This Is The Day

We had a really great weekend, filled with lots of fun, family and friends. Friday night, Johnny went to a friend's lake house, so after bath-time and putting the kids to bed, I had the TV all to myself :)

Saturday, we had some family time.....mostly just resting and watching movies and puttering around the house, and Saturday night I went to a photography class with a good friend. Learned a lot and realized how much I still have to learn!!

Sunday, I took the kiddos to Will's 1st Birthday party (our cousin) and then we had friends over for pizza. The kids had such a great time and all got along perfectly....at one point, I think all 7 kiddos were in our bedroom watching a Barbie movie :)

In other news......I have mentioned before how much I adore reading Alexandra Stoddard's books and this weekend I picked up one of her older ones: "Gracious Living in a New World"........it is another great one and so very inspiring!! Here are some little tidbits that caught my attention.

"Our ability to find grace in daily living depends upon how much we participate in finding it. When we work with our hands, we find grace in the process----and a surge of energy."

"When we are creating, we are most alive, and most grace-filled. We must never lose sight of the joy of the process."

"We should never feel we are wasting time when we take the long way to accomplish a task, or when we choose to use our own two hands over a machine."

Alexandra writes all about gracious living and finding meaning in even the simplest of tasks. She reminds me that we can turn ordinary moments into extraordinary memories if we are present and open to the experience. She finds meaning in the processes of washing dishes, polishing silver, cutting vegetables, mowing the grass, arranging flowers, and ironing!! And although I can't exactly claim that I get excited about doing the dishes or the laundry, she did remind me of the simple joys that can come from doing things by hand: writing a letter to a friend rather than dashing off an email, hand-washing Grant's bottles, putting photos in an album, setting a pretty table......so many every day "tasks" that can really be enjoyable if I change my outlook. Just some things to think about........