sneaking dough, incessant ambulance sirens, and fruit cats
biggest little joys #4
When negative things become positive things, because life is short and why not?
Here we go.
Thursday, May 15
✿ We had a hard day so we rolled down the windows (to hell with the grass allergy that is quite literally trying to kill our whole family) and sang (read: yelled) to some music. I look back at the girls and they’re letting their cute little tootsies air out in the wind. Joy.
✿ I was making flatbread for dinner and Finley asks if she can eat the dough. I say no. She asks again, as if she never heard me. I say no. She asks again (what hell loop are we in here?). I start to say no when I am almost knocked down by the memory of her and I standing in the kitchen of a once lived in house - me making flatbread, her (about 2 years old) pretending to help roll said flatbread only to eat it. She thought she was being very sneaky, when in reality I could hear her snarfing it down the whole time. She might be bigger, but she is the same. Obviously, I let her eat some dough. Who can stop something so deeply engrained?
Saturday, May 17
✿ The entire family singing (again, read: yelling) Katy Perry’s unrivaled ballad Roar in the car. Finley was deeply moved by this song in music class at school (tell me something cuter, I dare you), and now wants to listen to it on loop. There is no such thing as embarrassment when your child wants you to connect with them.
✿ A walk at our old stomping grounds. I personally hadn’t walked here since Helene, and though the damage was still very obvious (not pictured: the enormous concrete bridge that was ripped out of the ground and thrown about 100 ft down creek) it was a joy to be back. When we pulled up, there was an incessant ambulance siren that threatened our peace. When we realized the siren was, in fact, the sound of thousands of bugs clicking in unison (cicadas were upon us) the annoyance transformed to wonder, and I’m just so thankful for perspective shifts. Also, we saw multiple snakes - none venomous, all interesting. Knitting → darjeeling top.
Sunday, May 18
✿ Rion and the girls washing the Subaru together. This joy is multi-layered. It was cute, and also the car was getting clean, and also I was enjoying some sacred silence.
✿ I talked with an elderly man at a local playground. We had Waylon with us and the man couldn’t help but give our good boy some good pets (a natural and welcomed impulse). He’d had a massive stroke several years earlier, but all he seemed to notice was how very blessed he was, and now I’m inclined to do the same. Gratitude seems to be contagious.
✿ A Pileated woodpecker destroying our fence. But when it’s doing it so elegantly, can you even be mad?
Monday, May 19
✿ A warm day + an old garden hose = endless entertainment for kids. At least for this kid. That jumbled mess I’m working on is the tail of a bear wearing a tutu. If you’re feeling a lack of joy, I highly recommend working on something as ridiculous as this. Pattern: Ibo pillow.
Tuesday, May 20
✿ Finley drew this abstract owl with pastels, using another artist’s picture as a prompt. Her teacher was so overcome with how much it resembled the original painting that she felt the need to frame it and celebrate it. Finley was radiating pride. Just another reason her teachers are angels gracing us with their presence here on earth.
Wednesday, May 21
✿ We had our first trip to our local produce stand where we procured an embarrassing amount of strawberries, enough fresh peaches to drown in the juice, one very large watermelon, and plenty of pets for the kitty lazing in an empty fruit bin. None of these things are available at Ingles, by the way.
⋒ FUN, FUN ⋒
✿ This video about how the youngins are getting into fiber arts.
✿ True, this graphic is quite the bummer (watch it, it will astound you). However my joy is this being contrasted with that video above. So many more people are paying attention to what they buy, how much they buy, and whether it’s actually made of plastic. When we’re aware we can change. Let’s go.
Thanks again for basking in these little joys with me! I hope you find some for yourself this week, and if you do, tell me! Joy spreads that way.
sending you so much love ~ Kelley ♥