Sundays

The smell of warm vanilla bean coffee brewing in the french press, bacon cooking in the oven filling the entire apartment with its mouthwatering scent and batter for homemade waffles ready to pour over the waffle maker is how my morning started. This Sunday, my parents and brother came over for a big family breakfast and I was surrounded with laughter, cuteness, delicious food, good conversation and hot coffee. Growing up I don't remember too many Sundays that we spent as a whole family enjoying each others presence and a big breakfast or dinner. Most of the time my siblings and I were arguing about something or someone was just over it and wanted to isolate themselves in their room or leave to go hang out with friends. A couple years ago when we were living in CA, we would go to my best friends house for dinner every Sunday night and it was always the highlight of my week. It was a great time to come together and catch up, eat good food and just enjoy life with each other. Since moving to CO and finally having our own place, I want to start doing that again with my family here. I think Sunday is a good time for family getting together and cleaning your house to get you ready for the week to come.

Unfortunately, Patrick works most Sundays so he wasn't able to join us. After my parents left, my brother stuck around and played with the kids for a little while I got everything cleaned up and wiped down. My brother left and I decided to take advantage of the time that Joshua was awake and vacuum the entire apartment. He usually likes to do that chore with me. Annabelle just crawls around and loves to watch. I had already got most of my laundry done yesterday and just did 2 small loads this morning so I got most of my cleaning done already and just needed to vacuum. The kids were pretty tired after all of the interaction with my family and were ready for their naps at 12:00 instead of 1:00. So, I rolled with it and put them down. Once I laid Annabelle down, I walked out into the living room and just stared at this clean open space. Natural sunny light shining through the windows with a cool morning breeze blowing in, the smell of breakfast and coffee fading and not a single sound except the sound of my own breathe as I breathed in just soaking in the moment. Usually I go straight to my workout while the kids nap and then try to get as many chores done as I can before they wake up. But, not today.

Today, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity that God so divinely put into place. I took out my bible and journal and just sat with him for a while. It was definitely what I needed. Not a workout, not a food prep, not making a plan for the day, not cleaning or getting someone done... just sitting at his feet. Like a child who has no idea what they want but just to be in their fathers arms. Once I finished my time there I still had some time before the kids would wake up so I got dressed and sat down at my vanity and put on a podcast while I did my nails. I always take advantage of the times that I can listen to a podcast without interruptions and turn on my Uncle's podcast from his church. If you are interested, you can click here to listen to it. The one I listened to was "When Jesus Takes Control Of You" on March 11, 2018. I just have to say, I REALLY needed that message and it really broke me down and definitely hit me. There was a lot of things that Brian said in his sermons that hit home but one of the main things was, "The Holy Spirit is a game changer, if the Holy Spirit isn't in your life the game hasn't changed and that is why you are struggling. You are doing religion and not in a relationship with God." For me, I feel like I haven't been working on my relationship with God. I am living a life that honors God and do things in line with Christian values... but when I thought about it. I felt like I wasn't building my relationship with him. It really challenged me and got me thinking about what I want to do differently to change that status. So, this afternoon was a great time for me to reflect and just process where I am at.

The rest of the day was just filled with eating lunch then playing with the kids until we went over to dinner at my moms house once Patrick got home. We ended the night just the way I like to on a Sunday night with family time. The best part was watching the snowfall. We knew we were going to get some rain but we ended up getting a lot of snow. We love the snow and it was so beautiful and peaceful to just watch it come down so gently on the trees. Around 7pm we had full bellies and packed up our stuff and headed home. We came home and immediately put the kids to bed. I showered, made some tea, and put in my relaxing oil in my diffuser and just sat on the couch and waited for my tea to steep. Now that the kids are asleep and everything is done around the house, Patrick and I will spend the night cuddling and just enjoying the calm. The past 2-3 weeks both kids have had a hard time sleeping through the night and initially going to bed, we have been exhausted trying to attend to them. Joshua is getting his 2 year old molars and Annabelle is getting her top teeth in..... for now things seem like they are back to normal so we will enjoy it for as long as it will last. Who knows how long that is!

Goodnight!