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In my girlhood years, Mom always did her best to make our birthdays special. Not only did she help sing Happy Birthday for us and bake a cake; we also got to choose what was on the menu for our birthday supper. To our childish delight, we didn’t have to help with the dishes that evening.

Two years ago was our last Valentine’s Day together. Daniel had come home from town a few days before with heart balloons fastened to a clear container hosting a huge chocolate kiss wrapped in red.

Scenes of girlhood days marched before me this week in a new way as Cousin Judith and I emptied the kitchen cabinets of what used to be her home in her girlhood days.

It’s a quiet Monday morning, and all six children are sound asleep at the moment. The week stretches ahead untouched. I wonder what it holds? God alone knows, but with him to guide, it will be excellent and safe. Last week, children Jesse and Elijah had their last four days of kindergarten; now, this week, it has come to a close for the year, and I will be teaching them at home. They want to go back to school to visit their friends and siblings sometime soon. School is only a skip and a hop from our house, they can even watch the children through the narrow strip of woods during recess time.

My kitchen is torn to pieces; everything is a huge mess.

We are home from church. The three oldest boys are playing volleyball in the kitchen (with a soft ball) and Julia, the bookworm, is reading. Hosanna and Joshua are playing with dolls in the living room and are singing German songs.

“Mom, may we sleep in the barn on Christmas Eve?”

Imagine the conversations that must have been flying at top speed that first Christmas morning. I wish I had been there, at least for a moment to feel it myself. I can’t wrap my mind around the mixture of ideas that must have been flying around. Do you think Mary had lots of guests those first weeks? Did she have a chance to recover. Chuckling I try to picture her eating chocolates on that first notable day of celebrating Jesus. Perhaps she had things much deeper than that to satisfy and fill her heart.

Hi there, good evening, It’s… well, I won’t tell you what time it is. We’ll just say I’m usually in bed at this hour of the day; why lay there with sleep out of sight? Why not seize the moment touch base with you all and enjoy a chocolate in the meanwhile? That’s right, a Lindor chocolate from a reader and dear friend, and no little ones asking if they can have one too! Mmm. It’s delicious, I mean both the milk chocolate and the moment of solitude. And some apple cider to go with it.

It’s a common day with ordinary food, ordinary people, and ordinary situations. Ordinary for me is talking with little people, setting food on the table, giving hugs, wiping wet kisses, and channeling hearts from sunrise to sunset.