raspberry finger hats

Today was a great day.
Lets face it - I always know its going to be a good day when I have a bra on before 8 am.

The day started with Ruby sneaking in to our room oh-so-quietly and whispering to us that she was indeed up and that the sun was awake too. Heart; melted. The kids ate their breakfast without meltdowns or force feeding, and then hugs and kisses for daddy and he was off to work. I made it a point to not check my phone or computer and to just play with the kids until Ames went down for his nap. Once he was down Ruby and I decided to have a mini-date and go work in the garden. She is a sucker for dirt and water. We made our rounds in the garden looking for weeds and watering plants, then she made sure that her little "garden" of weeds were well maintained. The garden is pretty pitiful this year from the crazy hail that we got - not much was left but we are trying our darndest to salvage what we can. Luckily our raspberries were sheltered by the fence and we still have oodles of them. So we spent the morning looking for the nicest, darkest, juiciest raspberries we could find. It was the cutest thing to watch her examine each one, making sure it was just the right shade or red before she plucked it off and promptly put it in her mouth. After getting our bowlful we sat together on the porch swing and stuffed our faces. Then like any good mother would - I taught her how to do raspberry finger hats. She of course loved it and I just sat back and soaked up every adorable second of it. 

The rest of the day went just as great, and I felt like I was very present in my own, and my children's lives. Its funny how we can get so distracted from that sometimes. That other things can suck our attention away so easily. But today, today I felt like I was a step closer to that person that I'm trying to be more like.

caught

Do you ever feel like this?

I feel like this has been my latest self-struggle. The desire to want to be better, to be the best you can be. But then in reality its so hard to make such a drastic change all at once. Or change - period. I have these realizations that I am wasting precious time in my life. That I am wasting so many great and fun opportunities with my children while they are still young and tiny and precious - or wasting my health by not enjoying how healthy my body can be, or wasting my spirituality by not having more growing experiences, or not being the best wife I could potentially be - and it irks my soul! I feel so much guilt - all because I am too tired, or too lazy, or unmotivated. But how do you REALLY change? Because as many times as I have gone over this dilemma it never pushes me hard enough to make a complete and lasting change. 

So this is my starting point. 

I am going to be patient with myself 

(because I tend to think things need to be changed and perfect right. this. minute.)

and I'm going to allow myself to become the person I dream of being. To evolve into her. To be more of what I want, and less of what I don't. 

ready. set. go.

pictures! pictures!

We had one of my greatest friends take some photos for us a few weeks ago. She is amazing, and talented, and smart, and funny, and just an all around great person. I aspire to be like her. The pictures she captured were lovely despite all the crying, screaming, bribing, running away, eye-rolling, leg stomping and tantrums in between. I am such a stickler for yearly pictures of my babes and our little family, (I think its so important) and I'm lucky that I've got a supportive man that goes along with it (thanks babe)

 I just feel so overwhelmed sometimes at how beautiful my little family is, and how lucky I am that they are mine and that I get to be a part of this goodness. 

^Ames' infamous 'bear crawl'^

^Ruby's ULTRA cheeser grin^

^How DREAMY is this man of mine!^

the beginning

well, here's to a new adventure in blogging..