August 24

Adam is on a work trip to Beijing this week so it's just me, Abby, and Brady holding down the fort.

Although we each have our own individual activities during the daytime hours, we reunited for dinner tonight. And as we ate, we watched ESPN Jeopardy! (just like we did last night).

Brady fared quite well (especially with the baseball-related answers), I got a handful, and our resident non-sportsball fan even managed to get a few right (largely courtesy of her ability to identify Messi and Ronaldo).

We had a good time chuckling at our responses and "competing" for dominance. So for the time (well-)spent hanging out with some of my kiddos, I am grateful.

August 23

Oh, the minds of teenage boys.

I asked Brady to put the box that contained his pitching target out by the recycling bin this afternoon. It's a pretty large box so it had been sitting in the living room against the wall for a few months now, and I decided I was tired of looking at it.

Anyway, I got on with what I was doing and happened to walk through the front of the house a few minutes later. And that's when I found him trying to ride the box "Home Alone" style down the bottom section of the staircase.

The effort didn't yield the ride he was seeking, but it did fold the box so it would fit into the recycling dumpster. And watching him chuckle as he scooted back and forth and back and forth was pretty amusing. So for the gift of finding funny moments in the oft-strange behavior of teenagers, I am thankful.

August 22

Brady was back at it in the kitchen this afternoon. 

After deciding that he was hungry and bored and that we didn't have what he wanted to eat on-hand, he opted to make loaded mashed potato balls. From scratch, of course.

I served as the official overseer (so I cracked eggs, showed him how to plunk the potatoes into boiling water without splashing himself, and so on) and he got to work.

In the end, he'd baked two full trays of bite-sized potato balls. And he ate nearly all of them, courtesy of the Teenage Boy Appetite. 

It's a blessing to be able to watch his creativity and attention to detail come to life when he's in the kitchen. (And tasting said-creations if pretty cool, too.)

August 21

When Abby and I got home from the Mother Ship this morning, we found one of her sneakers at the top of the staircase as we came up from the garage.

A few moments later, we spied her other shoe underneath Berto (the Roomba) in the dining room. The little vacuum was no longer running, but I could tell that quite the battle had taken place in our absence.

As I stood there gawking at the strangeness before me, Abby simply quipped "it's like a dog." I snorted aloud, but I laughed and laughed inwardly because it was an incredibly sharp, accurate assessment of what we were seeing.

I'm still not entirely sure why Berto attacked the shoes, but it made for a funny moment. And for that, I am grateful, because humor makes for a light heart.

August 20

I was watching TV with Adam this evening when Brady called out "the sky is pink" from the other side of the house.

So I got up and went to the bedroom window for a look. And what I found was indeed pink and quite lovely.

There's nothing quite as awe (and aaaah) inspiring as a beautiful sunset. The way the colors appear from nowhere and then morph and change as they slide across the sky and down into the horizon can be breathtaking.

So tonight, I am grateful for a creative God who shares his paintings with us every single day.

August 19

Today after coffee and before Costco, Abby and I took a little ride to one of her favorite places: Hobby Lobby.

The store near our house --the one where she worked a few summers ago-- closed and moved to Hayward quite a while ago, so we made the trip to Southland Mall.

And my girl was in her element. She practically floated from aisle to aisle, oohing and aahing over the pillows and wall art and scrapbooking supplies and artificial flowers. She even asked me to take this photo of her in the very pink part of the Christmas section because it was just so totally her vibe. (She really, really likes pink.)

The greatness of the store aside, however, I think her highlight was when a little girl pointed at her and declared that "her looks like a princess!" I thought she might cry as she relayed the compliment to me a little later.

For the blessings of more time with my girl and of witnessing her as she walked around like she'd stepped through the gates of Disneyland, I am grateful.

August 18

Abby came with me to Starbucks this morning, and then we embarked upon an epic impromptu (mostly window) shopping trip.

When she was in high school, it wasn't unusual for us to spend our Saturday afternoons hopping from shop to shop, but save our usual Black Friday outings, it'd been a while since we'd done that. 

But today, we went from Starbucks to Target to Wendy's (because I love the freestyle soda machine) to another Target to Michael's to the mall. There was a lot of walking involved and I was pretty pooped by the time we got back home, but it was also a lot of fun.

We don't always see eye to eye on everything and we have our share of disagreements, but I adore this one and only daughter of mine. And I'm thankful that we were able to spend so much time together today.