With all of the crazy things happening all around the globe, it’s easy to get downtrodden. It’s easy to feel despair. It’s easy to feel like it all hope is gone. I caught myself feeling a little down, but this last week’s Come Follow Me (which is a spiritual lesson manual for my church) lesson focused a lot about having the strength to keep the faith when faced with adversity. I realized that for me, at least, this meant to search out the little things that give me joy. Take note of the simple things that make me happy. Feel thanks for the wonderful things in my life. I found that the pictures I’ve taken this past week kind of centered around those wonderful things, which is a great visual reminder that I can go back to look at whenever I want. What a blessing!!
Last Sunday was Mother’s Day. I’m so grateful for beautiful flowers (and yummy chocolate)…I’m also grateful for a husband who takes note of the other little things that bring me joy (like earrings and a new phone charger so that I don’t have to go aaaallll the way upstairs to charge my phone) ;). A dear family friend also sent along a fun cookbook that has simple recipes in it that make it possible for me to have the kids in the kitchen with me. I’m looking forward to cracking that sucker open!“My mom is 5 years old. She has brown hair and brown eyes. My mom is funny when she silly face. I love to play hide and seek with my mom. She is really good at making noodles. My mom’s job is to make food. The thing she says a lot is good night (😂). When I am at school, my mom have a great day. I love my mom because she loves me. And I know she loves me because (blank). If I could get her a gift, I would get her a shopping list (🤣). I love you, Mom! Love, Abigail.”“My favorite thing to do with my mom is to joke around with her. My mom is really good at cooking. My mom always tells me that I am smart and kind. My mom makes me bacon spaghetti. I love my mom because she makes us good food and she loves me and my family.”New earrings are a little thing (both literally and figuratively) in my life that make me happy. 🙂So are photo-bombing ten-year-olds. 😉These are two not-so-little things that bring joy to my life. Their relationship is a little thing that makes me immensely happy. I’m so grateful for the love they have for each other.Plants are a little thing in my life that bring me joy. Abigail planted a bean in this cup at school and recently brought it home. It’s been fun watching it grow!Cactus blossoms are another little thing that bring me happiness. They don’t bloom for very long, so it’s a lucky thing to get to spot them.I’m grateful for a body that works! I’ve been trying to be better to my body (choose better food to eat and getting more exercise). It’s hard on hot days (as is evident in this very sweaty selfie), but it’s very worth it!Can you spot the little thing in this photo that brought me joy? It’s not the little face on the left (though she brings me tons of joy)……it’s this tiny grasshopper! He was so itty-bitty that I almost missed seeing him. He was crawling right toward a spiderweb, so I used a stick to shoo him off. He jumped off the pole and onto my glasses! I carefully took my glasses off and put them close to the ground so that he could hop off.Fresh jelly (the recipe calls it jam because it’s made from fruit instead of fruit juice, but the consistency and texture are definitely more jelly-like) and fresh rolls are two more little things that bring me joy.Watching her imagination explode while playing brings me so, so, so much joy. 🙂She made me a “cake”. 🙂She had to put it on a “stand” and add “candles”. One final little thing that makes EVERYBODY happy is homemade cookies in the cookie jar. 😀 This was the cookie jar that was in my house growing up (my mom sent it home with me one year), so that’s a little nostalgic thing that brings me great joy, too.
It’s hard to believe that we’re already done with the first week of May. We’ve got three and a half weeks of school left, we’re keeping busy with little projects, and it looks like the warm weather is starting to set in. Joseph has been reviewing for the yearly standardized test at school, but his teacher made it fun by doing a “Tri-Wizard Tournament” (Harry Potter themed). She even gave them all Harry Potter glasses and wands. Abigail has had some fun themed days (the last 26 days of school have a different theme each day based on a letter of the alphabet) and I even got to spend a bit of time in her classroom on Friday. Paul has been busy at work (as well as helping get some stuff around the house done), and I’ve been busy keeping up with the kids and other typical things.
She decided that for the five minute drive to drop Joseph off at school she needed her puppy, her Squirtle, and her blanket.Joseph is into “photobombing” right now. 😀You know it’s a good day when all the circles are complete before the sun goes down.I asked Paul if he might be able to build a small table for the entryway so that I could have a place to drop my keys or phone. He said that a shelf would probably be a better idea (to take up less of a footprint). He got some materials at Lowe’s and put this shelf together. It’s perfect!Abigail’s class picture came in…I think her personality was captured perfectly. 🙂 I also think the photographer must have told the kids to say “cheese” because this is usually the pose she makes when I say the same thing.We got a mirror for the stairwell to kind of break up the wall (it’s a super tall wall since the loft is open to the stairs) and to help reflect light. It feels a bit less cave-like there now.Muffins with Mom for Abigail’s class.I had no idea my love for pasta was so strong! 😉I love these little bits of artwork.I normally don’t order the spring pictures, but I couldn’t help it with this one. Joseph missed taking spring pictures because he was sick that day, but he’s not a huge fan of taking pictures like this, so there’s no love lost there, haha. Abigail loves doing stuff like this, though, so it was worth getting the picture. 🙂And so it begins…She was pretending to be one of the small cats that Puss in Boots trains. I love her imagination!The bench Paul built several years ago needed a facelift. Instead of sanding it down and re-staining it, he opted to paint it. I think it looks great!
When I was looking through the pictures I took this week, I was struck by just how lucky I am. People talk about finding your happy place and I really feel like I have found my happy place. I love my sweet husband who does so, so much for all of us. I love my kiddos who make me laugh every day. I love our home. I love living in Texas. I really am in my happy place!
Happiness is having the windows open in the evening so that the cool breeze can come in…it’s also getting to look over and see Paul’s handiwork in those window seats.Happiness is getting to wear rain boots and watching Abigail’s delight while jumping in rain puddles.Happiness is seeing this little girl’s imagination practically run rampant. She was borrowing Joseph’s “tuba” (which Paul made for him years and years ago when he was going through a tuba phase). She ran and grabbed Paul’s sun hat, threw it on the ground, started “playing”, and then told me I needed to put money in the hat. That kid… 🙂Happiness is seeing these two work together to do something fun.Joseph needed to build a rocket using a two liter bottle to bring along to Primary Activities.They hooked them up to hoses and launched them up in the air. He came home soaking wet, but he had a blast.Happiness is seeing that my rose bush is exploding with roses right now. I love spring!Happiness is getting to ride in the rocket cart when Mom has to grab a few things from the grocery store. Usually I can’t use these carts because their baskets are smaller and I tend to only go shopping once a week, so we end up getting too much to fit in the smaller carts. This time, though, I was doing a mid-week run, so we were able to use the rocket cart. She was so, so excited.Happiness is finding joy in nature. I told Paul I was thinking of getting another piece of artwork to hang in our powder bath. Since I have a sort of a nature theme in there, Paul suggested I find one of the pictures I’ve already taken, have it printed, and then frame it. I picked this picture. It’s a picture I took a couple of Octobers ago, when Tracie was down to visit. We went to the Japanese Tea Garden and I snapped this picture of a crane sitting on an island in one of the ponds. The water around the island was so still (and the angle was just right) that it reflected the wall of ivy that is behind the pond. Consequently, it looks almost like an Impressionist painting, and I love it!I picked a simple black frame for it so that it wouldn’t compete with the picture. The other things that I already had up there are a dragonfly cross stitch that I did, a fun ceramic succulent (or maybe it’s a flower, I’m not sure), and then a photo that a good friend of mine took of a hummingbird scratching its head. 🙂I think my photo was the perfect thing to round out the decorations. Before, it felt like something was missing in that spot.Happiness is getting to see birds in our yard who are probably waiting for us to leave so that they can eat more birdseed and cool off in the bird bath. 😉Happiness is having your mom wind up your swing and let it go. 😁She loves to swing. ❤️💕❤️
