Every piece matters.

Happy new week to you Rosy readers! I just made that phrase up (Rosy Readers) and I like it.  I'm sitting at my dining room table, stealing glances at the pasture behind our house.  The grass is extra tall and green, the wildflowers dancing around in happy batches.  Suffice it to say I could easily daydream each and every spring day like this away.  I knew spring would come, I just knew it.  

Anna Ruth finished up her last day of Mom's Day Out, which we called "school" all year long.  We had such a positive, wonderful experience with her attending!  I am so proud of my girl for learning to be friendly to others and make new friends, even without us around.  She made a new little friend in the hot tub on our Branson trip last week, without any prompting from Brett or I.  As I sat listening to her sweet questions and conversation with her new friend, I was so, so proud and thankful she built her confidence this year!  I made a happy little bundle of bookmarks and postcards to give her sweet teacher to say thank-you for letting my mind be at ease while Anna was in her care. 

 My hands and mind have been busy, busy around here lately!  And it feels so, so good.  So much of what I'm working on with my art lately has to do with the computer and ordering things and reading online things.  It is a much-needed welcome break to create for my two favorite gals.  

This is a little picnic table I painted for them...I'm going to put it out in the yard with wildflowers on top.   Doesn't that sound lovely?  You are the lucky ones who get the real life garage shot of the table....everything can't be a photo shoot folks. (as much as I would love for it to be, lol)

 This weekend I had a chance to get some time to myself, which doesn't happy all that often.  I chose to drive to a nearby town and go to their amazing thrift store!  I found a mountain of books for the girls (which Anna Ruth is STILL thrilled about), three pair of pants for me, and this blanket.  Isn't it wonderful?  It only cost $1.  As thrilled as I was with this find I still found myself wondering who sat and made this colorful quilt and thought how sad it was it went for only a dollar.  My soul sister must have made this.  God treated me to this blanket, that's for sure.  These little things cheer me right up. 

 No bragging rights here, as far as price goes. But maybe. Sorta.  I found this fantastic metal crate another day and fell in love with it.  I happened to see my friend Natalie at the same store and showed her my find.  She said it was an old milk crate.  I'm keeping this find in my craft room.  Which is in desperate need of some additional shelving to hold my art canvases!  Add that to the long project list. 

 Brett has been working so, so hard on the little girls' playhouse since last Thanksgiving.  When I say "working" on it I mean that any spare moment he has that isn't taken up with regular yard work, farm work, WORK, our family, and other events scheduled in, he's creating the playhouse.  So that gives you an idea of how much time, realistically, he's had to get it finished up.  Plus he's very meticulous and detailed and organized so that takes longer than a store-bought something.  He has no background in building like this.  He's simply figuring it out as he goes.  I'm so, so proud of him!  

My "job" concerning the playhouse is the easy one-decorating!  I'm determined to do what I can THIS week and then be done. No elaborate paint job inside, nothing that will take hours to make.  It's time to let the girls get their hands on the playhouse and take sole ownership.  The happy stack above is where I'm headed, color-wise.  I mean, you didn't expect anything different did you!? 

I'm still enjoying my beautiful flowers Brett got me for Mother's Day!  Everyone keeps asking me how my Mother's Day was.  I was busy, busy all day long with church nursery and my girls.  And I was happy.  Both my girls were healthy and happy.  That is all this mama could ask for.  

Speaking of happy and healthy........I had this idea to let the girls paint their own table for the inside of the playhouse.  It seemed like a fabulous idea at the time.  We started like this, what you see in the pictures.  We ended.......well, let's just say I didn't think some of my clean and neat friends could handle the messy pics because I almost couldn't handle it! Betsy Grace had red paint everywhere.  I took her clothes off to try to clean her off and she climbed in the wagon and laid down and then stood right up. So proud, so painted.  It was even too much of a mess for me.  SO.  At least I tried :).  I always like to err on the side of trying and letting the girls jump right in to life.  And sometimes I learn what they don't need to jump into again.  

 The eating sure is good around here and that's been a major theme of our spring.  We're back to salads with balsamic vinegar that are so good you just can't hardly believe how fresh it tastes.  Have you ever had good lettuce?  I mean like lettuce with flavor?  Our garden lettuce and onions are just fantastic.  Good enough to make me want to give up Peanut M and M's.  Now THAT'S saying a lot! 

I encourage you to keep a visual journal or record somehow of the goodness of your life.  That's what this blog does for me.  The other day I was feeling a bit down (and can't even remember why now so it must have been silly).  I pulled out our real-life album I made on Shutterfly from the last year and looked over the happy, colorful memories that got us where we are today.  Sometimes the big picture of life can feel like lots of ordinary, cleaning, cooking, and just keeping up.  Taking pictures of these rosy moments, memories, joys that God gives us...matters.  This spring, let's celebrate the rosy in the routine like never before.  In a manner that invites our real life people into our lives, that gives smiles to strangers, hope to hopeless. hugs to hurting, our passions and gifts offered as a gift.

What I'm realizing lately is how much every piece matters.  I think of my momma's beautiful quilts she sews and Anna Ruth's puzzles she works and when you look at the whole picture you realize how each and every piece is needed.  The same is true of people and their stories.  I need these pictures and thoughts about a seemingly ordinary spring week to be recorded for when life comes knocking at my door with baskets and buckets full of chores and hard things, I can see past that and onto the beauty that God has tucked in amongst the real life stuff.  

I pray for each of you today...

that your lives will be bathed in sunlight. 

{I'll be back soon to share on my art blog what's coming up with my Etsy shop!}