Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Recent Reasons to Smile

1. Jonah’s royal cuteness at the church’s egg hunt last Sunday…

Mmm! Jellybeans!

2. Painting faces (and arms!) at the egg hunt. It felt great to do something artistic again and the kids were so delightful!

(Only my son would think of asking for a snake that says “Hi!”)

3. I lost a pound last week. Which at first didn’t make me smile, because I thought I should’ve lost more. But then I picked up a pound of butter and realized that was gone from my body and Lord willing, it wouldn’t be coming back. And then I was OK. If it has to come off one measly pound at a time, so be it. Even at a snails’ pace, a year from now, I’ll be 52 pounds lighter.

4. Finishing this week’s column. It was a particularly hard write this week, so clicking “send” felt just wonderful!

5. Hearing that my sweet friend “H” delivered a healthy baby boy yesterday. He’s adorable and I get to go sneak a cuddle tonight or tomorrow!

6. Mom’s Night Out with some good friends last night. Always a great time, basking in estrogen instead of the flood of testosterone I’m bathed with daily!

7. Eating REAL food at MNO! I’d saved up almost a whole day’s worth of calories and I enjoyed every single crispy breaded bite! And then experienced bonus joy when I came home and entered what I ate and saw that I didn’t go over my daily allotment.

8. Jonah pausing while nursing himself to sleep last night, to smile contentedly and say “Mama…” before dozing off.

9. My friend Amy sharing with me the link to this adorable Resurrection Set craft ! As the creator of it says, we put up nativity sets at Christmas. How come no one has resurrection sets at Easter? So this week, we’re making one!

10. The following dialogue yesterday:

Eli, digging through his basket of candy after the church’s egg hunt: “Oh boy! I didn’t realize I got Reese’s cups!” (Reese’s are the holy grail of candy around our house.)

Zach, drooling, sans candy because he’s too old for egg hunts: “Oooh! I want one! I want one!”

Eli: “Nope.”

Zach, bargaining as always: “I’ll get you a police car on our Xbox driving game…”

Eli: “OK!” and hands over the candy.

Me, curious as to what’s involved in earning that game car: “So, what does it take for you to get a police car???”

Eli, without missing a beat: “You have to give your big brother a Reese’s cup…”