life's pleasures

So I am pretty much sick of the cloudy days of April and am completely ready (along with everyone else in this neck of the woods) for the May flowers and hopefully the warmth and sun that will come with them. I've desperately been searching daily for ways to keep my attitude from matching the sky above...gloom and doom. Today the sun came out and I still somehow miserably failed at adjusting my attitude. My excuse? It was cold...burr, light the fire in the fireplace cold. Anyway, in an attempt to adjust it this evening I will share with you a few of life's pleasures that I have enjoyed lately:

• a good cup of coffee...my sister blessed me last week with some Starbuck's gift cards. Mmmm, that is some good coffee.


• a new favorite book...The Hiding Place. I "read" this via audiobook on my way to/from my sister's last week. It has been a long time favorite of Kim's but I, for some reason, had never gotten around to reading it. I loved it and the timing of my reading was perfect for some of the stuff that God has been working on in me lately.


• the smell of a new Bible...I love the leather smell of a new Bible. Joe has blessed me twice in the last few week's with new Bibles. Both are ESV...one very tiny one that will fit in my purse and another one today that is a thinline. LOVE them both and can't wait to see what God will say to me through them.


• what I learn from my kids...did you know that a flamingo can only eat and digest it's food if it's head is upside down? I didn't know that...learned it today.


• the look of newly cut grass...I braved the cold and wind today and mowed our backyard. Wow, I love how it looks right after it is mowed. AND it reminded me that it wouldn't look that way if we hadn't had all that rain.


• online deals on Crocs...Joe has had is eye on a specific pair of Crocs for months (actually probably at least a year). I got an AWESOME deal on them this week and was able to "love on him" by buying them for him.


• The sweetness of God's word....."My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 1 Corinthians 12:9a

Dinner Time conversations

Okay, before I launch into the latest discussion that occurred at our dinner table I must share that the countdown has begun...38 days and counting until I am soaking up the sun on the beach and sleeping...a lot (not sleeping on the beach...in a bed... in a quiet room..except for the sound of surf.).

So this is what took place at our table tonight:

Dad: Ashley, you need to eat a lot of these strawberries because they are full of vitamin C. (She's been battling a cold on top of her allergies. She's kind of miserable right now.)
John: What is vitamin C?
Joe: (he launched into a Joe description of the origins of vitamin C).
John..in a very dead serious tone: Vitamin H makes you grow horns.
Joe: Really?...who told you that?
John: Ashley
Joe & I turn to our youngest daughter who looked very sheepish: I didn't think he would believe me. It's from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

So evidently for the past several months John has thought there was some mysterious vitamin H out there that would put horns on his head.