In an effort to continue embracing this life that God’s given me and choose gratitude, I am making a mental effort to note the things in my days that are beauty to me…today.

At 3AM I woke Christopher up to help with Kyler as I had just put Audrey back to bed-I didn’t find out until the morning that he had been up till 2AM working on our broken dishwasher. He didn’t complain one bit, just got up and rocked Kyler back to sleep. Beauty is his gorgeous, long, bed head hair peppered with gray, super messy and super handsome.

This morning at the park, Kyler-ever wanting to be a big boy-had a face full of satisfaction as he swung on the big swing instead of the baby one. Beauty is the delight in his huge brown eyes.

As I snuggled Caleb in bed at naptime today, he was trying to describe what the M & M candy in his mouth tasted like:

“Mom, it tastes so good, it tastes like…I just don’t know. It tastes like sweet and crunchy and yummy. I just don’t know how it tastes. It’s like….(long pause)….it tastes just like you mama.”

Beauty is that to a four year old that I’ve struggled so much to parent the last couple weeks, M & M’s taste like me, how wonderful is that?

When I picked Rylee up from VBS today, she scooped Audrey out of my arms and sat down on the floor in the classroom holding her. In an instant, the chaos of the room calmed and every little girl who’d been running in different directions sat down in a perfect circle around Rylee, 6 of them, and delighted in every detail that is Audrey-hands, fingers, hair fuzz, nose, her pink outfit. Beauty is the intoxicating nature of a new baby and it is the treasure of a sister for my firstborn.

Although our dishwasher now needs replacing and our fridge went out this week also so we have a free fridge from a friend in our driveway where all our food is currently being stored-beauty is the way God always provides for us in the most amazing ways.

-Karissa