On Happiness, Calm and Being Myself

This week was a little gloomy in my neck of the woods. After we finally had a full week of sun and sandals, this week it snowed (WHAT? KANSAS YOU ARE DRUNK!) and rained pretty much the entire time. It was chilly, but I refused to get my winter boots back out and spent most of the week shivering in my springtime wear. It was totally worth it.

On Wednesday Tate and I were starting to get a bit crabby after being stuck inside, so we packed up and headed to the Nelson Atkins Museum here in Kansas City. This is the kind of thing I used to dream about when I was stuck inside my dark office at a job I hated. I dreamed of having the freedom to wander a museum during quiet hours and taking my kids with me on adventures around the city, without the rush of packing everything in during the few free hours we had together. Tate took the museum just you’d imagine a two-year-old would…half loving everything and half hating it all while laying on the floor in the galleries.

I was talking to a very old friend yesterday who I haven’t spoken to in a while and she mentioned that this blog has seemed very different lately than in the past. She said that when she’s read what I’ve been writing here, it sounds like the “me” that I don’t usually project out into the world. She said, “It’s the side of you that I have always known, but not the one most people see.” She’s right. Lately I’ve been annoyingly happy and content, and I’m sure that’s been reflected here. My trademark sarcasm has been a little lighter, but I promise, it’s still me. Things aren’t perfect, I still complain and moan way more than I probably should. But for the most part, I just feel calmer. More grateful. Slower.

I hope you all have a happy weekend, and enjoy some slowness yourself.

(For reference, we’ll be attempting potty training this weekend, so if you think it’s all sunshine and roses around here, you’d be VERY wrong.)