{blessing!}

I was going to write a post today about how life is hard. No matter how many amazing things you've been blessed with - life is hard. Instead, I sighed, saved my draft of pointless ramblings and decided to focus on the those said blessings that were apparent this weekend (as they are every day).

My big brother, Jeff, is a charter pilot and his plane needed to go into maintenance for the weekend... a mere two hour drive from Atlanta {blessing in disguise}! So he headed to our place on Friday afternoon and we went to surprise mom - what a perfect Mother's Day gift, huh? (I love surprises! But much as I love being surprised, I love being part of the surprise even more.)

His rental car looked a lot like the Vitz we rented in New Zealand for our 8 day excursion when I studied abroad over there in 2008 {those memories - blessing!}. They could be cousins!

Some old family friends were also in town, so it was just a big reunion on my parents' deck {blessing!}.

Adam, Ruthie, Jeff and I walked up to the Marietta Farmers' Market on Saturday morning. You read that correctly, we can walk to the Farmers' Market from our house {blessing!}. Jefe put together an awesome Mother's Day goodie basket full of things he purchased at the Farmer's Market. As if his surprise wasn't enough!

That evening, we hosted a Mother's Day cookout for my wonderful mother-in-law. It's the least she deserves for raising some pretty amazing kids {blessing!}.

Sunday we were up bright and early to go to church, and we dragged Jeff along. Adam and I were both holding our breath hoping the music would be amazing, since Jeff is a big music guy. They didn't disappoint - he was pretty impressed {blessing!}. The sermon was one of my favorites since we've been going to that church {blessing!}, and I'm glad Jeff was there to hear it.

The rest of the family headed over to our house and we celebrated mom's Mother's Day with brunch at Chicken and the Egg. None of us had been before, but we had all heard pretty awesome things. I can now first hand say that it was delicious! I'm also a big fan of the decor.

Jeff found out at lunch that the company was flying him to New York for one last trip before his shift was over. We were sad to see him leave, but so happy he got to spend the weekend with us {blessing!}. The rest of Sunday was spent napping on and off, watching the Braves and cheers-ing my fabulous mama {blessing!}.

For the biggest blessing of them all this weekend... thank you to this pretty lady for raising my brothers and I into some pretty awesome people (if I may say so myself). I can't imagine how chaotic life was with us as kids, but you somehow lived through it - and we thrived. I love you! {blessing, blessing, BLESSING!}