Weekend Delights

We've had a delightful weekend. Saturday we cleaned, organized, and purged. More is needed, but we're started to feel more "on top" of the mess now. It official that the RV has more storage space than our little house. They just really didn't have much stuff to store in 1910!

I enjoyed a little time alone for the first time in a week. I realized it had been too long when I got in the car and felt the SILENCE deep in my bones and almost started crying :) I took myself out for a coffee and went thrifting. No one was touching me or asking me for another bowl of cereal and it was joyous. But even in that short amount of time, I missed my family :)

Saturday evening, we met up with our dear friends Scott and Betsy who were in town and took all the kids to Chipotle (love those margaritas!) and had good talks at Peet's. Love them.

On Sunday, we got up and made pancakes, read the Sunday paper, and enjoyed some family time. We had house church at the cutest little coffee house in Longmont. The have mate, yummy foods (including coconut milk caramels...yum!), and handmade items. We are so enjoying connecting with our new church family here. Many of you have commented and asked questions about the house church...so I am planning a blog post in the next couple of weeks about that. Stay tuned!

The upcoming week is going to be BUSY...but oh so good. Things on our agenda: Library, Princess Night, Girls Night Out, Nature & Science Museum in Denver, Open Homeschool Gym, Tae Kwon Do (Bella's first time!), and to top it all off, my friends Leah and Mia are driving from Iowa and we are all going to Hoop Path with Baxter and Beth Lavinder all weekend!

Oh, AND...my brother Dan and Jess are in Boulder all week so we get to see them too!

Life is good. We are so at peace with where we are right now. We are hopeful and excited about our future. I hope your week is wonderful too...I know mine will be!

*the photo of Bella and Lucy above is such a crack up...if you want to see my fashionistas up close, click here. No outfit is complete without a tiny (fake) dog. :)

Facing The Sunset

Colorado has a little law against texting while driving. But what about taking photos while driving? I didn't see any laws against that :) I just couldn't help myself...it was breathtaking!

Tonight as we were driving to go meet Matt at Chipotle for dinner, I was greeted with this beautiful fiery sunset over the mountains. The thing is, as I was driving south, I had no idea that once I turned the corner to drive West, I would see this!

Isn't this how life is too? We get so focused on the bumpy gray road we are currently on that we forget what beauty is all around us...just waiting to be seen. All we have to do is just turn and face it.

Yesterday, Ann Voskamp's new book arrived at my door. I read the first chapter this morning and was a little shaken for the rest of the day. You'll have to read it to see what I'm talking about. Let's just say that it reminded me how fragile life is. I drank in everything that the girls did today with extra care. I smelled Lucy's neck for longer than normal and squeezed Bella so tight.

Today was like every other day. But with eyes wide open, not wanting to forget these moments...I chose to see it differently.

• A newspaper magically arrived at my door for me to read while I sipped my mate.
• Steamy pancakes flipped by an excited 6 year old make life worth living.
• An ecstatic little Lucy leads me over to her most recent artwork (nevermind that she drew in a book instead of the paper).
• Sisters creating together. Such sweetness (and sometimes fighting, but mostly sweetness) :)

Oh these precious moments...I want to always have open eyes to see them for what they really are. They are little blessings in the every day of life. There is so much joy to be found if I just remember to face the sunset.

*you can (and should!) read Ann's blog, A Holy Experience, here.

Sending Love

I just wanted to thank all of you who sent me the lovely holiday mail...it made me soooooo happy to see all of your smiling faces in my mailbox! It arrived all at once right after we settled in Longmont and definitely made the chaos of the transition feel more manageable :)

One of my favorite things about our years of travel has been meeting SO many of you face to face. Getting to spend REAL time alongside you in your daily lives is something that I will treasure in my heart forever.

Now that we are settled, I would love to continue corresponding via "real mail". It's been difficult on the road without a consistent mailbox...but now that we have one (it's even ATTACHED to our house...oh the joy!), I want to send more mail out!

I would love to create a database with real addresses in it for my personal records. If you're so inclined, will you email me your current address at janssenfamily (at) gmail (dot) com? Even if you think I already have it...send it again. And I will send you mine if you like. Well, only if you're not a crazy internet creeper. ;)