These Happy Little Days

Now don't get me wrong. It's not all roses. Of course it isn't, we're human and nothing is perfect. In fact, there have been some extremely painful and just plain hard things to handle as a parent lately, and nothing brings you to your knees quite like those moments. But there has been a shift in my thinking, a new wave of gratitude you might say, which has allowed me to clearly see the blessings of the everyday. And I find myself thinking, a lot!, how much I adore this life of mine, of ours, and how I want to make the most out of every single day.

Of course, there's a kid coughing and sniffling on the couch in the other room, and another little one whining at my feet as I type. You know, life. And I'm going to treasure it all.

And I'm going to pray more. I'm not kidding! I need guidance and wisdom on the daily and I know Who is able to give it, only lots of times I don't seek after Him. I want that to change because the result is much more peace in doing what I can do, and leaving the rest to God.

Well anyhoo. Sometimes I find Levi and I matching, and I think it's just the sweetest thing. So of course it must be documented.

Even on mornings that aren't so smooth, there is always something sweet. Lately Levi is obsessed with carrying around his lovey, and he's been practicing taking more and more steps. It's just the two of us each morning now, and it's a sweet time.

He cracks me up. Here he is doing his baby yoga. I was doing dishes and just turned around to check on him (because it was quiet), and I see this. The other pose he often does is downward dog. :)

I'm just throwing this one in because I can't resist that tush.

Our Saturday mornings have been filled with Isabelle's field hockey games. This is all new to us, and it's been fun!

She's the one with the ball. And the guards on the outside of her socks. Yup.

It's fun bringing Ryder out with us, most of the time anyway.

Such a fun little evening!

I'm going to have write a post on just our trips to the library so I can have them all in one place. For starters, it's completely adorable! Secondly, I can't get enough of watching him toddle around and explore there.

We had a few minutes to kill on this day, so we stopped by the park on the way home. I was texting my husband something and when he answers, my phone quacks, and Levi heard it and knew it was Daddy, so he started smiling and waving. So funny. Also, I'm SO curious to see what his hair does in the coming months. It goes from golden blonde to dark blonde to strawberry blonde. And it has lots of wave and little curls coming in the back!

Looking back, I guess there were some rough patches when Levi would not go down for a nap. This happened at least three or four times in one week, but even still, I decided to sit in peace with my chai latte for a little me time. There was sewing I needed to do, housework and other things, but after regrouping and reflecting, I was ready for whatever came next. And thankfully, it was all sweetness from there on out. For a few days anyway, haha.

I made a deal with myself that I couldn't start decorating for fall until I'd caught up on orders and got certain areas of our home organized (all my stuff, ugh, so I couldn't even blame it on anyone else). So I got to work and then added some fall touches. I'm also channeling my inner minimalist these days, and I'm simply not interested in going overboard with decorations. 

Somehow fall and summer got mixed up because the past two days were hotter than any day in July or August. Go figure. This guy enjoyed his first smoothie in a glass, with help obviously, and we just enjoyed a mellow family weekend. The night before we'd visited with Bill's parents and extended family up from Pennsylvania, so that was really nice as well.

These two. All the heart eyes.

We ended the weekend just goofing around out back. Probably sounds totally lame, but it was honestly the most fun I've had playing with my kids in a long time. Everyone just sort of let down their guards and just enjoyed being in the moment, and it was so refreshing to my soul. I will remember that evening for a long, long time. We ended the night with take-out for dinner- hooray!!!-  and the first of what I hope are many Family Meetings. We read some scripture together, very low key, and then I wrote down everyone's activities, which I mostly know anyway, but it was super helpful to review them, and in front of everyone too, and then I prayed for us and for the week ahead. It was so simple and relatively small, but this has been a burden to me for some time, and I'm finding that a whole lot of smalls add up to something really meaningful.

This bright little bouquet made me smile. It's probably the last bunch I'll get, but they have grown so beautifully this year. I don't know how to harvest seed from them but I'm going to look it up and try- if you have any tips for me, please let me know!

Okay, I've just made some hot chai for sick Jonah and now Levi and I are heading to the grocery store. Hope you have a great day!