Sleepy Boy

 

One of my favorite parts of the day is nap time with this little guy.  He is such a ball of energy and emotions that resting beside him is so nice.  I love Moses so much and I thank God for him and for giving me the courage to have one more baby.  Pregnancy and postpartum are very challenging times for me. Moses' pregnancy may have been my most peaceful, with the least amount of anxiety.  

I have struggled so much with anxiety throughout my entire time as a mother that sometimes I can get pretty sad because I look back and wonder why things had to be so hard, why does this (the anxiety) have to be so much a part of my life? But I'm seeing that there is a lot of beauty in the struggle.  There is beauty in a woman struggling every day and every day showing up to the best of her ability.

These Summer Days...

 This summer has been a bit different because I am struggling with my health and not up to some of our normal summer activities, but that's okay! We're making it and my husband is pretty amazing at getting the kids to different activities.   I'm really hoping I will improve as the year progresses and next summer will look a lot different.  But, I have learned you don't have to make grand gestures to have beautiful memories together.  I think we have laughed more this summer than ever before. 

Boaz was trying to catch some hardened pine sap on fire. 

This is a coloring page Felicity and I worked on together.  We love to color and listen to Laura audio books, we're listening to On the Shores of Silver Lake right now, it may be my favorite.

Our sweet Boazshowing me some lichen. He was so excited! He finds beauty everywhere.

The younger kids and I had this terrarium kit for quite awhile and we finally put it together. Everyone got to help and it was a lot of fun! 

I am trying to restock my etsty store with decorated caps.  This one I made for myself, hope is the word I chose for this year.  I have seen other people choose a word to focus on for the year but I never thought it was for me.  Hope seemed like the perfect word for me this year.  It's not something that comes naturally to me, I'm so practical I annoy myself.  Hope is not a feeling but more of an action, a muscle I have to work on and exercise every day.

I read this Tuttle Twins book to everyone but Eleanor.  I'm not sure what I think of it, it was good but I wish there was a little bit more there.  I think I will get the next book and see if it builds on this.  But either way the kids really enjoyed it!