Slow Day

Graceful and Grace-full

We enjoyed the girls ballet recital this weekend! I chose this title on my post because last year my parents were not able to travel here to be with us for the recital. We got super creative and rigged it up to Skype during the recital so they were able to view it live - and I don't know if I can explain why, but this was the hardest night I've had being away from them.

Not too long ago - my Dad suggested that my Mom come out here for recital this year. As I mentioned yesterday, we surprised the littles and it was precious! This evening was full of grace - being together, being able to reach over and squeeze my Mom's hand or whisper something during the performance and to rejoice in knowing she was with us.

Just as recital started, my heart was full - and then I thought of my Dad and I was near tears almost instantly. He must feel the way I did last year as he was at home knowing we were at the recital and he was not with us. We missed you Dad, so much!

We reminisced about how the girls have grown in poise, confidence and gracefulness. And, my grace gauge read full in those moments. I felt overflowing. An abundance of grace. Sweet gracefulness in little ladies hearts. Grace-full indeed.

Slow Tea Room

I've been about to burst this last week in front of my littles with the surprise that my Mom was coming to enjoy the weekend with us! It has been a while since she's been able to come so I was super excited! We managed to surprise the littles at the airport which was super fun :)

Our first morning, I had planned a very slow breakfast - it was cool and cozy, and a leisurely porch breakfast was just the ticket. I announced it was Slow Tea Room: relax, savor, enjoy.

We enjoyed sliced strawberries, Quiche Lorraine Tarts and Almond Friands. I had scoured many recipes to land on one for the Friands as my Mom and I love these from a French cafe in Colorado Springs but I wanted to try my hand at making some homemade - they were delish! We also slowly sipped hot tea!

Almond Friands
1-6 oz. bag sliced almonds, ground
1 1/2 c. flour
2 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 sticks salted butter
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Process almonds in food processor until they resemble flour.

Cream butter and sugar; mix in almonds and flour. Add extracts.

Beat egg whites until foamy and mix in to batter.

Spoon into prepared muffin tins. Makes about 18 friands. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. They are yummy freshly baked and also freeze nicely.

Scrappy Patchwork Pillows

When I ordered the girls Easter dress fabric, I received a lovely gallon size Ziploc of scrappy pieces as a surprise in my delivery! What fun to see such lovely pieces of fabric and to imagine all the creating I could enjoy with them! {sometimes they have them for sale here.}

This is the first project and the Ziploc still seems full! I had fun piecing these pillow covers together. No pattern, just doing what I liked and what fit together. I did more Springy colors on the fronts and blues and greens on the backs which seems more summery and cool to me.

After seeing some Christmas pillows on my couch in a photo, I loved the pops of color so it has sort of been on my radar to make something fun and cheerful for pillow covers. I added zippers so I can go back to how the original or make another cover and switch them out at some point. But, for now - I love these!!!

They cost me absolutely zero because the scrappy bag was an unexpected gift and the zippers were a gift too from my friend Grace. They were adorable red/white polka dot zippers - so fun! I spontaneously decided to top stitch everything and just love the extra dimension that adds!

I could not get a picture I was happy with inside today - so will try again to show them in my Living Room!

Slow Meals

The weather has been lovely this past week and the porch was just there beckoning me outside to enjoy its beauty for dinner!

Dinners on the porch are slower - we sit and watch the light sparkle through the trees, littles run off and climb on the swing as soon as they're done eating, we listen to the chatter and melody of the birds and feel the gentle breeze wash over us as we rest for a few minutes.

Food that tastes like summer is a welcome treat at these slow porch meals. We tried this new BBQ Chicken Salad this weekend and it is a definite keeper!

Meanwhile, I have been looking for a round galvanized tray for years and found one over the weekend at TJ Maxx - yay! I know I will have fun using it for many slow porch meals to come!!!

So thankful for this gift of slowing, enjoying beauty, creating memories and loving together.