What's Up Wednesday! - August

*Linking up with Mix & Match Family for this episode of What's Up Wednesday!

What We're Eating This Week…

We have a sweet man at church that has a massive garden that I'm SO jealous of! (Next year… next year…) He's been bringing in some delicious yellow squash, so I made some this week. There are so many ways you can make squash, and they're all so good! Fried, stir-fried, casserole… but you can't beat just some chopped squash cooked on the stove with onion, salt, pepper, and butter! That's how my mom always made it. :) I also FINALLY found some fresh okra in this town and our new neighborhood Kroger!!! Hallelujah! And I made some Cheesy Baked Chicken that I found on Pinterest -- I've made it several times now (without the sauce) and it's pretty yummy. :)

What I'm Reminiscing About…

I love my Timehop app this time of year because I always love seeing pictures from my freshman year of college at William Carey. I think it was definitely my favorite year of college, and I have such great memories with great people! 

Delta Omicron Rush Week -- School Spirit Day

Delta Omicron Rush Week -- 50's Day

Sweet friends Courtney and Ashley

What I'm Loving…

Hank's learned some new babble language recently! I'm not sure what Ba-Ba means, but it's the cutest thing ever! 

What We've Been Up To…

This week we found our neighborhood park!! It's literally just around the corner, and I know there will be MANY days spent here! Especially when the weather gets a little cooler. I just love our little neighborhood!

What I'm Dreading…

Cleaning out the fridge! Haha!

What I'm Working On…

Hank's birthday party! Menu, decor, games, etc.!

What I'm Excited About…

My Seminary Wives Institute (SWI) classes start back up this week, and my Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) starts September 4th! This semester at SWI I'm taking Biblical Interpretation and Biblical Parenting. I'm very excited about those! And this will be my first year doing BSF, and Hank gets to go to his own class, too! I think it's going to be an amazing thing for both of us. :)

What I'm Watching/Reading…

Jacob and I have a new TV obsession -- Call the Midwife! I've heard great things about the show, but I recently saw that Miranda Hart stars in it, so I was sold! (She's an English comedian that I LOVE!) We're almost finished with Season 2 on Netflix, and I can't get enough!

What I'm Listening To…

Nothing new lately

What I'm Wearing…

Lots of Alabama gear as we prepare for football season, which starts NEXT Saturday!!! AND we have cable this year!! :)

What I'm Doing This Weekend…

We are going to the 1st birthday party of one of Hank's fellow preemie friends, Dallas! :)

What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month…

My baby is turning ONE!!! I get emotional every time I think about it! He turns one on the 17th, and we're having a cowboy birthday party for him on the 19th. I've been obsessively planning it for a while now, and I can't wait to see how everything comes together! We're also doing his one-year photoshoot with his Jenny Lind highchair, birthday gear, and smash cake, and I'm so excited to see how that goes! :D

What Else Is New…

My family is coming to visit Labor Day weekend and I can't wait!! 

Home Tour -- Living & Dining Room

Today we have officially lived in our home for 3 weeks! It has been so refreshing to have this space for our little family, and we count it a blessing for sure. I offered to host a brunch here 6 days after we moved in, so that gave some incentive to get everything in order! *Almost* everything is complete now, so have a look around our living and dining room! :)

This near-100-year-old farmhouse table was built by someone in the Hatcher family. The last home it resided in was Jacob's Nana's, who passed last fall. His Papa refinished the chairs, which belonged to their dining room table. It will be an honor to dine here. (The frame has since been swapped around and now my DIY Hymn Wreath hangs there! I love it!)

Not the best photo ever, but I made this wreath from hydrangeas from our wedding! 

I loved refinishing the matching end tables and the desk. But the matching frames above the end tables are super special -- I gave them to Jacob as a wedding gift! We were married in the same church his grandparents were married in 60 years ago. One frame has a photo of us walking down the aisle, and the other frame has a photo of them walking down the same aisle. :) 

Sweet little rocker given by my grandparents for my 2nd Christmas. Hank's 6 month photos were made in this as well!

My great-grandma's mirror. I miss her dearly! She was a wonderful woman.

Big Ben lamp that I got when I returned from England, refinished table, and the rocker that Jacob's mother used to rock him in when he was a baby. :)

Some favorite frames, a refinished shelf from my in-laws, some trinkets that were part of our wedding, and a Beatrix Potter collection of books from when I was a girl. :)

That's all for now but I will have more up later! Thanks for stopping by the Hatcher Homestead! <3

DIY Hymn Wreath

Because of our recent move, I've been doing a lot of crafting lately, and I'm LOVING it! Things are slowly but surely coming together and feeling like a home. I'm one of the weirdos that loves change, so all of these new life happenings are so exciting to me! 

Yesterday I worked on a project that I've been wanting to do for a while now. You may remember my post about the DIY Book Wreath. I made this out a the book Little Women for my friend Anna Catherine's literary-themed baby shower. Since then I've been wanting to make one for myself out of a hymnal! Anyone who knows me well knows that I adore the old hymns. They are so rich in theology, truth, and poetry. I jumped at the opportunity when our church was cleaning out their library and asked people to take books home with them -- including some amazing hymnals. I grabbed a Baptist Hymnal that has a copyright date of 1954. (Interestingly enough, our house was built in 1954! :D) I picked up a styrofoam wreath form, got out my hot glue gun, and went to town! I did some rearranging in the living room to make this work, and I'm loving how it turned out! I also love that we have a constant reminder of these beautiful words that have been sung for years in our sweet church. <3

"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:2

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.


 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the Lord.

Psalm 104:33-34

DIY Jewelry Holder

Hey friends! Sorry for the silence recently! Last Saturday we moved to our new house, and we still don't have internet until tomorrow! I got a notification yesterday saying that we've already used 75% of our data for the month. Whoooops! 

I finished a project today though, and I thought I'd share! If you're a woman who loves jewelry, kudos to you if you've found a way to keep your necklaces untangled! It's been YEARS and I still didn't have the proper storage...which resulted in jewelry that was tangled and knotted and ruined. I looked for jewelry holders, but I never found exactly what I was looking for. So I decided to make my own! I've had this vision in my head for a while now, and I finally found the perfect piece I had pictured up in my head. At Hobby Lobby of course! ;) This whole project was less than $20.

I got this wooden shelf on sale for 50% off at Hobby Lobby and the cup hooks at Home Depot (they were $4.21 for 100 but I only used 25). 

All you need to do is mark where you want the hooks to be, drill some pilot holes (holes a little smaller than the hook), and screw in the cup hooks! 

Voila! Now you have a very pretty and tangle-free jewelry holder! 😄🎉