Every day has its share of challenges and struggles, and yet, each day comes with its own small blessings which are an oasis in a desert of lesson plans, grading, sibling conflict etc. Here are some of today’s blessings…

The horses in the horse field next door came to visit! Ada was very excited…The horses were actually up to the fence, but I’d missed it.

Doesn’t that look horrendous? Seriously. You’d think the boys would have gotten it when they did the lawn this past weekend….but wait…what you don’t see is…

There are tomatoes growing there! We never planted anything!!! A few have ripened and they are delicious. They’re next to the office, and they’re under the deck.. This is the first really good look I’ve gotten. I’ve wanted to grow tomatoes for years. Looks like God got fed up with my procrastinating and just did it for me!

Sauteed mushrooms and onions. It looks delicious. It smells delicious. It tastes delicious. But the real blessing here is that it wasn’t for me. The 7 year old boy asked for it! I love that my children love vegetables. And I also love that funky purple that turned up under the pan–that is not what my burner actually looks like!

This was mine. Soup. I’m good at soups. This one tasted as good as it looks. It’s just sautéed vegetables, a mild Italian chicken sausage and beef broth, with some sort of middle eastern spice mix, ladled over fresh spinach.

And lastly, Ada is usually somewhat restless during the homeschooling portion of the day. I saw a $20 Play Doh kit at Costco this weekend and she has had a blast making us “food.” It’s nowhere near as delicious as the soup I just ate, but I tell her it’s delicious, and thank her, and her day is made. The picture has been photobombed by Ada’s apple. That’s about as much as she eats of any apple…

Time to get back to the grind… Where have you found your blessings today?