’s basements and were even homeless for awhile (in a good way, we just traveled). So our first house was really something special.

We moved to Birmingham to be Children’s Pastors of a large church there. When we got there we lived with our psuedo-parents for about five months. (Oh, how I love and miss them!) This whole time we were saving our money and looking for houses.

I remember the first time we drove into the neighborhood that would soon be ours. It was night and all the mailboxes had little lanterns on top. It was like a fairy land! I remember thinking we could NEVER afford a house in there.

We went back a few times, saw one of the smallest houses for sale and went inside. And honestly, I thought I was in a model home. I was in love! We were so excited we made our psudeo-mom come look at it that night. She loved it. It has hardwoods throughout, special touches like tall counters, arched doorways and rounded corners. I was ready to buy. That day.

Well, Les wasn’t as sold. He liked it but wanted to make sure we were getting a deal. (As usual.) A few days later we drove into the neighborhood and the For Sale sign was gone. I literally got sick to my stomach. We called the owner and she said someone else had made an offer. Well, we made a larger one right then. And we won!

(me and our lantern-topped mailbox!)

Soon we were moving in, slowly buying furniture and painting walls. We even finished the upstairs! This is the house where we found out we were pregnant. The house we cried in when they told us Lydia might be dead in my womb. The house to which we brought our miracle baby home! The house where I nursed my newborn baby. I saw so many of Lydia’s “firsts” in that house.

We thought we’d be there forever. We thought Lydia would start to walk, learn to read and welcome a new sibling at that house. It’s unbelievable how life changes. How plans are altered. How things just aren’t what you think.

So yeah, it’s bittersweet. I’m beyond happy to have that last tether to Birmingham cut, but I’m so sad to be really and truly saying good-bye to our house.

Buh-bye Birmingham! is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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In Georgia it rarely snows. And with the onset of *snort* Global Warming, we’ve hardly had any snow the past ten years. You northerners might laugh as we race to get the last loaf of bread at the grocery store or stock up on batteries, but when you only get it once a year, we’re not prepared! Well, it snowed last night and we are stoked!

So, here are, in no particular order, my favorite snow memories:

1. The Blizzard of 93. Oh yes, it has a name. I was at a retreat with my parents. It put a kink in the retreat, although I didn’t know that. But when it was over, we had to go to my dad’s work. He’s in property management, so he had to check on his buildings. I’m pretty sure we couldn’t get home if we had wanted. So, we slept on the floor of his shop with all our clothes on. It wasn’t the best way to spend that blizzard, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime, that’s for sure!

2. This is actually a snow memory in Minnesota, where my mom’s from. As Jason & I were getting read to go outside and play in the snow, they (our Minnesota family) made us put plastic baggies on our feet and then socks over the bags so our feet wouldn’t get wet. I remember thinking that was the most ingenious thing ever.

3. We have a very long driveway. It’s pretty steep and very fun to ride your bike down. Well, when it snowed, we decided to get in a baby pool and slide down the driveway. That was fun! (Actually, now that I think about it, we might have done that in the summer, too! ha!)

4. When it snows in Georgia, it usually turns into ice and the trees are heavy with it. My parent’s house has tons of trees, so it’s scary but cool to hear the ice break the trees and hear limbs cracking and falling outside.

5. Snow also means power outages. Really, my memories of “Snow Days” are really days of no power. Once the power must have been out for several days, because Daddy built a fire in the fireplace in our living room, then covered up the doorways with blankets, so the heat would stay in that room. We all slept in the living room. I felt like I was Laura Ingalls or someone who was really “roughing it”!

6. The best was hearing the weather report of “snow” and wishing and praying that there would be no school the next day. Like I said, we have lots of trees and a long driveway, so that next morning when I’d wake up, I’d run to my window and check for snow. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing our woods covered in white!

7. I lived in Missouri for one semester while attending college (one of the 3 I attended). My parents dropped my off and left me in a state where I knew NO ONE. That day it started snowing and the next day there was at least a foot of snow. It was shocking to this Georgia girl. My roommates were from Ohio and NY so they were accustomed to the snow. And when they found out I had a car they said, “LET’S GO TO WAL-MART!” So, even though I’d never driven in snow, we ran to the parking lot to hop in my car. But when we got to the car, there was a foot of snow on it. My roommate said, “Where’s your ice scraper?” I said, “What ice scraper?” I didn’t have an ice scraper! Who has an ice scraper?! Somehow, we got that snow off my car, drove to Wal-Mart and bought the biggest ice scraper AND snow brush I’d ever seen.

8. The last few years we’ve only had snow flurries. It’s exciting and beautiful to watch. But my favorite is driving in it. The snow is flying at you so fast, it looks like you’re driving right into a storm. Kinda reminds me of going light speed in Star Wars, only the stars are snowflakes.

9. The year we have Lydia’s Snowflake Party and it actually SNOWS? I think that’s a little birthday gift from God!

10. Last night after Lydia went to bed, I had to run out to the truck. We had assumed the snow stopped because we could hear dripping outside, but instead of rain, it was pouring snow! The driveway was covered, the front yard and our beautiful dogwood! It was gorgeous! I made Les take my picture in the snow (see previous post) and I think I froze the inside of my mouth because I was laughing so hard. I was as giddy as a schoolgirl!

11. I don’t remember making very many snowmen as a kid. But this morning Lydia and her Daddy made the most beautiful snowman ever. At least in Lydia’s eyes. She kept saying, “My snowman! My snowman!”

12. When I was little, 2 of my best friends lived in my neighborhood. We would ride our bikes to each other’s houses. When it was a snow day, there was nothing better than walking to Lorry’s house or waiting for Holly to come to my house. It was more than just normal fun and hanging out–we were off of school when we should have been there! There is nothing like the joy of playing with your friends on a snow day!

13. One of the best things about being a mother, experiencing everything for the “first time” through they eyes of your children.

Hope you enjoyed my first Thursday Thirteen!

Snow Many Memories is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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