Sometimes It's Simple

She's the first one up today and it's still quite dark.
After a hug she sits across the candlelit table from me.

I push aside my Bible and look.  "Are you excited to go to school today?"

She looks down at the table and doesn't say anything.  I assume my counseling
stature.  "How are you liking your new Kindergarten teacher?"  It's been over two weeks
now since her new teacher came.

She says she's fine.  So I probe further.  "Are you looking forward to class?"  She shakes her head no and looks at me.  "The snacks aren't very good anymore."

Snacks.  That's really what it's all about.  No deep teacher transition issues or disappointment with new expectations being dashed.  Just a poor snack that's not as exciting as it once was.

It really doesn't take much to speak a child's heart language.

I pull down the gigantic bag of M&Ms the man behind us in line at Costco saw fit to buy the kids.

"How about if we bag up some of these for you to share with your class today?"

She smiles and walks excitedly into her classroom.

I stop to talk to the secretary.

Ms. Secretary asks what my cat's name is, then reports that he jumped into her chair yesterday.  After she got over being startled, he made her day by sitting in her lap while she worked on the computer.

Pets.  It doesn't take much to speak a secretary's heart language.

Sometimes it's not hard to put a smile on someone's face.  It gets me smiling to see someone smiling, too!

Here are a few more pictures of some things that have made me smile lately:

Cowboys together

My newest beautiful nephew!

Snowy Books

Since the Groundhog saw his shadow today, there are still some six weeks left to enjoy snow books.

On the day it snowed here, I grabbed these books, and when the children weren't playing in the snow, they were reading and dreaming about it.

We're still reading them, though the snow is gone.

Here are five worthy reads:

1. White Snow Bright Snow
by Alvin Tresselt

Softly, gently in the secret night,
Down from the North came the quiet white.
Drifting, sifting, silent flight,
Softly, gently in the secret night.



2.  The Big Snow
by Berta and Elmer Hader


"Snow, snow, nothing but snow--and the birds and the animals of the hill were very hungry."

3.  Katy and the Big Snow
by Virginia Lee Burton


"On the way back a plane signalled for help.  The airport was snowed in.  Katy was beginning to get a little tired but she wouldn't stop....not Katy."

4.  Snowflake Bentley
by Jaqueline Briggs Martin

"Willie's mother knew he would not be happy until he could share what he had seen.
'Fussing with snow is just foolishness,' his father said.
Still, he loved his son.
When he was seventeen his parents spent their savings and bought the camera."

5.  Stopping By on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers



"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep"....

If you've not already read these, maybe you could grab one from the library and snuggle down with your own little snow-lover!