Feathers in Our Nest

a blog about faith, family, food, & more written by a wife and stay at home mom of five

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Old Fashioned Blogging, and Why I Took a Break

July 6, 2017 by Aliesha

You guys. I miss blogging! I’ve been trying to come up with a way to break the silence over the last two months, and I can’t think of a better way than an “old fashioned” blog post of life updates!

In keeping with the old fashioned blogging theme, how about a few comments like the old days? HAHA! I miss the connection that I used to feel when blogging… the comments, the jumping to and from each other’s blogs to read the latest posts and comment… it definitely is a different blogging world now than it was in 2010!

I share a lot of daily updates on Instagram, but I do miss keeping up with this blog, and I hope to do more blogging this summer.

Without further ado… some updates on life!

In May, we finished up our homeschool year! We really loved learning together all year, and it was such a joy to reach the end of 36 weeks of school and see all that we had learned during the year (myself included)! By God’s grace, we’re homeschooling again this year (more on that in a bit).

Also in May, Tad took me on a trip to Charleston to celebrate my 30th birthday! We had an amazing time, and I would love to share more about our time there! Maybe I can pull together a few posts on the trip. Suffice to say, we ate our way through town!

In May and June, we packed in as many day trips, fun family outings, and short overnight visits as we could! I joked that we were packing in a whole summer’s worth of activities to just a month! But with starting school up at the beginning of July, we did want to make our time off count!

We went on vacation with my family for a long weekend, and that was such a fun-filled time of memory-making and pool splashing!  Of course we signed up for the summer reading program at the library again this summer, and it’s been so special to see Vera reading lots to her siblings! She’s just taken off in her reading since school officially let out, and I’m amazed at how well she’s reading chapter books!

I took the kids to visit Tad’s family another weekend (he had to work). We enjoyed spending time with them as well!

As our final “hoorah” to our break from school, we spent a few days in Raleigh while Tad did some work there. During the daytime I packed in as much fun stuff for the kids as I could! Over a couple of days, we went to the mall, the movies, the art museum, Pullen Park, the science museum, another mall, and the children’s museum! Totally wore them (and me) out!!

We started our new school year this past Monday, and we’ve had a great first week! I’m still working on juggling the needs of all my students, but we love how Sonlight allows us to do so many subjects all together. It’s such a good fit for our family!

I tried to make the 4th of July a special celebration in our family! The kids told me it was the best day ever, so I think we succeeded. We had fun snacks, we grilled out, we made s’mores, everyone had special outfits, Tad set off fireworks in the front yard, and of course we read books about our country’s history!

So… are you getting a sense as to why I haven’t been blogging much lately? We have been living such FULL, beautiful days, that I barely have time to Instagram everything, let alone edit photos from my “big” camera and blog about it!

In addition to all these outings and adventures, I’ve been taking meals to friends with new babies, reading library books to the kids, going to the splash pad, organizing the house, exercising, reading (yes, for myself!), planning our homeschool year, ETC.!

Oh, and in January I became an Independent Consultant for Usborne Books & More, and my business has been growing and expanding! In May I promoted to Team Leader and I now have nine girls on my team (and counting!) whom I lead, support, and train.  Our family LOVES the books, and we have been able to add so many new titles to our family’s library since I started this business. So almost all of my free time (time I used to spend blogging) has gone into investing in my business over the past few months! It’s for sure paying off, and I love, LOVE having a way to help advance literacy around the country, get free books for my kids, and earn a little extra money (which we’ve been blessed to use for some of the fun adventures mentioned in this post)!

Also, I am still growing a tiny new baby (in case you forgot since I’ve posted almost ZERO pregnancy updates this time around)! I had a check-up today and baby girl is growing and seems to be quite healthy!

Well I think that’s probably enough updates for tonight! Tell me about your summer! How is it going so far?

Filed Under: everyday, family

Cute Maternity Clothes from PinkBlush!

May 2, 2017 by Aliesha

I haven’t been great about keeping up with weekly pregnancy updates this time around. But maybe I’ll start those back up again since I’m currently in my favorite season of pregnancy! This is the time when I feel the best, I get to start wearing cute maternity clothes, and I have complete strangers come up to congratulate me on my newest little one!  Whew!  I’m past that awkward stage where people aren’t sure if I’m pregnant or not!   (I’m currently 22 weeks, for the record.)

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

We went on a little family outing last weekend after dinner. We went to our favorite local coffee shop to get iced Americanos for us and ice cream for the kids!

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

The lighting was gorgeous that evening, so Tad was able to grab some photos of me and Baby Jellybean!

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

Of course I wanted some photos with my other precious blessings too!

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

Jude was trying to lick my neck! Silly boy!

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

I love this sweet season with these wonderful kids. Sure, we have hard days (um… a lot!), but it’s such a blessing to get to be their mother.  Also, I will now permanently remember that this is the season in which Jude insisted on sticking his tongue out in all pictures!

cute maternity clothes from PinkBlush | Feathers in Our Nest

Sometimes finding cute maternity clothes can be challenging, but I am loving this amazing new dress from PinkBlush maternity! PinkBlush has so many gorgeous maternity dresses (and MORE) for every pregnant mama (and not just pregnant mamas!).  They’re all trendy and stylish… never frumpy or boring!

Click the image below to shop!

Disclosure: I was provided with a PinkBlush maternity dress in exchange for this blog feature. All opinions are my own!

Filed Under: fashion, pregnancy, sponsored

Spring Break 2017 Recap

April 20, 2017 by Aliesha

Last week we took the week off for spring break, as so many other did! We had a wonderful, jam-packed week and made so many fun memories together (and with friends and family)! This week we’ve been catching up on sleep and laundry, since we ran so hard last week!

Saturday

We kicked off our break by meeting my family at a park in between our houses. It was a gorgeous day to be outside, and we happened to be there while an agriculture event was going on, so we ended up getting free swag bags, barbecue sandwiches, and ice cream!

Monday

On Monday morning, Tad’s mom surprised the kids at breakfast! She spent the day with us and we mostly played outside! Of course we got some reading in before nap-time as well.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went to the bird zoo that is pretty close to our house! We love going there every spring, and it’s fun to see how the kids have grown in their bravery holding the birds and feeding them!

Theodore was delighted.

Tuesday evening at our small group we dyed Easter eggs!

Wednesday

Wednesday we went to the park with friends after picking up drinks (just for mom & dad!) at our favorite coffee shop downtown!

After playing a while, we had a picnic lunch. This was probably the hottest day of the week, and we really could have gone to the beach!

Thursday

Our friends the Woods were in NC for their spring break, so we got to go visit Travis and Andrea on Travis’ dad’s strawberry farm! The kids adored riding on the golf cart with their boys!

Riding between the blueberry bushes.

All our kids!

The grown ups!

Theodore had the BEST time eating his body weight in strawberries! He can’t get enough of them!

Friday

On Friday we decided to drive to New Bern, one of our favorite places to visit on a day trip. We started out at a fun wooden playground where the kids could explore, play hide-and-seek, and make new friends!

It was really warm that day as well!

We packed a picnic lunch and headed down by the water to eat in the shade of a tree.

Sweet kiddos! Vera said that this was the only picnic this week that “counted” since it was the only one we ate on a blanket (all the others were at picnic tables)!

Well, no question now if I look pregnant or not! Ha!

We got ice cream before heading home!

That night was also our Good Friday service at church, which was wonderful! It’s one of my favorite church services all year.

Saturday

Saturday was our church’s annual Easter Pig Pickin’! In addition to eating great food together, the kids enjoyed sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a bounce house, and an egg hunt, while the adults enjoyed corn hole, volleyball, basketball, and more.

The egg hunt was an indoor balloon egg hunt, which was so much fun! Theodore was more interested in the balloons than in the eggs, and the girls enjoyed helping pop all the balloons at the end!

Sunday

Easter Sunday was a great morning of reflection on our Savior and His finished work on the cross!

The kids looked so sweet in their new outfits from MiMi.

Love our family picture this year!

That evening we had some friends join us for dinner, and that was a sweet time of fellowship!

Whew! Is it any wonder that I spent most of Monday in recovery mode? Ha! It was an amazing week, but I needed to nap a lot this week to recover!

How was your spring break?

Filed Under: family, friends, spring, travels

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This blog shares our family's story and our journey from newlyweds to a family of seven. We share milestones, we share struggles, we share sweet memories, and we share about our Savior. Keep reading...

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