We had a sweet Mother’s Day over here! From a handmade necklace to scribbled cards, sweet-smelling hyacinths, and big hugs, I felt so loved!

Our day was filled with church and time outside making memories as a family. It doesn’t get much better than that!

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Mother’s Day 💐

Mother’s Day is so tender with little kids. It’s a balance between being celebrated and still serving my people! It’s receiving new craft supplies (my favorite!) while still changing dirty diapers. It’s getting the biggest hugs and hearing “I love you, Mommy,” right alongside some whining and crying. And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We stopped at Starbucks on the way into church and I enjoyed my favorite coffee! We had services and then went home for lunch and some time hanging out at home.

After dinner, we headed out on a hike! There’s a trail near our house that I love, and that was my one request for the day. Getting outside with our little fam! We loaded Dakota in the hiking backpack and off we went.

We saw bugs and sticks and mud and made it to a creek area for the kids to splash around in. Everybody was in a good mood, nobody got tick bites, and we had a lovely time! We ended the day with snacks and reading in bed. It was perfect. 😊

I have so much gratitude for the children the Lord has blessed us with. I truly wake up every day thankful that He chose me to be called mom by Sadie, Mordecai, and Dakota. 💛

How did you celebrate Mother’s Day?

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9 Sweet Things Lately 😊

1. Crafting with the kids! They gave me a wooden flower painting kit for Mother’s Day and Sadie, Mordecai, and I painted together during Dakota’s nap time. Doing crafts with the kids is one of my absolute favorite things. Oh, and the fact that we were able to do it outside? Even better!

2. Dakota wearing shoes! How cute is she? I ordered Koko her very own pair of Crocs and she loves them. She finds them, brings them to me, plops down on her bottom, and waits for me to put them on. Then she gets up and struts around the house all proud of her footwear. Inevitably, one shoe falls off and the process repeats about 50x a day! She is a shoe girl for sure. 😉

3. The girls snuggling. Ugh, I love looking on the baby monitor in the girls’ room in the morning only to see Dakota and Sadie cuddled up in the crib together. It’s the sweetest.

4. Time at the library. Sadie and Mordecai attended Kids Club at the library this week! The theme was vintage book art and they made all sorts of artwork with old books. I even got in on the fun and made a few bookmarks. I always need bookmarks! Another exciting thing at the library: my newest book will be carried at two local libraries!

5. Park Playtime. We spent some time at few different parks this week! The kids all had fun running around, climbing everything (ahem, Dakota), and making new friends.

6. Spa time! Sadie gave me (and Mordecai, ha!) a spa treatment the other night and it was lovely. She painted my toenails and everything. Thanks, Sadie. 😊

7. Cousin time. We had my brother’s oldest daughter over for the day one day this week and whew, the girls b-u-s-y! We did crafts, made fairy wands, went to the park, made chocolates, and went out for lunch! I love getting the kids together with their cousins. It’s so special!

8. New hobbies. I am having so much fun learning about muscle scraping and cupping! I ordered a kit for cupping, a muscle scraping tool, and Sombra gel (it’s kinda like icy hot!) and have been having a blast learning techniques on Jimmy. He is a happy and willing participant in my experimenting and reports that he especially loves the scraping!

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Other Notes and Thoughts 📝

• Scripture I’m loving: I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me. Psalm 13:6
• Recipes to try: baked beans, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, and chickpea soup. 🥣
• I have a major craving to make homemade oatmeal cream pies! 🍪
• Jimmy wants me to tell everyone that Old Bay Goldfish are superior to all the other flavors. I am still dreaming of the pumpkin spice flavor. Those were the best. 🎃
• Dakota is obsessed with this poke-a-dot book. I may or may not have hidden it. 🤫
• Jimmy gave me spicy peanut butter for Mother’s Day. Spicy food and peanut butter are my favorite things… but together they are different. I need to find a recipe to use this because it’s not the type of thing you eat off a spoon, trust me. 😜

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That’s it for this post! It’s Wednesday evening as I type this up. We’re driving home from church and finishing out our week. Dakota has her ear tube surgery follow up appointment on Friday and that’s about it! I’m sure we’ll get up to all sorts of fun in the meantime. 😬

Tell me something sweet from your week!