Forms of nature: An experiment of sorts...

I have been called quite a few things in my lifetime.

Naive is perhaps one of the more accurate and less insulting among them.

An alternate description may be 'overly optimistic'. There is a fine (and often almost invisible) line between optimism and cynicism.

Today I like to think that I am falling more towards that glass-half-full side of the line.

All this preamble to say...we've decided to participate in a book exchange!!

I was doing my daily mail-perusal last week, and I was delighted to discover, tucked in among the bills and advertisements, a real, non-junk-mail letter from a dear red-headed Michigan friend and her two darling boys.

Now, I have been invited to participate in similar things in the past via email...prayer exchanges, recipe exchanges, verse exchanges, you name it. I will admit, to date, I have always been that awful person who clicks 'delete' without batting an eye and sleeps like a baby that night. That was my initial reaction when I opened this letter as well.

I don't have time.
I don't have money.
Somebody else will just drop the ball.

There goes that cynicism.

However, after a couple of days, I decided to fight that nature with a sense of optimism and adventure -
THIS COULD WORK!
It might be fun!
I'm so tired of getting nothing but junk mail - how fun would it be to receive books instead?!!

And so, here goes nothing.

We took a little day trip to the post-office today and Will learned all about the process of labeling and shipping a parcel (also about the process of sitting patiently and quietly and the consequences if we disobey).

Afterwards, since I already had the little guys bundled into their stroller (why does the post-office not have a drive-through window?!), we took a short walk across the street to the play-ground and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and spring weather.

This guy had a blast on the play equipment as usual...

And this guy sat quietly and smiled as usual.

Not surpisingly, Will made friends with everybody around, and even had a picnic with strangers and mooched their food.

(This sweet Filipino grandmother was so excited when I said "yes" to her request to let her share her grandkids' pizza and cookies with him. How could I say no?)