The Little Old Woman

Little Hansie was giving the prayer at dinner last night. His prayer included this plea: "And please help mom will know what to do with her ten kids!"

Yes. Please please help her to know what on earth to do with the lot of them! 😆

Mike suggested, afterwards, that I already knew what to do--and then he motioned to the new picture hanging on our kitchen wall. (And here, let's pause and talk about the amazing thoughtfulness and kindness some people just possess in abundance. But first, here I am holding the picture Mike was referring to [on the night I first received it].):

(I should mention here that my legs are not actually ten times smaller than my HEAD. Something crazy happened with the camera angle.)

My sister has a good friend up in Soda Springs--Becca. While somehow (which seems ridiculous and I keep thinking can't be right), I haven't met her in person, (is this true, Becca?), I have still come to know, love, and admire her through the things my sister shares about her, her blog, and social media. I posted several months ago about this Gyo Fujikawa illustration of "The Old Woman in the Shoe" that Becca had shared on her blog and laughingly said that Mike thought we ought to frame it and adopt the efficient bedtime routine. 

So what did Becca do? Oh nothing. Just immediately blew up a copy of the print, framed it, and had Megan bring it down to me the next time she was down this way! I'm just in awe that someone would just think, "Oh, she thinks it would be fun to have that framed? Well then. I guess I should just immediately go to all the trouble of making it so!" 

I want to learn to be that kind of person!

There is really nothing happier than having someone just completely unexpectedly do a very very thoughtful thing for you! It just brings joy.

And, now I have a constant reference for knowing what to do with my ten kids (as Hans so thoughtfully pleaded): give them some broth without any bread, and spank them all soundly and send them to bed!