Simply Mickey D's

Conveniently, there is a McDonald's with an indoor playground just 3 blocks from our home. This is especially dandy during times like these, when we would rather not take our children to an outdoor playground where the cold Chicago wind can get them!

Tonight, since we wanted to go somewhere we knew our children would actually eat all of their food, McDonald's was our dinner location of choice.

Here are some pictures of the girls right before they finished their nuggets and started to play:

Sure, at face value there doesn't seem to be anything particularly phenomenal about spending a Saturday night at a local McDonald's with your family. Even so, to me there is something so wonderfully special about evenings like this.

Think about it. Here I am, with my iced coffee to the right of me, and the man of my dreams to the left. Here I am, watching the man of my dreams as he holds our son, who is peacefully sleeping. The same son who we so eagerly and earnestly prayed for, and who is now almost a year old. Our blessing. Our legacy.

Here I am, watching my curly-haired, mini-versions of myself, run up and down the indoor playground equipment, enjoying one another and occasionally calling me, just so I will look up for a minute and wave. I shake my head as I realize they are trying to make friends with the other kids, amazed at how fast their growing.

Here I am, laughing and pondering life's delights and challenges with the man whom God has given me as a head, a leader, a protector. We converse about something job-related and then he somehow casually slips in that he thinks I'm beautiful. I say, "Huh? Oh Really?" and we both chuckle and move on. We reminisce on old times. We laugh at inside "you had to be there" jokes that only the two of us can understand.

In a world where so many are chasing money, power, and prestige, by the grace of God, I am sitting in a McDonald's on a Saturday night, enjoying something that money can't buy. There is just something so marvelous in the simplicity of that. This is the kind of simplicity that I am coming to value more and more.

Mrs. Anna T. writes beautifully on the subject:

I'm living a wonderful life...A life of simplicity and finding joy in the simplest things.

You will be encouraged by the stories of countless people who spend less and live more, people who made choices of frugality and simplicity, people who cut up their credit cards and have never been happier. Frugality isn't just spending less. It's being creative and resourceful, patient and thankful.

In our day and age, home life is – sadly - devalued, unappreciated, and sneered at; good home life, with its orderliness, cheerfulness, peace, contentment and simplicity is so very rare, that some people of my generation grew up without knowing it at all.

Simplicity and letting go of non-essentials has been a blessing in all areas of my life...It's sweeter than I could have imagined, to simply let go...It's so important, so essential if I truly want to delight in the beautiful and simple life of a wife and mother - a life I was so richly and abundantly blessed with.

You can read more from Mrs. Anna T. and the value of simplicity at Domestic Felicity.