Gratitude Friday...

Welcome to the second week in a row for Gratitude Friday!

I feel like this a huge win for the week.  

It's not been a bad week.  It's been a good week, actually.  But I'm staring down the barrel of a three day weekend.  Band widow for two of those days, and I'm, well, SUPER EXCITED.

How quickly I forget how to do the awesome threesome!  

Sigh.

Last night, we attended our first Spirit Night at CFA for AK's elementary school.  She got to see her teacher and it might have been the highlight of her six long years.  Her teacher is a delight.  And she seems to get Aubrey Kate.  That's a good thing.  

I mentioned yesterday, the conversations AK and her sweet friend have while walking home from school are simply amazing.  I thought I'd share one of my favorites.

And recent.  Because they have so many, I forget quickly.

Apparently, in the walkers line at the end of the day Wednesday, a little boy who sits at AK's table kissed her on her head.  AK had tried to bribe him not to with her friendship bracelet.  She doesn't know a thing about boys.  Clearly.  He turned down the bribe and plopped a nice kiss on the side of her head.

(Yes.  We discussed louder protests.  Perhaps calling a teacher.  Yelling no.  Whatever it takes.  Except bribery.  That doesn't work.)

So our little friend, she starts telling AK that at her previous school she used to kiss boys all the time.

Of course, she told that story with a slight bit MORE drama than you are imagining.

At the end of this sweet kissing story, Aubrey Kate... well... her eyes roll up to the heavens and she started fanning herself with her hands while loudly proclaiming, "OH MY GOSH!"

Y'all.

She was mere moments away from needing the smelling salts.

Had she been wearing the good pearls, she'd have TOTALLY been clutching them.  

Aubrey Kate.  Six going on sixty.

Y'all should see her with her sweater wrapped around her shoulders and the top button buttoned.  It's everything a grandmother would love.

Here's the truth:  I love listened to these two little people everyday.  Love.  It.  

I thought, going into this season of having both kids at school for the first time, I would be scratching at the walls to be doing something...more.  

And some days, I am.  

(I've attempted to make a wreath that will NOT melt for my front door twice.  This week.)  

(That's not normal, y'all.)  

But for the most part, I am incredibly grateful I can be home to walk the kids to and from school.  Grateful I can hear their conversations.  Grateful I can pass along all the dramatic details to our sweet friend's momma.  Grateful the kids can play here while work-from-home parents wrap up their days in relative quiet.  Grateful for precious giggles as girls attempt to make friendship bracelets.  Grateful for princess dresses and half-eaten apples.  Grateful Rhys and I get some additional time together just the two of us cooking dinner while the girls cook up their own meals at Aubrey Kate's kitchen.  

Being a stay-at-home mom is not the easiest job.  It's certainly not the hardest.  There are a great many sacrifices.  But I'm not even trying to compare my stress level with a full-time or even part-time working mom.  I've done both of those.  They're the real deal hard.  My world is fairly simple at the moment.  

And I'm doing my best to stay in this season and enjoy every second of it.

Kinda like it's a warm sweater wrapped delicately around my shoulders.  Top button securely fastened.  Just as my sixty year old daughter would want.