I love my little angel.

What am I supposed to do with this face?

Fun with friends

Over Christmas break we spent a lot of time with our favorite friends--Kevin, Sonya, Emerson and Quinn--so I thought I'd post some highlights.
We spent New Year's weekend together in Idyllwild where we enjoyed lots of Wii time in our jammies, beautiful walks in the woods, and yummy dinners at night. We even found a little crusted snow to go sledding on!
Little Quinny just couldn't keep her hands off Soren:-) We couldn't figure out why he was so upset until we saw that she was gripping his ear!
We've had fun doing park dates, sunset beach walks, and tidepool explorations.
We love our friends!

Wisdom from the French girl

So my mom has requested that I post little updates of my progress on my "new year's theme" throughout the year. The first thing that comes to my mind is a delightfully inspiring book I recently discovered from my mother entitled Entre Nous. It's subtitle: "A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl". Sounds like another book glorifying this lofty ideal we Americans have of the French. Yes, sort of, but so much more. I haven't yet finished the first chapter and already I've had to stop and try to breathe the author's wisdom in. I don't want to overwhelm you with all its goodness at once so let me just take my time and post little excerpts that speak to me in my quest for an authentic and graceful life.

"If you strip away the stereotypes and contradictions about her, one of the fundamental qualities associated with the French girl is her sense of self possession. She is entirely, unequivocally self-contained. She is focused on living her own full life, following her own agenda and cultivating her actual self, rather than reinventing herself or pining away to be someone she's not. Throughout her life, she invests herself in learning and experiencing, not to change who she is, but to become more fundamentally and more fully who she truly is."

New Year's theme

Stop striving. Let go. Be you.
I like to call them themes instead of resolutions. It's like a concept of growth that I'd like to focus on for the year. And at this point in my life it's about time I start learning to embrace my unique identity and gracefully grow into the wonderful person God created me to be. I'm so sick and tired of getting caught up in our society's current rat race for perfection and glamour in every area of our lives. This competition of facades is spurred on by Facebook, Twitter, and yes, even personal blogs. It seems that so many women around me are just striving...for a thinner body, trendier clothes, a nicer house, more friends, a perfect-looking life online. I'm tired of trying to keep up.
This year I want to begin to relish what things in life make me come alive. My son, my husband, sunsets over the ocean, a good run, my quirky church community, an inspiring book, laughter and depth with friends, silence. I've wasted far too many years trying to be an ideal that I'm not. It's time to stop striving and start falling into my own beautiful skin.