Mindfulness and another note.

Life has been busy lately. Spencer's business is picking up, the kids are into all kinds of activities, and I'm still trying to learn how to clean the house. "Busy" is not exactly my favorite word or my favorite thing to be. So let me just grab a few un-busy moments and remember what I love about my busy life these days.

I love that Owen always wants to open my door for me when we get in the van. He gets upset if he doesn't beat me out to the driveway to open it before I get there. I love how he asks my opinion on different types of bugs and whether they are gross or not, and how everything from brooms to pipes to curtain rods become "guns" for him to "shoot the bad guys." I love how he randomly breaks out in singing, "I'm the mean one, Mr. Grinch" and how he still says "et-mole" instead of "oatmeal." I love how he smiles with his whole face and how yesterday he checked out 10 books from the library on construction machines and dirt bikes. I love his affection and his tender spirit.

I love that Averi Kate spent the day at her friend Anna's house yesterday - her first time doing a "playdate" without me there. She asked me every day for 2 weeks - how many days till Anna's house? I love how easy it is for her make friends. I love that when I got to the softball field last night she disappeared immediately and I knew that it was because she spotted a friend. I love that when I finally found her, she was up in a tree, and all I could see were her feet dangling down. I love how she asks me to come to her bed and read her devotional with her, and how she is the "chicken-whisperer" in our house. I love her boldness and her joy.

I love that Claire stayed out in the backyard till 10:30 last night throwing softball against the net, and that she hit a homerun in her game yesterday. I love that every time she crosses home plate and gets back to the dugout she glances at me to see if I know how many runs she has scored. I hold up my fingers and she grins like a Cheshire cat. I love that smile. I may not love that I am having all these crazy, pre-teen kind of conversations with Claire lately which I was totally unprepared for happening so soon, and I may be totally exhausted from it because she's basically like a trained lawyer and I cannot win, but at the same time - I love that I am having all these crazy, pre-teen kind of conversations with Claire lately. I love that I am able to spend that much time pouring into her. I love that she wants to understand and that she loves the idea of justice and that she will engage in the conversations. I love when I see fruit that I wasn't expecting.

Those are the things that I don't want to miss in the busyness. Maybe if I just stay in that mindfulness, even if life doesn't slow down, my soul will.

On another note...

I think "somebody" has a khaki problem.

Also, we got chickens.

Because, why not?

The kids plus our neighbor Katie, letting the chicks get some sun on a warm day...

From what I hear, they don't stay this size forever. We'll keep you posted on that.

A Trip to NC, Part 2

After staying with the Stewarts and visiting our old church family at Webster on Sunday, we headed over to Cashiers to meet Dobby and Alan and spend a few days at a timeshare there.

AK's birthday celebration continued...

We took advantage of the cold, rainy weather to snuggle on the couch and watch a movie...

Spencer had fun playing with the features on my new camera...

And the next day, when the weather cleared, much hiking ensued!!!

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Alan planking...

Aaaannddd...everyone planking.

AK made me a nervous wreck because she was like a monkey and I couldn't keep up with her. Every time I blinked she was climbing up a rock or getting uncomfortably close to edges.

Snack break!

The following pictures are from a hike that was supposed to take about 20 minutes but turned into 3 hours because we didn't want to pay for parking, so we found some obscure path close by that "surely" met up with the other path in "just a minute".

The view from the bottom was totally worth it.