#onebeautifulthing

I've begun a bit of a tradition of wearing a little piece of Val every time I go to anything theatre-related. So today, she is seeing White Christmas with us at Thomaston! @vitaloval We miss you always! #LoveLoveLove #WhiteChristmas #ThomastonOperaHouse #OneBeautifulThing https://www.instagram.com/p/CmP_ggmrWeC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Summer days are swiftly being checked from the calendar. The routined life as we know it is approaching as we begin our second full week of July. Back in May, as the school year ended, I was full of apprehension at losing my routine. Knowing the days would be filled with less of what I "had" to do and more of lounging at the pool. # But now I feel an urgency. A desire to make each day special for them even in the smallest way. If tea parties during our morning devotion makes the memory then so be it. Pre-packaged gluten free cookies and mounds of organic berries coupled with a steaming pot of tea (complete with a bowl of ice for sensitive tongues) set the mood as we begin to dive into His word. # I know without being intentional it will never happen. We will miss the spark within each day if our eyes aren't trained to spot the lovely. The gifts thrown our way in every detail of the every day. # As @christiepurifoy says so eloquently in #rootsandsky "We are learning how to tend a year by planting ourselves within its days..." Yes. By rooting ourselves down into every minute of this space we live in...searching for the awesome in the ordinary, we find the gems planted below the surface. The soil produces fruit we never thought we'd eat. # Give us this day... # #musings #findthatbeauty #thehappinessdare #onebeautifulthing #lookingforlovely #summerdiscovery #thissideofgrace

89. Farm fields abutt the pristine backyards of newly constructed homes. A pleasant reminder to the indwellers that "they" were here first. #1000gifts #number89 #findthatbeauty #onebeautifulthing #inhalingtheoutdoors

Finally we have sun, no snow, and the tulips are ever so grateful! #OneBeautifulThing #tulips

These four. When they play together it does things to my heart. Softens it up a bit and makes me appreciate those moments when they can't agree on squat. Like those movie nights where we waste so much time trying to agree that we run out of time to actually see the movie? Or when dinner out becomes a race to choose who's favorite restaurant gets shouted out first for consideration. Sometimes it's back and forth and trying to teach kindness and respect when maybe we, as parents, aren't quite feeling so kind or respectful either. And then there are days they just click. They're helpful and loving and there's harmony in their laughter. They blend so nicely that you can't tell where one child ends and the other begins. And maybe it's the not-so-pretty days that make me appreciate those inseparable days even more. Those days where smiles are free and dirty clothes are a given and there's plenty of sunshine outdoors to soak into their insides like nourishing soup. By dinner time there might be some discontent from one or two or even all four because it's time to come in or the food isn't what they expected or they don't want to spray down those dirty clothes with stain remover. But it's a cycle. They grow and regress, argue and agree, relate and separate... Each day puts another lesson under their belts as we teach grace and love and then forgiveness - when any of us just can't seem to get it right - and we come out okay at the end of the day and start it all over again. Regardless, we are one. Together under an umbrella of only one certain thing. We are family. Living, loving and learning together within every second of the day. #thissideofgrace #familygoals #onebeautifulthing #1000gifts

These two are a pair. I was looking through some pictures this morning wondering why on earth I don't scrapbook. (Don't get your hopes up - it's totally not my thing) But I'm a little obsessed with looking through pictures. Maybe that's why I love Instagram as much as I do. Because every picture tells a story. This picture tells the story of loving the outdoors. Loving the status of being siblings and spending time together. But it also tells the story of siblings before it. Siblings that also played and fought together. Who got dirty and spent too long in the creek together. And now these two are learning to walk the same steps as the brothers and one sister before them. Legacy is mighty. Even in the simplest form of just spending time in the same watering hole. To explore where Daddy did, all those many years ago. Our sphere of influence on our children reaches far past just teaching them how to follow Christ, be respectful, save money and get decent grades. It expands to the outer realms of how we stomp through the puddles of life in our galoshes. Figurative or not? You be the judge. #thissideofgrace #onebeautifulthing #puddles #reflection #siblings