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Beautiful
On Wednesday last week, I called my mom to let her know I was running a tiny bit late. I instantly knew by her pause that something had happened. She forced words through a tight throat of stifled sobs, “Lucia didn’t wake up this morning.”
Sweet Lucia. One of my parents’ lifelong and dearest friends. The mother of one of my lifelong and dearest friends. In fact, our families crossed on three of each other’s four children. I never remember a time without the Waggoners in my life.
“She didn’t wake up,” my mom choked again. This time the dam holding back tears broke. She released a flood of sobs, deep heartbroken, already missing her friend, sobs. Then she tried to quickly gather herself. We had a houseful of guests coming in less than an hour to have coffee with the wonderful Jim Daly from Focus on the Family. Bush Library 
Today’s entry is a tiny bit diff. It’s something from my sister-in-law (BFF) who lives in Georgia. They too decided to stay-cation for their spring break this year. And after reminiscing of our roller skating days and 
We have a new friend. Her name is Tabasco. We didn’t name her. In fact, no one is sure who did.
Tabasco, a sweet little calico cat, roams my parent’s block. The next-door neighbor feeds her. Every kid on the block searches for her … so they can play with her. My kids adore her. But my folks can’t stand her.
And, despite my mother’s valiant efforts to shoo and the lack of a warm welcome, Tabasco spends a great amount of her day in their flowerbed. In fact, almost every time we come to the front door, Tabasco’s loud “mrweoow”s can be heard. She’s quick to leave her resting spot and run our direction all while vigorously announcing herself.
She craves attention.
Our kids eagerly desire to give it to her.
But, as soon as one of the children (or I) bend down to offer a gentle stroke or scratch behind her ears, she darts away. 
From your local slacker blogger for the week (you guys think I’m not as flaky as I claim to be … but I am…. my week really got away from me) a message on Easter – from a special place.
A couple months ago, an incredibly talented friend asked me and several, much more gifted than I, writers to participate in a new project she had been planning. She has started a super cool grouping of products called It’s Treedition. With it, she has come up with a beautiful tree (that can be displayed in your home) on which families can celebrate holidays by building traditions. I love what she’s doing because it adds tools to our effort to steer our kids away from relying on societal sources to define their self esteem, but to looking to family to know they belong. Genuine, independence/confidence-infusing responsibilities