Small Successes-August 19th

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. It came to my notice on Sunday that our basement was attacked by enemy forces. I'm not sure when or how it happened, but someone bombed our basement and toys were strewn about like bits of shrapnel. The kids, thankfully, were alright. I suspect they may have been in the room at the time of the bombing based on their overall demeanor when I insisted that they put out some effort to clean up the mess. I firmly believe that either they made this mess on their own, or they did something rather heinous to provoke some hostile nation to attack us. They toiled for several hours trying to put the basement back the way it should be (if the one toy at a time rule was actually followed). Sadly, like Humpty Dumpty, the girls were unable to put the room back together again and I had to step in despite my husbands protests. The basement now looks the way it should and the only casualty is a missing hot pink Nintendo DS stylus. A moratorium on all video and computer games was issued by my husband until the stylus has been recovered. Reconnaissance efforts to retrieve the elusive item have proved fruitless.  The kids are dismayed, but I am rather enjoying the quiet that comes when there are no fights over video games.

2. I eradicated the feelings of guilt I had about choosing to eat my breakfast alone in the dining room instead of with the girls when I discovered that Bryan had forgotten to put the pool pump back to filter on Tuesday night after he backwashed the pool that I had overfilled just a smidge earlier in the day.   If I had chosen to eat my breakfast with the girls yesterday morning our pool would have certainly been drained [and our basement possibly flooded] because I would not have been in an area of the house where I could see the pool water gushing from the backwash hose. In the span of a minute we lost all the water I had put in the pool the day before. So there you have it. I vanquished guilt and saved the day all in one fell swoop. Next time I feel guilty about not eating breakfast with the kids most mornings I'll remember that. And, I'll also remind myself that I grew up eating breakfast alone most mornings and enjoying it.

3. We have over 15 cantaloupes growing in our garden now. Most of them are very small, still, but one is about the size of a baseball. This is our first time successfully growing cantaloupes and we're very excited. When we have tried to grow cantaloupes in the past the bunny rabbits have come along and snipped the plants off right at the vine's base.

While you are here,  take a moment to enter my EcoSmart giveaway that ends this coming Monday.

I'll also be hosting a giveaway of Fr. Mark Mossa's book, Already There, starting next week. Don't miss out on an opportunity to win this book.