Thankful.

The beginning of a new work week.
The beginning of a new semester.

I am thankful for:
1. God's faithfulness in answering prayers.
2. The ability to pray.
3. Grace and Mercy.
4. My husband and his dedication to our family.
5. My son Eli and his wit and charm.
6. My daughter Emma and her desire to do her best in everything.
7. My son Tripp and his toughness and his eyelashes.
8. My neice Mallie and her desire to color and make letters perfect.
9. The health of my children, my home, my ability to go to school.
10. Liquid Hormones and the pharmacists at Walgreens who provide me with said hormones.
11. Chocolate chip cookies and brownies that accompany liquid hormones when they fall a wee bit short of their goal.
12. Coffee from McDonalds that arrives by one messenger or another by 8:30 every morning.
13. My screaming five year old daughter. She is able to scream to that means her throat is not that sore.
14. My neice Mallie who just commented, "Her face is RED!"
15. Tripp's desire to stick his tongue out at his sister when she is screaming, and Emma's comment: "Everytime he makes me cry, he just feels good about it."

Oh, at the store the other day, Emma told me and my sister Melissa, "This store inflames me."

What a life.

Friday, YEAH!

It has been a long week. This was my last week of freedom, and I have tried to ignore the fact that I start school on Monday. Waaa!

I have been sick with a mystery virus that I received as a gift from my sweet neice. I am congested, hot, cold and miserable. Very yucky. At one point, I coulda sworn yesterday that this MUST be what the swine flu feels like.

I would like to go home early today. I am finished with my stuff.

We have no plans for the weekend and it feels great.
Cause on Monday, all hell is going to break loose.

The Kissing Hand.

The Kissing Hand is a wonderful book... I bought this book, as well as the follow-up, a few years ago when I put my little kids in a Mother's Day Out program. The story is about a baby racoon that is afraid to go to school, so the momma racoon kisses the baby's palm. Thru the day, when the baby is scared, the mother's love is felt thru the kiss on the palm.
Emma's new K teacher has made this story the theme of the beginning of the school year. On the first day, Emma brought home a paper with a hand and a heart in the middle. She was so excited that she knew the story, so she went and dug out The Kissing Hand to take it to school and show her copy to her teacher.

This morning, she went and found the second book, called "A Pocket Full of Kisses," on the bookshelf. (This book touches on sibling rivalry and how mommies have enough love for all the babies in the family - Great Book!)

This morning, I walked Emma into class. She took out her books and stood over in the corner, putting her backpack away. There were lots of kids already in the class.

I leaned down to kiss her, but she pulled away from me, so I just gave her a hug. Then, she looked up at me and stuck her palm up. So, I leaned down and gave her a kissing hand, told her I loved her, and to have a great day.

As I went to the door to leave, I turned back to look at her. She was looking around the room - not at me- checking to see if anyone was looking. She took her hand and rubbed her kissing hand to her face.