"So, did you have a nice walk today?"

Being berated with Ella statements/questions that all start with the word "so" is quite entertaining. "So, how long are you staying?" "So, this is my little brother." "So, are you going today?"

So is being able to dictate pretty much everything Jackson's going to say for the day. Take for instance the one or seventeen times we pretended that there were mean animals trying to get us from the "water" (ground). "Say be nice, alligators!" "Be nice, alligators!" "Be nice, sharks!" "Be nice, shawks!"

I had a really refreshing weekend. Unexpectedly refreshing.


Today I had a cool moment too. I was getting ready for work at the crack of dawn, and the 3 main things I wanted to get done before I left were doing a load of laundry, trimming the shower curtain (you read that right...our shower curtain is really long and I feel uncomfortable with the water molecules that spend all day sitting in the folds of its excess), and doing the dishes. Because it's been nice out (not even remembering it was earth day at that point), I wanted to walk to work, which means I'd have to leave at 10:30, as opposed to the driving ETD of 10:45.

Well, I found myself stressing about all of them not getting done at 10:23, AND I wasn't even dressed yet! My initial reaction: "Well, I can just take a few extra minutes to do the dishes and drive instead of walk." And then my reaction to that: "Au contraire, mon frere (this despite the fact that I've never had a brother, that I know of, and even if I had, I was talking to myself), this is not about you and your need of 8-minute dish time. If we want to be more friendly to our earth (i.e. driving less as one way of doing so), then there are sacrifices we need to make. And maybe today that sacrifice is simply waiting 'til tonight to do the dishes. Big deal."

And so I walked! And it was great. I got to take a different route than I've taken before, call a few of my peeps, and get a little exercise with all-inclusive fresh air. I just sometimes forget how powerful being intentional can be, so it was really refreshing to remember that, then own my decision, and realize that all the small decisions of all the 4 billion (right, E??) of us in our world in all 10 countries can make a really big difference. It was nice to remember that, and I feel good and like change is possible and that there are good people in this world. Hallelujah!

The dishes, meanwhile, are still awaiting me.