full of goodness

i've been convicted lately of how often i use the word, "busy"

i realized it just the other day when replying to an email that a dear friend had written in the beginning of december...

i had asked her to send me some dates when she and her hubs could come visit us.  she sent three dates that would work in january.

and i just found the email...buried under all kinds of other "important" emails...just in time to have missed three opportunities to spend time with her.

ugh...that felt awful.

and as i started to apologize in the email, saying how "busy" things had been over the holidays, i realized how lame that sounded.

like being "busy" is some sort of badge of honor

"we've been really busy lately" seems to be the mantra of all the mommas i talk to...as if being not busy is a bad thing

it's not that i think being busy is bad...

but when it takes away from the important things that i really want to make time for, i shouldn't throw the term around like it makes me super-mom and everyone else just needs to okay with our "busy" schedules.

so, i've decided that our days are full of goodness, but not too busy for important things like baking cupcakes and making room in our home and schedule for friends that we love.

a few weeks ago, Peach dug this cupcake cookbook off the shelf.

my mom had given it to me as a birthday gift (in may!) and i had thought we were just waaaaay too "busy" to do fancy cupcakes like these.

but, with my new conviction lingering in the back of my head, i decided that peanut butter chocolate cupcakes from scratch were just the ticket for Monday afternoon.

we made a GIANT mess

and licked delicious batter right off the spoon while discussing how ridiculous it is that we EVER purchase cupcake mix in a box when the real deal is soooooo much better

here's what we ended up with  - not exactly the picture in the book, but yumm-o none-the-less

we gave some to friends, took a batch to day care and treated ourselves to a few for dessert.

yes, my life is busy.

but it is busy because it is full of really good things.

like these cupcakes

and this girl :)