{Heaven on Earth}

I'm sorry, I can't help it.
I must share this beauty with you all.
These were all taken in our yard:

Thanking God today for flowers.
The beauty is not missed on me...

{This Day}

{Dear Eisley}

Today was a good day.

We all got out of bed at 9, and took daddy to work.

Came home, you watched your program whilst I finished some paper crowns. When I was ready we drove off to Cherry Creek Mall where I sold them to a lovely boutique I've been working with. $10 a pop.

You charmed the shop owners. They call you 'Sugar'.

They said you were welcome anytime... I wondered if they'd say that after seeing one of your famous almost-two tantrums?

But my main reason for being there {selling the crowns was a lovely bonus} was to deliver a garland to their employee {her son's name, for his first birthday}, who is one of the sweetest people I've ever met and she made me feel like a million bucks by hugging me three times and flooding my ears with flattery and encouragement. She made me feel embarrassed, in the embellished, Sally Fields sort of way.

We left, picked up daddy, grabbed lunch with him. Used a rockin' coupon. {I love coupons.}

And then it was naptime, and daddy left with the car to go back to work. Good day for him as well, about $3k in sales. I feel it's safe to say we are officially over the "slow season" with his work. Which is good because at one point this month we had $13 left in our bank. {When I had told my family that his commission this month was enough to pay bills and nothing more, I meant it.}

But the Good Lord keeps putting finances in our hands {even though, so many times, we have mucked it up in the past}. I've been called for paying studies twice this month, and that very day we realized we had $13 left, the retailer called and demanded more crafts. Are these things luck? Coincidence? I think not. I know they're not!

During naptime I crafted even more, this time for the market, which I'm already having nightmares about... Then I spent two hours cleaning, dragging myself away from Twitter because I knew that later I'd be mad at myself if I didn't. In all honesty, I mostly like cleaning... don't tell your daddy that.

So daddy came home to a mostly clean house, and you woke up. Then suddenly, the best bread in the world was in the oven {a 3 ingredient, 5 minute recipe that tastes delish}, Pioneer Woman's baked beans cooking on the stove, and kabobs on the grill.

For once it's our house that is making the rest of the neighbor's mouths water {usually it's us}.

We have our beers to drink and you have your $1 glow sticks from Michael's, running around the yard in the dark, cool almost-summer night.

And then I look at you and you're so beautiful and cute and perfect....

and this whole day,

this life,

this charmed,

undeserved life,

but mostly you -

it all makes me think

in a overly corny, Hallmark card type way...

This is the life.

These things can change in an instant, though, I'm old enough to know that. So I'm savoring this beauty that is life while I can. But...


... perhaps someday, just like Laura Bush, I will watch you walk down the aisle...

looking lovely like my only cousin did last week at her wedding...

and again I will think -

"This is the life."

once again.

?

{Love, Mom - aka 'The Sentimentalist'}

{Eisley & Dad - Spring 2010}

Daddy's girl much?

{The Cousins}

This past weekend the rest of my family took off on a last minute trip to California for my cousin's wedding. While it was unfortunate that Justin, Eis & I couldn't go with, we did have the pleasure of having The Cousins {Ayla & Indy} stay with us. For Eisley, having two playmates was heaven on Earth.
They helped out a lot, like doing Eisley's hair in the morning so I didn't have to. :-)
Justin made French toast, which went perfectly with a rousing game of Peek-a-Boo.
Eisley loves her big The Cousins so very much.
We walked to the new playground at the park a couple blocks away. Ayla pushed Eisley, which was fine until Eisley noticed...
that Indy held Daddy's attention. That made for one very jealous Eisley.
I'm so happy for Eisley that she has a whopping 4 cousins living nearby. My one cousin lives in CA, and so obviously we don't get to see each other enough. So it makes me very happy that Eisley will have a lot of close family as she grows up.

We love you, The Cousins!

It's been busy...

I've been a neglectful blogger lately. It's been busy! I'm not used to being so busy. I come from a family that values its leisure time, so the go-go-go vibe is difficult for me.

I think there is a happy medium, as with most things. Too busy and overworked, you get burnt out and lose yourself and end up neglecting relationships. You end up missing things.

Too lackadaisical and you turn into a person who can't handle the minor stresses of life and rarely achieves anything major. This is my theory, at least... and striking a balance can be hard. I think most of us are wired one way or the other.

Just from the past few weeks - I know exactly what a decapitated chicken feels like.

"I'm running out of time and I don't know where to run next!!!"

A couple weeks back I crafted until the wee hours of the morning to get orders together for this store, and then this store. One right after the other. And that first one just called and needs more because she's sold out! That's a happy problem, no?

And then Justin & I stayed up late one night, working together to upholster a chair. You can see more of the chair on my Lark & Lola blog here.
And then up until 2am another night last week, making a certain 1 year old's birthday cake. Whew. This was especially hectic, finding out I had to add another tier just hours before I needed it done! {Happy Birthday Miss Mara!} See more here.
And in the pressure to get the home looking good for guests, we tried to spruce up the porch. That meant another late night painting this bench we made, and turning my antique Ball jars into hanging vases. I still have more plans for the porch...
Today, Mother's Day, I hosted a lovely party with lovely guests and it was just a lovely time. In my humble opinion. ;-) Of course with parties I throw I always end up thinking about all the things I didn't get done. That's bad, though. I wanted to create a lovely atmosphere for the ladies in my life and I think it turned out pretty well. See more here.
I am not complaining about being so busy! I'm so fortunate, that if I must be busy, I'm busy for things that I love. Party planning, arts, decorating, crafting.

If I'm going to put down my pretty magazines, if I'm going to give up my "Oprah Hour" {aka naptime} to work, if I'm going to deprive myself of sleep - at least it's all for that which I love.