The Context for Contentment

I've got a post in the works about some difficulties.  Okay, maybe it's a little whiny.  I may not post it.  But I am going to post what I'm hoping is the antidote, thanks to inspiration from dear Auntie Leila at Like Mother, Like Daughter.

So here's a happy-real moment from Tuesday:

reading Calvin & Hobbes at breakfast

This is us every morning.  (It isn't always comic books -- last week it was Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Some days it's Magic Tree House.)  I have to remind the kids to eat because they're so engrossed in their reading.  Sometimes I even have to ban books at the table, whereupon I feel like a terrible parent and a traitor to my genes.


And this is just plain sweet:

love from a little girl to her Daddy

Whenever we have a treat, Katie always wants to Save One For Daddy.  Even if it's the last gooey bite of her filled donut.  Today it was the last blueberry scone in the pack from Wegman's.  Last week she made this heart-shaped pretzel.  Katie lives so much in her own imaginative world that it's always so touching when I see how incredibly affectionate she really is, and is actually thinking about other people quite a bit of the time.

If I took more time to focus on the little moments like these, the context for being content with my lot, life would be so good.