My new favorite time of the day is the time in the car with the kids in the morning. I thought I would REALLY hate all the driving I would be doing to and from school. Jackson's school is a good 15 - 20 minute drive with morning traffic. I prayed about wether we should be doing bussing for him. He would be on the bus for 40 minutes each way. Can't say I was too excited about that. Noah is then another 15 minutes back plus another 5. Starting next week, I will then take Lily to her preschool on MWF which is another 10 minutes in the other direction. Turns out, it has been such a blessing. The craziness of the morning gets put aside and I get a chance to talk to the kids about their day, sing some 80's tunes, give them a little encouragement and send them off on a good note instead of rushing them out the door, usually with me on my last ounce of patience. Noah actually gets his 20 minutes of required reading a day (which is hard for him) done while in the car. It's awesome. One of our highlights of the morning is coming across our running buddy. He runs the same route each morning and we usually stumble across him. He is a big burly scary looking man. Someone who you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, if you know what I mean. Every day he wears the same outfit. Black pants and a big white shirt that says HUG ME in pink letters. I wonder what he would think if he knew he inspired such interesting conversation and laughter every morning.