{ The baking, the cooking, the reading }

It's been a quiet day. It started with the sun coming up over the horizon and bathing the skies in a beautiful orange glow. There I stood, at my back door, in my robe, my coffee cup in hand and my pugs running around enjoying the morning air.

Thankfully it was one of those mornings where the kids were up and ready for school without any squabbling or me having to literally drag them into the car.

I think the beginning of your day always sets the mood for what will happen, it's like a snowball effect, if it begins badly you tend to be in that negative frame of mind and everything just goes wrong. Far too many times we forget to pray for a good day, we just expect it to happen and then wonder in amazement why things didn't exactly go as we wanted them to.

So yesterday, I refilled the cookie jar, you all know that Sunday's are my "refill the cookie jar" days, I sit in the kitchen for an hour or so and make a huge batch. And just as I place them on the cooling rack, they seem to disappear, little fingers slyly remove them, thinking that mommy can't see. But I do, I just pretend not to.

While the kids were at school today, I got the house clean and then I sat down at the kitchen table and started my menu planning for the next two weeks, I'm drawing a bit of a blank when it comes to meal ideas so I pulled out some cookbooks and Taste of Home Magazines and got completely lost in all the goodness on the pages, but while doing that, I had the Jets flying overhead, making this awful roaring sound that got the pictures on my walls shaking.

It annoyed me, it really started getting on my nerves, so I stepped outside for some fresh air and while I was looking up at the incoming rain clouds, I caught a glimpse of the F-16's flying above me and then it hit me. How can I get annoyed or upset? Who cares if they're making noise, the mere fact that they're flying means they're working, it means that the pilots and the crew chiefs are doing their jobs, it means they're training and practicing and keeping our skies safe. It means that I'm living inside a military base where my children can run around safely, where armed uniformed soldiers are at every corner, where I never feel scared.

It's far too easy to get caught up in the moment, to forget the big picture. I'm definitely guilty of that, so I've decided to stop and think before I go off and complain about anything.

Anyway, I had a knock at the door today and the Fed Ex man brought me a big envelope, when I opened it I found The Help by Kathryn Stockett, I'm doing a book review here on the blog on February 9th for Mom Central.com. Let me tell you, I opened the book, read the first two pages and am completely hooked, I can not wait to finish it and then let you all know what I thought, I can already tell that it's going to be one of those books that will be talked about everywhere.

Right now, I'm off to supervise bath time, help with homework and start our bedtime routine. After the kids are in bed, I plan to make myself some hot tea, grab a big chocolate chip cookie and curl up in bed with the book. I think it's the perfect ending to the day, but first I leave you with a photo of Jasmine and Lola. They looked so cute on the couch, I couldn't help myself, I just had to snap this photo.