The early edition

I’m headed away for the weekend and have another post scheduled for Saturday, so here’s an early look at what made me smile this week.

Isabelle’s made-up story about some princesses (silly bands) and a crocodile (accessory to a Crocodile Hunter action figure) and a magic spell that turns the crocodile into a “handsome man” in her words.

Corban’s dinnertime prayer from the other night. It went something like this.

Parent: Who’s going to pray?

Corban: Me!

Parent: OK, go ahead.

Corban, with hands folded: It’s not workin’.

Parent: What’s not workin’?

Corban: Jesus.

Parents laugh uncontrollably.

An ’80s dance party in the kitchen while making potato pancakes for dinner. Isabelle LOVES dance parties.

Kitchen successes: homemade pizza, meals prepared for my absence, washed dishes, among others.

Phrases like “Isabelle, give your brother back his purse” that only a mother can say in all seriousness.

Laughing so hard you cry and can’t breathe and can’t stop laughing. (It was a joke on TV that hit so close to home, I’m still smiling when I think of it.)

Laughing with my love over how well he knows me.

Love overflowing from a box sent by family in another state.

Learning to love my kids exactly where they — and we — are in life.

Reconnecting with my best and oldest friend over the phone and feeling like we were next door neighbors instead of chatting hundreds of miles apart.

Two hours to myself to shop for jeans/pants and pick up a few groceries.

Little changes that make a big difference — like moving a piece of furniture, or a plant, or cleaning an area of the house of its clutter.