30 Days of Thankful

Another November has come and gone and the we listed out things we're thankful for. I really love this little tradition we started back in 2011. Its so sweet to make time to speak out the ways we've been blessed and notice all the good that surrounds us. Hearing things from Zachari and Jonathan's perspectives is really special too and often humbles me to remember to be grateful for all of the little things I so easily take for granted. Without further ado, our 2016 list (in no specific order):

Zachari
Jonathan 
pool
school
lunch
Liz, Annalise & Kathleen (Bonar)
Jonathan
Mama
fall
cats
Papa
anteaters
music
rocks
Jonah
ImmyLou
Ms. D.
food
hikes
church
love
friends
home
car
God
dogs
the sun
food (again!)
pork chops with bacon
gas for cars
Play-doh
Blinntoberfest
gnocci
and then this...

That's right! It says dirt, poop, water & pee...with diagrams.

Jonathan
Nathan (Cates)
superheroes
my tiny pumpkin (that he chose from his preschool field trip in October)
music
Heather, Josie & Paxy (Mohrman)
Papa
Zachari
Jonah
Zachari (again!)
fire
tortillas
strawberries
cucumbers
chicken
water
Mama

Matt
parents
Zachari
Jonathan
Wife
fall weather
pot roast!
Watershed
feeling healthy
playing games with Zachari
beer
hikes
a good job
woodworking 
stories
friends 
art 
music
bike rides

Kelli
twinkle lights
nights by the fire pit
hooded sweatshirts
warm slippers
Apple Music
Spotify
lunch dates with Matty
Fox in the Snow coffee
Hounddogs Pizza
fresh fruits and veggies
Aunt Flow
101 S. Westmoor Avenue
Raymond Matthew Blinn
creativity
wine!
Mrs. Distefano
Ms. Khristina
our car & ZB's repairs
the Obamas
my phone
the iPad
Bethel Music
Patty Griffin
wine (again!)
coffee
ProDoula
Columbus Birth & Parenting
Bekah
Matt's job
Reid family
Cates family
Bekah's natural cancer treatments... and success!
Westgate and our neighbors
all of the amazing food/drink options in Columbus
79˚ days in November!
Zachari Jane
Jonathan Francis
Hilltop YMCA
Advent dinners with Bekah
Zachari's love for J. She's caring, helpful, patient, encouraging and a great friend.
warm, cozy blankets
Andrew Hendrixson
Peter Stevens
the Psalms
God's grace, love, forgiveness and peace
Myca
Jan
Sara
Brooke
water with lemon

30 days of thankful

I really love the tradition we've started of intentionally listing out things we're thankful for in the month of November. Its made me more aware of all the little things in our days and I've found myself more easily giving thanks for even the mundane after practicing this so often. 

The Blinns have much to be thankful for and these are just some of the things that came to our mind last month. They're in no particular order, just how I weeded through the stack after all the tags were taken off the branches. 

Something fun about this year: Zachari hand wrote all of her thankful tags and Jonathan drew pictures and/or "wrote" out his things too. Its fun having kids sometimes. 


Zachari
Mom
Annabelle
Miss Washam
family
God
Mama
Katelyn
plants
Jonathan
food
Pax
vitamins
Peter
our old house
the year 2015
Nancy
Thanksgiving
Sara's turtle


Matt
101 S. Westmoor
friends
my parents
Zachari Jane
our kids' amazing spirits
Westgate
weekend without kids
bandsaw
CBP - Kelli's new job


Jonathan
Sara Kear
Bob the Builder
"Workers, Jonah & Lindsay, Elys & Zachari's friends. The end."
a bug... and more bugs
dinosaurs
Zachari, my friend
Jesus, Papa, Mama, Zachari
Jesus again!
Matthias and Mama getting to have coffee
boots and rain jackets
the ocean
ham & Cheerios & spicy cheese & raisins & hummus & cucumbers
Zachari, Mama, Papa
Jake
my candy
paper punchers
ABCs & Jesus
Mason, Baby Graham, Layne... & their mom & dad


Me
Jan & Carol Bell
Sara Martin
nail polish
48 hours kid free! - & the Moormans & Kuhns for babysitting
Columbus Birth & Parenting
changing seasons
beautiful, fall colors!
my in-laws
our health
Carla, Kim, Rick & Mike
music, coloring books, sewing
our years in Bowling Green
Mom teaching me to cook
the gift of encouragement
Matt's job
date nights courtesey of the Elys
God's G-R-A-C-E
Life Church & the Forsythes
my best friend & husband, Matt
Andrew Hendrixson
Patty.
beautiful, smart, sassy, creative, wonderful Zachari Jane
riesling
coffee
the beach!
MacCaughey framily
pink-purple-blue-orange-white sunsets
Matt's handiness & creativity
sunny, 70˚ days in November!
lazy weekends with family
Trader Joe's & Aldi
sense of smell & taste
coffee dates with Myca
handsome, charming, silly, curious, ornery, wonderful Jonathan Francis
Reid family
Jenni Stockberger & fam
our new house, great neighbors & a beautiful neighborhood

30 days of thankful

This is the fourth year in a row that, together as a family, we've taken time out in November to list things that we're thankful for. I'm so glad that we've started this tradition and a couple months ago, I realized that it meant something special to Zachari as well. She started asking if we were going to decorate the mantle with "our thankful things" again. This girl remembers everrrrrything, but this particular memory she had brought me joy. Maybe it'll be something we all cherish for years to come and who knows, maybe my children will pass it down to their children one day?

We often talked about what we were thankful for while we were eating a meal which is why several of Jonathan's have a food "theme".  This list doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg as far as the millions of things this family can give thanks for. It is, however, a good reflection of where our hearts are right now in this season and for that - well - I'm thankful!

Matt:
Kelli's cooking
small group
coffee in the mornings
Zachari Jane
my best friend Kelli
a good job
Saturday morning with the kiddos
Wednesday AM coffee with the guys
spell check
our church

Zachari:
dates with Mama or Papa
going to the pumpkin patch with my family
letters and packages in the mail!
my family and friends
Papa
COSI
Jonah
pumpkins
pesto pasta on Sunday nights!
Jonathan getting to have swim lessons with Mama
shows and movies
play dates with Maggie and Marion
friends at my school
snowy, sunny days
Halloween
my room
food
my dolls
Corry helping me swim
dinners
LOTS of fruits!
my best friends Marion, Annabelle, Matilda and Haley
brats!
peanut butter and jelly
my preschool teachers

Jonathan:
Mama
trucks
pumpkins
Zachari
Papa
grapes
blueberries
books
pasta 
bowls
bubbles
paper
sweet potatoes
markers
pool
sausage 
eyes
breakfast

Kelli:
spiritual direction from Deb and Mandy
Central Vineyard
small group
Zachari Jane
Jonathan Francis
the gift of song
the Reids
sex :)
MVNU friends
swimming lessons and our great instructors
Matty Boy!
Monica teaching me how to sew
Kelsie and Kyle Meyers
Sara Kear
Jake
Myca
morning coffee dates with friends
warm, sunny days in November
Zachari and Jonathan's creativity and love for books
Deb Woods and Mandy Shumaker
my Lactation Counselor certification
early, quiet mornings - seeing the sun rise
S-M-E-L-L!
days when the kids listen and play well on their own
Papa working so hard so that I can stay home with J and Z

Whetstone Park of Roses

Today we visited Whetstone Park of Roses. Beautiful, mildly warm evening, setting sun, gentle breeze. Lovely roses all over the place, lots of space for Z and J to run and explore. A simple evening outing that I'm glad we made happen. Matt and I were so, so tired today and all we wanted to do was sit around the house and feel sorry for ourselves, but out we went! I told him that it would be better to get out of the house for an hour or so and let the kids play, than to have them chattering and climbing all over us within these four walls. It worked! Not sure how sound my parenting method is, but whatev!

The setting sun and the crisp, blue and white clouds with all the rich green of the trees and the grass was all so gorgeous! These  pictures don't even touch how magnificently the sun seemed to gently kiss the tree tops and how vibrantly it lit up the green fields near the parking lot. I was distracted by all the beauty though and marveled over a god who loves us so much He creates breathtaking masterpieces such as these. 

Here's our family photo from this evening...

And here we are last year, June 10th. My, how the little ones have changed!

Fun along the Scioto Mile

Last night after Blinn got home from work the fam headed downtown to enjoy the beautiful spring weather and see bits of the sunset. I was so thankful for the chance to get out of the house and do something a little different after Blinn got home. Many times he's so spent from the day and I am too so we stick around our block and while that's been fine, to explore something else for a change was nice. 

As photos show, it was really hard to get a picture of both kids at the fish fountains because they were so excited and rarely still. They were totally soaked when we walked back to the car, but they didn't mind and the giggles they both let out were totally worth it. 

Anniversary weekend

Over the weekend The Boy and I got to celebrate our 7th anniversary with time away from our kiddos and galavanting around downtown Columbus. It. Was. Excellent. 

We dropped the kids off at Kim and Carla's at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and for the next 27 hours we enjoyed a completely kid-free weekend together! I had been craving some one-on-one time with my husband and was SO looking forward to the weekend. I was trying hard not to have expectations that were too lofty and that would easily disappoint, but the weekend met my expectations and then some. I'm so thankful for our time together!

Because I don't want to forget what almost felt like a second mini-honeymoon, here's a rundown of our day and a half as just Kelli and Matt.  

Saturday:

• Our first stop was for lunch at Cafe Brioso. For literally six months I've been wanting to sit there outside at a table with Matt and sip on coffee whilst watching the busy city buzz past us. I had this romantic idea of doing that in October as the fall chill was settling in, but that never happened. Enjoying a warm, sunny afternoon in the spring was just as good. We hadn't eaten there in forever and that veggie sandwich was just as delectable as I remember. My cuppa joe was perfection and the time to sit and eat a leisurely meal with my boyfriend without having to cut up food or hear whining or fasten J into a highchair was nice. 
• Next, Matty wanted to visit The Vault and the alley where we hung out right after the ceremony (where we snapped the above picture).  We walked around downtown for a bit and marveled at the cool city we are fortunate to live in and we reminisced about our wedding day and how little we knew about life then. 
• Next, Matt took me to this super cool warehouse for about an hour dreaming and scheming and tossing around home decor ideas. I love his creative mind and the chance to be creative with him. One of these days we'll own another house and together we will decorate it just-so. Excited.
• In the late afternoon we checked into the hotel, The Hilton Columbus Downtown (at least I think that's the official name) and it is beautiful! And yes, I took photos of the whole room, but for now, I'll just post these first few that we snapped together.

Our room window looked out to the lobby/restaurant area, this was our view.

• Soon after getting settled into our (very) temporary new digs we um... christened the bedroom and my - it was excellent! There's something so freeing and different and passionate about being able to connect like that with absolutely no chance of a child interrupting things. Love it!
• We were giddy over the beautiful, large shower in the room and we explored it...together to be followed by lounging around in cozy white bath robes provided by the hotel.

• Next was time in the hot tub for me and a few laps in the pool for Matt. Nothing exciting to report about that, except maybe that we had the whole place to ourselves which was kind of great! 
• One of my favorite parts of the weekend was the chance to get ready for our date in a leisurely, stress-free way. I showered after the hot tub, walked around in my robe and then later in just my undies and I just took my time getting ready. I did my hair, got dressed, accessorized and took my time doing it, good tunes were playing from the I-dock and it was lovely. Because we were in a suite we had one and half bathrooms. Ridic, I know. More bathrooms than where I live for real, but whatev! Matty took one part of the suite and I took another and we got ready separately so as to (sort of) have that wow factor with each other when we were all dolled up and ready for the night on the town. It was fun. Its the little things, really!
• We met in hotel bar around 6:45 p.m. and myyyyy goodness! There was SUCH a handsome gentleman waiting for me at the bar, sipping on his classy whiskey with the sun hitting him just so. Seriously. He looked amazing and I was so happy we got ready separately so we could have that silly lil moment.

• After hanging in the bar for a bit, we took the COTA bus to Rigsby's Kitchen for an 8:00 reservation. Matt got an IPA and we shared the Grilled Mozzarella Brochette appetizer which was mighty tasty. Nothing I'd ever dream up on my own to make and not really something I'd be naturally led to on the menu, but our persuasive waitress talked us into it. We weren't disappointed. For dinner Matt ordered the House Made Sausage Pizza while I enjoyed the Sea Scallops (with fingerling potatoes and bacon-wrapped green beans). The presentation of everything was beautifully elegant and everything was yummy. Definitely one of those places that's known for ambiance and presentation with price tags to match so probably not a repeat restaurant for us, but a good choice for the occasion, for sure.
• The weather was so spring-lovely so we took advantage of it and walked back down High St. to the Hiltom for dessert at the hotel restaurant. We were the only peeps in the place which alway seems sort of weird and the apple pie thingy Matt ordered was wildly disappointing and crazily overpriced. Oh well. Ya live and and learn.

• Back in the room The Boy whipped out a big ol bottle of Asti Spumante that he'd smuggled in inside his bag. Sneaky! He wanted to make a toast to our future and reflect on our past together. Precious man. He ended by reading me his would-be vows from our wedding day that he had misplaced. The part that sticks out the most?  "Kelli Marie Shearron, You're my sunrise and sunset... through the trees." ;) We laughed at the cheesiness of it for a while!
• To end the glorious day together we christened the king sized bed once more and whew! It was even more excellent than earlier in the day! (Z and J, I realize that one day you'll probably be reading through this blog and things like what I just typed will make you blush or gag or worse. Get it over it, Babes. You'll be thankful that I remembered the moments like these one of these days and then you'll fall in love and you'll have moments like these with your special person too. So there!)

Sunday:

• We slept in! I think we woke up sometime in the 8 o'clock hour and its funny that at this stage of our lives that's sleeping in, but it was great! And then, to round out the weekend, one more romp in the sheets and good Lord! It was the best that its been in a long time!!!! (Okay, now I'm blushing!)
• We took our time easing into the day and checked out of the hotel around 10 a.m.
• We walked to Cup O Joe on the cap and enjoyed fantastical coffee as we walked into the Short North and explored Philco We had an incredible meal  and we will be going back there soon! I got the Fried Egg Tacos (with chorizo!) and Matty ordered The Traditional. We shared the savory Hushpuppies which were a flavor letdown in comparison to my meal. But no matter. It was a good experience all around.
• After brunch we window-shopped around the Short North for a while, eventually got the car out of the Hilton garage and then we wandered around Franklin Park Conservatory for an hour or more. Again, the weather was picture perfect and we thoroughly enjoyed the chance to get to spend so much time outdoors doing what we wanted to do - a lot of nothing much at all!

• For a late lunch we made it over to Katalina's, another place I've been wanting to try and it was another new restaurant success! I got the Pesto Avocado sandwich which was a light, fresh, felt-pretty-healthy choice,  Matt got the club sandwich. The Shagbark chips that come with the sandwiches are chip perfection!  
• It was a bittersweet to end our weekend together when we picked up the kids between 3:30 and 4 p.m., but all good things must come to an end, right? We're so thankful for the help of Carla, Kim and Maryke for watching the kiddos overnight and taking great care of them and we're so thankful that we got a chance to truly celebrate our marriage together. 2013 was rough for us and that's putting it nicely. Here we are in 2014 now though, a new year, another year of marriage that's beginning and it felt like we truly had joy over our anniversary. Praise God!

Becoming family

I'm currently reading Shauna Niequist's Cold Tangerines and its been an enjoyable, easy read. Her chapter on becoming family with her husband Aaron resonates with my love for Matt. I'm so thankful we're in this together. 


"...On that hot shimmering night, one of the things I said to Aaron in our wedding vows was 'When I am with you, wherever we are are, I am home.' It was, I thought, a beautiful and romantic thing to say, and I really felt it. Aaron has a way of settling me down and making peace in me when everything feels crazy and alien. The more time I spent with him when we first met, the stronger and more peaceful I felt, like I had eaten a delicious and nutritious breakfast...

I had thought that we became a family the day we were married. What I have found, though, is that the web starts as just one fine filament on that day, and spins and spins around us as life presents itself to us day by day. And on some days, the strands spin around us double-time, spinning us life a top and binding us like rubber cement...
Its hard to imagine now, now that we have been married for five years, now that we live in another state, in our home, one with space for me and space for him. Now we are, certainly, family. Aaron is my first thought and last thought, the companion with whom I walk through every part of life...

That's how family gets made. Not by ceremonies or certificates, and not by parties and celebrations. Family gets made when you decide to hold hands and sit shoulder to shoulder when it seems like the sky is falling. Family gets made when the world becomes strange and disorienting, and the only face you recognize is his. Family gets made when the future obscures itself like a solar eclipse, and in the intervening darkness, you decide that no matter when happens in the night, you'll face it as one. 

And so, Aaron, thank you for becoming, and for being, my family. Thank you for persuading me to take back the chairs, and thank you for sitting with me that night, and thousands of nights since then, watching and listening to our world change, with two sets of eyes and ears instead of one. Thank you for the millions of ways you have been my family since then, but especially, thank you for being my family that night."

Complete preciousness

Through Facebook I found this site and the pictures, as well as the idea behind the photos, is totally precious. When Matty and I have been married for 61+ years I hope we're as adorable and in love and youthful as these two. Here's to love!

The Delaware County Fair!

Yesterday The Boy took the day off and we spent the afternoon at the grand ol' Delaware County Fair. We went once or twice when we were dating, we took Zachari two years ago and this year we introduced Little One to the wonders of rural life. It was a beautiful afternoon weather wise and the time spent with my special three was just as lovely. 

And now, a glimpse at the day through photos... of course!

Jonathan - full of wonder as he gazed on the ginormous...

Mr. Ed did some gazing in wonder of his own

I was really captivated by the texture on the sheep. Amazing!

The next three are my self-admitted obsession with my baby's beauty. I mean, who ISN'T in love with his blue eyes?!

My precious girl

Chew on the steering wheel? Sure, Son. It'll build up your
immune system... or something like that!

Just your normal, run-of-the-mill ferris wheel at a touring fair...

A picture Z asked to take because this ride reminded her of "The Magic School Bus",
a show we're pretty into on Netflix right now.

Wait! What's that? That ferris wheel is no longer normal - its amazing because it became Z's
first fair ride ever! And boy, did she handle it like a champ!

There they are!

Back on land and feeling great!

This was Zachari's first SOLO fair ride. We were so surprised she wanted to do it, but totally
embraced her sense of adventure and curiosity!

She wasn't too sure about things at first...

but she eventually let go of the handle bar and completely enjoyed herself!

It was a great day for the entire Blinn crew. So great that this wee one passed out
about 30 minutes before we headed back to the car!

World Breastfeeding Week: Day 4

Oh man. I'm a sucker for Ryan Gosling. But Ryan Gosling, the Lactivist? Gah!

My stud of a husband is not only more attractive than this chap, but he supports me in ways like this - and then some! I am so thankful for the love and encouragement he's given me as I've nursed our children and I sincerely appreciate him. 

He's bonded with our kids by talking to them in the womb, doing lots of skin-to-skin time with them when they were newborns, reading to them, wresting with them, telling them they're loved and beautiful. He helps with feeding them solids and changing their diapers, he spends quality time with them all the time. Ryan Gosling is right: There are lots of other ways for papas to bond with their children other than feeding them milk from a bottle and my man's got them down pat! Matty Boy, I love you and I love that you're the daddy to our kids.