Top this, Letterman.

The top 10 things that have made me smile today (and it’s still morning!)

1. As we’re walking out to the car to take M to school this morning, L hushes all of us: “Shhh! Everyone be quiet! Ostrich! There’s an ostrich over on our fence, and we don’t want to scare it away!” After some quick scientific reasoning, we came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, NOT an ostrich but actually just a run-of-the-mill city neighborhood bird.

2. This morning I had a conversation with L about how Daddy had bought me at Costco one time. Well, that is what I thought we were talking about; that’s what L told me. I told her that Daddy probably did say that since we definitely buy lots of things at Costco. We actually exchanged several sentences about the whole subject. I smiled and asked how much Daddy had spent on me and if he said whether or not he had gotten a good deal. L smiled and shook her head, “No, Moma. Not you. Daddy didn’t buy YOU at Costco; Daddy bought YOGURT.”

3. When I made my chocolate chip cookies the other day, I only baked a dozen or so of them, and I froze the rest as little cookie dough balls. Last night, I turned to N and said, “Hmmm… I think I could use a chocolate chip cookie right now.” (Obviously I waited to think this until after the kids were asleep in bed.) Then I proceeded to turn on the oven, pull out a cookie sheet, get 4 frozen cookie dough balls from the freezer, and put my cookies in the oven to bake. Overall time from first utterance of words to the fresh-out-of-the-oven, the-chocolate-chips-are-still-hot cookie bliss in my mouth: less than 10 minutes. I shared with N. (Then I praised myself for having self-control… but regretted that I hadn’t baked more!)

4. My “Fruit/Vegetable/Herb Garden in Progress.” I am awaiting sprouts any time now from my seeds in the kitchen window… I have watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, and bell peppers up there. Still in pots but soon to go into the ground, I have tomatoes, walla walla onions, basil, rosemary, cilantro, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

5. When I went in the backyard earlier to check on the kids, I saw L and B squatted over the twisty bike. The bike was flipped upside-down and they were busy at work doing something to the bottom of it. As they were looking a little sheepish, I asked what they were doing. L was working at unscrewing the screws and said they were taking off “this thing on the back.” I proceeded to tell them “absolutely not,” and then I explained to them that there was a reason for that “thing” to be there. I talked about safety features and how it would help keep them from flipping over backwards, et cetera, et cetera… As I’m saying all of this I walk over to where they are so that I can physically stop this dangerous activity. L was holding a screwdriver. Oh, did I say screwdriver? I meant to say “rock.”

6. S was eating a cheddar cheese stick for a snack. She chewed it up, swallowed it, coughed, and spit it back up… all over Molly’s head, collar, ears. (Molly is the dog we’re babysitting. Molly’s parents are in China.) Timing, of course, was inconvenient, as I was holding T in one arm as he nursed and using the other arm to do some other important activity like sweep or something. I understand that you don’t see where my laughter was in all of this… it’s not a funny thing that I had to clean up cheese globs out of dog hair. But B’s comments did make me laugh. “Moma, why did S put crumbs on Molly? Look, Mom, it’s yellow. Eggs have yellow in them. Bananas are yellow, too. Why does Molly have yellow on her head?" At this point, you need to recall the banabadder conversation. Read here for the banabadder story. Thus, smiles.

7. I just got an email from Costco. I have all these pictures saved on our computer. Hundreds and hundreds of pictures from the digital camera. I was just telling N the other day that the only unfortunate part of a digital camera is that I don’t have prints of all my great pictures since I just save them on the computer. (On the plus side, I also don’t have prints of all the not-so-great pictures.) Well yesterday afternoon I went through all the files of pictures and uploaded a little over 200 of them to the Costco photo center. I got 4x6 prints of all them, some doubles, a few 5x7s. It cost me $35. I thought that was good for so many prints. But my smile comes from this: They are being mailed to me, and S&H is free! So now I don’t have to make a special trip to Kennewick to pick up my pictures. (Not like I won’t be there anyways, but still!) And my bigger smile comes from this: I ordered them yesterday afternoon and my email I just got says that they’ve already been shipped! How is that for service?

8. T is sleeping in his swing right now. But just a few minutes ago I was holding him. I had just changed his diaper. L was telling me that I didn’t always HAVE to change it when it just had wet wets in it. I said not always, but that if there’s too much wet in it, the diaper won’t be able to soak it up if he wets more or if he poops. Okay, moving on now. Time elapsed from diaper change to story incident… five minutes max. I’m holding T across my lap and one arm, as I am typing with the other hand. I hear him poop, and when I know he’s all done, I get up to go change him. I see a little orange coming through the back of his onesie, so I know I’d better hurry, since it’s starting to leak. Well, it wasn’t just starting to leak; it was already a total leaker. To understand just how leaky, recall that “new baby” poop is quite soupy… and yellowy orangey. Unfortunately it wasn’t just all over his clothes, but it was also all over mine. I look like I dropped a mustard hot dog in my lap. I can smile at this because T manages to get my clothes dirty one way or another. It’s not a new thing. At church during a diaper change (granted I was changing him while holding him in my lap) he peed and soaked the crotch of my pants. I’m pretty positive it looked like I was the one who had peed!

9. Like my good friend Pinky, I, too, have been trying to revive my home’s Flylady. Check out Pinky here. Now flies tend to slow down and disappear in the winter (well, the Flylady isn’t supposed to, but just go along with my story), but we’ve noticed something very strange the last two winters here in Washington. It doesn’t matter if it has been freezing weather for weeks with high temps in the teens. There will still be the occasional fly buzzing around the house. Where they’ve been living is beyond me. But hear a bzzzz-bzzzzz and look, and you will find a fly, albeit a slow, fat, and old fly. I think that winter brings about the same effects with my inner Flylady. The cold weather comes, and I get slower and fatter (well, maybe pregnanter is a better description). Anyways, I have been trying to get my Flylady all warmed up and active again, keeping a somewhat tidy, somewhat clutter-free house. She’s been buzzing around here for a couple weeks (motivated by the arrival of warmer weather… and, maybe moreso, the arrival of company!!). But I think Pinky is right, I need to take advantage of my Flylady’s web presence and utilize it! But back to my reasons for smiling, doesn’t a clean house make you feel good, too?

10. It’s Wednesday. That means M and L will be at Awana tonight. That also means it’s date night. Though we’ll still have three kids with us, it still feels like a date. And going on a date is definitely something to smile about.

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