I started about 4 posts in draft only to get about 40% of the way through and be distracted by a shiny thought in another corner of my mind. So instead, I’ll got with a list of mini-posts. 

1. This weekend my mom gave me my final hair washing in The Shop as we know it. Next time I come home, her shampoo bowl will be in the basement, where I will be less likely to beg for a good scrubbing. Mom also gave a trim to all the children, Baby C got her first (and last in the salon) haircut. We celebrated in the way our family celebrates best (with 40 of our closest friends) mom’s last week of paid professionalism. It’s a new chapter for her, one I’m quite excited to see how it unfolds. 
2. I picked up a new read via Kindle app (library loan!) this afternoon – Radical Together, about rethinking the way in which we seek Jesus as a community. I haven’t read the book on which it’s based (Radical), but I did request it via library Kindle and have high hopes of reading it aloud to someone from the couch. But the book I did read contained all sorts of fodder for thinking about how we go about the life of the church. Perhaps I’m 3 years late to the party, but if you’re also not on the cusp of current church life events, I’d recommend it. (And if it takes you longer than a day to read, please let me know. It seemed this was more booklet like in size, though wasn’t lacking in content. I’ve only read a few books via Kindle, so perhaps it was a user error and there are chapters upon chapters left for me to discover). 
3. Baby C got her first tooth. I was quite celebratory about it as she hadn’t slept at all her best for me the past few days while at mom & dad’s, and now I can at least have a reason. 
4. Back to the church thoughts (I had a lot of time driving, the second best place for thoughts to brew, right behind the shower). Long story abbreviated: what if our differences and our personalities and our gifts and our talents and who we are (I bet there’s a great Hebrew word for it) actually has very little to do with us but it’s much more about exposing, revealing a unique part of who God is? We like to think of our gifts as something we can do for God, but what if we were to understand that by living and utilizing our gifts, God shines through us. We’re showing the world a glimpse of who God is, and only we – made in His image – can do it in such a way. Just like 10 artists can paint the same sunset, but each drawing will highlight characterizations of the sunset in a different way. By serving as we’re gifted we allow those around us to experience God in an unique way. 
5. Miss M put herself to bed tonight. She came upstairs as I was rocking C (see #3) and said something, then shut the door. I came downstairs and asked JJ if he’d put her to bed. “Um, no, I thought YOU put her to bed.” So I poked my head in her room. She was in bed. 
6. I posted on FB earlier this week: My parenting thought of the day: if you don’t want your kids to break the rules, have less rules. As a rule-driven personality, it was probably an overstatement. I’ll never get rid of rules. However, I did a lot of thinking about how my kids don’t do everything I asked or expected of them. But I thought, perhaps I’m just expecting out of their capacity. Not that I need to lower the bar, but rather understand and know their limits. And perhaps allow them some creative freedom in how they seek to meet expectations. Maybe I need not be as much a choreographer as a coach. 
7. I wasn’t sure on Ash Wednesday if I would “take my Sundays” or not. I surely will not take a mobile Sunday, planting a little cheat treat when Lent becomes inconvenient. But I did rest from my spending fast today as we got Chipotle for dinner. Let it be said that it wasn’t without effort to cook something first; JJ was going to make fajitas at home, but the chicken went rank. At that point we’re just looking at it being God himself saying, “it’s okay, M. Just get something.” So a burrito bowl it was.