Friday...

Wearing homemade "pirate hats." While creating race tracks. Wearing underwear.

Sometimes the end of the week comes, and I feel pretty good about it. And other times I feel shakier than I'd like. "Did we do enough school? Maybe we were at the park and rushing through assignments too much this week. I think Evan is left handed. What am I going to do about that? I know nothing about being left handed. We can't go to the mountains with the "SRS" light on in the van because that means the airbags won't deploy if we hurtle over a hill to our doom. Oh, that's going to be a bijillion dollars to fix? Fine, just fix it. The dog. Oh, the dog. Why won't you boys stop harassing the dog. You're going to deserve it if he bites you. I can't wait for Mom and Dad to pick up their dog. Ben, please don't dump out the entire contents of the stick vacuum cleaner container while I read about humpback whales to Seth and Evan. Too late." 

That's when it comes in handy to make a list of all the good from today. And there is so much good from today and from the whole week, really. This is one of those "think on the good, the just, and the beautiful" times, and I realize again why the Bible has to ask this from us. It's all too easy to focus on the worrisome, the frustrating, the icky....

So, good things....

- Playdates at the park with friends

- The joys of stick finding

- A boy who wants to carefully copy a sentence from his alligator book to make his own "alligator book", complete with illustrations.

- Evan's treasures from outside- the tiniest, most delicate of pine cones, rocks with "mica, Mommy!", an intricate, hollowed out insect skeleton that we are going to have to take to a scientist for ID... and that he wants to bring them to me and use them to create his own "museum." 

- We read many books this morning, and they asked many questions about what we read. 

- Ben begging for two readings of "The Adventures of Awesome Man," calming my fears that he wouldn't be as interested in reading as his brothers because I let the TV become a regular part of life upon his arrival. (It's a long book for a 2-year-old.) 

- Excited outside play with sticks and rocks and found things to make forts and houses and beaver traps.

- Brothers who run to bounce the littlest on the trampoline.

- "Mom, can we keep reading?" when we stop at an exciting spot in "Benjamin West." 

- That a box of macaroni and cheese can keep the toddler sitting happily at the lunch table long enough to get a few short chapters read.

- Folded laundry. 

- The power of "I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" 

- Grace.