NEW BLOG

Hello my sweet friends!!!  I have begun a new blog and will no longer be posting here.

You can now find me over at haileyjosephine.com .... come visit me and say hello!

Look deeper

While I do love Orlando, I have always said, "It's just not very pretty where we live!"  And my oh my how I was wrong.  Just down the street we recently found one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  It is full of tall trees, moss, a creek and streaks of sunshine all around.  We walked and walked and listened to the birds sing and I thought, "Isn't it interesting that perhaps the places and people we see as not very pretty are actually probably the most beautiful?! Sometimes you just have to look a little harder and dig down deeper,  But I think that if you do that, you'll find that everywhere and within everyone lies more beauty than you initially imagined."

Once some sand got into Myra's little jelly shoes she insisted on going barefoot... Initially I wanted to tell her no.  But thought about how I ran around barefoot allllll the time when I was little so I just told her she might get hurt and that was her decision.  She had to deal with me pulling a little sliver out of her foot later, but I don't think she regretted her choice anyways.  There is something about going barefoot that makes you really experience everything just a little more.  I also read somewhere that dirt contains something in it like an anti-depressant?  So if it improves her moods, I'm all for it.  haha

I love this picture below because it is so HER!  It is hard to get her to get dressed these days if it isn't a dress she will be wearing... and then she walks around holding it up on the sides, curtseying, tilting her head to the side and telling everyone she is a princess.  Princess Myra Grace. 

And that princess sure likes to climb ;).

The small things

I have been trying lately to get down and play with the kids more in their environment...follow their lead.  It has done something interesting inside of me.. brought a sense of magic to my life through small and simple things like eating marshmallows in a laundry basket.

  Why is it that as adults we seem to loose the creativity, magic and love for the seemingly mundane things?  And why is it that we feel we need to fill up every minute of everyday with activities and things to do for our children?   There is something about just being home and letting their imaginations be at work.  Something about laying on the floor and watching how the sun comes through the window and streams across their skin, the inexpensive household items that become spaceships and boats, digging in the mud outside or just sitting together reading stacks of books while your one year old leans in for a kiss and your three year old asks for eskimo kisses.  To me, nothing can beat those moments.  Not even a morning at Disney!  

I woke up Wednesday and the chill from a cold front seemed to be lingering.  I opened up the doors to our front porch and turned on Pandora trying to wake my tired body and limbs up... get myself going.  

We did our normal breakfast routine and then headed to our porch to water our tiny sprouts.  I have been feeling lately that Myra needs more time outdoors and learning through normal, daily hands on chores... So we planted some left over seeds that had been gifts for those who came to the kids birthday party.  She squealed and laughed as she stuck her hands in the soil and pushed the seeds deep into the surface.  I knew right then that this whole planting thing was a wonderful idea.

Then came the sprouts just a few short days later... when she saw the beautiful green leaves popping up over the surface of the rich brown soil, her eyes widened and looked at me while jumping up and down exclaiming, "IM SO EXCITED" (a popular phrase for Myra).  

Her excitement for these little plants has really helped turn my thumb from brown to green, and those little sprouts keep growing and reaching for the sunlight.  

After watering our plants that chilly morning we decided to plant even more seeds.

As soon as the sun warmed the air, we all got dressed and headed to the nursery.  

Like Myra, I am very excited to watch these grow and see them turn into flowers, carrots and basil!  Maybe someday when we have a house the two of us can't plant a large garden together complete with strawberries, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes and more!  

A collection of rocks

Myra likes to collect things... Sticks, little pieces of play doh, flower pedals... you name it.  Well yesterday I went to take a picture of her looking adorable on her dresser playing and she suddenly dumped out a pile of rocks.  I don't know where they came from or when she collected them but I found it adorable.  I just love how the smallest, simplest things bring so much joy to children.  

Pickin'

Early Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed to Clermont to pick some berries.  As we drove out of the city and started to drive past big open fields I felt a calm and peaceful feeling deep in my heart.  I mentioned to Jordan how sad it is that humans make the earth so much uglier than it is naturally... That we can't even come close to competing with God. 

These big open fields full of trees and wildflowers blowing in the wind literally took my breath away.  I have always thought of that expression as merely just a figure of speech.  A way to describe something as very beautiful... but I literally felt my breath escape me for a moment.  Perhaps it was not just the view, but also spending time with my family all together too that made me feel so much gratitude to God.  For He not only created the beautiful earth but He created each of us individually and joined us together as a family.  There is nothing I would rather do and nobody I would rather be with.  I want to explore this world and see everything that He created from small blueberry patches in Florida to the mountains of Switzerland (although the later may take a bit longer to save up for;)) and I want to do it with these people by my side.  I am a defender of motherhood.  I am a defender of the family. And the older I get, the more I become a defender of our environment.