5 on Friday: Happy things

It’s been a week battling fear and anxiety over mice in our house mixed with overall glum because it snowed–snowed!–after the official start of spring.

But that doesn’t mean it’s been all bad. I need the reminder, myself, that there is a lot of good about life.

Here are five happy things about the past few weeks.

1. Our daughter turned 6 and is reading books on her own. As book lovers, my husband and I couldn’t be more proud of this development. Also, she discovered a girls’ devotional on our bookshelves, something we picked up years ago at a book sale for “someday.” Well, someday is here. It’s aimed at ages 6 to 10, so I promised her we could start near her birthday. We’ve been reading one of the passages each night (most nights) and it makes me happy that she wants to read it and the passages from the Bible. It’s also given us some practical ways to incorporate our faith into action.

2. 60-degree-Saturdays in the park. Last weekend we had the most beautiful day of the year. The kids and I walked to the park where we saw flowers blooming and ducks swimming and felt the sunshine on our faces. It was a glorious reminder of what I wait for all winter. The chance to be outside, walk and experience nature. I’m hoping we can do this once a week, if the weather cooperates.

3. Silent Sunday. Our church last week had a service I’ve never before experienced. It wasn’t completely silent, but we spent much of the time personally reflecting on Scripture and with a variety of prompts at tables in the fellowship hall. It was a time to cut out distractions and let God speak. And as much as I like music and hearing teaching, I crave time to sit with things and consider and allow God a voice. That’s hard with two kids and a busy life, so I’m grateful for the chance to do something different at church and make space for this.

4. Cooking together. I was sick again late last week. A spring cold, I guess, on the heels of a late-winter sinus thing. I had a week in-between where I felt healthy. When that happens, I tend to give up meal planning and become stumped about what to fix for dinner. A couple of nights last weekend my husband was home and available to cook. He’s a master at taking our leftovers or random ingredients and creating something delicious. One night, the four of us were all in the kitchen together helping put dinner together. Sometimes I like to be alone with the cooking process, especially after a long day of keeping up with the kids. But that night, it was a joy to all be working together.

5. Songs on repeat. I’m not normally a fan of listening to the same songs or CDs repeatedly, but ever since we took our kids to a Jason Gray concert at the beginning of the month, they’ve been wanting to listen to his new album in the car every time we’re in the car. We’ve listened to the songs so much they’ve started singing along to most of them, not just their two favorite ones. (This is one of them.) It makes me smile to hear them sing about truths and experiences they don’t know much about yet, and it reminds me that having faith like a child is not complicated, even though we want to make it that way.