Sunday, the day after Joshua gets home

I was up early this morning.
I was pulled out of bed by a yelling Selma. I had hoped to get to her before she woke anyone else up.
Alas, Malachai followed immediately after, desperate for some breakfast
(I knew I should have set her crib up in the kitchen last night!)
eventually Josu appeared, asking for some group snuggling on the couch.
So we've had a bit of a lazy morning . . .
Selma has been happy to follow us from room to room, stacking blocks where she can find them,
Malachai and Josu have been busy about swordplay, taking breaks between the epic battles to sheath their swords down their pants (sounds dangerous, huh? don't worry, all was carefully monitored and reasonably safe)

I have mostly been in the kitchen, cleaning up from last night's dinner; and even though Joshua isn't awake yet, my heart is calm and my heart is glad. he's here.
he'll be up with us soon

excuse me, I'm off to hang up the sheets.

Joshua comes home tomorrow afternoon.
if I clean the house tonight, then tomorrow morning I won't worry at all about cleaning; I will go to the coffee shop with my boys; we will read the books we checked out of the library this week; Malachai will be captivated - - new books do that to him. and I'll surprise the boys and I'll get them a couple of Kinder eggs; Selma will see the chocolate and beg for some. I will ask Josu to share some with her; he'll give her a piece the size of a grain of sand; I'll remind him to be generous and he'll give her some more. . . . she'll ask for more and I will tell her no, and she will cry until a tenderhearted coffee drinker at a neighboring table will insist, insist on getting her a croissant. that will take us to the end of the book, and then we'll take our soccer balls out to the park and practiced the techniques we read about in the library book. While we're at the park we'll run into all the friends and neighbors who chose not to spend their morning at the local pool. . .
and we'll talk about Joshua. and about how giddy I am to see him after two weeks of him being gone, and maybe someone will ask about what it is exactly that he is studying, and I'll explain about Joshua being a theologian who tries his hardest to put it all in practice, or maybe I'll get to tell them about the project he is doing for one of his classes - - using Spain's civil war propaganda posters as part of a contemporary confession of faith, written in light of the the Spanish way of living and thinking and viewing the world. . .
(I'm very proud of him)

it probably won't work out exactly like that, but it will probably be something similar. that would be a good morning for me.

that is why I am cleaning the house tonight.

loving our neighbor: a family affair

Joshua is off gallivanting (gallivanting of the scholarly kind) in Philadelphia for a couple of weeks.
he skyped me last night; it had been a long day for me.
"Tuesday movie rentals are half off" he reminded me . . . "put a movie on for the boys tomorrow" he urged. (good man)
on our way to the video store, Malachai had asked if we could invite the neighbor boys over to watch the movie with us.
I said yes.
do you know why I said yes?
I thought that their parents would say no.
sad but true. (the bit about me, I mean)
we've tried before, and it hasn't worked.
letting your kids hang out at someone else's place seems to be a huge, relational trust step around here. (um . . . understandably so, but it's been seven years now!)
well, the neighbors said yes this time.
so we popped some popcorn and made a party of it all.
I'm thankful for Malachai's persistent initiative.