Happy Birthday, Ms. Michaela!

Today is my best friend's birthday. Special days like this are bittersweet since she moved several thousand miles away to Alaska. Several thousand miles and a three-hour time difference combined with crazy busy schedules make it difficult to keep in touch as much as we'd like. Talking on the phone and exchanging occasional emails and text messages is not the same as having a girls' night out or getting our families together for an evening. And I won't even go into how great it would be if her teenage daughters were close by to babysit my preschool ones! However, there's one positive thing that such a distance forces upon a relationship. Deliberateness. There's a greater effort involved to maintain the closeness we've built up over 30 years of friendship. We aren't close because it's convenient, because staying in touch is very inconvenient most of the time. We remain a vital part of each other's lives because we both want that and make the effort necessary to do so. Distance also offers the opportunity for some creativity in making these special days as special as they would be in person. I miss you, my friend! Happy Birthday! And in case you didn't get the email, here's a birthday song just for you....

The Scariest Words of All

Sugar said something the other day that hit me like a punch in the gut. I know I'm not the first parent to hear these words or the first to feel their effect. In fact, I'm sure that I'll hear similar words from Sugar again and Spice is bound to weigh in at some point, too. I don't even remember what it was that I was doing, but here's what Sugar said as she joined me in my activity: "I'm doing exactly like you, Mommy!" Oh. My. That's sobering, to say the least. I sincerely hope that she doesn't do exactly like me. I pray that she's smarter than I've been. I pray that she's less selfish than I've been. I pray that she's more patient than I've been. I pray that she's less judgemental than I've been. I pray that she's kinder than I've been. Most of all, I pray that she trusts her Saviour more than I have and that her life is marked by a deep faith in God that guides her day by day. Of course, if she still wants to be a librarian when she grows up, that's okay. She's already got the look down.

It's ALL About the Glitter

Sugar LOOOOOVES glitter. Anything with glitter gets her immediate stamp of approval.

glitter nail polish

glitter crayons

glitter glue

What more could a girl ask for?

Death and Destruction

Spice struck twice during the holidays. The first victim was a Raggedy Ann doll that she received for Christmas last year. Who knew that the little bag of sand used to weight the doll's bottom so that it will sit up could be so easily removed by a two-year old?!? Apparently Spice discovered this. She performed some sort of surgery on poor Ms. Ann during the night and this is what we found on the morning of Christmas Eve:

Thankfully R. A. survived, although she does have a little soreness around her crude 'incision'. I feel sure that Spice dreamt about sleeping on the beach, what with that lovely pile of grit in her bed all night. She keeps talking about how she got her doll all dirty...it was an assadent!

Her next victim was not so fortunate. Alas, after several trips of an airborne nature, Mr. N. Cracker was, as you can see from his expression, profoundly injured and although we did everything we could with the resources at our disposal, we were unable to save him. He was buried quietly in the kitchen trash can with only immediate family in attendance. Spice did not attend the service.

We hope that Christmas 2009 will be celebrated without additional injury or death.