Hello! Happy Friday! Happy March!

February was fun here on the blog. I posted more consistently, and I love that. Blogging here is a combination of some of my favorite things – doing projects, writing, pretending I’m a graphic designer, editing photos, and playing with words. It just makes me happy.

One night last week, at 8:15, Husband said, “I’m going to bed to read. Are you going to blog?” I said, “Well, I have vintage outfit photos I wanted to post…Do you think it’s silly?” And he said, “Do you enjoy it? Does it make you happy?” Yes. “Then you should do it. It’s not silly if it brings you joy.” Truth.

Then this week happened. I can’t even tell you what exactly happened, but things got CRAZY! Choir, karate, dance, homework, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball (that’s one for each practice and one for the scorekeeper training I attended). We are so fortunate that one of BB’s buddies is on the team, so we’ve been carpooling, and it’s been a HUGE help, but WOW. Spring is crazy.

Husband and I have been making time after the kids are in bed to sit and chat, no screens or phones, just to catch up (and compare schedules, too). We remembered how crazy last spring was, so we started thinking about what we could cut since we’ve added so much new. The next morning, we talked to BB about putting some activities on hold for now and picking them back up during the summer. He is totally on board – for him, baseball is what he loves.

It’s a good lesson for me, too: how freeing and clarifying it feels to choose only the things that you really love for a season. I wonder how different I would feel if I did this in more areas of my life – to pick a particular hobby or a particular goal and not try to do everything all the time. But I also realize that I can’t do this with all aspects of life because things I don’t love – like laundry and getting the oil changed and cleaning out my inbox – would never happen, and having no clean clothes and a car that doesn’t run and missing deadlines would feel like the opposite of joy.

But for right now, I’m choosing what I love – writing down my thoughts and sharing things that have sparked joy in my life – with you.

Here are some things on my mind this week:

1. Art Projects. I volunteered to coordinate the Art Auction project for BB’s class. I went down the rabbit hole of “art auction projects” – and I found some pretty cool things that I want to make – just for me! Here are some kid-friendly projects that are inspiring me to get out my paints and brushes and scissors and paper (click on the photos to see the tutorials):

Apparently this piece is made with plastic bottle caps!! (I can’t find the original post – just a chain of Pinterest images. If I find it, I’ll link it here.)

I explored this artist’s website – she has some great tutorials to inspire you to get painting.

I like the idea of making a paper quilt.

I love this Matisse-inspired one – it would be fun to make for BG’s room.

(And I STILL haven’t done the big abstract I want in my living room that I talked about here. I think it would be a great family project to work on. Maybe after baseball is over….)

2. Keeping a Diary/Journaling/Processing through Writing. Ever since the new year, I’ve been trying to keep track of my days in my journal. I like having the everyday little pieces recorded to look back on and see what we did, how far we’ve come. I came across this article by Austin Kleon (who I got to meet a few summers ago when my mom and I went to a lecture and book signing). A lot of good ideas here. I also just started a journaling class at my church that I’m really enjoying, too. I’m excited by the idea of journaling as a spiritual practice because I process a lot through writing. I’ve always loved that Joan Didion quote: “I don’t know what I think until I write it down.”

3. This sewing video. Some of us – especially Husband and The Girl – are obsessed with Tasty videos. The two of them pile up in one chair and scroll through them daily. And they’ve found some pretty good recipes. But this is more my thing. Show me simple tricks – and hand-stitching! – and I’ll watch for hours.

4. This quote. Found here.

5. True Facts. We may be very late to the party, but Husband and I stayed up late watching these, and we were dying. So so funny. (Not suitable for kids – but here are the kid-friendly versions that started us down this trail.)

What are you up to this weekend? The next two weekends are CAH-RA-ZEE! I can’t even figure out how we’re going to do it all. But in the midst of the crazy, I’m hoping (and I hope for you) to enjoy a long walk, time to reflect, time to create, and time to laugh. Thanks for reading!