Ashley Brooke Designs Easter Cards

My dear friend, and sponsor of Blue-Eyed Bride, Ashley Brooke has created some adorable Easter cards to send out to your loved ones. You can choose from the cross or the two more personalized designs. I’ll be sending out the design with the cross on them. So cute!

SHOP HERE for the cards.

Cross in Bloom

Hello Spring

Pastel Heaven (can be personalized with your hair color, hair length, and skin color)

Hair and skin color options

Pray for Cohen

My dear friend Megan of In This Wonderful Life is expecting a precious baby boy.

(Megan in the grey sweater, me next to her, Mrs. Preppy- holding Baby M, and Megan from Tales of the Trees)

But so far, things with Cohen haven’t been going as they’ve dreamed they would. Please go here and read Cohen’s story and add them all to your prayer list. Amazing things happen when God’s people come together to pray. You can also grab the “praying for Cohen” button from the sidebar of her blog.

Today is Todd’s 30th birthday. To him, it doesn’t feel any different to be turning 30 and to no longer be 29, but it is a remarkable day for him.

Because 30 years ago today, the most important person in my life was born. And two years later, I was born and our lives moved forward to bring us to the point where we would meet.

Most of you don’t know Todd, but I want everyone to know that he truly is the kindest, smartest, wittiest, and most patient man I know. He has always been able to make me laugh and his quick wit never ceases to leave me amazed and saying, “how did he come up with that so quickly?”

His love for his family is the kind that you’d want any guy to use a model and his work ethic is admirable. Now, for the past 8 months, Todd has been an incredible father to our precious son.

Todd is a great example of what a loving husband and father should be. He is respectful to everyone he comes in contact with and loves his son unconditionally.

In fact, two nights ago, he got to show how unconditionally he loves his son when Hudson got sick when I was at choir practice and Todd had to clean it up all by himself. That’s a job for a mommy, but I was so proud of him for handling it.

But look at these two. Are they not the spitting image of each other? (It’s okay for some of you to say he looks just like me! Even though we know that’s not true.)

I’m so thankful to have such a great partner and best friend to walk with through life.

We celebrated on Tuesday night by going to the Jimmy Buffett concert and we’ll be celebrating tonight with dinner at Mr. Friendly’s and dessert at Garibaldi Cafe (almond basket- yes!).

We’re meeting Todd’s parents and grandmother for lunch today, so he’ll be surrounded by love all day long. Happy 30th, TC!

Note: I’ve joined Formspring.me, so CLICK HERE to ask me anything and click back to view all of my answers. If you follow me on Twitter, some of the answers are there, too!

Thank you all so much for the amazing comments on yesterday’s post. I realize that I’m not alone, and no matter what big life events we’re looking forward to, we’ve all struggled with contentment issues.

Today’s post is a little lighter.

For years, I had a huge 5 inch binder that we filled with wedding inspiration. Things that I liked from Martha Stewart Weddings and InStyle Weddings starting in 1999 and going until 2008. I tore out my favorite ideas, gowns, shoes, flowers, cakes, stationery, put each page in a page protector and filed it in my binder. I still have the binder, but I don’t take it out and look at it nearly as often.

These days, I keep a home inspiration binder. I print off and tear things out of Elle Decor, Domino (still missing Domino), and Southern Living and file it away by room categories in a 5 inch notebook. I’ve posted some of my favorite dream rooms and ideas before, here’s the house I’m currently coveting.

It is the Southern Living 2009 Idea House in Hemlock Springs, Georgia. To me, it is just the right mix of bold and understated. Formal and livable. Beautiful and comfortable. Relaxing and show-stopping.

Hopefully, our next house will have a formal living room where I will not have a television, but I will have my mother’s baby grand piano. (Thanks, mom!) I’ve always shied away from bold prints, but this room gives me courage. Love it and it’s at the top of the list of room inspiration. I have furniture that I would just recover to achieve this look.

This next room was actually used as the master bedroom in Hemlock Springs, but I would take one of my guest beds and recover the headboard and go for this look. I love having a white, calming, hotel-like guest bedroom, but with two guest bedrooms (until another wee one comes along) we can do this. It’s so beautiful, happy, and serene.

And last, but not least, I want our master bathroom and our dining room to be done in a big, bold, graphic wallpaper. I’ve never been a huge wallpaper fan, but this changes my mind.

There are my current beautiful home obsessions. Any tips on other sources of beautiful homes?

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and hopefully I’m not the only one. For a few years, probably since I finished grad school, I’ve felt like I’ve been measuring and marking my life by certain events. As if every life needs to follow a scripted, mapped out plan. Writing this post doesn’t mean I want to change “the plan,” but more how I view the plan and how I let it dictate my thoughts and actions.

I kind of look at my life like a scrapbook and it needs to have certain pictures in it. Not for anyone else, but for me to feel like I “checked that box.” The scrapbook, in my mind, looks something like this: get a driver’s license, get a car (used, new doesn’t matter), graduate high school, go to college, turn 21, graduate college, go to grad school, finish grad school, start a job, meet “the one”, get engaged, get married, buy a house, have a baby, have another baby, have another baby…. Then what? What do you wait for and wish for next?

When Todd and I were serious and knew that we’d get married someday, I spent so many months waiting and wishing that we’d get engaged. I knew that we would someday and that he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. But I became obsessed with getting engaged and having the label to go with it. I think mostly so I could move onto the next exciting thing in my life with him.

Why do I put my life into such big milestones? Why can’t I live each day just for what it is and be happy with where I am right now? This was a recent Bible study topic in our girls study of Priscilla Shirer’s “Can We Talk?”

My current contentment issue is with our house situation. I just kind of feel like we’re waiting and praying and I’m becoming impatient. I don’t know why I want the change so badly. I mean, I know why I want to move, but I need to just wait and see what the Lord wants us to do while I sit back, pray, and enjoy my life.

My other thought that has recently begun creeping into my mind is the thought of having another baby. I’m definitely not ready for another baby, but I’ve always thought that I wanted my kids to be two years apart in age. Hudson will be a year old in June. I’d have to start thinking about getting pregnant soon after that in order to have a second baby by Hudson’s second birthday. It’s not something I really like to think about, so I don’t. But I do feel a little bit of pressure to think about the long run and what the best time frame to have a second child would be. And I have no idea if getting pregnant the second time around would be as easy as it was the first time. I don’t know what’s going to happen to my body after I have surgery in May. The thought of actually being pregnant just makes me tired, but I know that I want the precious reward at the end.

So why am I doing this? Why am I thinking and planning so much rather than just being still and content in my wonderful little life as it is?

After Hudson was born, my mom joked that I needed to take a break from big life events for a while. Actually, she wasn’t joking. Between ages 24 and 27, I got engaged, got married, and had a baby. That’s a lot to handle– and not just for me. It was a lot on the people that love me and helped take care of me, too.

People find their fulfillment through different things. I am a Christian and a child of God and find so much fulfillment from my relationship with Him. And I am very happy with my life. I can’t stress that enough. But I do feel like I’m always waiting for the next thing– and there may not be another “next big thing” for my life. There will be for my son’s life, but I’m hoping to not be one of those moms that lives her child’s life to find her happiness. I will be happy for him, but I don’t want his life events to become my identity.

And there are obviously the people, couples, and families that don’t want some of those milestones to happen in their lives. Not everyone wants kids or wants to get married. But maybe there’s something work-related that you’re waiting for.

Does anyone else do this? Do you feel like you’re constantly waiting for the next big thing to happen? What if there isn’t anything big that happens? Why isn’t the idea of waking up, living your daily life, and going to bed good enough?