Grateful Friday

Things I'm grateful for today:

Empty nest + Adam

We miss Mark and it seems like he's gone for an awfully long time.  His super communicative texts are comforting though:

Mark would have saved a lot of money during telegram days when you had to pay according to how many words.

Adam and I have been muddling along without him though.  We turned the heat off before we both left for work.  Later in the evening we realized we hadn't turned it back on.  "Should we?"  We both just shrugged.

So picture us in our golden years in a cold house because we can't be bothered.

Last night we wrapped Christmas presents because no one was around and we could spread out on the table and counter.

We even turned on Christmas music for the occasion.

(Maybe the lack of heat helped create a certain wintry holiday atmosphere.)

My parents

They are awesome.  I'm grateful for their goodness and steady faith and courage.  They've always been an anchor in my life and those two together feels like everything is going to be right in the world.

Being around kids

A kindergartner with stick straight hair told me I had tangled hair.  I said, "I know; it's curly.  That's just how it is."

She said, "You should brush it."

(I hope when that little girl is a teenager her mother has a thick skin.)

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A second grader told me about something he did back when he "was a child."

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I was helping a little girl, who is a Thelma the Unicorn aficionado, with math.  She was reluctant to work on her math and said, "I don't even know how you can do math, Thelma the Unicorn.  You live in a field."

I said, "It's because I'm a unicorn."

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Multiple grades are working on writing opinion pieces and a lot of the kids have written about how we should have hot dogs instead of turkey for Thanksgiving.  The number one reason most of them site is that turkeys are animals and you have to kill them so you should have hot dogs instead.

I don't want to be the one to tell them what hot dogs are made of.  (I don't really want to know myself what hot dogs are made of.)

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Mark's doppelgänger has been asking me to bring my phone to recess.  I kept forgetting and then yesterday I happened to have it in my coat pocket.  He demanded I hand it to him.

Ha! No.

He wanted me to play Sonic Mania Invincibility music for him.  I googled it.  It was the kind of techno annoying music that Mark plays (not surprisingly--I'm telling you, they are the same kid) that prompts me to change the radio.  His doppelgänger stood next to me with a huge grin on his face and listened to the music.  He wrapped his arms around my arm and blissfully leaned his head against me.

Then later he threw a paper airplane and it hit me right on the nose.

(I didn't want you to think it was always sunshine and roses.)