Interviews

"How are you gonna handle it when you don't FEEL like doing your job?" I ask.

"I'm gonna do it as if I love it," Jane says, "because I'm gonna love getting money." She, hops on one foot, all gangly legs and knobby knees. Suited up in running shorts and bare feet she take a lap around the living room rug. "I hope I get it. I hope I get it. I hope I get it," she chants.

"The times I don't want to do the job I'm just gonna do it," Jack pipes up.

A paying job. We told them that most of the jobs around here are not paying jobs, that the'd have to interview for the paying jobs to see who would get them. And if you default on your job, job and paycheck go to someone else. So here we are, the big competition, our first paying job: washing diapers.

"I'm looking at you," Jane points to Jack, "thinking, I love you, but I hope I get the job. And you're looking at me and thinking, I love you, but I hope I get the job."

"Yeah," Jack shrugs, "well, and we could help each other buy stuff."

"Hey Momma," Jane sits on the arm of the couch, "let me tell you what I want to do." She tilts her head, curls a wild shawl around her. "I want to use the money to go on dates with you and Daddy."

"And we could get DONUTS," Jack adds. "Mommy, with my money I want to go on dates with you."

And so from my executive seat on the living room couch, I nurse baby Joe and interview for staff positions. It's a wonderful job.

Gratitude:

3071. Roasted carrots, mandrin oranges, avocados and cilantro -- the perfect salad.

3072. Jane's observation that a friend of ours is learning to lead AND to follow. "That's what makes a good person," she says.

3073. How in the middle of everyone talking at once she turns to me, "Momma, I'm just trying to make them feel heard."

3074. How she confesses, "Everyone always hopes Daddy's giving out stuff 'cause he's just an old softie. At least that's what Momma says."

3075. Her summation, "Momma has eyes in the back of her head and can see through walls. Logan says his mom can see through walls 'cause if he ever does anything naughty she always KNOWS."

3076. Jack making conversation, "Do you like being the queen of this castle, Mom?"

3077. Lucy making conversation, "Momma, I know what you should do. Brush your teeth at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they will be as white as snow."

3078. How she blinks at my feet and wonders, "When will I get big feet like you?"

3079. And her hope, "Maybe when I'm four I can shoot a rifle and a pistol."

3079. How I take Jack on a date and he comments, "They are playing weird music in this store."

3080. Egg salad on toast, corn salsa on top.

3081. Chocolate ganache cut in tiny pieces to last for several nights.

3082. Chocolate chips, chocolate covered raisins.

3083. How when we don't take the kids shopping for Myra's birthday presents they wrap up some of their own stuff for her.

3084. Myra TWO.

3085. A birthday party, family gathered and how we're teaching our children that family loves them most, more than friends, more than anyone.

3086. Cooking my first ham.

3087. Gifts given with love.

3088. Caesar salad.

3089. Cheesecake with strawberries.

3090. A perfectly clean house, as refreshing as a long, long sigh. And the husband who did it all for me.

3091. How when he carries me like that I can picture how Jesus carries me all the time.

3092. Being carried all the time.