simple.

We had a simple weekend.

As time goes on & the more I get nestled & settled into this whole wife, motherhood, family stage of my life, I'm realizing a little something about myself-- I seem to thrive when life is simple. My family seems to thrive when our lives are simple.

Jared & I have made a conscious effort over the past several weeks to keep our schedules free. If you were to come over & take a peek at the calendar that hangs in our kitchen, you wouldn't see little boxes that are scribbled in with a million activities & events. We've put a limit on how much we cram into a weekend. We've said no to company. We've passed on opportunities that would have us scrambling for a sitter & schlepping all over the countryside. We've slowed our pace. We've taken it easy.

And might I say, it's been nice.

****

A Saturday afternoon suds & duds carwash on our very own drive.

Both our cars were in dire need of a good scrubbin' & the three of us spent most of the afternoon cleaning, polishing & detailing the mess that Winter {& a certain two year old} had left behind. {Who knew that a child could make such a mess of a vehicle. You should have seen the amount of food we dumped out of his carseat when I stripped the cover off & turned it upside down--enough goldfish, raisins, crackers & fruit snacks to feed a small country. Blech.}

I slipped Meatball into his cool new swimtrunks, flip flops & shades, handed him a water hose & some sponges & we got right down to business. With an extra set of hands, things went sooo much quicker. *wink*

I'll admit that about three hours into our carwash adventure, this pregnant momma & her two year were shot. I don't do hot, chubby, sweaty, waddling, pregnant & tired. So Meatball & I sat out for awhile to cool off from the blazing sun {It may only be mid-March, but 83 & not a cloud in the sky feels like a mighty hot summer's day to me}.


A refreshing treat of lime flavored ice lollies seemed to do the trick--for both of us.

An evening in the golden sun, basking in the pure bliss of childhood. It's nice to sit & take it all in sometimes. To see how our Jett man is growing into a little boy right before our eyes. To watch him go up & down stairs without using the railing, to see him muster up his courage & tackle that rope ladder, to watch him perch himself up on the big boy swing without any help from Momma or Daddy. It's little moments like these that happen over night, ones that if we don't take the time to slow down & catch while they're in action, we'll miss altogether & find ourselves wondering when he grew up so quickly. Not this particular evening. This particular evening we caught the moments. We noted them. We honored them. We watched him grow up right before our eyes.

Grilling out for the first time this season.

For the life of him, this man cannot cook. Bless his heart, he'll screw up a peanut butter & jelly sandwich & Minute rice if you let him in the kitchen {yes, it's happened--more than once}. But give him a couple of steaks, some baking potatoes & a charcoal grill & he'll serve you up a dinner that'll leave your mouth watering for days just thinking about it.

It's been an art of his that has taken time. Through a couple of trials & burnt to a crisp steaks {that he tried to hide from me by putting in the microwave}, the man has come a long way & has truly conquered the secret of grilling a steak to perfection.

Sitting on the deck, sipping ice cold, pink lemonade. 

This little lemonade monster chugged his drink in two minutes flat. And then grabbed mine & sucked it down as fast as he could, taking breaths to giggle like he was really getting away with something. 

Drink up, baby.

A Sunday morning spent at church. A picnic basket packed full of goodies. A blanket tossed onto the lawn. And a whole bunch of boys that make my heart sing.

I think there's a lot to be said for living a simple life. It's interesting because I sometimes find myself fighting against the idea. I catch myself getting antsy to fill up our weekends with adventure, to load up the car & take trips, to plan outings, to look at the blank boxes of my calendar & scribble them in with something--anything. I forget that some of the sweetest memories, some of the greatest adventures are the ones we make while living in the simple.

I'm learning that a hustle & bustle, pedal to the metal kind of life just doesn't seem to work for our family. I'm finding we're happier, our moods are lighter, our lives much more balanced when we slow our roll a bit & live this life rather than run in it like a rat race.

We've all got to find out what works for our own unique & individual families & furthermore, we've got to find out what doesn't. It takes some tweaking. It takes some self evaluation--does this full speed ahead kind of lifestyle leave my family happy, full, content, & feeling treasured? Or does it leave my family with a cranky, short, tired mom & wife who has nothing left to give at the end of the day but a burnt out attitude? 

With summer just around the corner & a life changing event taking place very shortly as we welcome our little girl into the world, I've been asking myself these very questions. Instead of reaching for my planner & my laptop to search out the best beach vacations because that's what everyone else seems to be doing, I'm looking to my family & realizing that maybe, just maybe, what they need is a summer that is easy, a summer that is slow, a summer that is adventurous, a summer that is chocked full of nothing more than happiness.

A summer that resembles the kind of weekend we just had...

a simple one.