Lilacs, Lightening McQueen, and Running to the Grocery Store

Spring in Ohio is incredible. My favorite are the lilacs; the neighborhoods where we live are filled with them. This definitely helped my mixed feelings about being car-less and having to truck three kids over a mile to the grocery store. I love being outdoors, smelling the lilacs and I'm thankful that Ethan is enjoying the jogger stroller again. However, the traffic scares me to death. And we haven't slept. What if someone has to use the restroom along the way? Ahh! Yet, we had Kefir grains to feed and needed to find milk to culture with them, so off we went.

My little wonder woman of a five-year old is amazing in her positive nature. She convicts me. As we are walking to the store, she suddenly takes off running full speed and squeals "I'm Sally from Cars and you have to catch me!" Her long brown hair wavely like a race flag and we're off chasing her. Nathan yells, "Go Mommy! We're Lightening McQueen!" (The jogger stroller IS red after all!). Suddenly, my youngest bear starts making the cutest, 11 month-old car noises and is grinning from ear to ear, with sobber, I might add. His faint whisps of hair are blowing in the breeze. We run all the way to the store (where we couldn't find anything nonhomeginzed nor just plain pasturized AAHHH). Then, we run and walk, laughing all the way home. How can I not love this? And I almost missed the joy of "running" to grocery store by being upset about the "inconvenience." How many are the gifts God sends us if we will just enjoy His timing!