Wonder, growth, promise and happy surprises…

Do you ever have those days when all you can think is “my life is amazing!”? I didn’t use to have many of those… I use to live a life plagued by attachment to the past, worry about the future and doubt about the present. Although I was not exactly one to lash out, I still lived with much frustration. There was always something else I wish I was doing or always time I wish I had better spent.

Not anymore… I get asked a lot if I have second thoughts about the life choices I’ve made (becoming a stay-at-home mom, being a homemaker, starting our homestead, choosing the path of simplicity) and I honestly don’t. I feel so connected to my life now, connected to every breath, every movement… I used to go through the motions and just go about my day, now, I ride my days the way (I would imagine) a surfer rides the perfect wave. I glide effortlessly though the hours, never really wondering what will happen much later than a few minutes away. Do I plan a few things, of course… Do I worry about those plans, not at all.

I still have little lapses of “old me”… How sometimes I’ll get antsy when Little Miss won’t get dressed when we have to leave or when Little Man tears apart the pots and pans for the 15th time in a day… But a breath, a smile and a small reminder to myself that we have time is usually all I need.

Yesterday was such an amazing day… Although it was cold, the world was so beautiful I just couldn’t stop staring. Those thick blankets of fresh snow, all over our little heaven was enough to make me feel like I was 10 years old again.

Little man seems to have grown in the last few weeks : We have taken the pacifier away, transitioned to one nap a day and he officially sleeps almost through the night now. He might wake up one or twice, but a simple rearranging of his blankets usually does the trick. It feels so strange to sleep again. My husband and I keep waking up feeling more tired than we did before. I guess 18 months of not sleeping will break you of the habit. But we find him to be more focused now, less erratic. He has been falling into small bubbles of independent play which I’m so excited about. He’s really into cars and trucks right now so they are strewn about all over the house and he keeps crawling everywhere, pushing them along. All I can do most of the time is sit there, watch and grin.

Although it’s been WAY too cold by the windows to start my indoor herb garden, we have still been enjoying the most amazing fresh sprouts. We are on a constant rotation, varying grains, vegetables and legumes. The kids still aren’t all about them, but I can usually sneak them into rice or other grain dishes. But we eat them fresh… homegrown live food in winter here is an unparalleled treat!

I got to watch a family of Pine Grosbeak (1 male, 3 females and 8 young) chowing down on the frozen wild crabapples we have growing in our front yard. I’m sorry for the quality of the picture, I took it through the window. They stayed there for 20 minutes while my little cat Daisy chirped at them energetically. Tea in hand, I watched nature unfold… something I definitely didn’t have time for much before.

If all that goodness wasn’t enough to make the day amazing, it was a very happy mail day in our home to-boot! I received a belated Christmas gift from a dear new friend, Sophie. Sophie lives in Belgium, writes Beautiful Simple Meaningful and is an adventurous home chef and a wonderful crafting mama to 2 beautiful kids. She was one of the first people I met through blogging and getting to know her over the last year has been such a blessing. I received a beautiful handmade ornament and a collection of spice mixes from around the world with matching recipes to try. As we were opening the package, my daughter kept telling me “it smells like cooking mom”… an indeed it did. Thank you SO MUCH Sophie for your thoughtful gift!

Finally, you guessed it, we got our SEEDS! I never thought they would get here so fast (we ordered them less than 10 days ago) but there they were. The kids spent 30 minutes shaking the packages, looking at all the beautiful illustrated packets. Little Miss kept dancing around the hous doing the “we will be growing pumpkins” dance and we just giggled and daydreamed of the goodness that we will grow come spring. I’ll be back this week-end with a post about our varieties and garden planning. I really want to make an effort to document and share our garden adventures this year.

So as I mentioned before, yesterday was a “my life is amazing” day… Not many days aren’t, but some days are extra-so!

Wishing you all an amazing week-end and times filled with joy.