Five Favorites

Hallie at Moxie Wife is collecting Five Favorites. Here are a few of mine:

1. If money were no object, I would buy every single item of Ainsley's clothing at Olive Juice.

Too, too pretty. Alas, money is an object.

2. Kolbe. His middle name is Edward, and we call him Steady Eddie. Love this boy. Love all my boys. But Kolbe has been a rock this summer. A rock. A rock who makes me laugh because of exchanges such as this one:

Me: Is the lawn done?

Tim: Yes.

Me: Kolbe, do you concur?

Kolbe: Yes. 

Pause

Kolbe: What does concur mean?

3. Reading Bob Books with John (oh he of crooked and now missing teeth).

There is a limitless supply of books for new readers, but here's the thing with Bob Books: Young readers can nail every word. They are great for building fluency and mastery. Interesting characters, riveting plot? No. Unless your kid is enthralled by Pat sat on the sad cat. Every other "First Reader" kind of book throws curve balls at kids -- words totally off their radar, words they can't even sound out. Kids like John enjoy success, and Bob delivers.

 (In the interest of full disclosure, I like having John read to me, but he much prefers that I read to him.)

4. Cari's efforts here and Dwija's ability to let the blogging community bless her as she would (and does) bless others.

A little background: Dwija is pregnant and experienced premature rupture of the membranes at ten or so weeks. She's now at about twenty weeks, and baby Nicholas is looking like a fighter! Dwija will shortly be hospitalized for the duration of the pregnancy. Cari initiated an effort to help Dwija's family renovate her laundry room and raised nearly $10,000.  Here's a before picture:

Can't wait to see the after pictures! Please pray for Dwija and Nicholas.

5. And finally, my list of favorites includes forgiveness, reconciliation, a clean slate, in short, the ability to screw up, make amends, and move on.  Love my husband. Love my kids. Love my God.