Overwhelmed With Beauty

taking a moment to find joy in the little things

{pretty}

I am overwhelmed with the beauty that surrounds me here in the Pacific Northwest. Spring is an amazing time here, and right now we are in the middle of it. When I go for my walks/runs, I have to make the difficult decision of which way I'm going to go, because on one route I get to walk past gorgeous dogwood and cherry trees. But the other route takes me past blooming lilacs and wisteria. And the azaleas and rhododendrons add bright pops of color no matter which way I go.

This stretch of wisteria has been growing for many years. I took these pictures standing in the middle of it. Above I'm looking one way, and below I turned around and looked the other way. It's just gorgeous and so hard to capture with a camera.

{happy}

The forest is my happy place and this week I had the chance to walk through the local arboretum. I absolutely loved looking at all the fiddleheads...they are so unique. 

And there was so much trillium blooming throughout the forest. It was beautiful!

{funny}

My husband and I were on a date in the "hip" part of Portland and passed this bike made out of bamboo and duct tape. Keep Portland Weird.

And one day my girls were inspired to make a hammock/swing for their stuffed animals.

{real}

It's not even summer and my summer calendar is filling up. How can that be? We are scheduled to play several family gigs at farmer's markets starting in May and running through October. The girls are doing a writing class on the Chronicles of Narnia that will meet twice a month starting in May, I need to attend a three day Classical Conversations practicum in June and then the next week the girls will go to church camp. I think we'll be barreling through May and June, but hope for a somewhat slower pace in July and August. 

Also...I thought I was saving time and money by doing some summer shopping online for both the girls and myself. Can you believe that 90% of what I ordered had to be sent back for different sizes? So much for saving money. I got to return one item at a local store branch, but the rest had to be shipped back - at my expense. Big sigh.

I'm linking up with  {pretty, happy, funny, real},

Wednesday Around the World, Image-in-ing and Little Things Thursday