Gratitude is additive, not competitive. I would like to share what I am grateful for right now, as a means to sort of express a part of the wide range of emotions I am (and I am guessing you are) feeling at the present moment. But I want to say outright: I do not want my gratitude to come across as me thinking my life is better than yours. It is not.
I am grateful that I am a mom. I love being a mom. And the truth is: there have been seasons of my life where saying that was next to impossible.
Yes, motherhood is work and turmoil and fear and annoyance and insecurity and sleeplessness. But it is never just one of those things. Just as a human is never solely one thing -- if all of us were cast in a movie based on our worst failings, we would all be the villain.
And so yes, it's hard and I've failed at it. Many times. But I'm not defined by the failures.
A lot of times the bright and beautiful moments shine through. Love wins. And we see it. And feel it. We are together basking in the sun.
And today, I'm taking a moment to say I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful for my kids and that I get to be their mama. I'm grateful for their life full of play and adventure. For this wild woodland home. For our life where school feels nothing like school. And for the ability to sneak chocolate from my secret stash, even before breakfast.
What are you grateful for today? I would love to hear some positivity in the grim storm we are living in.
📷: @timstreetphoto
🌿 I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed. - Mary Oliver 🌿
The birds are singing their springtime song out my window. The world goes on. There is something special about this time of year and the birds remind me to pay attention to something bigger than myself.
A favorite spring activity of ours is to watercolor paint wooden eggs. I forgot to purchase some earlier in the year and now I am not buying anything unnecessary so we will have to think about doing a different egg craft this year. But, we still have our eggs from previous years to enjoy!
A perfect book for the season is the brand new Nests, Eggs, Birds: An Illustrated Aviary by @kelzuki @tenspeedpress — you already know I’m a huge fan of bird books and this one is a true gem! Similar in style to Kelsey Oseid’s Whales: An Illustrated Celebration and What We See in the Stars, this book covers a wide variety of bird topics, highlighting some of the more striking examples of birds, nests, and eggs the world. Thank you @tenspeedpress for the review copy.
I recently updated my blog post with favorite bird books to include this and a few others. I’ll put a link to that in my stories as well as an inside look at this book.
I truly love observing and learning about birds -- the cool thing is: they're everywhere! Urban or rural or forest or desert. There are birds.
Listen to their song. Paint a picture or write a poem of what they are saying.
