Common, everyday blessings

After years... twelve years... of lamenting about not having Coldstone in Portugal I finally thought, "why don't I try making my favorite Coldstone icecream myself?" I have noooo idea why I never thought of that before. Enter: coffee icecream, caramel topping and oreo cookies. Divine. Just divine. Enough to start a blog post with.

Inspired by this post on Fountains of Home, I also got a milk frother for my hubbie for his morning coffee (never knew those existed!) and French wine for my weekly online grocery shopping.

I think I appreciate these homemade desserts because we seldom go out to eat and we appreciate these splurges because I've been trying not to buy anything extra. We've been trying to live even more simply and I've been trying to cut any extra activities.

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness -- just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Wisdom and Virtues


We've been visiting my sister more often, who just had a baby and wasn't feeling too well. I wish I had more time and less distance to spend visiting people. But it has been nice to spend that extra time with her and a huge blessing for our kids to have cousins the same age.

And Addie and Davy are getting along better. Well, by that I mean her with him. Which is relieving. It's like he'll actually be an autonomous member of our family soon... exciting. He is crawling but still likes to be held most of the time. Absolutely nothing like his sister was. Momma's boy? Yikes.

I am busy trying to check things off my to do list... as usual... never feeling like I'm getting anything done. And trying to get in more daily habits. Prayer, as always the constant struggle. Plus reading, exercising and piano playing. Not really working. Alas. Kids are cute though, right?