in no particular order

1. Lately I have been thinking about what a blessing my home - both the physical location and the people who inhabit it - is to me. I'm so utterly at ease in my own house. This little space - where we eat and love and argue and rest and teach and regroup - is set apart. Sacred, in our lives. God forgive me for grumbling over crumbs and dust - evidence of excess and comfort - and for how easily I forget what a tremendous blessing it is to have a home.

2. About twice a year Brian decides he's eventually going to go blind and die from diabetic shock if he doesn't eat fewer Twizzlers and cinnamon rolls, and we stop buying sugary breakfast foods for a few months. Until he becomes so bored with bagels and Shredded Wheat that he decides he prefers death to boredom, and we buy cinnamon rolls again (incidentally, breakfast is always balanced with protein and fruit, and it's where the overwhelming majority of our sugar for the day resides. Not that I need to defend cinnamon rolls, but I'm just sayin'). Anyway, we're back in Avoid-Death-By-Cinnamon-Roll mode right now, and I'm looking for breakfast baked goods that can a. trick the mind into believing you've just eaten something you wanted to eat, and not something you would be rude to spit out, and b. don't require half a box of high fructose corn syrup. Avoiding special trips to the grocery store are a bonus, and avoiding oats and dairy would be fantastic, though that's a tall order. I'm sconed out. Tomorrow I'm going to try Ina Garten's Irish Soda Bread (with orange zest and currants - which the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread has pronounced Not Irish, but has only 4 tablespoons of sugar in the whole loaf, and a loaf will last more than one meal). Any other suggestions? Don't even bother talking about the benefits of eggs benedict. It is baked goods or bust around here.

3. Turns out it's not allergies, but colds plaguing the boys. So very sad, considering today tastes like spring!, and both of them sort of meandered in the back yard for a while before lying down on the floor and hoping I would take pity and put them down for nap. Really. Right now I'm sitting in the backyard cultivating my farmer's tan while Asher is lying on the couch, because that's where he'd rather be. Boo for colds. But the flu is going around, so praise God it's just a cold, too. I should mention that Asher just called me in to tell me that Tow Mater spit and Mac is ready for bed, so he's obviously feeling well enough to enjoy his movie.

4. But, before they gave up and lolled about on the rug, we spent a full hour this morning watching the city work trucks crush abandoned couches and grind up branches and scoop up leaves with a crane. Friends, you have never seen two little boys more enthralled. Silas sat still for the whole hour - that's how entertaining it was.

5. One more.

The next time you need to be reminded of your desperate need for Grace, here's what you do: give up snacking. I don't mean Twizzlers, I mean halves of bananas and raisins and peanuts. Keep buying snacks for other people, keep making snacks every single day for your children, but you personally abstain every single time from taking a bite. It is UNBELIEVABLE how BAD I am at Lent this year. It's not without trying, it's not that it's not important to me. And it's not as though I am an undisciplined eater in general. But to choose every single time, no matter how tired or distracted or hungry I am, to give up a snack (although I still have scheduled protein to prevent crashing blood sugar and the resulting blood shed), is almost impossible. Never have I been as aware of my need for God. I can't even consistently abstain from Goldfish crackers; how could I ever possibly trust my own righteousness?

Happy Monday all.