My husband, Eddie, left for Burkino Faso last Sunday. He is there with a team from our church. They are working to get clean drinking water to a village. Eddie was very excited to be able to apply his skills as a civil engineer to design the holding tank. For the few weeks that he is there he is working with a small group of men from our church to supervise construction of the tank. They have started a blog about their journey, but haven’t been able to update it yet.

Internet access is limited, but he posted this status on Facebook earlier today.

Making great progress on the concrete water tower. Today we got almost the entire rebar cage built, forms set for the slab, outlet pipe installed and propped the cage up so its ready for concrete tomorrow. Another great day of weather, but it was HOT. I am impressed by the work ethic of the Burkinabe…such hard workers and most of them are volunteering for the sake of the village.Thanks everyone for your prayers and support!

I am SOOOOOOO grateful that we live in the internet age and we have been able to communicate fairly easily with Skype and Facebook messaging almost every day. Otherwise, I would be going out of my mind.

Here are a few of the pictures that were posted by one of the full-time missionaries who are hosting Eddie’s group. (The first one is my favorite. He’s like my very own Indiana Jones.)

Photos used with permission.

The terrain is too rough for motor vehicles, so they have to use donkey carts to haul the materials. Apparently some women from the village are also volunteering to cart containers of sand and gravel on their heads.

It makes you take a minute to reflect on the things we take for granted, like turning on the faucet so that our kids can brush their teeth with clean water.

We have felt so uplifted this week. It must be all of the prayers coming from you because I have no other explanation. I haven’t experienced any of the anxiety I expected (although I don’t love being alone at night) and Nicholas has not had any problems adjusting, which is a small miracle in and of itself. The girls have been fine as well. The only thing that was a big concern to me was that the team was supposed to stop in Istanbul to catch their flight to Africa, and there is a lot of civil unrest in that area right now. But at the last minute they were re-routed because of the weather and got to go through France instead.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for the next few weeks!

I was missing my husband today-he’s safely in Africa now- so I was going through old emails and Facebook messages. (The modern day way to sort through a box of love letters.)   I was a little sad because I couldn’t reach him tonight and now it’s pretty late in their time zone. Then I found this and couldn’t stop laughing.

This is a screen shot of an actual conversation. He was downstairs working and I was upstairs and had finished putting the kids to bed. Also, I was pretty pregnant with Penny, so there’s an extra special visual for you.

Who says romance is dead?

Thanks for making me laugh through my tears even when you’re not here, babe.

It’s ALWAYS a good time for a poop joke.

P.S. As usual, I was right. Caps lock IS gross.

I’m joining Lisa Leonard for her Hello Monday link-up.

I’ve been looking forward to this week for months, so it seemed like an appropriate time to jump in and say…

Hello to a week with only 3 “work” days.

Hello to more progress on our future home.

Hello to the possibility of signing on the line for a temporary summer apartment (with a pool!) that would shorten Eddie’s commute by over an hour each way and give us back our family time.

Hello to the spa gift card I got for Mother’s Day.

Hello to a much-needed (and FREE!) get-away with my husband and my first ever blog conference. I’ve been reeling since October at the fact that I WON a trip to the Bloggy Boot Camp of my choice this year. I chose Charlotte, NC and the week is here!

Hello to the kindergartner’s parent/teacher conference this afternoon.

Hello to a toddler who seems to be learning 3 or 4 new words every day.

And Hello to a few more weeks of watching this through the window, while we have such a great back-yard here at my in-laws.

Hope you all had a great Mother’s Day weekend. And remember, it’s not too late to sign up for my newsletter and get your free eBook.

Back in February I tried Stitch Fix for the first time. I was really excited about the idea of having clothes delivered to my door so that I didn’t have to deal with the pain of shopping with three kids.

I’m going to two blog conferences this year (The first one is in just two weeks!) and I’m having a little bit of anxiety over what to wear. I have never been before, but I have visions of showing up looking all plain jane and everyone else wearing adorable handmade vintage clothes they bought from secret Etsy stores where all the cool kids (read: not me) shop. I was really excited when my first fix arrived a day early, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

I thought Stitch fix might be a great option to get some trendy pieces that still felt like my style. Here is what they sent in my first fix:

Yeah, I modeled these without brushing my hair or putting on any make up. Sue me. I liked this shirt a lot. It was really comfortable and the collared look was not something I would have chosen, but I liked it once it was on. I thought it had the most flattering fit of all the pieces they sent. It’s the only piece that lets you see the actual shape of my body. Plus it reminded me of something Zooey Deschanel would wear on New Girl and I loved that. However, I did not like that it was completely see through. I hate having to layer clothes because it makes extra laundry for me. If the material would have been thicker I would have kept this one, but I couldn’t justify paying $50 for a shirt that felt like it came from Forever 21.

This striped shirt tied for my least favorite piece. The fabric was terrible, like a scratchy outdoor cushion, it was totally see-though (again) and it was also pretty expensive. All of the items in my fix were between $50-75 dollars. I felt like this was the most uncomfortable piece to actually wear and it wasn’t very flattering on my body type.

I HATED this one. I don’t even have one good thing to say about it. You can see in my face, I’m pretty annoyed. It’s like a bad maternity shirt, completely see through (AGAIN) and expensive to boot. Definitely the most unflattering thing I have ever put on my body. I’m really not sure I believe that a professional stylist could have possibly chosen this for someone on purpose.

This black one I actually liked and it was pretty comfortable. But it showed off too much of the ladies and again it was a bit pricey for the type of material. I also felt like it made me look bigger than I actually am, which is always a negative. Back it went.

This white sweater is the only piece I chose to keep. I needed a white sweater anyway and I liked the placement of the pockets and the material is not too heavy or too flimsy. This is actually the sweater I wore to my first book signing.

Now that I have had some time to reflect, my final thoughts on Stitch Fix Are:

PROs-

*I actually liked 3 out of 5 of the items they sent and I kept one. Not bad for the first time.

*Delivered to my door meant I didn’t waste any time or energy lugging three kids around the mall or spend any money on a baby sitter.

*The convenience of the return was awesome. You just stick the clothes you don’t want into the paid envelope they provide and mail it via a regular mailbox.

*I like the way that you can earn credit by referring friends and the way that your $20 styling fee is applied to whatever you choose to keep. (Disclaimer: if you place an order through my link I will get credit towards my next fix, if I chose to order again.)

*I liked the style cards that came with each piece, suggesting a few ways to wear it.  This is the one from the sweater I kept:

CONs-

*They don’t seem to be great at dressing “plus sized” women. In real life I fluctuate between a size 8 and a size 12. None of those sizes are actually plus sized, but unfortunately in the fashion industry they are considered humongous.  I asked for size 10 clothes for this fix. Everything fit me, but you will notice they only sent shirts and 4 out of 5 (including the sweater) were pretty matronly. This might be my fault because I chose “mostly loose” on my style profile when they asked how I prefer my tops to fit. I also asked that they avoid sending pants because I don’t need any. That does not explain why I didn’t receive any dresses, jewelry, or other accessories in this fix.

*I was nursing a baby at the time (thus why I chose “mostly loose”) and the sweater that I kept was the only option that was convenient for that. Again, this isn’t really their fault, but might be something the company could consider in the future.

*The quality of the clothes, in my opinion, was definitely not worth the price they were charging. I understand that they have overhead costs, but so do the stores at the mall and I really felt like the quality of the clothes I got was comparable to a store like Forever 21 or H&M. I would have paid less than half of what Stitch Fix was charging by going to those stores.

*I have other friends whose fixes have included a tank to wear under a sheer top. I thought it was a little unfair to send me 3 sheer pieces and nothing to wear under them.

*They don’t seem to really understand their audience. Stitch fix seems to be catering to young professionals. However, most of the young professionals I know are too savvy to pay these prices for this quality. Those are the women who can find time to shop and buy nice clothes and have them tailored. They don’t want cheap fabric.  The idea behind Stitch Fix is genius and I love it, but they would be smarter to cater to moms and bloggers who have the influence to expand their reach and are willing to pay for convenience. (Says the woman who happily pays for the groceries to be delivered or for baby sitting services in the mall.)  As it is, I got the impression that my lifestyle and my body type just weren’t hip enough to fit into their ideal client base. That just seems dumb to me. Moms buy clothes too, and not just for ourselves, for our entire families. I feel like they are missing a big opportunity by not catering to moms and don’t really care because they want to seem cool.

After the fix I filled out the report they requested explaining what I thought of each piece. I feel like that might help personalize my order the next time around, if I chose to try again. So far I have not placed an order for another fix, but I might consider it in the future. Overall, I’d give my experience with them a B-.

Have you tried Stitch Fix? What was your experience with them like?