sunday mornings

sunday mornings have quickly become my favorite morning of the week. quiet. nowhere to go. easy. relaxing. now that malena's swim lessons are on wednesday night instead of sunday morning, we have our sundays back as free days for the first time since she was six months old.

on this particular day, it was a girls morning since barrett was out on the golf course. so when she woke up, we watched spongebob under our favorite blankets. after breakfast, we decided to stay in our pj's, and opened our first kiwi crate project. we had a great time. we stitched together and filled fruits and vegetables, and then she got to decorate an apron and we opened a fruit market. perfect timing to use the toy cash register we picked up yesterday at our neighbor's garage sale for $1. we played market for a couple of hours with a ton of smiles and laughs. it was so fun to pretend with her, and to watch her excitement each time she rang up a purchase and told me "thank you miss for coming to my store, see you tomorrow."

the doctors at md anderson have been on my mind quite a bit this weekend. one of the lead melanoma specialists from md anderson came to the melanoma clinic at fred hutchinson last year. i could tell from the passion he had when he talked that he is so invested in the work that he does each day. it was clear he is dedicated to prolonging patients lives, to finding a cure.

this morning as i was playing with malena, i thought about him. many times, like in the quiet moments of this sunday morning, i become overwhelmed with the uncertainty of how our lives will play out. so i said a silent thank you for him and all of the doctors working on melanoma research around the world.

they are fighting so that i can have more sunday mornings.

i am forever thankful.