hello monday: little darling.

hello monday.

hello overwhelming news over the weekend. back to back. and then, waking up on sunday to find out my great uncle has gone on a new journey and passed on. please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.

hello precious life. this is all so big and we are all immensely lucky to have it, even just a glimpse in the glittering sun.

hello blue skies and spring catching our attention with her flirty eyes.

hello to playing dress up on saturday night.

hello to women lifting each other up. what is more beautiful?

hello to a ridiculously easy (and adorable!) craft of heart knee patched leggings. thanks to small fry yet again for inspiring my motherhood. (even better? the leggings were $1.50 at target. score!)

hello to norman the bulldog who stole my soul this weekend. i've wanted a bulldog for several years and he only cemented that fact firmly. :) i would name ours duritz after adam duritz of the counting crows. norman was rescued from a neglect situation by some sweet people and is getting a second chance at life in georgia. can i get a hallelujah for second chances?

hello to moving things around the house and consequently finding fresh ways to attack emotional cleansing in my heart.

hello to the magnificent (spring) playlist i've created on spotify titled, "little darling (it's been a long cold winter)"

hello, she is my sunshine. always, always, always. & forever.

* linking up with lisa leonard's series hello monday

what are you saying hello to this week?

embracing where we are

(as she sits on the edge of the tub, waiting patiently as i brush my teeth)

s: why are you here?
me: what?
s: why are you here?
me: in the house, in the bathroom...or something else?
s; why are you here?
me: (thinking, okay, let's have a philosophical discussion with this wise, little mind.)
well, honey girl...i think a lot of the reason to why i'm here is to be your mommy.
s: oh. and to love the new house?
me: yes! to love the new house and all the new adventures we will have here! to love the old house and the memories we had there too. and to love everyone.
s: yes! i'm just full of all the silly lessons.

seriously? ha.

(one of my favorite shirts that belongs to our girl

in our new laundry room

i've never had a laundry room and it is deliciously fabulous! 

happiness always wins)

right now is a beautiful place to be.


it is golden girls late at night. (um, i truly don't remember them being so stinking hilarious.)
it is exercising my creative (and thrifty!) bones to make this house a home.
it is organic, juicy, granny smith apples sprinkled in an abundance of salt.
it is wanting to live more intentionally.
it is discovering new music that stirs my soul.
it is falling back into old melodies that soothe my ruffled feathers.
it is floral prints invading our lives and slides, many, many slides. :)
it is wondering if i am crafting a bold enough legacy.

my loves are sleeping softly beside me. whimsical fairies decorate sookie's pajamas, hearts and stars explode out of their wands. the whir of the fan is a gentle coaxing that i too should fall into dreamland in the near future. the circus tent in the corner of our bedroom makes me laugh. that is one of the many things so sacred in my heart to have a child, our child, in this house. the opportunity to encourage imagination is everywhere, in every corner of every room. right now, the stillness all around is welcome and foreign all at once. during the day around here, chaos runs rampant. and oh how i live to dance around in the chaos, but the quiet is beautiful in a different way.

we moved into our new (to us) house a week after my gallbladder surgery. these two huge happenings did this back and forth dance for several weeks on the precise timing of it all. oh... wow! it was a little bit of insanity, all of the not knowing details of the timeline. surgery, moving, our girl turned three, a superbowl combined with a house warming party, sookie's dinosaur unicorn party; it was large chunks of life all smashed together.

all three of us jumped right into the beauty and hilarity that is three years old. it is my favorite already. :)

it continues to amaze me each and every day, how my body is heartbreakingly defective in her most basic chemistry, and yet it was able to grow this girl, and fuel her to blossom. it is SUCH an honor to have this gift.

please share in the comments...
what are you embracing right now? :)