What We See vs. What Others See

I saw this video on Kelli's blog this evening and had to share. 

Loving...

This video of the waves Lake Michigan can produce. Pretty crazy for a fresh water lake!

This blog. Mandy's writings always make me laugh!

This post made me cry.

This kids sweatshirt is pretty much perfect. I'd like one in mommy-size. :)

While on the subject of sweatshirts for mommies, these are winners in my book.

I've wasted spent many minutes on this blog and youtube channel this week.

How about a 3 hour, 80's teen movie inspired mixtape? This is fun.

Chaucee has been a source of style inspiration to me for over a year now. I love her photography and love her taste in fashion. I loved this outfit so much that I ordered the jeans! (Nothing is quite as stupid scary as ordering jeans online without trying them on first, am I right?)

I'm pretty-dang-excited about this. No judging.

These are surprisingly, dangerously, ah-maze-ingly delicious. Really.

I've mentioned before that I'm thinking and reading a lot about homeschooling Olive, and I really enjoyed this post and this post. Good inspiration and ideas.

How to Have a Happy Monday

1. Clean your house really well Sunday night, so you when you wake up everything is neat and tidy.

2. Make sure you have something wholesome and easy ready for your breakfast on Monday morning.

3. Get yo-self (and yo-kids!) out of yo-house! Get fresh air (even if it does look like it's about to rain/snow.)

4. Come home, put kids down for a nap and have a cup of cinnamon flavored coffee. With coconut milk. (Cinnamon and coconut are a heavenly match, I tell you.)

I took the kids to the park closest to our house this morning. It's really just a sports complex, (lots of baseball fields) but it has a couple of small playground areas. We had it all to ourselves, which is my favorite way to have a park. It was gloomy outside, but the wind was warm-ish and the birds were singing and it was almost easy to pretend that spring was here. (Still waiting on tree blossoms and tulips and daffodils. So excited!)

My biggest goal for this spring and summer is to get my kids and I out of the house as much as possible. If you've never tried it before, it is really hard getting two small kids and yourself out of the house in the morning. But it is worth it. The fresh air, and seeing new people, and exploring outdoors is so, so good for us. I just need to learn how to get us up, fed, dressed and ready to go in a timely manner. I want this to be a really fun summer of exploring and adventure for our little team of 3!

The Littles' First Concert

Fact: Olive is in love with our city's librarian and story time leader, Miss Eileen. She draws her pictures, and talks lovingly of her all week long.

So last week, when Miss Eileen let me know about a children's pipe organ concert of "Peter and the Wolf" that she was narrating today, we decided to throw caution to the wind and take the kids.

Silas, not so surprisingly, couldn't take it and had to endure the better half of the concert in the church foyer. Olive, though, loved it! I'm glad we decided to take her. Miss Eileen and the organist made it very engaging and entertaining. The acoustics of the old church were amazing, and it was fun to listen to such a huge, old instrument in person.

Afterwards we got coffee (and a hot chocolate) at JP's. It was a nice afternoon. 

Bits and Pieces

1. A dish scrubbie from The Seasoned Home (love that place.)

2. We've had nothing but clouds, rain, thunderstorms and then this morning...snow.

3. Hot tea (also from The Seasoned Home) makes everything better.

When I was clearing all the photos from my phone I realized

I have a TON of pictures of me and Silas together. He loves seeing himself on the phone.

I love getting him to laugh with that self-facing camera!

I love this chunker sooooooooooo much. He fills our days with lots of laughs and snuggles!

Heavenly Peace

One of my favorite parts of being a mom is watching my kids sleep.

And this is not for the most obvious reason of catching a breather while they catch their z's.

It's those times where I look at them asleep and unaware that I can really sit back and marvel at the miracle of them.

There was a time a long time ago where I was so sure that having children was just not written in God's story for us. We tried such a long time to get pregnant, and then miscarried our first baby. That time period seems all blurry in my mind now, like a dream.

Now here we are with two children and life's fast and dizzying - and I'm convicted in the moments when I watch the children sleep that I need to remember those days before they were. Those days where I felt so sad and anxious.

God is good. His plans are never easy, but they are good.

Lately...

(Because life's been rather slow lately and I have nothing better to write about today...)

...I can't stop thinking about the beach, and wishing for warmer, sunny weather.

(We're getting a big dose of April showers here.)

(But hey, at least it's not April snow. Gotta focus on the silver linings...)

...I love this print from Yellow Heart Art! I need to find a special frame for it...

...We've been combatting cabin fever with pointless Meijer and Target runs in the rain...

...which inevitably leads to playing the occasional game of dress up in a dressing room. I like to try on things that I would normally never ever try on. Most of the time it's an embarrassing fail. But I bought a men's shirt last week and it's my new favorite. 

...I fell in love with a mirror...

I've been wearing my reading glasses a lot because I've actually started reading again...

(in between wiping bums and fetching sippy cups of milk and stopping Silas from putting everything in his mouth and etc. You know.)

...And this is just a bonus picture of Olive. Because she's awesome.

What are you up to lately? I'd love to hear all about it.