Just another day

Yesterday while I was picking up in the 90 minutes before the boys started trickling back home, I spotted Jonah's blanket laying over his stool where he left it that morning.  That remnant of himself gave me pause.  Several hours earlier he had come down stairs for scripture reading, still warm from his cozy bed and still a little bleary-eyed and wrapped in his "cow-cow".  During breakfast he likes to keep it with him for warmth and so it sits under his bottom and he wraps it around his skinny little legs. I was missing him, I was missing all of them in that moment.  As I made my way thought the house, I found other treasures they had left behind reminding me of who they are and what is important to them today.  I feel humbled that Jared and I have been able to provide for them this life.  It is simple on some levels, extravagant on others, it is hectic on many days, it is unifying on others, but it belongs to the six of us and nothing makes me happier.

Jonah is obsessed with Dinosaurs and has been for some time.  This is a book of posters that he wants to hang in his room sitting where he left it the day before.

Gavin came home today and finished this book he had left on the rocking chair the night before.  He's already into the next book in the series.

This pile of rocks greets me and everyone else at the front door.  They are collected in the woods, on the walk home, on hikes, wherever the boys spy a piece to add to the collection.

That curved stick has made its home on the front porch opposite the side of the rocks for nearly a year.  Others come and go and those there now are a few they were working on this past summer.  There is also bow in the mix that was either made by Grandpa Harris several years ago or it could have been made by Jared.  The funny thing is, I have no idea who made it or which of the boys it belongs to, but hand it to one of them and they'll immediately know the answer.

I love this picture of our scriptures left sitting from the morning reading next to the puzzle Jonah started two weeks ago with Grandma Harris.