Things I Love

Things I love...

A smile on the face of a baby
A smile with worn creases from years of smiling on a wrinkled face

Staying up way too late and talking to my sisters
Not waking up early, (but when I do, the beauty of the sunrise always tricks me into thinking that I would like to wake up early again.)

Laughing until I cry with the people I love most
Holding hands with my little brother for an entire car ride

A good book
Incredibly loud concerts featuring mom's pot's and pans (and the world's cutest percussionist)

Eating burnt marshmallows (or plain ones or big ones or miniature ones - Purely for health reasons of course) Especially catapulting marshmallows with my little people and then eating them

Tea parties with my little sisters

Fireflies sparkling in the shadows of dusk (Amazing! Right?)
Dew sparkling in the rising sun

Snuggle bunnies that hop in my bed in the morning
Meeting new people

Doing dishes with my mom or sisters and chatting
A baby's laugh, baby's toes, baby's fingers, babies snuggles, babies kisses...okay everything baby

Watching the proud look on littlest brother's face when "he" catches big brothers fish from whom I get a wink
Painting 30 little toenails with pink polish because little brother wants his painted when I paint the little sisters' toes

Long piddling walks down the driveway with little people who stop to exclaim over beautiful pieces of grass, beautiful sticks, beautiful rocks, beautiful tree bark, beautiful pinecones, and all of the normal, extraordinary little things that I forget to be amazed at.

Singing in the silo, singing to a friend at the nursing home, singing to Jesus when only He can hear, singing in the shower, singing with sister's harmony, singing a dumb song because it's stuck in my sisters head I like to tease, singing a goodnight song to my little people (Especially the same boring one that they always want me to sing that is very loooong. I think the little Tom Sawyers  have figured out how to get me to stay longer.)

Fresh cut grass and a bunch of sweaty big boys who just worked hard all day with Daddy
Daddy playing guitar in the evening

Mommy reading and making up interesting voices and accents for each character (and tunes to the songs we've never heard that the characters sing in the book)
Pickles, pickles, more pickles, and too many pickles

Singing praises to the Lord on Sunday mornings with some of the people I love most in twelve different keys
Sunday afternoons eating and fellowshipping at our little church with genuine loving friends
Saying good-bye twenty times and then being the last one's to leave

Anything and everything mommy cooks
Intense, lighthearted competition in a card game or board game with family and friends

Car trips
Watching my siblings love others and serve others (especially the disabled or neglected) I love to see their compassion and truly think it's one of the most beautiful things in the world.

A perfect Starbucks Chia latte with lots of bubbly foam and someone else to share it with
Christmas morning when everyone at my house is so excited because they can hardly wait to give their gifts to all the people they love most. One gift that morning isn't wrapped and, yet it wraps every gift and is wrapped inside of every gift. It's the most beautiful gift of all, and it makes us cry and laugh and hug: love.

When Mom and Dad start singing an old country love song
Working in the yard with family

The little surprise pictures that are drawn in all of my notebooks
Fuzzy blankets

Taking the Lord's supper with the redeemed
Riding my bike...down hill with the wind in my face

Cousin and sister shopping sprees at the goodwill bookstore
A good sermon or lecture

Sunny days, and rainy nights
Bubbles, and popping bubbles

Playing instruments with siblings
Writing a song

Flowers, especially hydrangeas and wildflowers
Make believing with my little people

An amateur game of back yard volley ball with players whose heights range from three feet to six feet

Talking to grandparents
Singing with Oma and cooking with Nanna
Paw paw's corny jokes and Papa John's newest recipe

Folk dancing and skating
High ropes courses

Summertime homemade ice-cream for dinner nights and pit stops at ice-cream parlors, doughnut shops, or Wendy's for frostys when a sibling goes on a grocery run with me

Silly dance parties with siblings when parents are gone and the kitchen's a mess but we need to laugh
The little feet that always steel my slippery socks to slide on the wood floor with

The little fingers that take pinches of the cookie dough I'm making
Hand written letters
Camping with my church and family

Swinging under my favorite tree and talking to God or just being quiet
Standing in the rain
Picking blueberries and not putting them in my bucket

All of the little notes and pictures my siblings give me
Pearls and lace and dressing up
Being there to see the accomplishments of my family (I'm kind of proud of them)

Encouraging someone in the Lord
Stars
Writing

Finishing a project or book (or not finishing because of a good interruption:-)
Celebrating my favorite people's birthday's
Listening to live orchestras with my sister

Doing all kinds of normal boring stuff with people I love (especially cleaning bathrooms with my little professional windex sprayers who are their own job security)
Chasing and tickling squealing little ones

Accidentals in a musical piece
Time in God's Word
Raspberries
Driving through a tunnel of trees on a country road

Surprises and Surprising people
Days on the beach with my family
Water Skiing and inner-tubing

My sisters' teasing
Fall leaves
Playing in the tiny bit of snow we get with my siblings and failing to snow board with them

Sitting in mommy's room and talking with that lovely woman
Serving with my sisters
Sharing the hope of Christ with a hopeless person

Being a Child of God and enjoying His many good gifts