Some days I feel I do better than others.  It seems if the house looks great I look horrible from having cleaned it.  Or if I look great for some special occasion then the house has gone to pot.  If I was a great mother and painted with our daughter and read a lot to her the animals may have gotten a little shortchanged.  If I cooked a great meal for my husband I let our daughter watch TV so I could get it done.  But today was one of those rare days when I was on a roll.  To start with, I wasn’t simply sanitary; my hair was curled and I wasn’t wearing my customary uniform of sweat pants and the hub’s undershirt.  I was actually dressed … and somewhat coiffed.  I got up at my usual 6 AM, made coffee, fed the wolfies and the turtles, then waited for Maris to come down and help feed the gatos.  I didn’t get in my walk but I got our little one dressed for Chapel and to pre-school a hair early.  Her nap mat was clean, lunch neatly packed, and I could feel a sense of accomplishment already.  I didn’t have any rounds (I have owned and operated a pet sitting business for fifteen years) so I set to work on the house.  I got the beds changed, laundry (mostly) done, grooming appointment booked for Cheyenne, Dakota and Chin Chin (our one-eyed Shih Tzu), checks written (which I rarely have to do anymore,) dishes cleaned, fencing guy scheduled, organic fertilization of the lawn on the calendar, mail sorted, and — best of all — a trunk load of items purged to donate to Operation Kindness.  After checking the time I realized I needed to pick up my daughter.  I was running out of steam and Starbucks is a newly discovered guilty pleasure.  So I grabbed my reusable cup and headed out to get a little jolt of java.  “I’m sorry, I cannot remember your name,” the girl said as she scribbled hieroglyphs on a little tab.  “It’s Laura.  But you know what?  You can just call me ‘Sexy.'”  “Right on” she said as she scanned my Apple Watch for payment.  Imagine my surprise when my frappuchino came up under that moniker.  There was another girl who served it and she was playful enough to say it with feeling.  Everyone turned to look and we all grinned.  Such a silly, trivial thing but it made my day.  I got Maris shuttled to karate early and sipped my frothy concoction, having left my “Sexy” label on for pure enjoyment.  Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega said, “I think people are sexy when they have a sense of humor, when they are smart, when they have some sense of style, when they are kind, when they express their own opinions, when they are creative, when they have character.”  I’ve still got it.  😉

When I was a little girl, some of my happiest memories were going to the mall with my parents.  There was a huge, lit fountain I would watch for seemingly hours.  Mama and Daddy held hands as we walked around.  We couldn’t often buy but it was fun just to go.  In college I worked at that mall for Lord & Taylor, which is now gone.  I would save my money to eat at La Madeline and speak French with the cashier Jacqueline who was from Paris.  Now I walk that mall holding hands with my husband while our little girl gazes up in wonder at the same huge, lit fountain.  They have added restaurants, a movie theater and a park but it has still retained the same feel.  It IS great to be able to buy more things like new clothes or cookies as a treat.  But I want our daughter to know there is joy in simply walking around and spending time with each other.  We don’t ALWAYS need to buy something.  Happiness is what you make of it.  Growing up I always knew we were poor but very rich because the three of us had each other.  A Pastor named Charles Spurgeon once said it is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.  Now God has graciously allowed me to have a husband and a child of my own — and there is no price that can possibly be put on that.