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Sunday mornings are usually the only time I get the chance to sit and skim my favorite news sites, books, articles, blogs, and devotionals (but like, one or two if I’m lucky). I’d occasionally like to share my current list with you if you would be up for dropping me some of your own recs as well?! Deal? Here’s this week’s Sunday reads…
My sisters were in town from Ireland and Arizona, it was fun to throw together little coffee and scones Valentine’s day coffee with a little flair! I haven’t seen them in months, and it was worth celebrating the unexpected reunion.
My grandmother passed away a few days ago, and although we knew it would be coming soon, I feel like a part of me has gone with her. I already shared their story on social media, but I want to write it here to have a place to go back to it often when I want to share their lives with my children. It is a story that deserves it’s own book, but for now a short summary….
December, 1941. If only the street photographer knew what this picture of my grandparents and their first born would mean to their 13 children and grandchildren. An image that sums up their devotion to each other and to their family.
My grandfather came from a Spanish family, and worked through the Great Depression as a young boy serving soup to long lines of hungry people. After meeting Lucia when he was 25, they were married in a small chapel in San Antonio, TX. He built their first home with his own two hands. To take a new job he bravely moved his spanish speaking family to an all english speaking town in Kentucky. He not only had an incredible gift of making guitars, but he could sing to them and play them beautifully. He could carve imagery into leather and was a gifted ceramicist. He was skilled at making something remarkable out of nothing. He was as fit as a fiddle, and could even ride a bicycle at 90 yrs of age.
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I am more than eager to say goodbye to January and welcome a new month. It seemed to be quite a long one this year, eh? In Atlanta, we even have a few blooms starting to shoot up in our front yard. Visual hope of the end to the bleak weather! And not only am I welcoming the month swap, I’m anxious to continue the simplify my life process. I’ve got a self imposed rule going on: with every new item added to my closet, I must donate or pass along another item. This has been a great solution for our small closet space as well as a good remedy for impulse buying.
We aren’t big on gifts for valentine’s day, but these are ideas that Gabe and I are on board with should we so choose to go that route. (wink wink)
Him + Her Valentine’s Day Gift Guide
Happy Monday and hooray for just about making it through January!
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Sometime this past year, my motherhood bank account dropped below zero. My reserve credit card on extra love and patience was maxed out. There was no penny left to spare. In the wake of my physical, mental, and spiritual bankruptcy, I was left with a brutally honest image of myself. I was becoming as juvenile as my three year old who screams and whines when things don’t go his way. I felt angry and short on patience. Happiness in motherhood can often be synonymous with defeat, guilt, and loneliness. I was so deeply thankful and happy to be a mother, but never had I felt stretched so thin. Never had I felt so insufficient and unworthy. I could no longer find the easy button on my life. It was time for an attitude check, a re-set on mindset, and a fuel up.
