Chip and JoJo, y’all!

Happy spring, friends!

The weather is just beginning to warm up here in New Hampshire, and each day new patches of green are popping up on the lawn, and it is so exciting. The winters are long here, and while we are giddy with the newness of the snow in December, there is something about snow in April that can bring its own special kind of sadness. When you’ve just had ENOUGH. So these sporadic warm days and in-between cloudy cooler days that bring the rain that makes the grass and flowers grow have us feeling lighter and freer and anxious for getting outside for some sunshine therapy.

On this most recent warm Sunday we packed up the family and some ham sandwiches and drove to the park at the next town over for a picnic dinner. There’s something about being outside that makes our whole family treat each other with more kindness, and the same kids who’d been bickering on the car ride over were working together to capture the salamander in the pond and helping each other fish with thawed corn kernels. The deep, relaxing breaths we all collectively took by getting out of the house — with the chores, and the toys that are perpetually strewn all over the floor even though I pick them up all day long, and the dishes and cups and snack wrappers that go on forever and ever amen — and being somewhere else together refreshed us and made us remember that we actually do like each other.

I know there has been a lot of silence on this blog this year. I have been dealing with some health issues for the past several months that have left me feeling physically and emotionally drained by doing any more than my most basic everyday tasks, and as a homeschooling mother of five with a dog, five chickens, and five more new baby chicks (!), even the basic everyday tasks are numerous. (Can you say Mount St. Laundry?) By the time I get through the day and get all the littles in bed and the dinner dishes done, I’m beyond ready to collapse into bed myself, and though I’ve composed countless blog posts in my head over the last six months, few have actually made it to the keyboard.

But tomorrow I am going on Spring Break. My wonderful hubby has taken a few days off of work so that I can get out of the house and take my Mom and Housekeeper and Chef and Referee and Teacher and Counselor and Nurse and Laundress and Chore Supervisor and Oh-My-Gosh-When-Are-We-Going-To-Unpack-These-Boxes-That-Have-Been-Here-Since-We-Moved-In-Two-Octobers-Ago? hats off and just BE for a few days.  And I’m headed to do that BEing in two spots that I’ve been dreaming of visiting for a little while now. First, I’ll be flying down to Texas to visit the Magnolia Silos in Waco, Texas, where Chip and Joanna Gaines have set up their shops. Then I’ll be driving up to Oklahoma to visit The Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile shop. I will be completely geeking out over some of my favorite television celebrities (even if I don’t actually get to see them), driving around the south, wearing my cowgirl boots and saying “y’all” with reckless abandon.

I’ll also get to travel with a friend and a fellow TTTS twin loss mama, with whom I have only conversed online for the last several years, but who I can tell is a kindred spirit and someone who is going to be such a fun companion for this trip.

So feel free to follow along on my adventure. I will try to post updates here, but will also share pictures and brief stories on my Instagram feed (Blessthechaos) and my brand spanking new Facebook page for the blog. I’d love to have you join me!

And before I sign off, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something about this wonderful new book I just finished: Never Unfriended. Friends, if you find it hard to make new friends as an adult, if you’ve been hurt and let down by friends in the past and suffer from a little bit of “friendship PTSD,” if you’ve stuck out a toxic friendship a little too long in the name of love and longsuffering and it just sucked you dry, then this book is for you. Every word was honest and encouraging, and I loved it so much.

(Affiliate link)

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you’ll follow along on my adventure and continue to stop by to see what we’re baking, knitting, stitching (a few of us have taken up cross stitch), learning, and growing here amid the chaos.