Things that make me smile . . .

1. Obviously, my family! My husband is awesome and my kids are amazing! It makes me all warm and fuzzy just to think about them!
2. The way the little man plays with his baby sister. It melts my heart to see them together! She smiles at him like she smiles at no one else, and I LOVE it. He is a great big brother and I'm very proud of him.
3. La princesa's hip swivels, which the wild man calls hip "swiggles". Seriously, I'm going to have to make a video clip of it so you can see just how adorable it is. She swings her bent legs from side to side and "swivels" her hips. It's the cutest, funniest thing! It's hard when she does it during a yucky diaper change though. Eeeewwwww!
3. Okay, this is lame, but my new laundry hamper. I told you it was lame! But, honestly, it has saved my sanity lately. We had an old crusty skinnier at the bottom than the top so it always tipped over wicker hamper that only held about one outfit from each of us. Because of that, most of our dirty clothes/towels/etc. ended up on the floor in FRONT of the hamper. Genius me decided to get one of those fandangle 3 section sorting thingymabobs and I LOVE it! All for the bargain basement price of $14.99 at Wallyworld. Now several days worth of laundry is neatly and almost stylishly I might add, stowed away, sorted, ready for my awesome front loading washer and dryer. I should list them separately, but I'll spare you that! Ahhh, the joys of life! Can you tell I'm settling into my temporary life at home?
4. Being home this summer. It is truly a blessing that we can scrape by financially to be able to afford me this much needed luxury. There are only 6 more weeks of this paradise left, so I'm trying to make the most of every day.
5. All of my great friends. All of them. In real life friends, once close friends who are now far away, but still close in my heart, blogger friends, adoption forum friends, family friends, work friends. All of them. Did I already say that?

I really do consider myself blessed beyond words to have this life. Sure, I stress about how to pay for daycare (that's another story for another day), cleaning up mess after mess after mess, etc., but truly, I'm so happy to do the things I do and live this life I live. So many people who have little to nothing and find happiness, and I did too!

In other news, the in-laws are coming in a couple of hours. They'll be here for the weekend to meet la princesa for the first time. Gotta go so I can wrangle the kiddos into a nap. Stay tuned for the weekend recap next week!