Murphy's Landing

On Saturday we took a family field trip to Murphy's Landing. It is a historical village with actors living out life in Minnesota in the 1890's (I just typed 1980's at first. Now wouldn't that be a funny village to visit! Ha!) We had a great time. We're trying to take more 'local vacations' this summer...being a tourist in our own town. And this was a perfect day adventure.

Naturally we were most excited about the gardens and what they were planting and what was starting to come up. This is the doctor's medicinal garden.
A life-in-motion museum like this is so great for gaining perspective. We saw this bedroom that would sleep a mom and dad and 3-4 kids and suddenly, our two bedroom house seemed huge. For sure we could fit a few more kids of our own in our little home.

Ivar was a sport, as always.

In every house we visited, the women were baking something incredible. It was a terrible tease, actually, because they couldn't share. Strawberry pie in one house, cinnamon rolls in another and doughnuts in another. And something crazy happened. To watch these women bake using one bowl and one spoon in an oven heated by fire made us wonder why recipes have become so complicated. The woman making doughnuts made it look so, so easy. And so simple.

So after our yummy smelling journey in the 1890's, we drove to Rory's folks and googled "1800's donut recipe" and found a very simple, very basic doughnut recipe. And proceeded to find our roots.

gift #17

Gift Number Seventeen: Ivar and I wearing our matching raincoats

gift #19

Gift Number Nineteen: A father-in-law who understands that I love fishing, I just can't touch the bait...or the fish.
Madison took Rory and I out on Saturday night and the fish seemed to like my leeches the best. It was an exciting hour out on the water and had me positioned in my favorite place during the summertime: in the front of a boat. (all fish were lovingly taken off of their hooks and placed back in the water to be with their fishy families.)

1,000 gifts

The list is started! Thank you so much for the supportive dialogue I've shared with many of you. It is helpful to know that others struggle with this online-comparison game too. And it's also grounding to remember that the grass will always be greener, but that my grass probably looks greener to someone else. The only way out of this vicious green-with-envy cycle is to recognize all of the gifts within my own life. And when I do that, my pasture becomes bright green. Feels like a breath of fresh air.

So I started writing my 1,000 gifts. I tried to overcomplicate the process at first. Wanted to go to Barnes and Nobel to pick out a nice new journal. Decided a better idea was to find an old notebook and modge podge the cover. Got the supplies out and realized that I do this a lot...get a good idea and then find ways to make the idea bigger and bigger until it's daunting.

So what did I end up with? Some good common sense (no modge podge, no new journal, no fancy pen) and an old purple spiral bound notebook.

I tend to get high on things quite easily. I should reword that since I've never done drugs... I am excitable and get excited about things easily...and this list is my new love. I'm super excited about it. So excited that I really think you've got to make your own list. You must. It is such a positive, eyes-wide-open, I'm-not-letting-my-sweet-life-go-unnoticed process. Rory has even joined in. I'll ask him if he has any gifts to add and then I write them right in the mix with an R next to them so one day we'll know who contributed what.

It's basically a journal list, a life-is-beautiful list, a God-you-are-so-good list. Focusing on all of the positive, good, lovely and so-small-you-might-miss-it-if-you're-not-paying-attention gifts we have been given.

Now go get yourself an old notebook.

blog envy.

I’ve been in a blog funk lately. Not really about my own blog. It’s more about other people’s perfect blogs. The ones with the well-lit pictures, the adorable children, the delightful and inspired crafts, the sweetly coordinated parties, the amazing cakes, the witty writing, and the writers who have a clear and consistent voice that seems to come effortlessly every time they write a new post.

A lot of the time I can read these blogs for what they: a person’s loving addition to their corner of the internet. Other times I read them and I am left feeling like I need to buy a big fancy lens for my camera and wake up before dawn and bake a loaf of bread to be photographed in the early morning sunlight.

This isn’t a poor me blog post. Actually, the opposite. I have never ever enjoyed a spring and start of summer more in my life. Ivar is at a perfect sitting-up-and-not-crawling-away age and we spend nearly every day outside hanging out as a family on a blanket in the back yard. Rory is working from home and the three of us are growing into a family unit. It is precious and wonderful.

However. When I put that sweet baby boy to sleep at night and finally end up plopped on the couch with my laptop for some me-time ready to enjoy the sights and sounds of my favorite blogs, I end up with poor-me time. Poor-me, I’m not at Disney world. Poor-me, no one sends me free items to review on my blog. Poor-me, I have no fashion sense. Poor-me, I have no original art to be sold in cute boutiques across america.

Well, it’s ridiculous. And absurd. And offensive, I believe. Offensive to a really quality life that is somehow feeling belittled by the perfection that is projected out there. And the very worst part? I know I’m part of it. I make pretty cakes too. And my son has yet to take a bad photo.

Maybe it’s all my extra hormones I am carrying around because this feeling is fairly new. I used to read blogs with a very healthy sense of self, enjoy them for what they are worth and click on my way to enjoy my own day. But now I read them with a sort of Eyore undertone. Bleh. It’s no good. It’s not healthy.

I thought about taking a summer vacation entirely from blogging. Even wrote the post to announce that I’d be back in September. But then I got a phone call from Hildur’s sister, Lois. Lois is a new reader, just started reading the blog after Hildur’s funeral and after talking to her on the phone I’m pretty sure she has read my whole blog. Words cannot express how honored I am! Lois told me that she reorganized her fridge after reading my post on my food organization and that her husband of many years loves the new system because the produce isn’t going bad anymore and he knows right where to find the leftovers. Knowing that Lois is reading, enjoying what she is reading and actually taking some of these ideas to heart makes me want to keep it up.

I also want to keep blogging because this is the very best way I have found to write the stories that go with the pictures of my life as it is happening. This blog is ultimately for Ivar and the kiddos to come and I want to keep up the discipline.

So I have a new game plan for the summer. In perfect timing, I am right in the middle of reading a book my mom gave me for Mother’s Day. You’ve probably heard about it and I’ll write much more about it very soon. It is called One Thousand Gifts and focuses on gratitude in a way that makes every page feel like a little mini-vacation. It’s got me breathing deeper and climbing into bed earlier just so I can return to the happy tropical island that awaits me in her writing.

The book has me thinking and has me looking at my life with fresh eyes again. And it has given me a whole new blogging direction for the summer ahead. I am going to make my own list of One Thousand Gifts. I am going to stop wishing and wanting and start savoring and appreciating.

And I’ll do it one gratitude at a time.

If you want to join in this quest for contentment and a grateful heart pick up your pen and join in! Life is too good and rich and full of blessings to sit back and wish, want and wonder. It’s time to recognize, name and appreciate all that God has given to us!