Whimsy & While

It's no surprise that I'm a huge advocate for loving your mother. If you are lucky, you have or had as loving and selfless a mother as I. But I understand not everyone is fortunate enough to have grown up with the amount of love I feel and the amount of support I've received and continue to receive from my parents so that's why this post falls under the "gratitude" category. This is something I'm endlessly grateful for.

This last week has been testing me in ways I've forgotten momentarily. I've been sick with no sick pay offered at my job; my son and my husband have also been sick. This last week, I've been tested so much and I am tired. My mother came to our rescue yesterday. My selfless, sweet mama. See, my nearly 70 year old mother that still has to work to support herself and my father took an unpaid day off from her job so that I could come to work (also sick) to be able to support my family and not fall behind.

Of course, I cry. I cry because I am loved. I cry because my family is loved. I cry because she's been selfless this entire time she's been my mother and I only hope I can be the same way for my children. I cry because she also struggles yet still manages to help. I cry because it brings her happiness to help and I just don't feel like with my busy schedule there's many other ways I can bring her happiness. I can't pop in as easily to join her for a cup of coffee, I can't invite her to a mother/daughter date because well, life is just busy. I suppose I can start trying to slate out more time for this; and I suppose I might be overly emotional but but the core of this is pure and true. My mother is an angel and I am forever grateful for her.

Thank you for all that you do for your family, every single day, mama! Please know you are so loved!

Xo

In the dark and drawn Winter months

I long to be like asters in the Summertime

Each petal perky 

Each stem brazen and tall

Unabashedly glorious in the sun

Standing out in contrast among all the other wildflowers

And here I am;

Moonlit and cold against the barren trees

Spinning darkness like the wool untamed

Unraveling just a little

But to remember the warmth

To remember the aster among the wildflowers

Standing brazen and tall in the sunlight,

Growing graciously with splendor

To remember the aster breathes new life

Because the light will soon come

The subtitle for this post comes from a hashtag I like to use, because well, I find so much peace outdoors. Especially on cold days. There's something so serene and beautiful about winter walks.

I skipped a week last week as I was trying to collect myself and process a few things. But as I sit here, on yet another Monday missing my family while they're cozy in bed, I wanted to say how grateful I am that my husband gave me some time to myself over the weekend to go take photographs with our first dusting of snow. He and Silas could have come along but my husband is still getting used to the weather here so he opted to stay in and put Silas for a nap.

I am so grateful that nature provides a sense of calm and quiet when my mind is driftless. Moments like these provide clarity, especially in the briskness of winter; I can breathe. I so desperately needed that walk to recharge!

What are you grateful for this week? What provides you peace and calm in the midst of chaos or even just confusion?

I'd love to hear from you!

Xx

If you're anything like me this year, you might be adapting the 'less is more' mentality. It's a shift I've been making slowly but surely and it feels really good to not have as much stuff cluttering up your life. That being said, this year's gift giving guide will mean this: quality over quantity. I've gone completely crazy in holidays past with gifts and that's just not what's important. 

Not that we don't love something that makes us feel good or that we've been really anticipating, just that maybe we don't need ALL of the things, ALL of the time. 

I've been struggling a lot lately with what to write on my blog so I've broken out a few categories to stick within and hopefully that will help! Mondays often leave me feeling sad to be missing my family as I start my work week but I thought it would help to write a blog post each week about things I'm thankful for. They may not always be published on a Monday, but I thought that would be a good place to start.

This week, I want to talk about the gratitude I have for family tradition. How thankful I am to have any tradition at all, and to still have some of the family who passed them on to me around to share them with still. I am thankful to be able to share them with my son and my husband. I am thankful for the freedom to also create new tradition with my own little family.

I grew up celebrating Christmas in a very special way with my family where we baked a lot, talked a lot, and ate a lot. I grew up around the table, I think in part due to my Italian heritage. I love that I grew up this way. In my world, the table is a place to share stories, conversation, cries, cheer, and good food with family. I know that I am extremely fortunate to have grown up this way which is why I wanted to reiterate how thankful I am for this.

Of all of our Christmas traditions, baking cookies is by far and away my favorite. My mother came over to my house over the weekend to bake with me. To be honest, I was totally stressed out because we planned to make a certain cookie that we've made year after year and I couldn't find an ingredient I needed last minute. That's when I decided that despite this, we were still going to bake. I decided that I'd take my Honey Lavender Shortbread Cookie recipe and modify it a bit to make it more suited to the holidays. I decided to add rosemary into the dough which gives it kind of that piney Christmas flavor and I also rolled out the dough to cut out stars! Finally, I added a few rosemary leaves atop the cookie before baking and sprinkled with powdered sugar when they came out of the oven. We created a new tradition together. I was so happy with the way these turned out because they were just a trial run and they were perfect. I will be baking these every holiday to come! I am happy to have shared something new with my mother.

After baking, my mom and my dad stayed a while to play with Silas before returning home. I couldn't help but sneak this snap of my mother holding Silas's hand. My heart is full and I am happy. I hope you all find something to be thankful for this holiday season! If you didn't grow up in the greatest of homes, I hope you surround yourselves with lovely people and create new traditions with them. Sending a lot of love to all of you out there this season!

Thanks for reading, my loves.

Xo