March 30

It feels like I've been waiting a month for this Friday. Not that there was anything special about this Friday; it just feels like the past week has been the longest. week. ever.

But two things happened on this Friday, one important and one quite minor in comparison. The important thing was that we got the news about Chris' Grandad: he has stage four cancer. It started in his lungs, and now it's in his bones and everywhere. Friends, will you pray for Tom? He's 81, but he's  not your average 81-year-old. He's the kind of 81-year-old who has many more years left in him, if he can just beat this cancer. Join us in praying that God gives him joyful, full days - no matter how many?

And less important is that we got new (to us) furniture today. It came to us in a roundabout way: My dad works for the Botanical Garden. The garden accepts donations from people, and some choose to leave their estate to the garden. When this happens, the garden sells the items of value in its own little antique shop. Occasionally their warehouse fills up, so they have a 50% off sale for employees and volunteers. And, you remember, my dad is an employee. So voila! We now have seven new pieces of furniture (two dressers, bed for Caleb, chair for our room, little desk, buffet and china cabinet) that are in good condition and - our new priority - solid wood instead of particle board. The best part? We paid the equivalent of two or three particle board pieces at Target for seven pieces of quality furniture. Hooray! What a blessing!

Also a blessing? The U-Haul truck we used to move all of that furniture. Or, at least, Caleb thought it was.

Once the furniture was out, he spent quite a bit of time running up and down the "bridge". 

I can't explain the rain boots, except that I said, "Caleb, put some shoes on!" and those are the ones he picked.

Climbing in. Those dirty pants? From pollen on our front porch. It's going to be a rough spring for me, friends.

He really wanted me to get in and play with him.

While the menfolk handled furniture, my mom handled weeds in the back yard. Turns out we have quite the poison ivy infestation in our backyard. Luckily (knocking hard on wood here) neither my mom nor I are sensitive to poison ivy, so we can deal with it without fear. However, my husband is a delicate flower. The ivy hates him, so he's really paranoid about it.

Before I put her to work, though, I let mom snuggle the kids for a while.

Daisy alternated between gazing at Grandma lovingly and suspiciously.

See? Suspicious.

Meanwhile, Caleb drank his "good morning coffee". Really, that's what he calls it. Really, it was warm water in a mug. At 5 pm.