In the Which I Babble Giddily

Can I just say....that I have ALMOST forgiven Tax Season for eating my husband alive, and spitting him out the other side?

Thursday morning, while Ernie was at Joy School, Mimi and I made a batch of our favorite wheat/white bread dough...and smashed it flat with a rolling in, covered it with brown sugar and cinnamon, then rolled it up tight. Packed into a pretty wicker basket (I have a thing for wicker baskets- they're all over the house!) those slices made quite a stir at his office. I'm fairly certain that warm bread was the only reason Wonder Daddy and his co-workers made it through that final push on Thursday.

Thursday night I left my husband and daughters playing in the yard, IN THE SUNSHINE (sigh, bliss!) to go to the temple with the rest of the ladies from our stake- it was a beautiful evening, I'm glad I went...even though it was SO HARD to drive away from my family.

Friday Wonder Daddy spent the morning with a friend, and the afternoon was spent in the backyard, followed by park, followed by Fatburgers, followed by sprinkled donuts. WOW. We ended at Costco and restocked our dried fruit supply- Mimi clutched the bag of dried blueberries all the way to the cashier, and shoved FISTFULS into her mouth on the way to the car. (She found them again this morning, while I was making pancakes. You should have seen her, crouched gollum-like in the kitchen corner, cramming blueberries into her mouth while looking furtively around. She really likes dried fruit, OK?) I think M must be on a growth spurt, I've never seen her eat like this! She wants to sleep all morning too. Somebody's about to outgrow all her clothes...

Oh, and Saturday. My goodness. Wonder Daddy was up early to take a bike ride around the lake, we had our Saturday Morning Pancakes for the first time in months, then Daddy and the girls went to the bike store to daydream and purchase supplies while I went to a choir practice. The weather was so nice that I walked 8 city blocks in the rain to meet them halfway on the way back. Quick stop into a thrift store (our new favorite, a church store that just opened up across town) and then home for sandwiches and naps. AND THEN, Grandpa came.

Folks, I spent nearly five hours with my husband today. Alone.

It was so luxurious.

We went to a fabulous garden open house. We stopped in the U-District, to grab some falafel on The Ave. We stopped at Costco to pick up a compost tumbler. (Well, actually we sprinted in, because we arrived 3 minutes before closing time.) We browsed the outlet malls for work clothes (the man buys clothes every other year or so...and of course, everything wears out at the same time. So we just know every other year we're going to do a MAJOR shopping trip!) We scored on his shoes though- our Bass outlet is having a BOGT event: 1 pair at regular price, 2 free! Sweet, we don't have to buy shoes for another 6 years :) We were nearly an hour late getting home- sweet Grandpa had the girls fed, bathed, jammied....he and Mimi were cuddling and Ernie was coloring a picture when we walked in the door.

I know not every day is hamburgers and parks and date nights. But I could just cry, I'm so grateful for when those days DO happen!