Today I celebrate...

* the apple crisp my son and I made yesterday morning

* the bran muffins my daughter made this morning

* the fact that cooking counts as science in our homeschool curriculum

* hot, sweet coffee in the morning (especially with apple crisp or warm muffins!)

* washing the car with the kids an hour or so ago

* ice water

* boiled eggs

* the sound of Maya's collar ringing-tingling all over the house as she searches for chew toys she leaves lying every place

* seeing photos of my beautiful niece in her prom dress

* the way that my children look at me; I think they really like me!

* cutting my son's hair yesterday only to have him shriek when he looked at it in the mirror. Yikes! Half an hour later, he said he really liked it short. Yeah!

* the many supportive, loving comments I receive from those of you who read the blog

* a new passion of mine: scrapbooking. I already own tons of stickers and patterned paper because I use them in my journal. So why not use them for our photo albums? Fun! Kristiana and I will attend a scrapbooking convention here in Charlotte in August. You know me: I start a new thing and dive in head-first. Why not live life to the fullest???

* divine timing! The children and I intentionally waited to be the last people in line to greet the Pastor after today's noon service, then walked out the side door only to be greeted by my husband who came dashing in, hoping to meet us for lunch. Steve and I seem to be on some kind of synchronized watch these past few days.

* another great book: Dangerous Wonder by Micheal Yaconelli. He's the same guy who wrote Messy Spirituality. He's wise, funny, insightful, and dares to believe that life ought to be characterized by unanswerable questions, amazement, wild abandon, passion, and the unending pursuit of all of the above.

* getting out on the road again. Tomorrow morning early, Steve and I leave for COSTA RICA to celebrate 15 years of marriage! Walks on the beach. Hikes through the rainforest. Tropical drinks. Staying up late. Sleeping in late. We will be gone only until Monday, but any time away is a good time, as far as I'm concerned. I won't be blogging my Thursday Thirteen as usual, but I will try to come up with thirteen pleasures that I can share next week...

Here's to life, love, and laughter.
Celebrate something today. (Got that from http://aliedwards.typepad.com.)