My parents and sister were here for a weekend visit, and we had the funnest time! We grilled out on Friday night, and spent the night in with games, snacks, and tons of laughter. One of the biggest things I appreciate about family is that you really can just completely, one-hundred-percent be yourself, even in all your nerd-ness and dumb-joke-ness and silly-ness and they just get it. It was the kind of night that was just good for your entire being, you know?

We spent most of Saturday at home as well, and my parents were so kind to help us with some landscaping and mulching. It’s a huge sigh of relief to have it done now, because gardening work is something I have so little experience with and it intimidates me endlessly. I walk into a Lowe’s Garden Center and I am instantly overwhelmed and have no idea what to do. It was so nice to have my mom here to help formulate a vision for what to plant where and help shop and pick out the plants. We added a few shrubs and bushes to the front beds and got everything mulched as well. It’s such a nice finishing touch to our home now and it’s amazing how fresh mulch just makes everything look so fresh and new! We had dinner out in the evening and the obligatory coffee stop before heading home for the rest of the night.

My family headed for home around eleven the next morning, so we had breakfast and sat on the floor all playing and laughing at Ayla for the morning. It’s so funny how entertaining a little one can be, and it’s all like, what did we do before she was around to play with?! The rest of our day was relaxing with naps and taking a walk in the sunshine and going to church in the afternoon. A lovely Sunday!

What about you: do you enjoy gardening work? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

…dreaming of the beach! We head to the South Carolina coast with my family at the end of next month, and it can’t come soon enough for me. I’ve been collecting swimming and beach things for Ayla, and I hope she is able to enjoy the sun and sand and waves as much as we do. I’m so ready for some sunshine and skin color again!

…iced coffee-ing every day. I’ve yet to make cold-brew coffee concentrate since I’m too lazy, and I just brew an extra cup or so in the mornings to save for the afternoon. I throw ice cubes, coffee, vanilla extract, and maple syrup in a cocktail shaker, mix it up till it’s frigid-cold, pour it into a glass, and top it off with milk. The swirl action that happens with the milk is literally one of the best parts of making an iced coffee, hehe. It’s so mesmerizing!

…feeling the purge mode again. This feeling of “get rid of all the stuff!” seems to hit me like clockwork every few months, and that’s cool…I guess. We already try to live as minimally as we can without it feeling like we are back in the stone age…but we’ve done little things like get rid of the toaster in favor of just using the oven broiler and selling some electronics and furniture that we don’t really use much or need. I keep grabbing things out of my closet too that I just don’t wear any more or that no longer fit well and adding them to a stack to either donate or put up for sale in my online shop. It’s almost like a mild kind of addiction, this getting rid of stuff.

…loving our spring weather! This week has been gorgeous, and I love having the windows and screen doors open all day long to let the breezes in. Our lawn is green and growing, and it was so cute to watch Ben mow last week with Ayla strapped to his chest in the Ergo carrier. She was a little unsure of it at first, but once she got used to it, she was all smiles about riding along on the mower.

…reading, watching, listening, wishing.

What about you: what are you loving lately?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!