My Artist

Ab's favorite center in her classroom at school is Art. Nearly every day she proudly announces that she has a present from me. Yesterday was no different. As I carefully opened the taped "envelope," she watched me with the biggest grin imaginable. When I saw the above picture and heard her description, it brought tears to my eyes.

 

"We are in South Carolina because we have a dog and Maddie is already walking.
And William has his green and yellow blanket with him.
We are on a walk at night."

My precious, thoughtful girl. To provide a little history, because we aren't allowed to have a dog in our townhouse, I told the kids we could get one when we move.

I think I might frame this one...

Playin' in the Water

Chip and I have decided that our zoo membership was one of the best investments we've ever made. It more than paid for itself, considering just the fact that we have visited three times in the past week alone. Now that the weather is warming up, the water park at the zoo is open. The kids and I checked it out yesterday.

 

Poor William somehow escaped my camera. So here's a picture of him right after we left the water park:

We Don't Have a Chance

Madeline.

She is a walker. 

She is funny.

She thinks she is a big kid.

She has the most dazzling blue eyes.

We are in trouble.

 

 

Love, It's What's for Lunch

I can still remember the mixed emotions I felt at school when I discovered a love note from my Mama, tucked in my lunch box somewhere between the sandwich and the thermos. The notes were short and sweet, something along the lines of "I love you" and were often decorated with hearts, flowers or stick figures. I loved getting them; I felt loved, but it also made me sad...I missed my Mama! And it sent pangs of remorse when it came time to throw away my trash at the end of lunch. I didn't want to throw away the note, because, in my mind, I imagined her writing the note and being heartbroken when she found out I threw it away.

All this was in the back of my mind when I scribbled a quick love note and put it in Abby's lunch box yesterday morning.

At school that afternoon Abby ran to me and started crying. "Mommy, I missed you so much," she said. "Thank you for the note. It made me love you."

I apologized for upsetting her with my note, but she assured me it was sweet; it just made her miss me all afternoon.

On our walk to the car, she told me that she threw the napkin away, but then she went back to the garbage can and told the janitor that she wanted it back. She said, "I told him, 'Could I get that, please? I want to recycle it.'"

I just laughed and told her that it is OK to throw away the napkins.

Last night as I cleaned out her backpack, I wondered about the condition of the napkin that she pulled out of the trash to "recycle." This is what I found:

 

My little tenderhearted baby. She's just like her Mama.

Lessons from the Playground

We love our little neighborhood park. I think I've mentioned before how people from the community bring their gently-used toys and leave them for park patrons' use. William loves the cars and scooters and playhouses. Especially the playhouses.

A couple weeks ago we discovered a new toy: a small slide with a basketball goal on the side. Well, William wanted to play basketball, but I didn't have a ball. No problem. We had acorns. Lots of acorns.

I sent William off to gather our acorn balls, and he came back, his little hands swollen with nuts. As he unsuccessfully attempted to hold the acorns while trying to toss them into the basket, I offered to help.

"William, do you want me to hold your acorns for you?"

"No, thanks," he replied.

I scrunched my eyebrows. I couldn't believe he didn't want me to help him. Didn't he realize how much easier it would be if he allowed me to hold his acorns?

After shooting his acorns into the basket, I told him to gather the "balls" so we could play again. Then I said, "William, why don't you drop the acorns in Mama's hand, that way it will be easier for you."

This time he allowed me to help.

William scurried back and forth, dropping acorns into my open, cupped hands. The first two or three nuts were soon joined by a dozen or so more. As I watched the pile grow, I had a hard time figuring out how he managed such a load on his own.

It was then that I was struck with the realization of God's desire to help us.

How often do we think, "Oh, it's just a few small problems. I can handle them on my own. I don't want to bother God with that." Or we think, "I am doing just fine without involving God."

Why are we so stubborn?

Consider it a privilege to cast our cares (all of them; the big AND small) onto our heavenly Father. We were designed to seek Him.

His hands are great. His hands are outstretched. Won't you fill them?

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.

Psalm 68:19

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