Content

Today was a very good day. We started with a trip to the park for playgroup and ended up in our backyard. We spent 6+ hours out there today. I was weeding/planting and the girls played. We have four backyards that touch and the neighborhood kids kept bouncing from one fenced yard to the next (we have a ladder against the fence that the kids can jump around on their own). I just counted all the families that were over and we had 6 different neighborhood families of kids in our yard today. We pulled out Otterpops and they built sand castles for all the princess figures. All in all it was pure heaven. Even some of the 5 year old neighborhood kids jumped in and helped me pull weeds. It was great!
At one point I set up our little play tent with the baby bouncy seat in the doorway. We dubbed Abbie the Queen (but a good one like Aurora's mommy) and Katelyn and Sarah were her princesses. I was the Pink Fairy to protect the Queen. Pretty much Abbie slept the whole time in her "castle" on her "throne" with a few breaks for meals.
It seems so long ago that we were so far away from home but now we are so far away from our other family. My awesome mother-in-law lent me this book made from a friend. It is a compilation of nearly every talk given by Sis. Beck (I just love her talks!). I read over 8 of them on Memorial Day and I felt truly empowered with my roll as a mother. I am very grateful for my girls though everyday isn't always easy. As I read through her messages of building strong families I thought how much I have been influenced for good from these families away from home. Thanks for being such truly wonderful people for me to look up to. So many tiny everyday moments remind me of one special friend or another. Anyway today I felt very very thankful and happy with my life. I hope you have such peace in your heart today.
I didn't have my camera out there but this is pretty much the full heart of joy feeling I had today: