Happy Easter!

love,

 J & A

Good Friday

I have just gotten home from gathering groceries and dropping Husband off at work

where I will pick him up later and we will go to a service together

before I drop him off to work again.

The home is heavy with the smell of eucalyptus, hydrangeas, and fresh 

strawberries that we found at the market.

The sun is shining warm and brightly and I feel so very much alive. 

My heart is full and I am so very happy and content.

The rest of the day will be filled with preparing our home 

for Easter and reflecting on what Christ has done.

What a very good good friday.

I hope and pray that your day is filled with 

the beauty of preparation and anticipation.

xoxo,

lyss

almost friday

 This morning I though it was Friday.

This afternoon I thought it was Wednesday.

And all the time in between I was counting the hours

 and minutes to nap time.

While I listened to stories of the previous days school adventures

and gave another reminder to finish breakfast,

I was enjoying every minute and at the same time 

reminding myself "just a few more hours, you can make it".

As I put little man's sock BACK on for the umpteenth time

and scooted him back up in his chair
(because he is determined to scoot his little bum out of his chair when my back is turned)

I smiled to myself as I thought about how little man's whine sounds

exactly like miss E's whine and then looked at the 

clock to see how much time had passed since the last time I checked.

It was a hard morning/afternoon and I was so grateful 

to come home and put my achey sneezing head to bed again.

 And for all my counting of hours and longing for my nap

time I love my littles and I'm so grateful for my days with them.

 Happy Almost Friday,

xoxo,

lyss

phew!

Well, I able to recover all but one post,

thank goodness!

Sorry for the drama.

Lesson learned over here is to be a little more

careful with that darn delete button.

Aaaaand I should backup the blog.

Right, think I'm going to get on that pronto
instead of waiting a week or so like things usually go.

xoxo,
lyss

oh ****

So I just deleted A BUNCH of posts thinking they were 

draft posts (dumb.dumb.dumb.) and now they're gone.

GONE gone.

Does anybody know if you can restore deleted posts???

Please help me.

The camping trip that wasn't and other adventures

We'd had plans to go down to KY for spring break to find the warmth that was evading us here
and enjoy the beautiful countryside while camping.
Storm Ukko had other plans however and after a miserably cold night with
many mishaps and misadventures
we admitted defeat and got a hotel room (:

The rest of the trip however was just perfect.

We love road trips and it was such a joy to see the cute Rodgers.
To see a bit of their life in their beautiful home with a lovely front porch
and a view straight out of a movie.
We were smitten to say the least (:

They took us to their favorite antique mall where we perused with ooohs and ahhhs
and the occasional gasp over an outrageous price tag or awkward find (right Breanne? ;))

Then they took us took their home and fed us a yummy dinner
while we talked and laughed for hours about the joys of marriage.

We also stopped by the Creation Museum and gawked at the life sized replica of
Noah's Ark. I think I fell in love with Husband a little more as he expressed awe over and over again
for Noah and his sons skill and ingenuity in building the ark.
He walked around that ark soooo many times examining this angle and that angle (:
I have always admired the ark but grew to admire a different way in seeing it
through the eyes of my carpenter husband.

Kentucky was just as gorgeous as we hoped
(even with snow as the backdrop instead of spring flowers :))
and spending time with good friends was such a delight.
One of our favorite spring breaks yet.

Thanks for having us Rodgers,
we sure do like you a lot!

P.S. not picture: the rest of the Rodgers family
Sadie dog, girl cat, and boy cat.
All chock full of personality and their own distinct role in the family.
Remind me again why having pets in a small apartment in the city
is a bad idea?? (:

xoxo,
lyss

We're back!

We got back late last night from our adventuring

with lots of little stories and a gratitude for coming home.

Hope you had a great week! 

xoxo,

lyss

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold; when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade"

~Charles Dickens 

On Wednesday we wandered around downtown,

ate lunch by the bean and quietly laughed at tourist,

accidentally walked in on a piano concert,

had meetings at a coffee shop,

and dinner with an old friend named Frodo,

where we laughed till our sides hurt and reminisced about Psalty songs

and that one time he made me cry.

It was one of my favorite days yet.

xoxo,

lyss 

Today

It snowed.

I'm halfway through spring cleaning.

I daydreamed of fresh flowers, roadtrips, and thai food

while rocking my littles to sleep.

I worked out.

I braved the Post Office (the post office ladies here are meeeeean!)

but after I waited in line for awhile I was informed they were

closing early. So tomorrow I must brave it again.

We made fun plans for what to do tomorrow in between meetings here and there.

I found our Christmas thank you notes.

(Oh crap. Thought we mailed those)

I didn't wear my winter coat and pretended I was warm.

I thought it was Wednesday.

It was a happy kind of weird day (:

Good Morning

its such a beautiful morning.

We have our window slightly open and there's such a delightful cold breeze drifting in,

bringing with it the fresh scent of rain and a sense of newness.

Our home smells of lemons and eucalyptus plant,

which really doesn't smell medicinal at all,

more like a flower shop.

I've been elbow deep in lemon cleaner deep cleaning our 

little bathroom while Josh sleeps in.

But right now I'm taking a few moments to sit

and enjoy my coffee and the sound of birds 

back from their journey south.

As I sit here and take in the moment, 

I wish I could stay here for hours.

Quiet,

 peaceful,

 a feeling of renewal,

 and an utter contentment mixed with a desire to move forward.

Praise God for spring and spring break,

it was much needed.

Hope you have a happy Monday,

xoxo,

lyss

Tonight

I just got home and I've been muttering all sorts of

unkind things against the city because transit is all messed up

and it took me an hour and half to get home.

I'm making myself dinner,

which I'm usually really bad about.

I feel so weird about making an actual dinner for myself 

when I get home late in the evenings, so I either don't eat or eat something

really weird like a pop tart.

I promise I'm 23 1/2. Really I am.

But tonight as I trudged in with cold and achey bones I decided that 

I needed to love myself well and actually make myself dinner.

So I put on some lovely music and took my time making 

something yummy.

It was a rough day.

All of my nanny families (I have 3 families at the moment) are going through hard times

and I find myself unconsciously trying to bear some of the weight for them.

And no matter how hard we try to protect them,

these hard things affect my littles.

And they act out.

Today was a day of acting out.

Quick tempers, long and loud tantrums, and lots and lots of needs.

Understanding and lots of cuddles were needed.

Today was hard.
I am tired.


xoxo,
lyss

I have become a homemaker.

I'm not sure when it happened. I know I wasn't one last year at this time.

Don't get me wrong, I cleaned my house and cared that our home was lovely to the eye.

I have always enjoyed the artistry of homemaking,

Putting this here and that there, what is the best way to arrange the furniture so that

we can move around the room and it is still beautiful?

How can I make this "place" into a home that accurately communicates our beliefs and joys?

I have always enjoyed that aspect.

But I WAS NOT a homemaker. This is a new thing.

The joy of learning new cleaning tricks, an itch to organize, 

and this craftiness that has come out.

I made dryer balls out of yarn.

And I like them better than my beloved vanilla lavender dryer sheets.

This is weird.

We cleaned our windows last weekend because I wondered

 how much the dirt was blocking the light (yeah, I know. gross)

 and all of the sudden I was eager for spring cleaning.

As in I've been thinking about it all week.

As in I've been making lists and planning to wipe down walls, clean the mattresses,

clean UNDER the fridge, and on and on.

I am SO not kidding.

Who is this person?!? 

It's kind of exciting,
 honing my skill of caring for the home,

and its kind of weird at the same time.

Am I just behind the ball on this?

Does everyone else go through this their first year of marriage and 

I just wait till I'm almost on my THIRD?
Oh well (:

Spring cleaning here we go!

xoxo,
lyss