Here are my next 39 things. You don’t have to read my list. It’s just my worship to God – my fullness – my living. But please please please before the sun sets and today is gone: notice something you’ve taken for granted. Hold for a moment something you’ve rushed past. Because ‘whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens’ (James 1:17). (1935 to go.)
40 Walking home barefoot from my sister’s house
41 Planning the year: adventures, menus, etc.
42 Scott helping me bring in the washing
43 Feeling free without a cell phone
44 Spinning in the lounge with Cam and Scott
45 Cam waking up with a huge smile
46 Other people sharing their lists of 39 things
47 When we’re all quietly, deeply contentedly busy with our own thing (Lego, helicopter, blogging…)
48 Phone calls to friends when we really connect – like, we should be on a Telkom ad
49 Sun scattered through tall trees on lawn
50 Scott surrounded by books on his bedroom floor, paging quietly
51 Running through the sprinkler on hot afternoons
52 The barber who cuts the boys’ hair and also sells fishing rods and some kitchen appliances
53 Stripy mugs
54 Morning sunlight through the blinds
55 Dozens of Murray’s ‘Love you’ every day
56 Home visit from Cam’s new teacher, arriving at our gate with armfuls of stationery and love
57 Nanna for early morning tea
58 Cam’s happy-dance-breathless-jumping-ecstatic-shrieking excitement to be starting Grade 00
59 Scott’s happy-dance-breathless-jumping-ecstatic-shrieking excitement when we bump into his cousins at Pick ‘n Pay
60 Dark chocolate
61 Scott’s toilet roll castle
62 A weaver on the bird feeder while we eat supper on the deck
63 Toothpaste
64 Photos on our walls writing our story
65 Refuge in God
66 Three kids we know who nearly didn’t have a dad but thank God they do still
67 Murray’s face when he’s in the visual therapy zone
68 A Happy-New-Year text message that will keep wind in my sails for at least six months, I reckon
70 Cam’s irrepressible optimism
71 Scott’s soft way with animals
72 The way Murray just gets me
73 All the dishes finally washed
74 Murray’s insight and big-picture perspectives
75 A counter wiped clean
76 Rusks
77 When that song comes on and I turn it up loud
78 Little feet on tiles, seeking us out at dawn