Category: Family Time

Timothy turned 7 years old today. We celebrated by decorating graham cracker houses and eating spaghetti for dinner. He celebrated by playing with a new Lego set all day.

Here are the graham cracker houses we made. If you want to see one up close, select the photo by clicking on it and then click on it again.

For Family Home Evening, we listed some of the things for which we are thankful… to read in fun 🙂 (Yes, I’m thankful for Lawrence Welk. I watch it every week. My secret is out.)

Richard was on the bed, too, until he got up to take the picture. We’re watching Netflix on my computer.

Can’t think of a nicer crowd to hang with after a long day.

I was listening to the radio on one of the ballet runs this week. The host was reading from some obscure Chinese book written hundreds of years ago about the things that really make us happy. And everything on the list he read was very, very simple and ended in the phrase (translated into English): Is not this happiness?

Here is my version of things that brought me sweet happiness today:

I play a new violin for the first time and my hands and the instrument seem to communicate with each other.

Standing in line at the grocery store, a mother apologizes for her children who are pushing up against me to find candy. I am shopping alone and can afford an extra degree of patience for children who are not my own.

I sit down with my son on the couch after Pack Meeting. He has a paper bag full of awards. I watch him pin each award carefully on his uniform in the soft light from the lamp. He tells me, “This is my favorite shirt,” and, “You helped me earn all of these, Mom.”

Driving home from a long day of errands, I hear my youngest son say, “I’m the luckiest boy in the whole world because I have so many collections!”

Two bags of Mother’s English tea cookies in the pantry.

Is not this happiness?

Favorite birthday moment of all time:

I was turning 7 or 8. I was walking home from school alone when I saw my mom coming toward me. Walking to and from school was always so terrible for me. It was the ultimate act of love in my mind if my mom walked with me to school. I remember one day she carried me. She knew it was what I needed that day. So, on this birthday I was totally happy to see my mom walking toward me. She met me near the Christensons’ house and we walked through the tough leathery maple leaves from the Mickelsons’ tree and then our feet swept and crunched the papery thin yellow leaves from the Stones’ tree. We opened my mail as we walked and she put her arm around me. That made me so happy.

I love simple gestures like that.

My thirty-fifth was full of simple gestures of love, too. And I’m thankful for those who took time to give them.