Saturday Snippet: Flowers, Curls & Finding Joy

Today I’m sharing some passing thoughts with you about flowers, curls, dishwasher dilemmas, and puppies. Finally a few deeper thoughts about finding joy.

Hello Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve done a Saturday snippet post, but I’m excited about catching you up on a few happenings around here.

Flowers

First off, have you ever heard of an Amaryllis?

A neighbor gave us this beautiful flower for Christmas and I love it so much! It grew soooo fast (it bloomed in about a month after we started watering it). And it’s gorgeous. My kitchen window is looking super happy with the amaryllis blooming along with the cyclamen that I posted about last year.

Fresh flowers blooming in the winter = pure happiness.

What’s your favorite flower?

Curls

There was a little girl and she had a little curl right in the center of her forehead…

I love this little sweetheart of mine with her curly hair. But sometimes curly hair can be a challenge. Here’s a few trial and error type things I’ve learned.

First off, never underestimate the power of a good detangler. This kid’s detangler (aff. link) is what I use and it works amazing. We use it every day. And if we don’t it starts looking like a snaggly mess.

Second, conditioner is a big no-no for fine curly baby hair. Conditioners weigh down the hair and turn the cute ringlets to waves. Watch out for those all-in-one type shampoos cause they usually have conditioner in them.

Not using conditioner makes combing through the hair a little trickier so that’s where the detangler from above comes in handy. And the cute ringlets are well worth the little bit of extra effort.

Got any curly hair thoughts of your own? I’m all ears, my friends!

Dishwasher Dilemmas

We got a new dishwasher a few years ago and up to that point I always blamed my dirty-ish dishes on the old dishwasher. Well, turns out it wasn’t just the old dishwasher.

While I was visiting a friend a few years ago, she and her husband taught me something I didn’t know.

It all started when I was trying to help them out by doing the dishes…but didn’t load the dishwasher the way I was supposed to.

Does this every happen in your house? One person loads it, then the next person comes along and reloads it.

Well after a rather humbling moment (which may have even involved being accused of loading the dishwasher like their kids…ahem, ahem. LOL), I learned something new.

Did you know that there are instructions in the owner’s manual for how to correctly load the dishwasher?

Okay that might seem obvious to some, but I never knew it. Haha!

I was given a demonstration on the proper way to load a dishwasher. Including tips like how to load the bowls in the middle of the top rack toward the center of the dishwasher so the water can reach them. And stuff like that. Stuff that may seem obvious to you, but was basically like rocket science to me.

So a few weeks ago I texted my friend asking for more dishwasher help because I was loading it how I thought I was supposed to, but my dishes were still not getting clean. She told me her husband swears the kind of soap matters too.

I was using Cascade liquid soap before she told me about these Cascade Complete dishwasher pods (aff. link). And when we started using the pods I was amazed at the difference. The dishes come out crazy clean. You can buy them at the amazon link above or I usually get them at Costco.

Thanks dear friend. You know who you are. And my dishes have never been cleaner with those two little changes.

What are your dishwasher secrets?

Puppies

And now…I want to introduce you to Clover and Ivy. The two cute little sister pups that just joined our family. They are 8 weeks old.

Clover is the brown. She is sweet and gentle and loves to be held.

And Ivy is the black. She has the cutest little pink nose.

I don’t consider myself at all a dog person, but even I can’t resist these puppies.

There’s an overload of cuteness going on around here, my friends!

And last but not least, I’m sharing a few…

Deeper thoughts

I recently ran across this quote from Rachel Martin from findingjoy.net:

Sometimes you have to let go of the picture of what you thought life would be like and learn to find joy in the story you are actually living.

This spoke to my heart.

Life hasn’t always been what I thought it would be. There have been challenges along the way. And I look at where I’m at now and realize it’s not exactly where I thought it would be at this time of my life.

But there is so much joy in my life right now. And if I can sit back and let go of the pain of what my life is NOT. And focus on the JOY of what my life IS. There is so much more peace and happiness available for me there.

And sometimes it means just taking time to notice what surrounds me every day. This week it’s the beautiful flowers blooming, the curly hair bouncing, the dishwasher dilemmas that have become sweet victories, and cute loveable puppies.

What is it for you?

Until next time, my friends. Thanks for being here.

Disclaimer: post contains affiliate links for items on Amazon.