Family

Should Be, A New Collar, and A Cousin Sleepover

I have a few precious moments of free time this morning and should be cleaning our bathroom, or making the bed, or getting some real estate work done. Instead, I found myself with a warm mug of coffee and my laptop.

Coffee and Mac laptop Macbook

Owning a husky has been an amazing experience so far. One of the only downsides of living the husky life is the fact that Niva is an escape artist.

When we first brought her home, I bought an ID tag for her collar, but it kept falling off. I finally decided to get a collar with her name and my phone number printed on it and I feel a little better should she run off again, lol.

Black leather dog collar with name and phone number

You know how I mentioned I had some free time? It’s all thanks to my parents babysitting Sadie! Yesterday after the Youth Summer Days at the park, my mom offered to take her home for a sleepover and I was 100% on board with that idea.

My sister’s daughter, Caroline, slept over as well. They had their first cousin sleepover and I was told they followed each other all around the house and were playing and laughing. 

Toddler cousins sitting together on couch

When Sadie first met Caroline, I thought my heart would burst from happiness. Seeing them truly starting to interact each time they’re together is a whole other thing, though! Man, God is so good. ❤

What are your plans this weekend?

Are you close with your cousins?

Progress and Cowboy Cookies

I brought my laptop outside with Sadie and Niva so I could get some real estate work done while they played in the yard and I had to laugh when I saw:

  • Sadie sitting in our fire pit (again!) with our grill brush and a bucket of sidewalk chalk
  • Niva chewing apart Sadie’s baby doll

Sometimes it takes a dirty toddler and chewed up baby doll to get some work done. Just another day at the Zottola Zoo!

Husky and toddler laying on bed

These two keep me on my toes!

We’ve been making progress on a few things around the house! Our little back porch renovation is coming along nicely thanks to Jimmy’s welding and design skills. Here’s what it looked like in May…

Back porch with steel columns and porch swing

Here’s what it looks like now…

Back porch with black steel columns and black steel mesh railings

That back storm door is on its last leg! Jimmy accidentally broke one pane of glass because of Lola’s antics and Niva cracked the top one by jumping on it. 

The garden is also growing well. I feel like every time I look at it, something has changed and grown. One of my favorite parts of each day is walking out to the garden to see what’s new.

Yesterday I noticed we have a few strawberries coming in! 

Strawberry plant in garden with ripe strawberries

Jimmy also made some mesh panels for our tomato plants.

Mesh panels for tomato plants

I had to laugh when I thanked him for making the panels and he was like “Oh, those were no big deal! I just whipped those up in a few minutes after work.” I told him I was pretty sure I wouldn’t even know where to start with making those.

He claimed I was the real mastermind because I baked cowboy cookies. I pretty much said the same thing he did about the mesh panels… they were no big deal to whip up. 

Cowboy cookie dough with chocolate chips and cornflakes

Cowboy cookies

Our conversation got me thinking about how God makes each human being so unique. He blessed Jimmy with the ability to work with steel with ease and enjoyment and He wired me with a need to test cookie dough 😉 

Do you have interests and talents that are totally different from your family?

Have you made progress with any projects lately?