It's the little things...

1. Cold iced tea.
2. While I'm scratching my head a bit over the fact that we seem to have skipped Spring (it's due to be 90-something here tomorrow) - I am enjoying this lovely warm weather.
3. The weight of my little man, heavy on my shoulder in the rocking chair.
4. Watching Suzanne's little man Owen delight in his new-found walking ability.
5. Listening to Daniel's animated stories of knights, and the birthday party that he and Daddy made for his cousin while I was away at a meeting this evening.

Zeroing in on those little spots of Grace in my life.

Yesterday, in a museum not far from here...

It was Star Wars Day! We went to the Higgins Armory Museum - heaven for a knight-crazy three year old. A glass and steel building, the place is plastered with suits of armor, swords, shields and all manner of weaponry. On Saturday the invasion force consisted of stormtroopers from the Emperor's 501st Legion and members of the Rebellion. They were closely followed by loads of Star Wars crazy kids. There was a battle demonstration between a Jedi Knight and a Sith Lord, many costumed characters roaming the hallways for photo opportunities, and Daniel and his cousin Nicholas were thrilled to try on stormtrooper helmets.

Star Wars touched off my journey towards loving science fiction and many things "fantastic." I'm tickled to see Daniel enjoying it too.

Grace-Full Monday

Read more: "Schmutzie.com: Grace In Small Things: A Challenge For All Of Us" - http://www.schmutzie.com/2008/11/grace-in-small-things.html#ixzz0DHLmI9MQ&A

I love the idea of gratitude journals. They seem like the perfect antidote to the sadness or overwhelm I sometimes feel when I allow myself to be inundated with the awful news we see so often. I'd like to start doing this regularly. A graceful start to the week, if you like. Five bits of grace from my recent days:

1. Vanilla Bean Edy's Ice Cream, sprinkled in chocolate chips.
2. Losing myself in a favorite TV show (Heroes), snuggled under the down comforter.
3. My 3 year old, arms stretched wide to hug his ailing Daddy - and H's delighted face as he scooped him up for a hug.
4. Hanging out with friends Kim and Pete on Sunday. A day full of visits to the Old North Bridge, a Concord cemetery and a local Italian restaurant. In the process we saw a Redcoat re-enactor (Patriot's Day), and Louisa May Alcott's grave. And I got to try some delicious eggplant Parmesan.
5. Watching Daniel and his best bud Marisa zip up and down the play space at a local McD's while I got to chat with Alex.

Always an Adventure

It was a Happy Easter Sunday! We got to church for a beautiful service, and stopped for a visit with my mother in law and Daniel's Aunt and Uncles and Cousin.

Then came Daniel's encounter with Uncle Bruce's cactus plant. Actually, he was a trooper. After screeching and sniffling and waving his fingers at me he sat and let his fingers be soaked. Then Dr. Mom went to work with a magnifying glass and tweezers. It was one of those dastardly plants where the spines are so thin and fine that they are almost fuzzy. Many TLC band aids later we seem to be on the mend. Hopefully no plant-phobias are going to result!

More Work? Less Work? About the Same?

I'm not sure if other stores have a similar program, but Daniel and I tried something a little different for our weekly Stop and Shop grocery run yesterday. Termed Scan It, you basically shop with a hand-held device, scanning your items and bagging as you go. Checking out then consists of handing over your scanner and coupons to the cashier, and paying while none of your items ever have to hit the belt in the checkout line.

I'm sort of undecided as to how I feel about the system.

Pros: The scanner keeps a running tally of items in your cart. Gone is estimating just how much money you are truly spending. Scan It-only discounts occasionally pop up on the device. (The loud Cha-Ching! when this happens had Daniel spinning, looking for the noise.) Once items are scanned and bagged, they are handled just the once and do not have to be unloaded at checkout.

Cons: The produce department is now unwieldy. If I'm buying a tomato, I have to weigh it, put it in a bag, print a sticker from the special scale, stick it to my tomato bag and then scan it. Luckily Daniel was in a mood to simply ride along that day. If he had decided to be contrary about something (anything) it would have been that much harder to focus my attention on the work I was doing. If I were a Mom with multiple kids in the store, forget it for the same reason.

I am willing to concede that I probably didn't pick the best day to try this system. It was a rainy Saturday just before Easter, and the store being chock-full with customers didn't help matters. For this reason, I'd like to try this again mid-week sometime. While it is nice to check out that much faster at the end, I'm not sure the trade-off with all the work I had to do up front made it worth it. We'll see.

Splash!

I wanna do it!

Don't help me!

Getting socks and shoes on to leave the house the other day turned into an adventure when Daniel had the socks upside down (thereby trying to jam his toes into the heel) and his frustration level was mounting. "Mom Help," is only acceptable on a case-by-case basis these days, and it turned out that this was not one of those.

We've been making some potty training strides which include shooing Mom out of the room so that he can take care of everything himself. I'm all for encouraging the I Can Do It attitude, but I suddenly heard a wail at the start of yesterday's pit stop. He'd forgotten the potty ring, and executed a perfect splashdown! I couldn't help chuckling as we got everything cleaned up. Ah, preschool independence!

I need some good news...

I am planning a moratorium on news-gathering for awhile. It seems everywhere I turn it's war and families imploding (and just plain killing themselves and each other.) Or it's information about the economy ("The sky is falling!") and it comes time for us to pay the bills and I start to hyperventilate a little...

I want to not complain and not be tired. Spring is here, and I want to concentrate on afternoons like yesterday when I got to run through the park and watch H push Daniel on the swings and help him throw rocks off the park bridge into the water below. I wish there was a store like BabyCakes just a little bit closer, so Daniel and I could take walks and stop in for a small treat. Goodness knows we all need more small treats these days.