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Friday Coffee Date

Happy Friday everyone

It has been FOREVER since I have done a friday coffee date with you and I truly miss it. Life is still nuts and I just haven't had enough time in the day to do it all and blog.  I know I say that every time I get the chance to post something but I do truly miss it and my relationships with everyone.

So, I was hoping, even though its 2:30pm 3pm, that we could have a quick coffee date.

Grab a cup of coffee (tea, or whatever), put your feet up, and relax. Its friday, yay

This week kinda flew by for me. Sunday we celebrated my husband birthday. 

We had a great day with friends and spent some time at the pool. 

Over the weekend we were thankful to get a babysitter (grandparents) and head out for a bit just the two of us. 

I am very grateful for this man

Tuesday I puppy sat for my SIL so my little guy and I just hung out around the house and played. He is such a stinker and a goof.

He LOVES to look at himself in the mirror and/or my camera phone. 

 He was having fun making silly faces. 

This just cracks me up

Oh and about a week ago... I may have tough my son how to jump off the couch. 

You have to be creative sometimes with a toddler LOL

I put air in our blow up mattress and has some fun stepping off the couch into his pile of pillows. 

Mom of the year right here haha

 I also had my first ever craft night here at my house. There were just a few of us and we had fun. We had a bit of a rough start trying to figure out our bracelets, but we got it eventually. And for those of you who make the wrap bracelets- You are AMAZING. 

This is the tutorial we used. 

Learning the Ladder Stitch (Lima Beads Tip)

We sat around and had drinks, snacks and tried to talk in between beads and thinking which way we were doing with our thread lol

 

Wednesday I was able to have another ladies night (two in one week people- this was awesome) 

I went to my sister-in-laws house for an Arbonne Party/ craft night. 

Yesterday,  however was not so fun. I had a horrible stomach ache that started thursday night, that would not go away, and didn't go away until this morning. Praise the Lord it is gone

Now here we are at friday, my little guy is napping (as well as my big guy) so I am taking advantage of this time. 

This was today. 

He is almost two and I feel blessed to still be able to have a few of these snuggle moments. 

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this weeks moments with me.

Id love to hear about what you have been up to. 

If you care to have a cup- check out these lovely ladies!
 Chrissy from Boerman Ramblings, Nay form Cover to cover,  Faith from The Life of Faith and link up with Alissa from  Rags to Stitches.

Forgiveness

This week this song has come on the radio a few times... just when I needed to hear it.
One was when my husband and I were having a fight disagreement and I just did not want to give in and get over it. It was crazy how, while I was out driving around, this song came on. I believe God uses people to speak to us and that day he used this song to reach me. Its such a powerfully true message. The act of forgiveness is for my benefit, it heals me, it brings me back to God. Just like the words in this song-  "Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them, Cause I feel like the one losin'". I  hurt myself most when I hold on to anger and choose to not forgive someone.  And most importantly, the anger and unforgiveness keeps me from God and His work in me.

I wanted to share it with you because it was what I needed to hear and maybe its just what you needed to hear too.

Losing by Tenth Avenue North

I can't believe what she said
I can't believe what he did
Oh, don't they know it's wrong
Don't they know it's wrong
Well maybe there's something I missed
But how could they treat me like this
It's wearing out my heart
The way they disregard

This is love or this is hate.
We all have a choice to make

Oh, Father won't You forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin' (oh no)
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'

Well it's only the dead that can live
But still I wrestle with this
To lose the pain that's mine
Seventy times seven times
Cause Lord it doesn't feel right
For me to turn a blind eye
Though I guess it's not that much
When I think of what You've done.

This is love or this is hate.
We gotta a choice to make

Oh Father won't You forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin' (oh no)
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'

Why do we think that our hate's gonna break a hard heart
We're rippin' arms over wars that don't need to be fought
Cause pride wont let us lay our weapons on the ground
We build our bridges up but it's just to burn them down
We think our pain is own apologies and get them to stop
Well truth be told it doesn't matter if they're sorry or not
Cause freedom comes when we surrender to the sound
Of Your mercy and Your grace, Father, send Your angels down

Oh Father won't you forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
I feel like I've been losing

Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'

God Bless
Have a wonderful week my friend
xoxo,
Natassia

Winner of my Happy Camper Necklace!

One of those days

Remember those moments I mentioned last night

"Times are hard, fun, tiring, exciting, trying & joyful. My sweet, cute, smiling, laughing, giggling, chatty little boy is not always little mr. perfect." 

Well after staying up too late night and being extremely tired this morning. I got my little guy out of bed and put him in our loft area to watch a movie while I had a couple minutes to myself to wake up and brush my teeth. As I walked around the corner to the loft I noticed, what seemed to be, a white cloud coming down the hall. When I walked into the room, this is what I saw.

This is what a bottle of baby powder looks like when in the hands on a toddler.

LOL

It was EVERYWHERE and still floating in the air

There was nothing for me to really do but laugh and take pictures. 

(and of course sweep up as much as I could) 

"Happy Monday Mommy"

Oh I love this ornery little boy.

I'm a Happy Camper & a giveaway & winner annouced

What a summer. It has been busy and I am learning what it means to be a mommy to a toddler. It makes me laugh. Times are hard, fun, tiring, exciting, trying & joyful. My sweet, cute, smiling, laughing, giggling, chatty little boy is not always little mr. perfect. Imagine that LOL. He is a toddler and I love him so much.
I FEEL SO BLESSED and I wouldn't trade any of the hard moments for the world. I also have an amazing husband who loves us and who works very hard for his family.

 I am a Happy Camper.

Yes times can be tough BUT God is BIGGER. He always gets us through.

With all that said, I am having a spontaneous giveaway. 

Enter to win my Happy Camper Necklace. 

Heres how to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CONGRATULATIONS TO NATASHA C ON WINNING THE HAPPY CAMPER NECKLACE!
Contact me via email @ natsknapsack(at)gmail(dot)com to collect your winnings!

Have a wonderful week

Also, if you haven't already seen, I am celebrating Christmas in July by offering 25% off in my shop, now through Wednesday. Use code "25injuly" at checkout. (ENDED)

You can also check out other ways to follow Nats Knapsack:

Celebrate Christmas in July with me

Don't miss out

Celebrate now through Wednesday July 18th

www.natsknapsack.etsy.com

Its a Media Party

Hey everyone. I am excited to be linking up with Natasha in Oz for her social media linky party.
This is a great way to share all the different ways you can get to know one another! In the summer my blogging slows down and I focus on family and my shop. So if you want to see whats going on with me, these are a great place to follow along.

Facebook- Nat's Knapsack

You can also see what I have been working on here in my shop

for example:

I just added a new African Adoption Bracelet 

and I am also Celebrating Christmas in July with a 25% off coupon code

Use code "25injuly" at checkout

Another FUN way to follow is instagram. I LOVE using this app. What a great way to share cute photos and a wonderful app to edit them.  I have made some great friends just by following them on instagram.  Come follow along @natsknapsack   . You can follow along on your computer with Followgram. I would love to follow you back and see what all you are up to this summer. (This is where you will find me most right now) 

Then of course there is Pinterest. What a brilliant idea. I have way too may pins and just as many boards. It is such an amazing way for me to store ideas, how to's, and want to's. 

Are you on pinterest yet? If you need an invite, just let me know! 

Find me HERE

I am a little slow with Twitter but am learning :) Follow me here

I am also learning more about google + after reading Natasha's post. I have a google + account but I don't know a lot about it. 

Check out more on her linky party post.

Here is one really good bit of information I learn from here:

In a nutshell, clicking that little +1 button at the bottom of each of your posts does so much to help your search ranking because Google actually indexes Google+ posts and profiles and not the profiles of its competitors like Facebook and Twitter. 

So next time you visit me (and when you visit all of your bloggy friends) why notclick that +1 button! I know that I will be forever grateful if you do that for me!

If you want to join in here is some more info from Natasha
This linky party will be an opportunity for us to to do a bit of bloggy networking!

If you would like to join in here's what you need to do:

1. Write a blog post that features all the different ways that you are social! Include all the details we would need to find you at all of your social media outlets. Provide us with links to your Twitter profile, your Facebook page, your instagram address, your pinterest boards, your Google profile, your Tumblr blog, Etsy Page..everything! 

Hope you will join in (July 14th) and get to know some amazing ladies

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thankful Thursday. Today I wanted to share with you all how thankful I am to have my family all together, safe and with power on in our home. (Thank you to all the hard working AEP guys/gals for all you have done. Thank you to my FIL for working so many hours to help us all get our power on, while going home at night to a  house with no power himself.) The storms here have been crazy. High winds knocking down trees and taking out power. I am so grateful we are finally home and together. For almost a week I took my son and I to my parents. I had made these plans prior to the storms but we hadn't planned on staying that long. Its always hard when you are away from your other half for days on end, even when you are happily with family. It was nice to have a place to be while the power was out and Joe came to spend time with us over the weekend too. So the two of us took advantage and went on a date! It was a BLAST. We went to the local drive in.

We borrowed my dads truck, I packed up two lounge chairs, snacks, blankets and pillows- PERFECT

While at my parents house we had some fun

We went and saw my brother play baseball

Our son LOVES sports

Then one night when I couldn't sleep...

I checked out my old closet and found my wedding dress. 

I knew it was there but kinda forgot.

I haven't tried it on since we got married. 

I still love it and it takes me back to that wonderful day

8/8/08

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful, God loving man by my side. 

I couldn't ask for a better man

Me and my other, sometimes better, half ;)

Safe and sound together and with friends

Such a fun night for a BBQ

We even played a little corn hole

How cute is our little guy, trying to play too

The Ladies 

After a great evening we headed back home to a surprise showing of fireworks

These were our littles first fireworks and he LOVED them

He kept saying "fireworks, awesome, more, fireworks"

It was too cute

So of course, on July 4th, we headed out to see some more fireworks.

It's been some late nights but so worth it

I love family time

I am So thankful

This is what came through

This is our front porch

Photo by @jennybeckphotos

Stay safe everyone and have a great week

Don't forget to be thankful for those closest to you