little house

First of all, I need to tell you how grateful I am for the Sabbath - a day to put aside the cares of my day to day and just BE.  And oh my but how I love 8 am church.  I love it beyond belief, and I'm totally serious.

This afternoon, I made chocolate chippers with my 3 favorite boysenberries.  It was fun and so messy.  I now need to de-flour my baking drawer.  But that's a Monday job, not a Sunday one.

Benefactor licked clean two dough-covered utensils.  Then everyone else wanted two.  It's Sunday, so I just went along with it.

We went for a stroll.  There were a few noteworthy moments.

- 2 (TWO!) Karmann Ghias in two blocks.  I've lived here over 2 years now - how did I never notice this?

- a little blonde girl who used to torment S.A.M. (not in a cute way) on the bus last year followed us and kept hiding behind trees to spy.  It was cute.

- we walked to a nearby farm Madelin likes and Benefactor talked about a little goat that followed us home from there two years ago.  We haven't ever talked about it in the last two years, and we haven't visited there since.  He was 2 1/2 at the time!

- we visited a dear old dairy cow the kids particularly love.  She's a sweetheart.  Then we visited the neighboring horse.  Mademoiselle named the cow Betsy and the horse Charlotte.  S.A.M. named them Nice Cow and Nice Horse.  Benefactor named them Karate-er and Fighter.  Just guess which kid is romantic, which kid is literal, and which kid is, um, brave.

When we got back home, we flopped into the grass, following S.A.M.'s example.  I, of course, immediately became a jungle gym.  And some of the kids may or may not have eaten more chippers even though it was dinnertime.

Also, some of the kids may have battled over who was king of the mountain.  The mountain was me, of course, and the battle was fierce.  What can I say?  I'm popular.

James was so happy to win, he had to drool on me.

Then he was so sad to lose that it all of a sudden it seemed like a great time to go inside and eat dinner and watch a few family home videos!

So, do you know how completely blessed I am to spend my days in the company of these four buddies?  My goodness, but it makes me so happy.  And my goodness, but I can't picture anything better in the whole wide world.