Days of Good Cheer (the Glory of Enchiladas)

Ryley sat on my lap just now, offering a variety of suggestions for blog topics and titles (our weekend trip to see Honey, the glory of enchiladas, among others), before I sent her off to get ready for bed. She talks constantly these days, and she skips up and down the stairs taking them three and four at a time. She flies through a random piano piece for the fun of it, then out to the mailbox, then back inside, up the stairs, down the stairs, bouncy, enthusiastic, and always on the go. She’s happy and healthy and coming into her own, which is such a dramatic difference from the struggles she had in 3rd grade. She avoids getting into trouble for the most part (last year it was almost every day), and even though a few of her A’s dropped to B’s this quarter, we didn’t mind because her teachers raved at the parent/teacher conferences on Friday about how much she has grown as a person since Christmas….how she has matured and exercised self-control and steered clear of the typical girl drama.

Ryley had misplaced her iPod this last week, and though we searched the house high and low, we could not find it. So this weekend, our brand new neighbors knocked on the door and returned it to Ryan; they had found it lying in the street. When Ryley got home, we encouraged her to go over and thank them; after all, they could have left it in the street or kept it for themselves. We expected an argument, but no, she slipped her shoes back on and marched across the street.

“I can’t believe she’s doing this,” Ryan said, as we knelt down behind the couch to watch through the big living room window.

But she did it. She knocked on the door, introduced herself to strangers, thanked them, and looked both ways before crossing the street to come back home. My baby is growing up, and it thrills me to no end to see the fruits of our parenting labor. She’s not perfect, and she still has so much growing to do, but we thoroughly enjoy the person she is and continues to become.

Some pictures of the last couple of weeks:

Our friends Rachel and Benjamin had an extra ticket to the Denver Aquarium a couple of weekends ago, so they invited Ryley to go along!  It was great for everyone involved…Ryan was still sick and so he got to sleep all day, and I had a freelance writing project to work on.

The next day, we got 10 inches of snow.

So we stayed home and played.

And we baked.

And we made the soup.

And we made snow cream.

It really was a perfect day, and we were sad when it was over.

This past weekend, Ryley had a couple of days off school, so she and I headed up to Nebraska to see my grandma for a few days. We left Ryan at home with the dog so he could work, do boy things, and eat his boy food (crockpot o’ sausage and green beans).

Sarah and Lily crossed the border into Nebraska first!

Our favorite taco joint may be going out of business soon (apparently they were selling cocaine on the side?), so we ate there twice in two days! Honey was so nice to humor us like that!

So there’s crack in the enchiladas…No wonder they’re so addicting!

Like seriously addicting. Mmmmmmm.

We had a wonderful time with Honey….eating, talking, watching movies, church, eating, talking, watching movies, eating, talking! My favorite kind of weekend! :-)

On the way home, I taught Ryley how to blow bubbles with bubble gum. She was pretty proud of herself. :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I read this quote by C.S. Lewis recently and loved it:

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ”

It’s so true. Sure, I do my best at work, but ultimately, it’s all to fund and help support this family life that we cherish so much. We live for snow days and weekend vacations and time together. We live for these happy moments at home when we are essentially doing nothing…when our daughter flits about the house like a busy butterfly. We live for the feeling of “home” – whatever that means to each and every one of us.