Week 7: 21 graces

Normally I work on my "21 graces" post all week, but this week I am sitting down to a blank page the day the post is due ('due', ha!).  It's been an odd week, what with the 3-day weekend in celebration of President's Day, and a roller coaster of a week, because both of my dear grandmothers are in the hospital and seesawing between doing alright and not doing well at all.  So.  Here goes...

1. Meeting friends at Lynn Meadows Discovery Center
2. Good-for-the-soul discussions with said friend while the kids occupy themselves at LMCD
3. Making a last-minute decision with your neighbor to hold a joint Saturday-morning garage sale
4. A successful garage sale!
5. Dropping off all unsold garage sale items at the thrift store
6. Checking out the next book club read from the library ("The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak)
7. Using our unexpected garage sale earnings to go out to dinner (all of us), go out to lunch (me), see a play (me), and treat ourselves to Starbucks (Chet and me)
8. A Sunday lunch date with friends, followed by a local production of the musical "1776"
9. A birthday party with a bounce house (because it means Sydney sleeps like a rock that night!)
10. Another three-day weekend (I feel like we just had a three-day weekend...not complaining though!)
11. An early-morning family Target trip
12. Chet's projects (he decided to make a stainless steel watchband on his day off...I don't think I've mentioned on this blog how ridiculously thankful I am that he's not a video game guy)
13. Sydney's Tuesday afternoon dance class creating automatic structure to our Tuesdays (especially after a three-day weekend when it's hard for me to jump back into a normal weekly routine)
14. Finally making a phone call that I've been meaning to make for weeks
15. Leftovers for dinner (I know I've listed this before, but, man alive, it's something I'm thankful for each and every time!)
16. "The Star-Spangled Banner" reminding me every morning that it's 8:00 a.m.
17. A Diet Dr. Pepper from Chick-fil-a -- is it the Styrofoam cup or the crushed ice that makes it so delicious?!
18. A great children's resale shop find (a smocked Easter dress for Lorelei)
19. The doctor removing the tape from Lorelei's head and finding a nicely healing wound underneath

20. A long nap (Sydney -- she woke up Thursday morning not feeling well, and it seems like most of the time sick = a short, restless nap)
21. Both girls in bed and asleep earlier than usual