I did a lot of resting this past week and some of that was spent with my niece who just turned three. Yeah…not a whole lot of rest happens around a ball of fire.

Three year olds are awesome, aren’t they? Curious and full of energy and exploring their autonomy and the world around them. It’s been amazing to see how fast my niece has grown in the past month we’ve been here.

I’m s l o w l y recovering from the bug I had last week, but still not 100%. I’ve spent a lot of time reading, watching movies and hanging with friends. I’ve done some hooping in my better moments and some whining in my not-so-hot moments. I’m ready to feel better, but I’m trying not to push myself.

So I’m puttering instead. Some inspiration from my week:

• Resting to songs like this.
• And I love her voice.
• Zeb had a blast at a drama and an architect class this week!
• Interesting bit of info.
• We all want one of these someday.
• Loving this one.
• FINALLY figuring this out!
• Makes me smile.
• Some interestingness for your Monday.
• If we could all read and remember this….

What’s Inspiring You Today?

Life can be less than inspiring. The negativity and stress can be downright overwhelming. That’s why I’m loving these Monday posts.

We could all use a little inspiration.

That’s why I invite you to join in every week by sharing your own blog post in the form below or leaving a comment. And be sure to check out what’s inspiring others!

Because despite the messiness, life really is full of inspiration.

I’m excited, anxious, can’t sit still. All my hard work will be put out into the world and I can only hope you love it as much as I do. Oh, no, it’s not perfect. But it’s really good. (Or at least I hope.)

In the midst of all the excitement I also feel a bit of letdown. I’ve dedicated a lot of hours lately to this site. Getting it Just Right has been my project, and although I’ll be continuously adding to it for some time to come, I can’t help but feel a little unsure what to do with all this free time on my hands.

All my passion and inspiration has been poured into it. What do I do now?

The past few days I’ve felt a little lost, not sure what to do with myself. But yesterday I started to remember. I went to the park with my sister and two of my nieces. And for the first time in a long time I felt inspired to capture the moment, inspired enough to play around with the photos, too.

And I’ve enjoyed some other bits of distraction while I pass the time until tomorrow. Here are a few tunes I’ve been enjoying:

• A song to move to.
• And whistle to.
• Something to hoop to.
• And something to make me breath.
• And breath deeper.
• And make me remember.
• Okay one more for good measure, because who can resist?

And a bit of what I’m loving:

• She pointed these out to me.
• Some parenting thoughts.
• I believe it.
• I heart small spaces.
• We can attest to this.
• Thought-provoking, tear-jerking, funny, beautiful. Must read it.

What’s been inspiring you lately?

Leave a comment below or add your own blog post to the form!

My mom and I began working on this tiny house when I was about 8 years old. But we had left it just shy of complete and it had sat untouched ever since. As we were packing up our art room it became very clear what we needed to do.

So, Mom and I got to work and lots of glue and sandpaper and one funny trip to the dollhouse store (they have tiny Playg!rl magazines!) later, we finished it up just in time to gift to my niece.

Granted, she’s still a little young and the front door now needs new hinges. But it was fun watching her eyes light up and I love passing along something we worked so hard on.

More dollhouse photos here.

I also discovered something about myself – and it applies to all areas of my life: I enjoy things much more when they aren’t for me. I enjoyed growing my veggies last year, but loved giving them away even more than eating them. I’m learning to enjoy cooking and when I can keep my focus on giving my husband and son nourishing foods as a gift of love it becomes much easier. And for nearly two decades I put off finishing this dollhouse until I had another person to keep in mind while I worked.

I just hope she continues to love it as much as I loved watching her with it. Something to always remember me by.

And something to remember her uncle by as well…

I can’t say that I would have been as bold when I was two years old. I’m not even brave enough now to feed those chickens from my hand! Their peck is hard! But Savana wasn’t phased. She fed them, talked to them, I think at one point she tried to kiss them (that could have ended badly).

Then she helped her Uncle Justin check for eggs and was pretty happy to have found one! We packaged it up to protect it from an overzealous grip and sent her home with her very own breakfast, courtesy of Skittles and Roxy.

I ended up crocheting this, instead of knitting. (I prefer knit but let’s face it, crocheting is FAST.) My sister picked the yarn (and boy was it a PITA) and I decided on the pattern. The blanket is 150 stitches across and enough half double crochets to make it square. The pattern was 5 rows of green, 3 of pink, 1 of green, 3 of pink and ended with 5 rows of green.

The hood was an improvisation and if I was wiser with these things I would have written down what I did. I think I started with 20-30 stitches and decreased by 2 each row. But don’t quote me on that. I finished it with a single crocheted border of green, then pink around the edges.

Zeb tried it out to make sure the size would last her many years. Her 2 year old sister is still using hers, as is her 15 year old sister (my second-ever crocheted blanket!). Hopefully Shelby will love this one as much.

Even with the knit hat I’m making her, I’ll still be left with WAY too much yarn. I guess that’s a drawback of not following a real pattern.