Thursday, May 19, 2016

Joyful

In my Tuesday morning group, we talked a little bit about where we find Joy in our life.  How joyful can be closely tied to being content.  You don't have the high high of excitement and then the let down when it's over, or the disappointment if it didn't reach your expectations.

Joy, being genuinely happy, right where you are.

Oh my goodness, have I experienced a lot of joy this week!

I continue to be overwhelmed with how wonderful everything has worked out.  Yesterday was Reid's one year anniversary with Best Buy.  A little over a year ago he was walking through his graduation ceremony for his MBA, we were getting ready to list our house, he was getting ready to start a new job and we were deciphering where we wanted to plant our roots and grow. We had taken a tour of the school and church community, where we now belong.

I love where we ended up.

I love that when I walk out of my Tuesday morning group, Sally's friends are anxiously awaiting to shout "Sally!! Here comes your mom and Emma!!" I love that they know to associate me as her mom and are so excited to say hello to Emma and tell me about what's happening in their lives.  These little people I peeked in on last year, during our tour and thought, these will be Sally's friends.  Their parents will become our friends.  Their sisters and brothers will be in school with Sally's sisters. And now they are and we are.

What a wonderful experience we have had. I'm loving this life journey!

After dinner bike rides!


Get goin' Mom!

 Beautiful morning to do some painting! Emma just got paper and a little dish of water...The water lastest all of 30 seconds and then she destroyed the paper, but you can see she sure enjoyed it! She's been referred to as Beast or Beast mode as of late.  She's not crabby or sad, she just knows what she wants and exactly how she wants it, if only she could communicate that.
 Making a work of art for one of her teachers
 Sally's over the moon excited because I agreed to babysit Boo-the neighbor's bunny, for a week coming up.
 This picture cracks me up.  Sally and Libby in love with their playtime with Boo.  Emma on the outside of the play cage with a nerf gun...about sums her up perfectly

One of my favorites!  We let Sally have a turn in the Burley with Emma.  She asked if she could take a picture of she and Emma. :)

I was also excited to see a post on Facebook that Victoria is working on getting an outdoor community pool!!! They must have heard me say, that's the only thing it's missing.

Libby had her "moving on up" program at Pre-School on Tuesday.  Next year, she'll do Mon-Wed-Fri plus Lunch!  Tuesday was a fun day, because Daddy was home! He has a few PTO days to burn before June.

The Bigs and I got to causally walk in to school drop-off and be greeted with newly hatched ducklings in Sally's class. I got some one on one time with LJ before she headed to school and I headed upstairs for my last Tuesday morning group.



 So stinkin' cute!


The last song cracks me up! Libby did a great job singing all of the words and knowing and doing all of the actions!

VIDEO--may not work because Youtube will "ban" it because there's music on it...



Tooty Ta!

The siblings got to come and cheer on their sisters!
 Movin' Up Dipolma
  and "Smart as a Cookie" Medal




Love when we get a chance to celebrate Libby
 We love when Daddy doesn't have to rush off to work

 C-Mile Sisters!
 explaining her painting to Mrs. A
 Emma was a mix of great and beast mode, thankful for Daddy's extra help!
 We're excited for Summer!
 Her wonderful teachers!
 a few of her friends, Alice and Ruby, who also have big sisters in Sally's class
 Then mommy got to sneak away for an afternoon hair cut before we headed over to an end of the year picnic with my Tuesday Morning group and our families.  Thank you to our gracious leader, Anne for having us all over to her house.  Most people in the group were able to make it!

Here are all of our kiddos!
And everyone all together!
 Then I quickly rushed off to a Wildtree party at Kari's house! It was great to prep 11 meals, have some wine and chat with friends! (and have a little break from the bath and bedtime duty!)

This weather has been gorgeous, we hung out with neighbors yesterday morning.  The 3 youngest, 2 mugshots and a model ;)

Before that picture I took Libby and Emma on a little bike adventure.  Let's just say, we learned where there are sidewalks/paths and where we have to bike on the side of main highways and roads.  Whoops ;) We still had a blast!

Yesterday was the dedication day to the bandshell that was just built downtown Victoria.  We packed a picnic dinner and biked down there.  It was a beautiful night.  Reid and I got takeout from the burger place across the street.  He took the Bigs to go pick it up while Emma and I got situated in the grass.  The mayor was speaking and saying how excited he was to see this all come together.  4 years ago none of these things were here (face-lift to the buildings, public library, patio, bandshell...). There hope was to bring Victoria alive and have it be a popular meeting area.  And then the band started playing and they invited people up on stage to dance if they felt like it and I got a glimpse of my people (Reid and the Bigs) walking to us to find us and I was overjoyed.  Happy tears. so proud and happy and thankful and grateful.  I like to think ahead to the girls someday, at college, getting asked, "where are you from?" and they proudly say Victoria, MN



Emma, can you go stand by Daddy and smile?  Backs up, puts her hands by her side and smiles. See?  Either beast mode or not ;)

 and then we got home and it was close/past bed time and she had blue all over her lips because Libby was sharing her ice cream cone and her helmet was hanging over her face and she was silly and giggling and waving to all of the neighbors.

 Today was Libby's last day of 2-day pre-school! What a fabulous year she has had! Check out my IG feed for the 1st day and last day comparison.  We're excited for summer!
 Love our 20 minutes in the car between dropping Sally off and waiting for her school to start.
 and that's a wrap!

Happy Thursday Ya'll! I hope you're able to find Joy and contentment in the everyday!

No comments:

Post a Comment