pretty as a princess

I'm still feeling the Christmas thing a little. The cold Tennessee air that lingers long, instead of bursting on the scene for a day or two leaving behind only a wisp of steam from the still hot concrete to remind you of "Winter", keeps me in a festive mood. You know, wanting to eat too many sweets, spend money, make pretty stuff--all the things I'm sure the Angel of the Lord was thinking of when he told the shepherds to rejoice. I picked up some discounted Christmas fabric, decorations, and ornaments to do a little late in the season crafting, or early for next year depending on how you look at it. I freaked out over Sweet Jessie's sparkly wreath and have to make one ahead for next year. Her tutorial makes it look so much easier than I would have thought. I love this succulent wreath, too, but I'll probably wait until we get home for that one.

The day has come, I'm glad to say, when I'm actually looking forward to going home--gasp! Not looking forward to returning to the Rio Grande Valley, but I miss our friends, our church, the dog and I'm ready not to be living in limbo anymore. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed living in Memphis and I don't really want to leave, but "home" is calling. I can feel it.

   

But it has taken us coming 1,000 miles away from home to teach me a few things I desperately needed to understand. Most importantly, I've realized the first step to living simply is to down-size and I'm still so excited about doing it for real when we get home. Every day this simple lesson hits me in a new way and I'm more determined to do it at whatever the cost. That said, when I get back into our now seemingly too-big house overflowing with stuff that has been sitting alone collecting dust for the past 3 months, I might need a little encouragement and support to keep from going under from the sheer weight of it all. The other important lesson I've learned being here is that we are really lazy. We have done more and had more fun as a family here in Memphis than we've had in years. Every week we look for things to do in town, going out of our way to fit everything in and on Saturdays we always get out of the house to do something as a family. And it has less to do with the fact that Memphis has a lot more going on around town than you can find in the Valley but more to do with how busy and lazy we let ourselves get.

Last week my littlest girl turned 5. She may be the smallest in the family, but she is also the loudest and has the most personality--one that couldn't hardly be more different than mine. She is the world's biggest flirt, wants everyone to love her, thinks she knows everything, loves anything pink, and is princess-obsessed. Unfortunately, she has a Momma who sometimes has difficulty relating to her interests and who, in a moment of exasperation that she will be reminded of to her dying day, swore never to buy her anything "princess" ever again. But I think I made it up to her, with bags full of pink and purple, sparkles, jingles, lip gloss, nail polish, soft fuzzies and--yes--princesses galore. But first, she was treated to a carriage ride in her best ball gown....

It was the most fun I've had in a long time. And the best part, which was not lost on this pretty princess want-to-be, was the gasp of every little girl we saw that night stopping to exclaim, "Oh Momma, look at the princess!" I'm ready to do it again.

Comments

[bigbucketgirl]

A lovely post and a beautiful princess.

[Debra]

Wow 3 months seems to have flown by!
It's great that you've had a very positive experience and are still looking forward to going back home with new exciting plans.
I still can't get my head around down-sizing my arts and crafts though ha!
Your princess looks at home on the carriage :-)

[Gwen]

this is such a sweet story about your little princess! She will remember this forever, and it will undoubtedly block out the other incident!

[Sandi Henderson]

That is so cool! I would take my daughter to something like that in a heartbeat!

Sandi