Inspired by one of my favorite blogs I thought it would be a great idea to look back each week at those things that brought me the most joy. This is far too fitting for my blog to ignore the idea so I look forward to posting these each week!
Do you want to know my favorite part about starting this blog and making a point of choosing to see joy in my normal, everyday life? I’m seeing it everywhere now and it’s so hard to not want to share CONSTANTLY about the joy around me.
This was a bit of a hard week. I found myself grumpy and just constantly in a state of downward thinking. Both Micah and I got diagnosed with strep throat and Anders got the first ever ear infection of our parenting careers. Neither of us had energy for anything so the dishes piled up, the counters were incredibly sticky, and the floors were gross to walk on. The spare bed in the basement was piled with about three or four loads of laundry and I was behind in my writing. I didn’t work out at all and because of the strep I was having serious issues drinking any water, let alone the gallon I try to get in each day. My Monthly Goals for May felt like total failures. But God doesn’t let things like that stop Him from pouring his blessings on us. The key is choosing an attitude that allows us to see the good around us. We have to choose joy, choose happy, and choose gratitude. I’m glad I was able to turn my grumpy attitude around and find good despite the illnesses and crazy chaos last week.
1. Tired Little Lady
A weekend filled with no naps for this one meant she crashed on the couch while I was making lunch on Monday. I just let her sleep and she was out for about two hours. When she finally did wake up she ate some lunch and was in a significantly better mood. She can get by without a nap for a day or so but it definitely starts to catch up to her! And you can’t see it in this picture but she fell asleep holding her newest LEGO magazine <3
2. Crazy Climbers
These boys are going to get seriously hurt right now. They have very little fear, especially Anders, and will climb anything and everything. We’ve been playing “shuffle the table” with this end table because we would like to keep it but no matter where we put it, it either gets climbed on or in the way. We’ve decided it’s time for it to go. It doesn’t get used enough to keep it. Hopefully someone is able to give it a good home!
3. “Dat Daddy!”
Cade adores this magnadoodle that we’ve had around for years. He will scribble on it for a good ten or fifteen minutes some days which, for eighteen months old, seems pretty good! He scribbled this on Friday then pointed and proclaimed, “Dat Daddy!” Awwww <3
4. Visit from Nana and Grampy
I didn’t get any pictures of the kids playing with them but it was a good visit. The kids climbed all over them, were read and told stories of all kinds, ran around outside a whole bunch and just had lots of fun. Plus they occupied the kids so we could rest a bit which was definitely needed after a week of battling strep. Yuck! So it was a perfectly timed visit 🙂
5. Training them up
For lunch on Saturday the kids had PB&J sandwiches, oranges, and popcorn. Mercedes asked if she could finish the bag of popcorn while we put the little boys down for their nap. It was nearly empty so we told her to go ahead. We came back into the kitchen and the popcorn was EVERYWHERE! I grabbed the vacuum and showed her how to point it at the crumbs and suck them up. She thought it was hilarious! She crawled around and cleaned up every last bit. I got joy from watching her joy of cleaning!
6. Time at the park
It was a really nice afternoon on Sunday so we decided to take a walk to the park and let the kids play. The little boys were all over the playground despite it not being designed for their age – AT ALL. Anders has NO fear and wouldn’t let his little size stop him from climbing the stairs, the ladders, or going down the giant slides. Micah and I were running from one side of the structure to the other or blocking openings up top to make sure they wouldn’t crash and burn but overall they did awesome. And the big boys were incredibly helpful the whole time. It was a wonderful afternoon!
Tell me where you found joy this week!
