Bits: Few of Our Favorite Things

I could make a list of my unfavorites. I mean there is a house full of four girls worth of emotions over here. We think out loud, and talk real loud, and need our quiet cries, and encourage deeply, and push each other's buttons, and hug passionately, and hold hands, and shut doors too hard sometimes, and compliment tenderly, and cry real hard, and say things we feel badly about, and say "I love you" a whole lot, and laugh pretty much hysterically at some point every single day.

Through it all, and best of all, we have each other-- these little women, this house brimming with the gift of daughters. Which makes the favorites a shoe in every time.

:: Leesie's pick. I cannot imagine there is another dolly out there that has been more loved than this babe right here.

I do sneak to wash her at least once a week.

:: Baking cookies in the middle of the afternoon and choosing to believe that the applesauce, flaxseed meal, cranberries, and oats outweigh the butter, sugar, and chocolate. It didn't taste that way, but what does that matter?

:: Zip lines and other such constructions. I'm telling you, give Hope some yarn and scissors-- and, especially, Scotch tape-- she's like Preschool McGyver.

:: Maddie and her fashions. No jeans please; dresses only preferred. And the accessories? She's all over those.

:: She's also a tender-hearted spirit. I love that about her so much.

:: Parties... a "class" Valentine's one with another homeschooling family. I have to pay Jillian extra for the spinach artichoke dip and leftover cookie decorating supplies but it was worth it.

Studious little loves. Alysse majorly hearts that new "Dayee" shirt.

:: In fact, special days rank right up there for us Martins' girls. Days surrounding February fourteenth this year, no exception.

Thanks to Daddy for the lingo-- 'Sup, Valentwine?

A sampling from each little artist in this house.

Our countdown was to learn the Bible's definition of love from I Corinthians. Wish I had found this post when I had the idea because she put it even better, but the girls (and I!) got a lot out of these reminders of how to love well.

:: Collaborating on parenthood. I love that I have a guy who will often process WITH me, especially about our kids. After all that thinking and remembering with our Hopey these past few weeks, Joe gifted her with a picture Bible he had as a child. That night we acted out creation and Jesus' birth under her stage managing and directing. I love watching her passionately pursue the stories. It seems passion has to go somewhere, and I hope for each of our babes that their somewheres are filled with good and making a difference.

:: Eat mor chikin. Or if your name is Alysse, it sounds like-- eat mo' chit'tin! This is typically our meat of choice, when meat is on the menu, and we have some fajitas about once a week. I'll never forget being famished once Joe and I boarded our honeymoon cruise ship when what to our hungering eyes did appear? A 24-hour Mexican buffet! We fell in love all over again thanks to some nacho cheese and salsa.

Mexican food= True love forever.

:: Barefoot and catching the first snow flurries of the year on our tongues.

What a list, eh? To it I might add a string of thoughtful Valentine mail that rocked our socks off, pizza night, when Alysse constantly requests, "Dance 'ith me!" and puts her head on our shoulders, and the way our kids smell after they've been bathed and lotioned up.

Our crazy, lovable list of shoe-ins-- winning out again and again. Because, really... why buy into the alternative?
~Katrina

ps... Favorites, from their view points, below. This was fun. :)