inventory two: december edition

Blessing: our December world finally became a winter wonderland. Snow is so peaceful. It prompts me to be still. 

Oh how I have loved seeing my world in white. 

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Blessing: being home for the holidays. 

Having so many littles at home to be the center of our celebrations made this year especially fun. 

Grandma Susie gathered everyone in and around to reenact the Nativity Story our first night home, including Ryan's family. 

(sub-blessing: mine and Ryan's families are friends, our homes are within a mile of each other, and his littlest brothers play with my nieces and nephews. Hello, awesome)

Everyone loved it, except for the babe-wrapped-in-swaddling-clothes, Olivia. 

All she wanted was to sleep in heavenly peace. 

I love the story of our Savior's arrival into this world. I love that today children most often reenact the event. Nothing else better conveys that magnificence and majesty are found in simplicity. 

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Blessing: my baby girl is loved. 

And she is so happy. 

It is such a privilege to mother her...kisses to you, Olivia darling. 

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Blessing: my family here is an eternal one. The end.

We had the merriest Christmas and a beautiful year. 

I am bursting for what is to be.

Dear 2013, 

Be as good to us as your forbear, if you will.

I think that you will be, if not even more. 

You have incredible potential. 

Love the blessed, hopeful, and excited lady,

 Jeni

inventory one

"As I have reviewed the past 49 years, I have made some discoveries. One is that countless experiences I have had were not necessarily those one would consider extraordinary. In fact, at the time they transpired, they often seemed unremarkable and even ordinary. And yet in retrospect, they enriched and blessed lives - not the least of which was my own.

I would recommend this same exercise to you - namely, that you take an inventory of your life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received."

- Thomas S. Monson

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Blessing: my new best friend.

She's hilarious.

And she sings with me. 

I love being with Olivia.

Olivia has worked on me - I am her improvement project here. Do you know what she did? She melted my heart and reshaped it. She made it bigger so that it has more room to be loved and to love back.

Best friends are those that make you better people, aren't they? Knowing that, there is no doubt that Olivia is already one of my dearest, best friends.

What will she do next, I wonder, to this woman? One thing is certain - that angel will do more for me than I ever will for her.

Olivia is beautiful, and I am thrilled to be her mother.

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Blessing: I like my office. 

It's neither large nor luxurious, and sometimes it subs as my laundry room when I hang my clothes to dry in its closet. But it's bright and cozy. We don't need much more than what it offers. 

please forgive my amateur photo taking and editing skills :)

Spending most of my days at home with my darling would be much harder if I didn't like it here, so I'm grateful for everything that our home is, particularly Olivia's room. 

Grateful for comfy furniture. Grateful for fake flowers and paper garland. Grateful for bright colors and a window's light. 

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Blessing: I am a married mother. 

I hear that a large number of women these days have to mother without having a husband to help. I ache for them. Really, I do. It hurts to think about doing the daily, 24-hour grind of mothering all alone...it is so not easy.

Ryan listens to me when I worry that I may not be strong enough for this - I would be a fraud of a mother if I pretended that I don't feel that way at times. But when I finish my teary thoughts, he reminds me that I am. He kisses my forehead, and "You are beautiful," he says.

And I keep going. 

There isn't a sweeter father and there isn't a better husband - there isn't for Olivia and me, at least. My gratitude stretches to the moon and back that he is eternally mine. 

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Inventory one - done. 

But due to the nature of my life, there are many more to come.