Life lately has been slow and steady, it’s been fruitful and exciting, it’s been full of intention and purpose.
I think springtime always brings the fruit of purpose – we see growth after the dead of winter, we remember the joy of warm weather after harsh cold. What we sow in the fall – rest, nourishment, hibernation – we reap come spring – energy, vibrancy, excitement – and the fruit of it tastes amazing!
I feel all this and more, and so does my family. Our three main focuses this year have been on creating a good rhythm of sleep for everyone, having a home that’s decluttered and easy to clean, and allowing good food, fresh flowers and essential oils to be the dominant smells wafting throughout the house. We’ve spent time serving our local community, making new friends, investing in our neighbors, hosting friends and family and settling more into our home. It’s been a really sweet season, the words living within the blessing keep ringing in my ears (thank you Steph for the beautiful phrase).
Life lately has truly been a blessing. Here’s a short snippet from everyone and photos are below.
Alexander has had a full schedule, but it’s full of good and fruitful friends and peers, events and meetings. Last fall he joined a networking group which has led to new opportunities to work with awesome small businesses in our local community; God has blessed him with a group of friends to go out with, talk and find camaraderie with being husbands and dads of littles, and even play soccer with (which is what he’s currently doing as I type this). It’s been an encouraging year for him as an entrepreneur and one of growth and dependency as a husband, dad and friend.
Liliana wrapped up her first year of pre-k (I’m sobbing typing this out). Her teachers were amazing and she made a few really good friends, we couldn’t be more grateful for a good first year and experience of school. Every week we host play dates with friends in her class and other kids around the same age – it’s taught her a lot about helping set up and serve and also clean up after hosting several friends (once we had 15 three year olds running around our house!). Liliana is learning how to read and write, she had her first spring concert a few weeks ago and her favorite hobbies are picking flowers, reading to her brother, “baking” in her kitchenette and helping me make meals throughout the day.
Finley is running everywhere and trying to say lots of words. He is full on boy! Always has dirt in his hair, food on his shirt, a truck in hand and runs (not walks) everywhere we’re going. Our once little quiet baby is now an adventurous 1.5 year old. He is still tender and so sweet, loves to blow kisses and cuddle with his “stuffies”. Flipping through books, playing outside, going on walks, “cooking” with sister and making car noises are his favorite things to do. Oh and eating, lotsa eating for our big boy!
I have mostly been in our home and with our kids – my time has been spent refining the atmosphere of our days together, creating a culture with my kids in our home. It has been a joy to stay home with my babies, have them help me cook and clean, bring meals to our friends, and create space for art projects and our daily “quiet hours” where we all read, rest or play individually.
I recently signed out of Instagram, which I’ve done in the past, but this time I don’t know if I’ll ever log back in – the noise it added to my life doesn’t seem too necessary. Without the added distraction, our home has been thriving – sleep for everyone has been good, exercise and making food from scratch has become more of a priority. My oils business has grown into an “old school” business, talking to people face-to-face instead of online, and I’m loving it! My word for 2023 is vibrant, which is how I would describe our life together lately.
As a family, we wrapped up an entire 9 months with an awesome group of people from church – we met once a week, our kids played while we learned about God through reading scripture and watching a video series called The Truth Project. Our home is decluttered after I went on a massive decluttering kick during a typical wave of spring cleaning. We’ve been enjoying the warmer weather, gardening in our new garden area where Alexander and I built new garden boxes, strolling through our local farmers market every Saturday morning, grilling out at least once a week, hosting friends and family, and looking ahead to a summer with a few travel plans but mostly investing more in our home and spending time together as a family.
Life feels sweet.
Here are some snapshots of daily life, enjoy!
