Happies

The past few weeks have been an adventure, no doubt.  Tonight's homily at Mass was just what I needed to hear -- especially about how things don't always come easy or conveniently, and there's a lot of grace that can be received as life doesn't go exactly as planned.

That said, there are a number of little happies that surfaced over the past month.

• Thomas painting masterpieces for Jonathan.
  He no longer enjoys finger painting, he's all about the brushes.  I wanted to use some handprints on one of the paintings for Jonathan's birthday, and Thomas wanted nothing to do with it.  Just paintbrushes for him now.  He was so proud of his work, and keeps pointing to it each time he sees it.  I flattened the prints after they dried and framed them for Jonathan's birthday.
• My love for our Keurig.
  We don't have instant-hot water at the house, so the Keurig was used creatively when needed.  For my 'recommended by everyone and their sweet, dear old grandmother' sore throat healer, I mixed honey and lemon juice in the bottom of a big mug, added hot water from the Keurig, and an instant steamy lemonade was made.  So good on your throat.  Also made perfect hot salt water solutions for gargling.  Since I don't drink coffee, finding sweet new uses for the Keurig makes me happy.
• The Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier.
  Jonathan and I picked this up before our weekend in Seattle.  It steamed up our room beautifully, and we hauled it up to Seattle.  With the crazy air conditioning in the hotels, it saved my throat from drying up.  Super easy to clean and uses the same inhalant that Thomas's cool mist humidifier uses.  
• Dr. Bronner's Liquid Soaps.
  Granted, the packaging on the stuff is a little nutty.  If you're bored in the shower, you can read it and be amused.  But in all honesty, this stuff has taken over my shower.  I used to have a dozen different soapy bottles, and now I use just three of these: Thomas gets the baby version (without fragrance).  His skin had been breaking out, which I all but ruled out every food allergy possible, and it turns out that it's soap that dries him up.  These are fabulous.  I shave with the citrus orange and keep a little bottle of tea tree soap in the shower as well. 
• Finding a sweet, inexpensive solution to our toilet seat problem.
  A few weeks ago, Thomas cracked one of the toilet seats in our ever-so-creatively designed 2 bathrooms-in-one.  This was a big problem because it was the throne I normally use (Jonathan and I are a little territorial about this kind of stuff) and when you get up half a dozen times at night to go and you pinch your sweet little cheeks on a broken seat, you swear LOUDLY.  A LOT. It's always bugged me that the other seat didn't match the color of the toilet (white / almond), so I replaced that seat with a new one that matched the main toilet that everyone uses when they visit, and moved the non-matching white one to my little bathroom that had the broken seat.  I know this is incredibly nerdy to be happy about, but it was a $15 fix that cleaned up one of my big bathroom pet peeves.  Thanks, Wee Ski, for cracking the seat!
• My sweet child and his habits.
• Sleeping with Paul the Doll, his baby, every time he naps.  He tucks him in and makes sure he's warm, and then goes to sleep next to him.
• How he throws away his banana peels when he steals bananas from the fruit baskets.  How he brings me a banana when I am not out of bed yet, peeled and ready to eat.  
• "Knock knock!  Who's there?"  He doesn't know anything further in typical 'knock knock' jokes, but these 2 phrases are enough to keep him in stitches to the point he just says them to himself and breaks down giggling.
• How he says "Sar-wee" in the sweetest, high pitch voice when he knows he's in trouble.  It makes it that much easier to immediately forgive him for whatever he was doing, like writing on the suede pillows with ballpoint pen.
• I realized how hard it was for him for several days when I couldn't pick him up because of my back.  At least half a dozen times today, he stopped me, put his arms up, and just said "hug".  Yes, sweetpea, I'll give you a hug.  As many times as you want.
• He plays hide and seek, even if you don't know you're playing with him.  When the whole house is silent for several minutes and I didn't hear the house alarm beep when he opened a door (a Godsend, by the way), chances are he's curled up in our bed under the covers, waiting to be found.  He's not big on diversity in his hiding places, so it's important to act really surprised when you do find him.  At least if I want to keep him hiding in the same spot!