Happy Now--August 26

Here are my Happy Now 10 for this past week.  While most of them are small moments from the week that I don't want to forget, the first two have to do with bigger events from my birthday over two weeks ago.  They were such sweet moments, but since they happened after the twins started school I didn't technically consider them part of summer and, therefore, didn't include them in the summer post.  So, here they are!

1.  Birthday Friends Dinner--I love birthdays, though it is definitely getting to be less about the age  than it is about the festivities and traditions for me now.  One thing that has remained consistent for my birthdays is that the people in my life seem to intuitively know what gifts I want/need without my asking for them.  The first example of this took place about a week before my birthday when Darren, who knows me pretty well and how much I enjoy a girls' night out, suggested I get some friends together for a birthday dinner.  It was so characteristically thoughtful and generous of him.  And it was just what I needed.

2.  Mom/Daughter Staycation--The second example was a collaborative gift from Darren and my parents.  It was agreed that my mom would fly out to Phoenix for one night and take me on a "staycation" in Scottsdale.  We talked and walked and shopped and talked some more.  It was a perfect 24 hours.  Here I am, nearly three weeks later, still basking in the glow of that gift.

3.  Mom and Dad's Anniversary--Monday, August 20, marked the 41st Anniversary of my parents.  I am so grateful for them and the example they continue to set of a happy and healthy marriage.  Here is to many more years of the love, kindness, self-sacrifice and generosity with which you treat each other and us all.

4.  Chick-Fil-A Play Area--This past week I discovered a fun (and FREE) way to spend part of an afternoon with the girls.  The last time we ordered Chick-Fil-A kid's meals, I held back the toys (I don't think it even occurred to the girls to ask for them).  This week I took the three toys and the girls to Chick-Fil-A where I traded the toys in for free cups of ice cream and then let the girls play in the Chick-Fil-A play area.  I think it put a spring in all our steps.

5.  Playing Outside--One of the few advantages to having three very early risers is that when we have a summer morning that doesn't feel like you're stepping out onto the surface of the Sun, you're up early enough to get out and enjoy it.  That's just what we did one morning last week.  The girls took a walk around the block, rode bikes, played with sidewalk chalk, and watered some plants all before the bus came to pick up the neighborhood kids for school.  It even stayed "cool" enough later in the day that we were able to venture out again for a while in the afternoon.  It made me so excited for the upcoming months when we can do that on a more regular basis.

6.  Claire's Favorite Color--One of my favorite things about watching the girls grow up is seeing how they begin to assert themselves as individuals.  They do this is a lot of ways, but recently I have noticed them doing this as they gravitate toward a "favorite" color.  Jane's favorite color is red.  Paige's favorite color is orange.  This week Claire, who I don't think was even aware of this growing trend in her sisters, began developing a strong affinity for yellow.  Though she only calls it by the right name about half of the time, she can always pick it out.  She almost exclusively requests the yellow Belle dress-up dress.  She chooses yellow paper and yellow crayons for coloring.  She has one tub of yellow play-doh that is all hers, and this past week she has started holding the clump of yellow play-doh in a death grip in her left hand while using her right hand to play with all the other colors.  It takes all of my negotiating skills to get her to put the yellow play-doh back in the tub when it's time for clean up.  While the term "mellow yellow" doesn't quite fit our Cubby, the associations yellow has with sunshine, warmth, and (usual) cheerfulness certainly do.

7.  Pre-School Songs--Several times this week, Paige and Jane have spontaneously burst into song singing rhymes they have learned from pre-school.  There are the days-of-the-week song, the clean-up song, and (most recently) the watermelon song.

Watermelon, Watermelon
Tastes so fun, Tastes so fun
Green on the outside, Red on the inside
Black and White seeds, Black and White seeds

This, of course, necessitated the purchase of a watermelon and several rounds of the song while we cut it.  I think I enjoyed it as much as they did.

8.  Rocking Claire to Sleep--Claire has always been the easiest little girl to put to sleep at bed time.  Except on rare occasions when we are traveling or she is sick, she seems to welcome sleep and has been known to practically swan dive into her crib at the end of the day.  We have a short one-on-one routine before she turns on her side and falls asleep.  Unfortunately, this past week Claire has been a little under the weather, which meant a more difficult bed time.  She started calling for me about 15 minutes after I put her down.  I have to admit, my knee-jerk reaction to these calls was not always positive, but I became so grateful in the moment for the rare opportunity of rocking her to sleep.  I decided to sing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music as I rocked her, and I so appreciate being forced to slow down to really enjoy the sweetness of her--one of my absolute most favorite things.

9.  Finishing The God Who Weeps--This book was chosen for my book club discussion taking place next week.  I finished it this past week and was so touched by the inspiring thoughts shared in this book.  One of my favorite passages is in the last paragraph before the epilogue:

"What if in our anxious hope of heaven, we find we have blindly passed it by, like Wordsworth blazing past the alpine summit?  What if the possibilities of Zion were already here, and its scattered elements all about us?  A child's embrace, a companion's caress, a friend's laughter are its materials.  Our capacity to mourn another's pain, like God's tears for His children; our desire to lift our neighbor from his destitution, like Christ's desire to lift us from our sin and sorrow--these are not to pass away when the elements shall melt with fervent heat.  They are the stuff and substance of any Zion we build, any heaven we inherit.  God is not radically Other, and neither is His heaven."

These beautiful words hit me so powerfully.  I am so grateful for the reminder that heaven can exist all around us, even in these small, "Happy Now" moments.

10.  Sunday Cookies--While Claire is usually a great sleeper at bed time, she has recently decided she is too old for day-time naps.  I have had a tradition with the twins of baking cookies every Sunday.  This past Sunday, Claire joined us for the second time, and while the chaos grew exponentially and there was one extra flour-covered girl, it also felt complete.

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