Hello dear reader, and welcome to the blog today.

I hope your weekend was full of good things!

Mine sure was. I ended up getting a lot of things accomplished, which felt wonderful. As a homemaker, it feels so good to check things off of my list.

I started Saturday morning by cleaning out our living room. We have no other place to store my youngest son’s toys, so they “live” in our living room. While he was busy playing with his siblings, I discreetly did a little clean out. I removed broken items, and things with missing parts. I then cleaned the floors and even the baseboards, excited for what was coming next…

You probably guessed it. With my son’s help, I pulled our winter/Christmas decor out of storage. I got to work after I removed all of our fall decor, and put that away, too. By mid-morning I was feeling just a little overwhelmed with boxes piled around me. But I pushed through, knowing that a great reward was coming.

As of this morning, I don’t have all of the pieces together. But it’s mostly done. Our main tree is up, and it’s just so beautiful. After decorating our gingerbread tree I realized that the attached lights no longer worked. I also accidentally bought white-string lights for the Solstice/nature tree I’m putting together. One of my older daughters is so kindly letting me use one of her trees that she uses as a prop for her photography business. But hopefully, everything will be finished within one week or so.

This is such a huge blessing!

Later, I cleaned the bathrooms, and then my husband and I went out for dinner. It was so nice. Afterwards, I picked up fabric for my Etsy business. Once we returned home, I finished five bow orders for my shop before turning into bed.

Sunday felt like one big blessing because we celebrated my youngest son turning five! We took him to a science museum and Cracker Barrel, and he chose to ask my twenty-three year old to come with us. I think he had a really good time. He got to dig for dinosaur bones, mine for gemstones, and do lots of other fun things. As a mom, it was so nice to watch him having a lot of fun.

I realize that my time parenting young children is fleeting, and I really try to take it all in.

Other than these things, I’m grateful for other things this weekend such as…

• Finding the time for good conversations. I was able to release some feelings from long ago, which was helpful.
• My oldest son returned home from a very long trip playing the banjo. He played on a cruise, in Florida, and in Indiana this time around. I’m happy he made it home safe and sound.
• Etsy shop orders! My Etsy shop, Joyfully Made Hair Bows has been such a fun outlet for me. I enjoy making items that are more sustainable and have a smaller ecological footprint than items found in big box stores. I love offering this alternative to families.
• Reading time. I’ve been reading several ecological/Sacred Earth type books lately, and I’ve learned so much. One statistic I read is that while the United States makes up 5% of the world’s population, we consume 33% of the world’s paper products, 25% of the world’s oil, 23% of the world’s coal, 27% of the world’s aluminum, and 19% of the world’s copper. While you might think this is hardly a blessing (which it isn’t), it made me think more in depth about how I can personally not over-consume. This kind of thinking is always beneficial.

I hope you had an amazing weekend. Thank you so much for stopping by today!