a perfect kind of weekend

{found via pinterest from instagram}

this past weekend has me so excited for what's to come. this weekend i drank my coffee with pumpkin spice syrup. i wore jeans outside for the entirety of our niece's birthday party without melting into a puddle. i went for a long 17 mile run, and it stayed in the 70s the whole time. this weekend i watched football, and made soup for dinner. in short, this weekend started to feel like fall.

waking up this morning i discovered that the temperature outside was in the mid-40s. it somehow makes it feel cozier inside since there's a bit of a chill in the air outside.

granted, it's still charlotte, so the forecast for this week still includes highs in the mid and upper 80s from thursday to monday. but still. right now i don't care. right now i'll take the highs that are pushing 80 and i'll thoroughly enjoy them.

this weekend also afforded me the opportunity to finally finish scraping the popcorn finish off of our kitchen ceiling. sounds like a blast, right?

i started {this part of our kitchen project} almost 3 weeks ago, but it makes such a huge mess i didn't have an opportunity to finish the second half of it until sunday.

some days it still makes me sigh to think about how long this kitchen project has taken, and will still take to accomplish everything we want to do. but then i give myself a good shake and remind myself: we are making progress. it's not an easy thing to remember when we haven't had upper cabinets in place in our kitchen for almost two months, but it's true nonetheless.

next we get to sand and finish painting, and then we'll be able to put up the upper cabinets that are actually going back up. and then vent the microwave outside, put that back up, figure out the counters for sure {since we nixed our original plan}, and then possibly demo the old ones, and stain and put in the new ones - along with the sink, stencil the wall, build the shelves, paint the shelves, and hang the shelves. oh, and put up the moulding. and then, you know, reorganize much of the kitchen.

so, there's still a lot to do. we have a lot going on this time of year too. but, we're making progress. we're moving in the right direction.

and i know that a few months from now when everything is done and in place it won't seem like much of a sacrifice at all to have spent a few months with our kitchen a little bit all over the place.

i had that exact thought at about 2:15 AM sunday night when adele woke up with a poopy diaper, and i was upstairs rocking her back to sleep. she rarely wakes up in the middle of the night anymore. we are extremely thankful for this since it took her considerably longer than keane to start consistently sleeping through the night. i don't miss waking up in the middle of the night every night. but i tried to enjoy the snuggles and soak up every second of that time. and i was reminded of how inconsequential those months of missed sleep seem now that we're past them.

i'm not always good at that. i'm often not good at finding the good, and enjoying the good in the midst of a tough situation.

i know that one day my kids won't be small enough to fit in my lap anymore. one day they will not need me to snuggle with them to feel better.

and i go back and forth all the time. some days i remember that i will miss this time when they're small. other days i want it to hurry the heck up.

one of the things peter and i have talked about a lot is not wanting to feel rushed. it's easy to get so crazy busy in our culture. it's subtly encouraged. but we don't want that to be our reality.

this is not to say we do this perfectly, or even well much of the time. there is a difference though. there is a difference between having margin, and having none. there is a difference in my spirit on the days when we get all ready to go somewhere, and then i realize we have a few minutes before we need to leave. there is a difference in my soul on the days when we have time to walk to church versus the days when we're rushing out the door because we really should've already left 5 minutes ago.

i want to enjoy my kids growing up too. i want to enjoy the blessings of each stage without wanting to hurry hurry hurry to the next one. granted i *want* to do this more when they're being sweet, and less when they're poking each other in the face, and throwing temper tantrums.

in these senses i try to recognize and reflect in writing what i want to be true in life. many days i'm really terrible at living where i am, and not trying to hurry toward something else. many days i think i should be working outside of "just being a mom" partially because i want validation beyond that of my kids. it's an ugly truth, but it's still true.

so today i'm choosing to be thankful. i'm thankful for the wonderful, beautiful weather we've had these last couple of days. i'm thankful for my healthy, growing little miracles. i'm thankful for a husband who works his tail off so that i have the option of staying home with our kids. i'm thankful for this time of year that we're in right now. i'm thankful for the seasons - for the glory of fall, and the magic of winter.

i am thankful for the grace upon grace upon grace i've been given. and i'm thankful that His mercies are new every morning.

i hope you had a perfect kind of weekend too.

xoxo