Hard Knocks and Happiness.

Life for the last few months has included a few hiccups, perhaps this is why I haven't written lately. {I will attempt to catch up over the next few days.}

To begin, January brought me a miscarriage and all of the physical and emotional turbulence that accompanies it. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways and I have come to learn and accept and be grateful for His eternal, omniscient timetable. He is so much wiser than I and I love Him more than I can ever express.

In the middle of this trial, Patrick had a severe staph infection. And yet through it all, all I could feel was an overwhelming surge of peace. In a miraculous way that I have never experienced before, the Lord blessed us with faith and hope and courage to match our mountains. It was a gift and an assurance that poured out without ceasing. The prayers and fasting of our dear family undoubtedly blessed us more than I could have imagined. Truly, the Lord is good.

And while these trials were upon us, I felt to pursue some meaningful dreams. It seems counterintuitive to pursue a dream when trials are weighing you down, but I felt such liberation in the working towards something bigger than myself. The first dream included the initial stages of dreaming and envisioning and planning a remodel of our home. This will be an ongoing project that is just beginning and I am so excited to bring my vision to fruition. The second dream that has been so time-consuming {and yet so rewarding} is writing. I've been so busy as of late, trying to write and uplift and encourage on my website writinginthestillness.com. I have felt such an urgency about it. And though I'm not sure why the urgency has accompanied this dream, I know the promptings I have received have come from Above.  And so I will continue to write and bless in the way I've been inspired.

And this pretty much sums up the last few months.

Lastly, I've been re-crafting my morning routine when I'm home with just Maylie. She was getting so stir-crazy being cooped up in the house {and so was I}. She doesn't do very well all by herself without her brothers to play with. So I devised a daily activity to do together to get us out of the house and into the beautiful world around us. Going to the library, park, and window shopping were included in the routine. I was so excited last Sunday when I put it all in my planner...and then I got sick with a nasty cold (for the first time this winter). That, coupled, with the fact that the library doesn't open until the afternoon kind of foiled my plans this past week. Maybe next week will be better?

So yesterday I drove a few miles to the most beautiful, quaint antique shop you could ever imagine. In a little old barn in the middle of nowhere I listened to old cowboy music and spent an hour looking through every piece of primitive and vintage antiquities. It was truly soul-therapy for me. I walked away with the sweetest double washtub and a white enamel pail for my "new" home. And I will be returning.

And since this post has been quite the summary, I think I'll end with a compilation of all the miscellaneous, sweet photos from the past few weeks:

Easton began and ended his junior jazz basketball season since I've last posted. He did excellent. He plays defense like a star and made lots of baskets this year. We are so proud of his hard work and how much fun he has out there on the court. I've really seen Easton flourish in basketball this year. It's such a good sport for his high-energy and the complexity of the game is an enjoyable challenge for this sweet, smart boy of ours.

 Maylie's angry eyes:

 And nice face:

The day Nana brought us the fixins for building snowmen...

This girl of mine is such a mother/decorator/entertainer/hostess at heart. These are the staples of her pretend play:

In the early morn...

Easton's completed lego train from Christmas (over 700 pieces I think? He did it all by himself).

Homemade, healthy, delicious Key Lime Pie for our January "Puzzle Date."

The night the Young Women had a pajama party and we watched the movie I made of the past year's photos.

My boy:

The End.

Adventures.

These last few days have been Spring at its best! And our afternoon ritual has been to run to the great outdoors for bike-riding, chalk-coloring, and field exploring.

The boys took me all through the empty fields and showed me all their secret places--alligator's river, bridge, special paths, pool, hideout, Mt. Syria...it was amazing! I never knew how many alcoves and nooks and crannies the land around us holds.

Yesterday Maylie was riding her trek around and singing all these beautiful nonsense songs...and I instantly had a flashback--that is exactly what I used to do at her age--I have video to prove it! And I really should have taken a video of my Maylie singing...but I'm sure she will do it again...summer hasn't even begun!

We also did some lovely chalk art the other day. We all love being outside so much. Maylie cries and cries every time we have to go in (and usually runs away from me as she's doing so.) It breaks my heart!!

The last few days have also brought some fun imaginative play for Tate and Maylie. We have been acting out our favorite stories--The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, The Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood.  We've done some of them twice. It's been our little morning routine for the past few days...

Our Props:

The porridge bowls and spoons

The chairs

The beds

And what happened to Baby Bear's chair. :)

Have a fabulous Thursday--one more day until the weekend!!! :) Yay!