Today was HOT and HUMID. We are talking “walk out the door and insta-sweat” weather. That is NO FUN when you have three small children.

Honey called at lunch to tell me he wouldn’t be home till after 8PM so I started brainstorming.

The kids awoke from their naps and we packed up the minivan. After a quick transferred refill at our NEW Target ($10 gift card for transferring), we headed to the free standing Chickfila and indoor play room for toddlers only! Oh Yeah!

30 minutes of hard play in the indoor play yard and everyone was ready to head home and to bed. Even KB! It’s funny – we walked in and straight to the play room. Packed up and walked out. The manager caught my eye and I smiled and said, “I’ll be at the drive-thru window in minutes. I just can’t carry it all.” He gave me a “yeah, right” and I made sure to wave at him as I picked up dinner moments later.

Oh, and you have heard of Murphy’s Law? Well, we have Little’s Law. (Little does it most and that is why I call it Little’s Law.) No matter when the kids last went potty, it is GUARANTEED that one of them will go poopy in the play room. SERIOUSLY!

Outside of personal friends from my past and present, there are only two blogs I read that don’t have to do with crafting, couponing, or cooking. Rocks In My Dryer and One Thing. Funny thing, reading one led me to the other and I have experienced many tears of laughter, healing, and other emotions during my “friendship” with Shannon and Jenni. You would do well to visit them yourselves.

It’s been almost two weeks since returning from NJ. The house has returned to the dull roar of normalcy and I am finding moments to really process what I learned and the life I live. It is into this pondering that these two women spoke this week and ministered. I thought I would share.

Shannon has begun a series called, “What I’d Like For You to Know.” She has guest bloggers once a week and they post on a topic they know about personally. I just read last weeks post by Molly Piper (of John Piper genes) on the birth of a Stillborn child and it really ministered to me. She spoke words that reflect my own feelings. NO, I have never experienced stillbirth, but I feel we experience new deaths with our Little almost weekly – death of dreams, death of expectations, death, death, death. It was wonderful, sad, true, and hard. I am so grateful for Shannon’s vision for this ministry through her blog and her ACTION to “make it so.”
(I wrote to tell her and she wrote me back!!!! THE SHANNON wrote me back. ACK!)

Then today I was catching up on One Thing and Jenni had a picture of an Okra Flower and then wrote this, “It reminded me that everything that has been made here on Planet Earth came straight out of the fathomless imagination of our endlessly creative Daddy God, and like the microscopic beauty of a snowflake, it’s just waiting for us to discover it.”

Did you read that? She called Him, “Daddy God”!!! I LOVE THAT!!! Makes me cry (as my friend Pam would say). Funny how something so simple could minister so deeply, eh?

So, there you go. Two shameless plugs and hopefully limitless encouragement for you.
Now you can’t say I never did anything nice for you (smile).

If you have read this blog or know our family, you know that Little’s echolalic tendencies are a source of frustration and humor. This weekend humor won the day and helped end a family argument!

Honey and I had a disagreement on Sunday. I wanted him to run to a friend’s house and pick up “something” and he didn’t want to go that day. A “disagreement” ensued and climaxed in Honey walking out of the house, driving out of the driveway and yelling “FINE” as he drove out of sight. (Not really – I just imagined I heard that) Honey pulled out of the driveway just as I set plates of scrambled eggs and pancakes in front of the children.

Little said, “He’s leaving. Where’s daddy?” (I’m not going to type it, but she said this three times, of course.)

I muttered under my breath, “In the doghouse.”

The rest of dinner was spent listening to Little say, “He’s gone. He’s in the doghouse. I want to see it.” OVER AND OVER.

When Honey arrived home, Little met him at the door saying, “He’s back. He’s back from the doghouse.” I was in the back room doubled over laughing. I could hear Honey laughing in the den. I imagined I heard the tension between us heading out the door, up the driveway, and out of sight.

And that’s “FINE” by me!!!