What made my day great...

Five students nestled with me on the couch to read history. We finished our reading for the day but everyone was so excited to learn more about Daniel Boone, that they begged to continue. So we did. I just love home school moments like that.

Cookies were needed for a snack. Mom and J mix, N scoops the dough into balls, L and D help lick clean the bowl, mixer paddle and scoop. The fun of making it a "together project" makes the cookies all the sweeter.

At lunchtime...I was feeling uninspired by any of the available lunch foods in the house. Peanut butter and bananas with carrot sticks and grapes actually won the words that healed my duldrums..."that was a really good lunch, Mom!"

Due to team effort, five loads of laundry were sorted, folded, put away in record time. Comment that made Mom's heart soar: "This is the funnest job EV-ER!" (I'm sure it was due to the fact we were all doing it TO-GETHER!)

Potatoes harvested from the garden at 4:30pm. Peeled, diced, boiled, mashed up with butter and milk...appeared on the table by 5:45. Creamy, white, fresh, DELICIOUS.

Kiddos from ages 4-9 play an adapted form of baseball in the back yard. It involves a bat, a ping pong ball, pitching and running. It's precious that they are each others best friends.

The littlest baby holds the sweetest conversations with her siblings. She knows she belongs. And they have welcomed her as if she was always part of their clan.

By 9pm five healthy, happy, exhausted kiddos are dozing in their beds...and a quiet contentment settles over the house.