Miss E's Ballet Recital

We have had such a wonderful weekend with our little girl that I've almost forgotten to write about it. The grandparents came to visit and joined us for the big day. Miss E danced with grace and focus; and, most importantly, she had fun. I'm so impressed by her natural ability to dance in public. It reminds me that so many negative emotions are taught/learned. She was beautiful and happy and so unabashedly proud of herself. It was great!

The next day we went to the children's museum and the kids both had a great time. (Mr E did a great job of staying still and being quiet the day before, so I was so glad to give them a fun day of getting the wiggles out :)!)

Good times!

Happy Easter!!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter weekend/ Holy Week. For us, it was very much a weekend this year. It was a happy, simple celebration, and it felt like that's how it should be.
We've been working on our backyard for the last couple weeks. I ordered some things online in preparation for the summer. The weather has been beautiful and the bugs have mostly left us alone so far (except for the ants). So we have been working on our yard, planting things, weeding a whole lot, and generally trying to get things back to green and pretty. Quijote helped me set up the outdoor lights and hang the curtains. Then on Easter Sunday, after church, we spent a carefree afternoon and evening together, enjoying the fruits of our labor. We took a nap after lunch and then shopped for our meal (grilled zucchini steaks with chimichurri, fruit, ice cream, and smores cones). We grilled, played with bubbles, and feasted in the grass :)! We even had a color coded egg hunt. It was wonderful. It felt easy and it was yummy, and fun, and funny, and just plain happy.

I think it was all especially sweet to me after the past couple weeks, which were hectic and overwhelming - though admittedly also very fulfilling. We have started volunteering and it's definitely a new stage for us. But I am grateful for the experience, the ability to do it, and for what felt like a suitable lesson on Grace (or rather a series thereof). As the holiday weekend neared, I realized that though I had been too frazzled to prepare appropriately for what is officially my favorite holiday of the year, my heart and spirit were, for the first time in years, truly joyous at the occasion. So we received the holiday together, as a nuclear family, which also happened by happenstance (though I had been craving a nuclear family holiday for a while). And, as I said, it was wonderful.

-*-

We are still at work here at home, and many projects are still swimming in my head and terrifying the hubs by osmosis (no other way I imagine him knowing about them since the ideas sort of blur their way out when I somehow manage to make a decision and then he is stuck helping me out). But I feel like for the most part, we have made this house into our home, and have had the blessing to enjoy it this year. Tonight, as we were watering the yard, for example, I decided to make a wreath, and it's the sort of simple pleasure that makes me feel at home...