Catching Up

Look at these adorable salt and pepper shakers Morgan bought me 😍 

Last night we had Collin and Morgan over for dinner. Ted and Alex had some business to tend to, so we only had half the crew here, which was a good trial run for our first family dinner.

I fixed sloppy joes, potato salad, chips, apple pie with ice cream and sweet tea. It was delicious!

Asa and Sunday James were adorable, as always, and Asa enjoyed discovering all the light switches and watching the lights go on and off.  Asa found all the toy trucks and trains, rode the horsey and we even read a book together. There's nothing that will bless you more than having conversations with your grown kids and playing with the babies. It's the best! 

After they left, David and I walked to the mailbox to check the mail. It feels like a normal thing to do now and it feels like our little community.

I've been taking a break from social media this week and it's been so nice. I didn't realize how much of a habit I had gotten into; picking up my phone every time I had a spare moment. Even though I would only spend a few minutes looking at things, it was becoming a habit to pick up the phone constantly. I started to feel some conviction about it; knowing that it was stealing my ability to focus on other things. Then in church on Sunday, I really felt the Lord prompting me to take a break, so I committed to removing the apps off my phone for a week, just to see if my focus would improve. And guess what? It did. 

Is it really a surprise that my focus would be better when I'm not filling my brain with the lives of so many people that I don't even know? I won't go into a rant about social media, but I will attest to the fact that it fills up our minds with such clutter and (in my opinion or experience) doesn't leave a lot of room for more important pieces of information. 

People say they don't have time to read a book or their Bible or call their family or friends. Yet, if they took the amount of time they spend mindlessly scrolling, they could do all of those things and more. 

But I said I wouldn't rant, so...

In other news...I've been trying to get creative again, which always takes a back seat to life, but shouldn't.

It's amazing how getting out all the paper, stickers, notebooks, pens, etc. will calm your spirit and fill you up like nothing else. For others it might be sitting with a knitting project or painting. For me it's all about creating beautiful scenes with paper and pen. Pictures mixed with words, telling a story of some sort. This is more of what I want to focus on; enjoying that creative process and rest that I've talked about here before. It's a necessity.

It's been a great week off and today I'll start my week of work and I'm looking forward to it. I like the way my schedule allows for plenty of downtime because by the end of the week off, I'm ready to go back. I've played with my babies, swam with the big girls, sat by the pool at night, enjoyed an incredible morning of worship watching my boys use their amazing gifts, had my kids over for dinner, paid the bills, finished a book and started another, created another journal, read my Bible, watched some good shows, talked to one of my sisters and my best friend. Life is good.

I hope your week is going well and you've found some joy in the ordinary. That's where the magic really happens 💛

Until Next Time...

Blessings 😊