Last week #1 was to draw a picture of contentment. He drew the sock monkey that he has had since he was about 1 year old. This past week "EeEe" the monkey showed up several times around the house. #1 is in a mixed up stage of wanting to grow up and wanting to still be a child. I am excited about this changing time. I wonder what he will be, how he will look, what his voice will sound like. I look forward to seeing him become a successful young man, and some day a husband and father. But I also miss his babyhood. I remember him splashing through puddles when we would take a "wet walk," meeting Santa and asking him things, words that were said wrong like Doug for God, eating a sand and seaweed salad at the shore, but mostly just happiness and laughing. I love my boy. ------- The words to a song resonated with me in church. They were asking God to take my work as a sacrifice. I tried to think about what my "work" is, and I decided it is to guide children. I always expected to have a large family, but I married a man who didn't have the same expectation or desire. So I was thinking that I was mistaken about what my work is; then I thought about my nieces and nephew, the children I care for 3 days a week, the 4-H kids, the kids I teach at co-ops, and most especially, my own two precious children. I even was blessed with children in my profession before I had children of my own. God has certainly given me a lot of children to guide, and I hope my sacrifice is pleasing to Him. ------- This is an edit. I thought I would just quickly flip through the next couple of blogs listed after mine. Wow. The next one was in Spanish, the next German, the next Japanese, and the last English. The English one was by an 18 year old boy who is traveling Asia for 6 months; he is from the UK. Now the song resonating with me is "It's a Small World After All."