For my sister

Please pray.

Perhaps she needs a cuppa herself!

I went to my local coffee shop this afternoon to get my pick-me-up all by myself. My favorite barista was sound asleep, recovering from a late at night, far away soccer match. The girl behind the counter asked my preference.

Me:  A small coffee cooler with a scoop of chips, please.

She: (looking perplexed) Um, you want potato chips in your coffee?

Me: No, dear, espresso chips, just a scoop...

She: Oh good, I'm not sure we have potato chips.

Duh.

Isn't that backward?

Katie: Gracie and I are going to play babies down in the basement.

Me: OK, sounds like a great idea.

Katie: Can we take Kara and pretend she's a doll?

Father's Day Far Away

It's Father's Day. I'm a big fan of holidays and holy days. I love to make a fuss. But I am going to admit, this one slipped off my RADAR screen--the victim of being between the infamous weekend and the trip to Denver. I've had a wicked sinus infection all week and I've been bumbling about trying to get ready to go again. "Daddy" was around a bit this week, getting into trouble  playing with the kids, but it didn't hit me until late yesterday, as we were driving to the airport, that he was leaving town and would miss Father's Day here on the east coast. I'm a bad mommy. We should have celebrated yesterday. Maybe we'll move it to Tuesday.

For now, the best I can do is lock myself in his office and call California so we can start the day with a long phone call. I'll tell him how much I love him and how I know of no other man on earth as dedicated to his children. I'll probably cry because it will hit me that he's alone in a hotel room on Father's Day and that just doesn't seem fair when you've worked so hard as the father of eight kids. And then I'll feel really badly for neglecting to tuck some special reminder into his suitcase. Finally, I'll tell him to log on because someone in this house didn't forget.

Wholehearted Blogging

This morning, I discovered that the Clarkson family of my favorite, most inspirational homeschooling book ever, Educating the WholeHearted Child, has a quiver-full of blogs. Looks like they are under construction but if enough of us leave comments, maybe they'll be inspired to get up and running. And it looks like Sally has another blog here, where she's got a few posts to wet our whistle.