Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Saturday smiles

Saturday Smiles, week 2

It’s Friday night and I’m home alone. Well, as “alone” as a person can be with two kids in the house. An hour ago I was hardly able to keep my eyes open while putting the kids in bed. The kids were overtired, resisting sleep, and I still had a batch of Rice Krispie treats to make ahead of an all-day marriage retreat/seminar on Saturday.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to write a post about what made me smile this week. Reviewing the list I’ve been compiling all week is already lifting my spirits.

Here are the things I’m smiling about this week.

  • Despicable Me. I laughed out loud. A lot.
  • A 6-year-old telling me she was soo stressed because of school.
  • Isabelle telling me, after she received a notebook from the potty prize box, “I could stay up all night writing.” Oh, do I know the feeling.
  • My husband reaching for my hand during singing in church.
  • Pretty much everything that comes out of Corban’s mouth right now. “Bye, kids” at the Y Kids Korner. “I like puddles” on a rainy day. “I’m just lookin’, Mommy” as he touches everything on the grocery store shelves.
  • Receiving two copies of the One Year Joy and Laughter Devotional in the mail and seeing my name on two of the entries.
  • Playing “ting-tong” (ping pong) with my kids at the seminary while visiting my husband on his lunch break between classes.
  • Making up after a fight.
  • Sandwich King Jeff Mauro. My new favorite Food Network show. Not only does he make sandwiches that sound DELICIOUS, he’s from Chicago and takes viewers on a weekly food tour of the city. I want to download the recipe for everything I’ve seen on the show so far.
  • Making other people smile when I wear my “Super Mom. Super Wife. Super Tired” shirt. This week, it could have been my uniform.
  • VeggieTales humor.
  • My kids’ imaginations. And their giggles.
  • Day trips with friends.
  • Being outside.
  • Flowers.
  • Co-op parenting.
  • Meeting new neighborhood kids.
  • Watching my kids play with their friends.
  • Fall weather. And jeans and sweatshirts.

What’s got you smiling this week?

Saturday smiles

I’ve been focusing too much on the negative in my life. Our still-damp basement full of somewhat-salvageable stuff. My husband’s seminary workload. Finances. Demands on me (both real and imagined).

It can’t be healthy. I know this. I’ve been consuming 6 coffee-pot-cups of coffee a day most of the week. (Really, that’s only like 2 mugs of coffee, but when it makes me twitch, I have to wonder …) I’ve been overwhelmed and stressed and sarcastic, even with the kids, who SO don’t catch on to sarcasm.

It occurred to me this morning that the week wasn’t all bad. In fact, it was mostly good. So, with that in mind, I’d like to share with you the things that made me smile this week.

  • Spending $10 at the Farmer’s Market and coming home with 2 butternut squash, 2 acorn squash, 4 cucumbers and maybe 1/4 bushel of apples
  • My almost-2-year-old’s “going to see Daddy” dance (performed on Wednesdays when we meet my husband at the seminary for lunch)
  • Taking an overflowing 18-gallon tote of kids clothes to the new consignment shop in town and having them turn down only 3 pieces of clothing.
  • An unexpected customer service phone call from a Bible study publisher helping to point me in the right direction for study topics for our ladies’ Bible study
  • Leading Tuesday night Bible study with a great bunch of ladies
  • Suave dry shampoo (It’s a life-saver on those no-shower days, which unfortunately are more than I’d care to admit.)
  • Caramel macchiato creamer in my coffee. (I’m currently substituting with Italian sweet cream creamer because I drained the other kind this week.)
  • The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
  • Undeserved grace
  • the Psalms
  • My 3-year-old’s explanation of her Sunday School lesson last week: “That’s about a man who could not walk. Jesus said, ‘Take your wheelchair and go home.’ That’s when he was in Je-wu-sal-um.”

Join me weekly for Saturday smiles and feel free to share yours. I need the regular reminder of the good going on in my life. It’s too easy to focus on the bad.

Till next week.