{1000 gifts}

31. Daddy taking the big kids out for "special daddy time"

32. being alone with the baby (who hardly ever gets "alone time")

33. iced coffee in the middle of the morning

34. hot showers

35. the feeling of Q-tips cleaning my ears

36. anticipating a visit from dear friends

37. lifting voices in songs of praise as one body

38. sharing a meal with brothers and sisters

39. milk chocolate

40. getting mail/messages just because

41. picking out the perfect gift, and wrapping it up

42. sitting on the balcony drinking tea with my love talking about nothing and everything

43. being adopted into the biggest, most wonderful family by the Biggest, Most Wonderful Dad

44. "water from the wells of salvation"

³ With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. ⁴ And you will say in that day:

    "Give thanks to the LORD,
   call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
   proclaim that his name is exalted. ⁵ "Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;
   let this be made known in all the earth. {Isaiah 12}

Free-Write Friday {5}

I feel my voice raising and it seems I am outside my own body as I watch me yell at my kids...

I weep over spilled salsa on the freshly mopped kitchen floor and the stress and frustration of a hard week pour from my eyes...

I feel biting words leaving my mouth directed at my best friend and husband, and wonder why I chose to speak at all...

I feel like Eustache, the boy-turned-dragon, (a figment of CS Lewis' divinely creative imagination) a disgusting creature with need for change

I yearn for the holy claws to peel off my nasty scales and make me whole again

"Then the lion said – but I don’t know if it spoke – You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know – if you’ve ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”

“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off ...and there it was lying on the grass.... And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on – and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again.”

{The Voyage of the Dawn Treader}

Free-Write Friday {4}

My payment as a mother doesn't come in a check. There's nothing to deposit in the bank at the end of the week.

Sloppy kisses as I tuck my son into his bed. Milk-mustached smiles from a baby as he finishes nursing. Freshly picked dandelions given with the admonishment to put them in some water, so you can keep them forever--

These are the moments that compensate me for long hours, constant demands, and no sick days.

A freshly-bathed baby wanting to snuggle up before bed, a sick darling who only wants mama's care to make her feel better, a precious masterpiece of squiggles and swirls drawn especially for me.

These are things you can't hang a price tag on.

The days are so long sometimes, the tasks so mundane. The thanks so little. But when I stop to appreciate the small joys of motherhood set before me every day, I am so thankful that God made me a mom. Truly, there is no higher calling in life.

Free-Write Friday {3}

Shining silky seas
Deep gulps of fresh salty breeze
Uh oh sea sickness!

(This haiku brought to you by my ferry boat ride to Greece tomorrow!)