A Girl's Best Friend

There really is nothing like a girl and her dog. he plays at the park with her, runs around, even willingly goes down the slide with her!

 We have an insane amount of rain right now (flooding in tons of places) Hopefully the sun decides to hang around here for a while to dry things up. We sure could use some more outside time! You start to run out of ideas for indoor entertainment after the first week.

Summer To-Do's

 Man I am slacking in the blog department, well, actually not really. I've just been putting time I usually blog to things like more family time, house projects, and sleep. I'm feeling really good, but if i'm honest, a little bad that I haven't been keeping updated here. I know that's silly, but hey, I love this space.

 I decided to move some things around and that ended up turning into a week project. I ripped things apart and organized everything, rehung, moved, removed, and made a nice sized ikea shopping list. I'm still not quite done hanging the last few decorations and placing plants and flowers, but we are close. And I'm thrilled with how much more this place feels like home.

 I have a really busy summer, but I plan to figure out a way to fit a regular blogging schedule in. Things like my workouts and yoga practice over rule the blog and I'm even a bit behind with that.

I will be back with some sort of consistency. I really want to keep my family and friends up to date. In the meantime though, here is a little taste of my summer to do list (and you better believe it will grow.)

* Start planning home school preschool for the fall (so I can confidently go into it with a plan and a schedule.)

*Paint furniture

*Bring yoga practice back to at least 30 mins to 1 hour every day, but preferably a longer practice in the morning, and a short one before bed.

*Bring work out schedule back to 5-6 days per week. (zumba and specific toning area exercises)

*Start our evening family walks again

*Rise and rest with the sun

*Do more hands on activities every day with Mackynzie. (going to different places, nature walks, more swimming, more crafts etc.)

*(personal one) Continue to practice acting with love, kindness, and understanding as my first reactions to all things I face in my day.

*Spend more time growing and strengthening friendships, and making new ones

I have tons of little things too, but these are the big ones taking up my time. Throw in outings and events and what not and you get the idea. Always growing!

Have a beautiful day!

And Happy Fathers Day to this awesome guy and our crew!

House Shuffling

 I am known for spontaneously moving things around in the house. It even drives Cody a little bit crazy.

 Last night was one of those nights. I moved one thing, which led to another and then now I have a messy house and more I want to do still. Only It was not the best time to be moving things around since we have a play date group over on Mondays. 

 I have a somewhat valid reason though. Cody and I were originally planning to move early this fall. No houses were grabbing our attention though, or making us excited, so we reevaluated things and decided that we wanted to stay here until next spring. We get a lot more out of the situation this way, as we will get to save for lots of things that will end up being way better for our family. Like a new vehicle. 

 Naturally, I have gotten ahead of myself and my mind is spinning with things I can do to make our space more functional for a year, rather than 3 months. I'm impatient, so now my house is a little bit upside down. It's okay though, I think most of our friends are busy today, and if anyone does come, they will ignore the mess.

Also, I had to get a new phone this weekend (and then I'll be getting another new one in two weeks -yeesh.) so my photos are all stuck on Cody's computer. I'll get him to put them on mine when he is home tonight, so hopefully i'll be able to play some blog catch up.

15/52

"A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2013"

"You are the poem I dreamed of writing,

The masterpiece I longed 

to paint.

You are the

Shining star

I reached for in my

ever hopeful quest for

life fulfilled. You are 

My child

Now with all things

I am blessed"

14/52

"A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2013"

"It's such a cute little snake!" -Mackynzie

13/52

"A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2013"

I honestly didn't know it was possible to fall madly in love every.single.day. Then I married my best friend and had this stunning little soul. 

Friends, Haters, Lovers

 "Friends, haters, lovers, everyone has a right to their own opinion; what's important here is not what people are writing or saying, but how you react to what you see. Someone says something negative? I could care less! I have no problems with random negative comments; these people don't know me, they are merely reacting to something that has been triggered within them. It has nothing to do with me. If something I do angers you, that's okay. Know that what you see in me is a reflection of yourself -I can never upset you. You upset you. There is a lack of love in that reaction, and I can only invite you to look deeper within to find what it is about this situation that you need to work with. Observing our reactions and emotions is the most healing, and can lead to a lot of self discovery.
 We have so much love inside. Find it. Use it. No one is ever mean to another, unless they are suffering their own personal hell. If you have love to give, give it. The people it's the hardest to give it to need it the absolute most. -Haters- thank you for reminding us to love more! I hope you have a beautiful day and a blessed life. Love and light to all."

 This is so dead on for what I strive to do. Rachel Brathen took the words out of my mouth, hence why I am sharing them with you. I think we have all been on the hater side at some point. And you know, we always will have moments where we have to gather ourselves and search our own feelings when something gets triggered. This applies to everything.

 Choose love. Even when you don't want to, choose love.

If you don't know who Rachel Brathen is, go check her out. She is an amazing yoga goddess who just so happens to also be an incredibly beautiful person. She is a yoga teacher in Aruba. She's on instagram too.