When I close my eyes and picture my grandpa, all I can see is his mischievous grin and that unmistakable twinkle in his eyes. I remember the way his shoulders would shake with laughter when he would tell stories from his childhood. That pride in his voice when he told us of the time he had dipped his classmate’s pigtails into his ink jar. I am sure none of the little girls wanted to sit in front of him at school after that. The teachers sure had their work cut out for them.

A little look back at our first year of homeschooling according to the kids. Because I want to remember their…

This morning in an effort to avoid the three loads of laundry, sticky floors and mountain of dishes I decided we needed to head out and run some errands. After a couple of stops we found ourselves at Costco.

The kids browsed the book aisle and I quickly grabbed the few things we needed….and a couple things we didn’t. Thanks Costco, you get me every time! After our shopping we headed to the food court line up to grab a quick lunch. Because feeding four kids and a tired mama for $7.88 sounded a whole lot better than adding to the sticky floors and pile of dishes back home.

After we were done our lunch we stepped outside to a rainy parking lot. The five of us raced to the van. We quickly loaded up our groceries and hopped in for protection. The girls were giggling in the backseat (thanks to the pop they had for lunch, I’m sure 😉 Evan was trying to ask me about the song that was playing and Ellie was “reading” her new library book out loud. I sighed as I started up the van. As I checked my mirror I saw a lady trying to load up her groceries beside us. She was clearly struggling to pull the heavy boxes from her cart and so I asked Evan to hop out to help her. I watched the relief on her face when he offered and so I decided to hop out as well to help get the job done a little faster in the rain.

I was not expecting what God was about to do.

My Selah. I know I say this every year but I can not believe you are already seven. I miss my little crying baby who would not let me put her down for one single second to make dinner…. and yet…. you continue to grow into such a beautiful and kind girl that I am more and more excited to see how our relationship deepens as you grow older.