I forgot to take a picture of anything on Sunday and ended up just taking a photo of the kids playing with Little Pet Shop toys.  I secretly love buying them for coco, especially when it is a gift because then I get to pick them out myself.

Chloe woke up and told us she saw a huge hawk fly past her window, I smiled and nodded and went on my way.  A few hours later a large Red Tailed Hawk landed in a tree in front of the study window...Coco knew what she was talking about all along.

The boys have been BEGGING me to buy lunchables because they learned about star wars game pieces that are sold on the back of the packages.  I like how they can play the game for hours and it does not take batteries.

I made Banana bread with mixed berries and apricots and it took all my might not to eat the whole thing but instead share it with the kids.  But I did share it, we had a tea party with left over Christmas candy cane flavored tea, and the bread did taste better shared.

Steve's Mom was at our house for a few days, while Dad was on a missions trip to Africa. She was a joy, it was special having her all to ourselves.

I gutted the boys room, organized everything including the closet.  They begged me to keep everything out of the closet, for a few days, so they could build a 'secret' fort in there.  

They put up a sign, and then missed Coco and wrote out a new sign.  Tonight they invited Steve and I up to the fort and all five of us squished onto the pile of blankets and pillows, feeling quite uncomfortable but happy.

Eti asked us if he could sleep in the fort, we said yes.  He got scared and an hour later ended up in his own bed.

I spent a few hours at my Sister Martha's shop today, she has her own sewing store and let me sew on a machine that was one hundred years old.  I am trying very hard to finish a quilt I started for Jeff nine years ago.  All the colors of thread hanging on her wall made me happy.  Spending time with her made me even happier.

I have been reading Augustine The Confessions before I fall asleep at night, the paragraph I read that made me fall in love with his writing is this:

"Who is Lord besides the Lord; who is God besides our God? (Psalm 18:31) Highest and best, most mighty, most almighty, most full of mercy and justice, most hidden and most present with us, most lovely and most strong.  You are abiding and unsearchable; you change all things, but are yourself unchanging; you are never new and never old, yet you renew all things and bring the proud to their old age unawares (Job 9:5).  You are always at work and always at rest; you gather to yourself, though you lack nothing... You seek when you are short of nothing...You are jealous (Joel 2:28, Zechariah 1:14, 8:2) and fear no rival. You repent (Gen. 6:6-7, 1 Sam. 15:35) but do not regret; you are roused to anger, and remain calm. You change your works, but your counsel is unchanged.  You take back what you find, yet you had never lost it. You are never in need, yet you rejoice in riches; never grasping yet you demand a return from us (matt 25:27)..

My God, my life, my holy sweetness." (Page 7)