Home Depot Workshop

We frequent Home Depot.  It's the "big boy toy store" that offers a generous 10% military discount often accompanied by a genuine "thank you so much for your service" that I truly admire.  But it's Joe's haven... not mine.  I sometimes even stay in the truck (or drift on over to Michael's next door) when it's on Joe's list of stops.  It's the mindless wandering that bores me.  My patience can't handle standing in an aisle sifting through boxes looking for that "one part" that must be misplaced...

When the sweet checker mentioned the Kid's Workshop coming up and we connected the date with the fact that Joe would be gone for guard duty, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to get us out of the house.  The kids were ecstatic, they had a blast.  And their sweet energetic smiles were reward enough for entering this store with 2 small children on my own.

I look at their beautiful faces and I can't imagine a better way to have spent my Saturday morning...

Heavenly Reading

It often seems that wherever I am in the house, my children are not.  If I'm downstairs making dinner, they're upstairs playing in the playroom.  If I'm upstairs folding laundry, they're downstairs coloring at the table.  And then of course there are the times when we all make sure we're together, baking cookies, playing games, doing puzzles... This, however, was one of the former times.

Our living room is furnished with two identical sets of bookshelves that line the walls beside our fireplace.  Reading is a passion of mine and the shelves are full to capacity.  Mostly novels of all kinds but a few random others here and there.  I love books and I've apparently passed that on to my children.

I came downstairs to make dinner and found three random books sitting on the couch.  At first I was slightly upset, wondering why the kids had been pulling books from the shelves (the "kids" books are in their rooms.)  So I asked Aubrey who, at this point, was at the table coloring, "honey, why are mommy's books on the couch?" To which she replied "I was reading those" quite matter-of-factly.  Then upon closer inspection I read the three titles and beamed my proud smile at her.  Although I knew she couldn't have known what she had chosen, I was filled with a mixture of pride and amusement regardless.

Some moments later as I was preparing dinner I glanced over and she had returned to her "reading" as captured in this photo.  Her main title of choice?  My Women's Daily Devotional Bible (NIV), the one she's flipping through here.  The two runners up that sit by her side?  Shepherding a Child's Heart and The Fulfilled Family.

There could be much worse things...

Easter Best

I adore them.  

Hunting for Eggs

We've sworn off organized Easter egg hunts.  You know, the kind where parents are running wild with the kids, "finding" the eggs for them?  Where 12-year-olds end up with 20 eggs and the 3-year-olds end up with none?  No... we did that the first year we moved here and vowed never to do it again.  It took all the fun out of the event and it was heartbreaking as parents.  So it's become a sort of tradition to join a few other families at a local park in town, fill and bring our own eggs (you bring 12 eggs for each child you bring... each child gets to find 12 eggs... no tears shed.)  And afterward we toss down a blanket (weather permitting... year before last it was snowing...) and sit while the kids inspect their loot and listen to the story of the resurrection of Christ.  No tears, no frustration and a reminder that the eggs and candy aren't what it's all about :)