Gifts of a Friday

* Listening to my 6-year-old read to my 8 and 4-year-old in the car - he has amazing expression and inflection in his reading!

* Getting my children excited about checking out only "true" books at the library today.  They were afraid they wouldn't find anything that was interesting (that's only, like, animals and plants, Mom!), but we ended up coming home with more books than we've ever checked out before.

* Watching my 4-year-old do his version of the freestyle stroke at swimming lessons today - "rainbow arms".  Out of the 3 total students in his class, he was able to get his arms the furthest out of the water.

* Watching my 8 and 6-year-old, who look very much like twins because they're exactly the same height, and who have complementing jackets, push one stroller each with one of the twins in it, into the library.  We got more stares than usual and people were falling all over each other to open doors (and none were my children!).

* Enjoying being able to leave my window open longer than usual at the drive-through and sun my arm.

* Speaking of drive-through's - stopping at Culver's to pick up lunch for the crew because by the time we got out of the library, it was already 1:00.

* Seeing my 6-year-old agree to split a burger with no whining, because even though I ordered 3 kids burgers, we only received 2, so Caleb and Noah split one.  Caleb volunteered to take a half, even though he's usually the biggest eater.  And because we're focusing on the positive here, I won't mention the fit my 4-year-old threw over his (only) half of a burger.

* Listening to Sam's excitement after lunch as he exclaimed to Caleb that "now we get to read all afternoon!!"  (Have I mentioned that I love library day?)

* Explaining the Math lesson calmly to my receptive 2 oldest, having them understand it, understanding it myself, then correcting 2 pages of perfect answers from each of them!

* Getting to wear contacts again after almost a week of wearing glasses due to pink-eye recovery.

* Knowing it's Friday and that we have a fairly stress-free weekend ahead of us.

* Seeing my clean upstairs level and knowing I don't have to do it again for a couple of weeks, at least.

* Hearing....nothing!!...at the moment....