Simple Joys

This week, I'm linking up with my adorable friend at Melinda Blogs {sometimes} and sharing my Simple Joys; little things that have made the day brighter in their simplicity!

{God's love for me}

Not really a simple joy, but a simple message that I have been guilty of overcomplicating.  My Father is faithful to me, in spite of me, and He's daily revealing to me how intense are his affections for me.  I wrote about this in a guest post for Lovely Thoughts, featuring today on the lovely blog of my sweet friend, Yelena.  She is an ambitious law student, desiring to bring a worldview of Christ and his love to her field.  I've been blessed to blog-fellowship with her for over two years!

{scattered peas}

Bear and Bee love sweet peas.  They aren't the most convenient of vegetables, since they scatter everywhere and fall into every crevice.  But as long as the girls will eat their fill of something green, I will serve them.  This week, whilst cleaning up yet another scattered mess of peas, I realized that I will blink and those peas will be the bobbi pins of teenage daughters.  Ultimately, there will be no traces of my wee ones in my empty nest.  Then and there, I gave thanks for scattered peas.

{a red kettle}

Since it came to us as a wedding gift, this has journeyed with us since the very beginning of our adventure.  It has definitely earned it's place on the stovetop, where it never leaves it's post.  It has served us countless cups of tea, thawed breast milk, made baby bottles, blanched it's weight in sweet peas and warmed bath water when the propane tanks were empty.  I think of it very affectionately as my sidekick; my cherry red squire, in it for the long haul on the battleground of making home.

{binky-faces}

Even when I was young and my siblings were growing too old for pacifiers, I would rebel against weaning them even more than the toddler did.  I so love binky-faces.  Bear is now reaching that long-dreaded season of binky-weaning.  She still wants it at nap and bedtime, and it kind of makes me sad.  Maybe it's not saying good bye to the binky that is sad, but saying good bye to the babyhood that it seems to take with it.

{tea}

Oh, tea.  After two pregnancies, I haven't been able to touch my once beloved coffee.  But tea and I have rekindled our romance.  My staples are Red Raspberry Leaf, African Rooibos and my favorite, Kurdish Mountain Chai.  This simple, yet lovely blend of chai is made by some dear friends of ours who have a special place in their heart for missions to Iraq.  Their chai blend not only makes an excellent latte, but every purchase helps fund heart surgeries for children in Iraq.  You should get some from their Etsy shop and see what you're missing!



{fringe}

Or bangs, if you prefer.  I've had them for a couple weeks and I loooove them.  I may never go back.
 

What simple things have brought you joy, friend?

This is an excellent way to stop and "smell the roses" of our day-to-day and give thanks.  You should link up with Melinda and try it.  It's as good for the soul as Kurdish chai. :)

Tour de Wheelburrow (& a giveaway!)

Welcome to The Wheelburrow; Wheel, as a tribute to its mobility and Burrow for it's rabbit-hole style coziness.  I know, a fancy name doesn’t magically make it not a camper, but humor my romanticism!

This has been our little home for the past year;
all ye gather ‘round for I shall tell you the tale as to why…

Last summer (2012), we were saving our pennies to put a house on my parents’ 20 acres in the country.  In perfect timing, just before our two-bedroom apartment lease was up, my aunt asked if we were interested in buying her 50ft. camper for a very gracious price.  She and my Mom schemed that, with the camper, we could move onto the family property sooner and start developing the land for the house.  We weren’t sure how we felt about moving next door yet, since we would be in the driveway until we could put the camper on our piece of land.  But after praying it through, we just had a feeling it was the right decision to buy it.

Our kitchen, and the dining-room-turned-nursery beyond.

Little did we know that, despite having financial remorse and difficulties living next door to my crazy family, we did make the right choice.  At Christmastime, just five months after we bought The Wheelburrow, my sweet Mom passed away very suddenly (one day, I will share more on this story and how God has been gracious and faithful in our grief).  This made my Dad a widower who works full-time, with four children under 15 years old at home.

It is evident of God's providence in putting us here.  Ministering to Dad and the kids, and helping them in this new season, would be so much harder if we weren't in the driveway.  They have also ministered to us in ways that cannot be repaid, so we are also thankful for this little piece of community we have for this time of life.

View of our living room from the kitchen.
Up the step is the bathroom and master bedroom.

Here we are, in our cozy little space.  We are very happy here for now, and praying that God show us when it's time for us to move on to more wide open spaces!  There are days that the burrow walls are closing in around us and we'll never get out. But then there are days that I could live in a big camper forever.  It definitely has it's perks:

• The smaller space is easier to manage and clean!  That is, as long as it doesn't get out of hand, which can happen faster in smaller spaces with tornado toddlers on the loose.
• The size demands that we live simply, keeping from having too much stuff.  Sometimes this means I'm not able to store things that would be helpful down the road, but it definitely keeps me from collecting anything unnecessary!
• We have to stifle the desire to buy things we don't need, so we end up saving money!  We also have to quiet discontentment on a daily basis.  I pray this makes us a happier-with-little family even when we have space for more one day.

I'm fashionably late, but I'm going to be spring cleaning this week, hoping to comb through even more of our junk to see if we can possibly minimize anything else.  Which brings me to a plug!  Kindred Grace is hosting a giveaway for Lorilee Lippencott's book Simple Living.  You can read Chantel's excellent review of it on the giveaway post!  Lorilee is a minimalist, which I could never aspire to be, but the practical advice and disciplines sound wonderfully helpful if you're wanting to simplify your life, finances, possessions, schedule, etcetera.  Kindred Grace is giving away 3 copies, but even if you don't win the giveaway, or live in a camper, it sounds Amazon-wishlist-worthy!

Tour de My Crazy Days These Days

I'm really enjoying my days lately.  After nearly 3 years of marriage, 2 babies and all the mountainous slopes thereof and therein, I actually feel like my house gets clean sometimes.  It's a grand accomplishment, indeed, for one to feel that their job is partially completed decently part of the time.

Our normal very-flexible-hardly-go-as-planned weekdays look like this...

6am
Mr.O awakes and readies himself for a day of Jesus-trinket peddling (haha I kid).  I make his lunch for the day and his coffee to-go, then kiss him goodbye!  Little Bee is usually awake and ready for her morning bottle and cuddles.

7am
The Bear is awake.  We girls start our Spotify playlist of morning music then sing and dance into breakfast time!  Bear loves scrambled eggs and fruit, so that is our usual morning menu unless I decide to shake things up a little around here.

8am
This is prime time for Mom-chores.  The girls are freshly rested, changed and fed--so they are super independent and like to entertain themselves for about an hour or two.  This is when I do the previous day's damage control, a.k.a. dishes, a bit of laundry and general through-clutter-pathmaking!

10am
Bee is down for her morning nap, so I try to devote this time to Bear.  We have one hour to ourselves to color, play with toys and read books, etc.  Her all-time favorite is P.D. Eastman's book Go, Dog, Go.  She quotes it all the time, asking us, "Doyouwikemyhat?"  Or if we ask her if she likes our hat, she answers, "I do!"  I really want to theme her upcoming birthday party after the dog-party at the end.

11am
Bee is awake from nap.  This is a miscellaneous time--for more cleaning, playing, dancing, and sometimes Veggietales or Bubble Guppies.

12pm
What time is it?!  It's time for lunch!  (See everysingleepisodeof Bubble Guppies)
We heat up leftovers or have sandwiches, yogurt and veggies.

1pm
The girls both go down for their glorious, togetherness nap.  Bear will sleep for up to three hours, but Bee only sleeps one right now.  I get one lovely hour to myself, and maybe one day I will tell you of all the horrible, treacherous, widely concealed, mustache-twirling, muahahahaha adventures I embark upon whilst they slumber.
And yes.  I'm part-Native American, so I DO have a mustache.  Be jealous.

2pm
Bee is awake and Bear has up to two more hours of nap left, so this is me and Bee time.  We also read books and play with toys.  I've been teaching her the parts of our face, but even though she knows where noses and eyes are, she gets all coy and isn't brave enough to show the world how brilliant she is yet.

4pm
I put on supper, unless it's for the crockpot when I would have put it on at lunchtime.  Then, if it's cool enough, we go outside to play until suppertime.  Bear is a very stereotypical toddler and loves to be outside!  She enjoys my Dad's apple tree (we live in my parent's driveway....stay tuned for Tour de Wheelburrow [yes that is the correct spelling of the name of my house] and a long-story-short), and this poor kitten that she carries around wherever she goes!  I don't say poor, because he follows her around and purrs even when she picks him up by his neck or tail.

6pm
To the girls' giggly excitement, Daddy is home!  I finish up supper while they reunite from a day of labor.  Then we pray and eat together.

7pm:  Bathtime.
8pm:  Winding-down time with storybooks or a movie.
8:30-9pm:  The tiny monsters are in their caves for the night.
9pm til 6am:  FREEEEDOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....

The End.