The Rosy Life: Here comes the sun.

Are your eyes noticing an ornery little theme like mine are? I spy two sweet and smart girls who are little climbers.

And one little gal who looks like she's been caught-hahaha!

Tonight I just can't get the song "Here comes the sun.." out of my head because THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY! In full force. It was so glorious that sentence deserves letters even bigger than all caps if there ever was such a thing. I don't even realize how badly I need the sun until it comes out and then the birds seem to chirp and sing louder, my step is a little higher, and my energy through the roof. It's usually about midday where I start to realize how great of a mood has come over me and I thank my sunny friend. The sun does wonders. It's the reason I get so wound up in spring. We are outdoor loving', sunshine people.

Let's just pretend all that sun-energy caused me to make the most amazing mantle in the history of ever, ok? In reality, a few leftover things were still on the mantle from Christmas that I thought could technically be "winter themed". So there the misfits sat. And then I threw a few more things up on the mantle in passing and the misfits seemed to suddenly fit a lot better. Then-rewind, fast forward, rewind, fast forward. I just kept walking past, adding this and that and after sewing a little five-minute banner today I just thought the mantle looked like the cutest thing ever. Misfits and all.

All this talk of new years resolutions and whole30 and doing better, being better, and basically changing into a new person in the new year has left this gal just tired! So instead of making a whole bunch of resolutions I just decided to come to term with reality and set some guidelines instead. The wonderful truth is I am a SAHM (stay-at-home-mama) by choice. No, we don't have money (or ever will most likely) for cable or a housekeeper or new clothes. But, I'm leading the richest life I could have ever imagined or dreamed up. Actually, I don't think I could have even dreamed up something this good. Staying at home with my two little girls is just beyond good. And really…with a bit of thrifting and creativity, new just isn't so cool to me anymore.

With my job title comes daily housecleaning, anywhere between 1-2 loads of laundry a day, three meals to cook, two gals to read to, teach about Jesus, do fun activities with..there are friendships to maintain (and new ones I'm praying for), a husband to love, an Etsy shop and art business to grow..

and so, the wheel. The wheel with my word "slow" right smack in the middle because really my people are what matter more than anything. My people and Jesus. The circles are what I hope to include in my days to have some sort of balance.

I admit, right now some things feel very off-balance. Mostly with friendship but I'm hoping to get to know some new friends better soon and meet up with our old playgroup again! As for home..we've started reading bible stories to the girls every single night before bed and having weekly worship sessions. They are getting it. They are interested in Jesus and learning His stories well. This makes me very happy.

How about you? Are you a goal setter or resolution maker? Or does all the talk make you want to run and hide?

I mentioned in the last post I've been more intentional with the girls learning and playtime. We certainly have big chunks of our days (especially if we're home all day) that are unstructured play time. I hope to always have that, even when they're technically "big". But, we also have times where I've laid out something special for them to do, or we pick an activity from our special cabinet. Today it was Anna Ruth that spoke up, wanting to get the art tub out.

She drew a little story about "a man that plays with two gores (girls). His name is Dad." Some of the girls favorite art supplies right now are tape and glue, string, stickers, markers, crayons, oil pastels, and rubber stamps. Betsy Grace even stamped her bare tummy today!

I've been enjoying sitting in the sun, like a cat. I see through IG some of you live in sunny places almost year round. I wonder if you delight in it as much as we do? I bet so. Others are buried in snow. That sounds dreamy to though. Oh my, I see we've been reduced to discussing the weather.