finding beauty // insta-beauty

1 - We had all the fun this past Easter weekend. Hives aside, the boys were both able to fully enjoy having their grandparents around. What was a ton of fun was having some bike time out on the court. Bigfoot was even able to start peddling on his own a few times and had all the looks of pride one could imagine. Tons of laughter, memories, and conquering happened. And that sunburst just makes me happy.

2 - Linus loves to draw. A lot. He loves all things white paper, crayons, markers, color pencils, coloring books, etc etc etc He would sit for over an hour each time if he had a canvas to work with. It's kind of awesome and definitely unique to him. 

Correct me if I'm wrong but, just turned two year olds shouldn't necessarily be drawing "dragons" nor a "sheep eat grass", right? Surely there's some giftedness to this? Or maybe I'm just a super impressed young mama. Either way, I present to you a a dragon (top Left) and a sheep eating grass (bottom Right).

3 - My oldest has been wanting a new little baby in the house probably since he's held any other little baby that our friends will let him hold or dote on. He loves all the little ones and reallllly wants us to have more. My heart and desire is for that too, but God's timing little one, God's timing.

We are in a season of waiting on Him, but for now, Bigfoot expressed that the picture below is his present desired family.

Dada, Mama, me, Linus, my new baby sister, another baby, another baby, and anooother baby! Look mama, this is us!

4 - We had a tough sick season that spilled into Lent, relentlessly, but we had a beautiful Easter weekend and are enjoying Eastertide. I wrote a little about it here.

5 - Love that our little seeds are sprouting! I've never planted anything from seed (Other than when we were in Elementary) and I'm a pro at killing all things green. Unintentionally, of course. But here we are! Our little sproutlings. So excited! We planted morning glorys (pictured below), baby's breath (my faves), marigolds, a mailbox mix, and need to plant some rosemary. I'm excitteeed!

6 - I have been enjoying learning to sew so much! It's so neat how the machine just works. It just does. It joins fabric and creates. I'm a fan of threading (because my machine makes it incredibly easy) and finally have my first finished product that isn't laughable! All thanks to my amazing friend who is all sorts of crazy-talented! Go check her out here. She shares a ton of DIYs, her beautiful leather hand-crafted items, and some of her husband's insanely talented artistry. 

7 - Oh my goodness! I seriously can hardly contain myself! She made these adorable stick horses for her kids and swore that I'd be able to do it too. I went over and tadaaaaa! She was right!

Aren't they adorable?!! We'll be giving them to the boys as soon as daddy gets home from work. I can't wait. You can bet I'll be clicking away capturing all that magic! But till then, if you're at all interested in my friend's tutorial showing how she joined two patterns to craft these adorable stick horses go HERE! They were completely crafted from scrap fabric and easy enough for a newbie like me!

Yay! Thanks for hanging around for these insta-quick-takes of fun and moments of beauty from life-lately. I'm hoping to get my Project 52 photos up today or tomorrow, but for now, hope you enjoyed catching up on the little things.

SQT/Finding Beauty

finding beauty // just washing some feet

Where to start?? 

We had a few days of health last week quickly followed by myself and my youngest randomly getting the stomach bug. A 24-hour one, which was kind of thoughtful of the bug but the vomit. Oh the vomit. No thank you.

The stomach bug was followed by a few days of healing and getting our energy back only for my oldest to surprise us with an allergic reaction. The kind that comes with swelling and itchy rash along his mouth and chin. He hasn't had one since he was 10 months, when we first discovered there was an allergy. Since then we've avoided all things diary and lactose fairly well. And to be honest, I have yet to figure out exactly what triggered his reaction on Saturday. No thank you, again.

In turn I set up an appointment to follow up on the food allergy because we need to get to the bottom of this and bring on the investigation. The kind that will tell us exactly what does not sit well with the little guy. Appointments were made, plans were set, and we had steps taking us forward.

Only, he started feeling ill the day before complaining of stomach pain on and off. Struck a fever and complained of a headache by evening. Nurse triage encouraged us to aftercare and there we were. All the major scary things were ruled out - thank you! But, it's just a virus, was the diagnosis. No, thank you.

He has some lingering fever and fatigue, but hasn't thrown up since 4:30AM. We've had all the cartoons on all day while I do all. the. laundry and disinfect all the house. Again.

To the vomit and allergic reaction, I say No, thank you. To the whole of it, well, this is our season.

I'm thankful the stomach pain wasn't something crazy-serious. I'm thankful that the allergic reaction didn't warrant the kind that would have had us high-tailing it to the hospital. I'm thankful that the swelling and itching went down after a day. I'm thankful that even though there's been vomit, it really has been short lived.

Lastly, I'm thankful it's Holy Week. So many opportunities to grow in service and love over here. Knowing Holy Thursday is tomorrow helps. Knowing that Christ took the place of a servant so that we may know to serve has been encouraging. And knowing we are about to embark on the Holy Triduum brings me back to my present in a way that makes me feel alright.

On that note, let's enjoy those few days of sunshine I was able to capture prior to our umpteenth round of sickness!

These brothers enjoyed hunting for beetles, roly-poly, worms, and all other little creepy-crawly-critters.

With sport balls in hand, of course!

12/52 Linus sneaking a peek to see if there are any neighbors out and about.

12/52 Bigfoot doing what he does best. Playing ball.

The beauty of our live oak never ceases to amaze me.

13/52 Linus. 2. Brother see brother do. Gosh, he loves his big brother so much! And as much as they are so very different, their little similarities are sweet because they are grown out of love and admiration for each other.

13/52 Bigfoot. 3. "I want to be a priest, mama. I can be a priest. I can do it." Yes baby. God bless your path to your vocation. Whatever it may be, I know you'll be wonderful.

Bug-hunting and broom-swords.

These boys crack me up. Their personalities continue to grow and reveal themselves. It's beautiful, amazing, inspiring, and encouraging. I love them both and love their brotherhood.

So through yet another bout of sickness, I am doing my best at washing the feet of my sons and my husband best I can. Cleaning, snuggling, tending to, giving medicine when needed, washing, tidying, holding, comforting, loving and all the other little things with as little gripe face as I can.

PHFR/Finding Beauty/7 Quick-takes/Embrace the Ordinary/Currently

the present moment // all the little things

I've been around. At home mostly. The boys and I have continued to hunker down during this bout of dreary weather. We have gotten out some too, but mostly just taken it easy at home. Learning, loving, and enjoying each other on the daily. It's been good. There's been time for quiet. Time for reading. Time for crazy. Time for snuggles and hugs. Time for little things. All little things really. And it's been good.

As much as I'd love to be the kind of person that is always on the go (Which I do try to be sometimes, especially when we all are feeling the need to get out.), I do appreciate when my home-dwelling heart gets to just sit in the goodness that is our little family. It's good for me. It's good for my soul. And in turn I think it's good for my family too.

With the slow and (mostly) intentional moments of our days, this little blog of mine is what has been even more slow and quiet. When I would normally blog before, I find myself just wanting to sit in silence, resting in His Word through some scripture art...

...or if I wasn't resting in the drawing and silence, I crafted a little...

...and, if I wasn't crafting with fabric, scissors, or my random tidbits of fun at home, I've been crafting through foods.

Finally, when I wasn't crafting with foods, I was crafting with my boys to help bring home feast days, our Lenten journey, or just the little building blocks of life and play.

St. Joseph Italian Cream Puffs for the Solemnity of St. Joseph.

Play. {Happy}

Crafting Candlelit Prayer Cards.

The giraffe that gets built on the daily over here. {Funny}

Our little treasures found on St. Patty's day. {Pretty}

Hunting for four-leaf clovers and ants.

Making Lenten Prayer Pretzels. {Real}

And when I wasn't doing all of these little things that encouraged me in being intentional and present, I was learning how to live love one small way at a time. There really is grace in the now and as each day passes I learn that more and more. 

I have failed, I have done well, and everything in between.

It's the season. The season of Lent. The season of little things. The season of beginning again. The season where I seek Him, not only in His Word or the gifts of my family, but in my moments of quiet and in my moments of chaos. In all the little things.

I'm finding He is there ready to meet me. To share with me His Love and Gift.

Blogging hasn't been happening a ton this season and that's okay. I have little posts swirling in my head and I do yearn to capture and share more of our little tidbits of life on this little space of mine. But till I find my rhythm again, I will keep popping in to share little moments. Kind of like I'm doing now. 

Just know, underneath the cloudiness of allergies and all the head pressure that come with rainy days and changing seasons, there is a mama keeping on in her little ways, finding peace in that, and praying the same for you.

7-Quick-Takes/Finding Beauty/PHFR/Embrace the Ordinary/Daybook

9/52 More snow and all the link-ups

More snow! More and more snow! 

But hopefully the last of it because this mama is ready for some Spring!

Either way, efforts were made for a little fun and the bonus was that the sun was finally out! We had only 6 hours of sun for the last 10 days. Good night, that is just not nice! But the more sun, even with the new layers of snow, shared so much good and beauty.

I got the boys layered up because we have no snow gear. No snow gear means lots and lots of layers. I was even tempted to wrap their shoes in plastic bags. I opted not to because it was hard enough getting my little squirmers layered. 

Off we went into our little winter wonderland.

It really was so beautiful outside. It was the kind of pretty that is filled with the perfect balance of warmth and cold with soft fluffy snow beneath our feet.

The boys were so happy. So so very happy.

And I was happy because our awesome neighbors who built these incredibly legit snowmen (They built three.) took a picture of me with our boys. There are so few photos of me (memory-capturer problems) so I jumped at the offer!

Happy Snowman.

This boy was so fun and funny about all the snow. It's like I could see his heart jumping from how excited he was to play, make snowballs, and snowangels.

Which brings me to my 9/52. I'm picking this photo of Bigfoot. 3. Loves snowball fights, our pup Lily, and pumpkin muffins.

This little guy was a little on the clingy side.

He eventually settled a bit more and which gave my back the break it was really needing.

After a little hand-holding, he was on his way. I'll choose this photo below for 9/52. Linus. 2. Loves hugging mama, hand-holdling, and pumpkin muffins.

Linus eventually started playing alongside my little Jack Frost.

Who was all too thrilled to have an additional snowball fighting target.

Once that fun dwindled we were off to build another snowman.

The effort was all theirs. I watched and encouraged while they ultimately had three stacked snowballs...

...only to knock it down as they do to all. the. things. they build.

Yay, pretty snow and double Yay to the sunshine!

Linking- up with Kelly for some quick-takes, Aimee for Finding Beauty, and Amy for Embrace the Oridnary, and with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {P,H,F,R}. Tons of linking-up today to share all our bits of beauty and happy on our last snow day of the year.

These days it's the little things. Always the little things and I'm thankful for these lovely link-ups that help me remember that!

finding beauty // fluffy dancing flurries

Despite the boys not feeling on par I made sure they had a chance to play with some snow! As much as I wanted to take them out to the magical flurry session that was right outside our walls, bowls of snow to play and handle was what they got.

Oh, and snow ice cream.

Pretty sure the snow ice cream ranked me as their favorite for the day. Or rather, their favorite until I took away all the melted sugar once it had sat around for a little.

I'm going to share my bits of beauty on our day of snow. I took more pictures today that I'm excited to share soon too.

But for now enjoy these photos of snow love from a few Texans who find the white stuff so novelty. I hope you can understand why capturing evidence is a must!

I am thankful for this snow. It really was so beautiful and had every bit of magic that these lovely dancing flurries strive to bring. Fluffy dancing flurries. Fun and whimsical. White and soft.

Cold and wet. And cold. Cold. Cold. 

So thank you fun flurries for the day. Yesterday. It was plenty for our warm Texan hearts. And I heard that you want to share more of your beauty in the coming days again. But I beg you to re-think this and...

Maybe come again next year?

On that note, how do you northerners do it??? All the cold! So many more prayers for y'all during our little winters will be coming your ways for many years to come from this little Texan.

It is beautiful, though.

Anyways, What beauty have you seen lately?

Linking-up with Aimee for Finding Beauty.