A Few Things That Are Bringing me Joy

Photo by photo nic on Unsplash

It’s the time of the year where every week is different, flexibility is a must as the school year begins to come to a close and it seems like every week there is something that shifts my schedule with school. I travel what feels like every week now through the end of June, but there are some constants in my day and schedule that ground me and make this time not feel chaotic. In addition to my daily movement (I’m writing up a post to share some of my favorite classes on Peloton soon), quiet time for study and writing, stillness, and daily conversations with a few close friends, there are a few things that have added delight to my days the past few weeks.

Getting Outside

For Mother’s Day I wanted to go on a short hike with my family. I jokingly asked for perfect weather and perfect weather I was given! After church and dinner we headed to North Carolina and hiked at Triple Falls. It was BEAUTIFUL. The weather wasn’t hot or cold and the sunshine and waterfalls were showing off on all fronts!

Now, to be clear, I am not an outdoorsy person. No thank you to camping (glamping, YES!) but get me outside to be among the trees and sunshine, to see a body of water with the sun beaming down on it, and I am elated. I could have sat outside watching the water roll down at Triple Falls all day long. It’s just so beautiful and a reminder that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. He is the master artist and the creator of beauty!

Being outside has been a source of joy lately and I plan to take full advantage of the warmer weather before the southern heat makes its entrance.

Trying New Things for the fun of it

I pruned my closet a few weeks back and cut my closet down quite a bit. I have a small store worth of clothes in our guest bedroom that I plan to sell on eBay soon. More on that once I start sharing the listings if you’re interested.

As a result of the pruned down closet I get dressed in “real clothes” every day now. While I love my athlesiure that I’ve lived in the past four years, now that everything in my closet is something that I love, it’s fun to get dressed every day even if I’m only working from home or driving to Trader Joes!

My closet is basically a room filled with neutral and stripe tops, denim skirts, dresses, blazers, cardigans (mostly neutral too) and shoes. I love it! And, with that I’ve been into sharing my daily outfits. I created an LTK shop and plan to share my finds there—what’s in my closet and things I add to it! It’s something I’m doing for the fun of it!

Which brings me to another thing—do you make time for things you like simply for the joy of it? I like getting dressed every day and I found that I like doing a little video about what I am wearing and sharing links when people ask about it. I have no plans or desire to become a fashion influencer, I simply enjoy it and love sharing my sense of style. So often people will try to convince you to turn everything into a side hustle or business, but we forget that life is to be lived and doing things that we enjoy (solely for the enjoyment) is a part of living!

Joy is an end goal! And I’m grateful that I experience joy in some form every single day. What are you experiencing or doing these days solely for the joy it brings to you? Share with me in the comments!

Items that create calm in my home and family

For Mother’s Day I gifted this set from LaNeige that includes face and lip masks because the lip mask is my favorite lip balm and when I make time to put on a night mask I feel like I am winning at mom life (because that means I showered in time to let the mask sit before bed)!

My daughter (11) received this Snap Circuit kit for her birthday and she and my son have loved playing with it. And actually, my husband loves playing with it too! I love that it’s a STEM activity and they find so many different ways to play with it, it has kept them occupied after school while I cook dinner or clean up. I’ve added it to my list of go-to gifts for birthdays because it is pretty compact but leads to lots of screen-free fun for littles. My five year old loves it too!

Speaking of screen-free time, these sketch pads from Target were a hit on our last two road trips (both over 8 hours). I tend to gift my children with something small for them to enjoy on longer roadtrips and the Target sketch pad has lasted us on two trips now. This sketchpad from Target and these markers are a winning combo. The thing I love about the markers is that they snap back into the case so we haven’t lost one yet! That alone is a big deal in our house!