a wonderful life

Today was just awesome. We spent a quiet day enjoying the kids and their excitement. Well, quiet might not be the best choice of word. There is now a wii Beatles Rockband setup in our family room and it has gotten much use today. William got a ton of baseball stuff, Jordan got her beloved itouch and has already downloaded the free texting app, and Grace has her first American Girl doll. We are blessed beyond our needs to say the least.

Tonight Grace was saying her prayers. I love prayertime. It's the sweetest part of the day. I used to encourage them to list everyone in the family, but as the years have gone by I am 100% in favor of letting them pray what is on their hearts and minds. They've taught me so much through this.

So, back to Grace. After praying for her five year old thoughts, she got toward the end of her prayer. All of a sudden she burst into song singing:

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday dear Jesus!
Happy Birthday to you!

She sang at the top of her lungs. Then she went straight into closing the prayer. She looked up at me and said, " I just couldn't let the day end without singing it to HIM one more time!

God knew what he was doing when he made me a parent to this little lively spirit. She teaches me a lesson everytime!

thankful

Some thanksgiving stuff came off the wall and made it into William's backpack yesterday. I had to laugh when I read what the little thankful message said on his leaf:

I am thankful for
my Dad and Mom.
I would not be born if
they weren't married.

Well, you can't argue with that!

out of the mouths

If I were smart, I would record all the funny comments these kids of mine make each day. Every day there is an observation from a young point of view. And usually those comments come with perfect comic timing...not always my preferred timing, but my three are always expressing their opinion on something. It runs in the family I guess.

I'm trying to remember more of these moments. Here's one that happened in the van last week. We were traveling around town. I often put in a cd of stories. Amazingly the kids seem to enjoy it. They normally quieten down and listen the the storyline. I've done this with Peter Rabbit, Magic Treehouse, Little House on the Prairie, and others through the years. It's good entertainment without the mom guilt. The library has a huge selection of them. Recently Wendy's gave out books on cd for happy meal toys. I was all over that. So much better than some plastic thing I trip over and eventually throw away.

I had a Jigsaw Jones Book playing through the CD player. As a sideline to the mystery, a father comes into the kitchen for dinner and gives the mother a big kiss. Grace pipes up loudly and says,

"I don't really mind when you give Daddy a big, sloppy kiss."

To which I replied, "Oh, you don't???"

Now at this moment I had expected Grace to spout about how loving our family was, or how much our marriage meant to her happiness, or something angelic. Instead, in a loud, dry, almost cynical voice I hear these words:

"Naaaah....it's really none of MY business!"

And then I laughed pretty hard. That girl is funny even when she is not trying!