~Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life, as inspired by the women at Like Mother, Like Daughter~

{Pretty}

I know this photograph may only look like a gray morning, nothing pretty at all, but to me, it’s absolutely beautiful. This morning, we woke to overcast skies, a hint of mist rising up the hill, and blessedly cool air with the barest bit of a chill bite to it. After the hot, hot summer we’ve had (with highs in the nineties well past Labor Day, ugh!), I am ever so ready for fall. Bring on the sweaters, and the soups, and the reds and oranges and yellows. Bring on lighting fires in the wood stove and sipping hot tea and snuggling under blankets. Bring it on. I’m ready.

{Happy}

We took advantage of the gorgeous fall weather this morning. We wandered around the front yard looking for caterpillars (no success, though we found plenty of munched leaves) and throwing the ball for Euclid and picking the last of the not-so-good blackberries (Katie did that one, not me). And then, these two girls found the stone dog, and played happily on and around him together, making this mama’s heart glad.

{Funny}

I mentioned Abby’s cheesy grin last week, but didn’t really have a great picture of it. These shots give you a better sense of it (though it’s still better in person). She’s a ham, this one, and I love every bit of her.

She’s also a busy one, always on the go, anxious to follow her big sister wherever she leads. She pulls up on everything these days, and can motor herself around quite well when she has an appropriate prop – like this chair.

{Real}

We’ve had a busy week this week. Both MOPS and BSF started again – one on Tuesday, the other on Wednesday – and both begin right about the time Abby typically has her morning nap. Tuesday – MOPS – was especially rough; Abby should not, would not, could not, stay in childcare. After ten minutes of hysterics, she was brought to me. She alternated between crawling between legs, pulling herself to grin up at the other women there, sitting on my lap, and voicing her general discontent and exhaustion. She was asleep, fists clenched, before we even left the parking lot.

I wasn’t sure how Wednesday would go, given that an active one-year-old would be much more disruptive to BSF than she was to MOPS – but, wonder of wonders, she stayed in her classroom the entire time, and was even happy and smiling for most of it. Here’s praying this becomes the norm, and not an anomaly!

Those are a few of the {pretty, happy, funny, real} moments around here this week. How about you? Where did you find contentment?