Simply happy

A friend invited me to read their family blog today. So, being an overachiever, I read the entire blog history. Luckily, they haven't been blogging for long and her blentries are more about pictures than lengthy, wordy words like mine. :) My point? Yes, I have one. She had one entry that included this quote from Winnie Dalley:

"A house does not have to be perfect to be a home of joy, a child does not have to behave perfectly to love and be loved, and every moment of life does not have to be perfect to be of value. Too often, I realize, we fail to see the glorious reality of the simple joy that abounds in the seemingly mundane routine of day-to-day living. Instead, we tend to idolize the past, idealize the future, and devalue the present. We complain abundantly, we worry too much, and we appreciate too little. We forget Amulek’s exhortation to “live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which [God] doth bestow upon” us (Alma 34:38), as well as Alma’s counsel to “let [our] heart be full of thanks unto God” (Alma 37:37). What better way to show our appreciation to Heavenly Father for what we have than to embrace our lives, albeit “ordinary” and “unexciting,” with joy?"

I like it. So, I thought I'd pass it on. (I did a little research...if research is a code name for Google...and found the article that includes this quote here.)

Overheard recently in our car

Ammon: I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse!
Sarah: I'm so hungry, I could eat a WHALE!
Nathan: I'm so hungry, I could eat a PIZZA!!!

Bethie, speaking to herself, using her cute little fingers as the characters, and a different voice for each finger speaking in the dialogue:
Mom, the kids are not making room for me.
Kids, make room for your little sister.
What?
What?
Kids, make room for your little sister.
Dad, the kids are still not making room for me.
Kids, make room for your little sister.
Okay, I will make room for her.
Okay, I will make room for her.
Etc....

Nathan: I think that God must really like the color blue. That's why he made the whole sky blue! And that's why he made garbage cans blue.
Ammon: Those are recycling bins.

Lemonade for sale, 50 cents a cup!

I think it was originally Ammon's idea. But Sarah is the squeaky wheel. Or she is the one who gets things done. Or she is the straw that broke the camera's back. However you look at it, Sarah was insistent that Monday was the day for a lemonade stand. By the time we got home from the store, it was past 4:00 p.m. We had plans at 6:00. That's not a lot of time. But the kids said they would like to sell lemonade for a few minutes anyway. They made the signs. I set the price at 50 cents. They were thinking more along the lines of $5/cup. We squeezed and squeezed and taste-tested and finally Sarah said it was ready.

They set up the table (all by themselves) and I thought, "They're not going to sell a thing." I called a neighbor and asked him to come by and buy a cup. I was still on the phone when I looked out the window and saw a jeep full of people had stopped. They were counting their coins and Sarah was trying to pour the lemonade. Then I looked out the window again and the next-door neighbor was there. After 30 minutes or so, when the neighbor I had asked to come finally got there, he and his son got the very last cups. The kids had made $7! It almost (but not quite)covers the cost of the lemons, but that is entirely beside the point. What a great afternoon they had. It's one of those must-do's of childhood. And now we can check it off. All that's left is Disneyland.