My new God-given friend, Jesse, and I had a little talk about *beauty* yesterday.

It started when I told her that her daughter could be one of those child beauty pageant winners. She has long, beautiful hair and big, beautiful eyes. She’s gorgeous!

We talked about how we can use beauty for vain purposes, or for God’s glory. And, of course, we yearn for our children to choose to use their whole lives for God’s glory.

Anyway, it got me thinking about beauty.

I get a mean little voice in my head sometimes when I think about people who are really physically beautiful. I think its name is Jealousy, because I’m just not one of those strikingly beautiful people. (I’m not saying I’m homely, and please don’t feel like you have to stroke my ego in the comments. I’m just saying – my looks won’t take your breath away.)

But beauty is a good thing. God created the world and our bodies to be beautiful. His creation is breathtaking. The intricacies of the things he’s created are beyond amazing.

Isn’t it just wonderful to contemplate a God who didn’t leave us on a gray earth, with only concrete and no color or life? Instead, he gave us a vast array of beauty to see every day!

And I see it in so many places.

In Jaden’s face when he smiles at us.

In Ava’s giggle when she’s being tickled.

In Grace’s little-girl drawings. Today she wrote a card to Caleb that said, “To Caleb. I love you, and I don’t want you to cry.” Beautiful.

In Caleb’s efforts to take care of his brother.

I see beauty in marriage. Last night we were watching Little House on the Prairie, and an elderly woman said to her husband, “I’ll be happy anywhere as long as we’re together.” And Luke said to the kids, “That’s how Mommy and I are.” And he held my hand. Beautiful.

I see beauty in the church – Christ’s bride. A body of believers who are affected by the fall and yet have a solidarity and a purpose together. Our church is our family. The universal church is our extended family. Beautiful.

I see beauty in the cross of Jesus – His unspeakably horrible death. I see beauty, because wrapped up in it is God’s plan for our redemption and His great love for us. The sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, while unthinkable, is also beautiful.

In this world full of hurt and sin, I want to see beauty. As we approach the celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday, that’s what I’ll be looking for.

Tell me – what beautiful things to do you see in your world?

Grace and I attended a Pampered Chef party at a friend’s house tonight (a little Mommy-Daughter time), and on our way home, we stopped at Walgreens for a coupon-spending spree. (I’m teaching Gracie the frugal ways, you know.)

We were able to get all of these things pictured – including a package of Huggies, 8 boxes of tissues, 12 rolls of toilet paper, and MORE. I spent $3.94 out of pocket, but because I earned $11 in Register Rewards, it’s as if I *made* more than $7 overall.

I’d say that’s pretty spiffy for toilet paper and tissues – things we all use, don’t we?

(Do you like how I busted out the word “spiffy?” Haven’t used that one since, oh, junior high.)

In order to get my out-of-pocket total that low, I used a $25 gift check (like a gift card, but has to be spent in one transaction) that I earned from filling a prescription at Walgreens last month. (Earning store rewards from constant filling of prescriptions is one big perk to having diabetics in the house!)

I know many people look at couponing and think, “I spent a coupon once and it wasn’t that great of a deal.” Or “It’s so much effort. It’s not really worth my time.”

I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy-breezy. It does take some time. Definitely more at the beginning, until you really get a feel for what you’re doing. BUT I will say that our family (and our budget) has reaped the rewards of a little bit of work.

We do love a free roll of toilet paper, after all.

I love that man.

“It’s bothering me.”

My personal favorite is “not pink.”

The sign says it all.

Luke and I blew up 100 balloons while we watched the end of a movie last night. Okay, I’ll be honest, Luke did much more blowing up than I did. I have wimpy cheek muscles.

To begin our celebration, I read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate. We love the Miss Bindergarten books, and this one was just perfect for today!

Then the kids worked on Froot Loop necklaces – with a goal of stringing 100 Froot Loops on the string. Grace and Wes (pictured here with their finished necklaces) are the two that stuck with it long enough to reach the goal. Caleb got distracted after a while, and the girls (Ava and Brooke) ate a lot of the cereal they were supposed to string!

While the kids worked on their necklaces, I read Psalm 100 to them, and we tried to come up with a list of 100 things we’re thankful for. We’ll continue to add to this list until we have 100. It’s a good exercise for all of us, to focus on giving thanks.

For lunch, we ate pizza with 100 pepperonis on it. Yum! For dessert, we counted out 100 M&Ms and ate them! Double yum!

Grace and Wes also made “100″ glasses. Don’t Jesse and I just look beautiful in them?

I taught Grace how to write “one hundred,” though I don’t really think she’ll remember the word “hundred” unless we practice it, and let’s be honest. It’s just not a priority for me! It was a fun little activity, though.

Grace also did some worksheets – filling in a 100 number chart, coloring/counting 100 balloons, etc. After that, we played a rousing 2 rounds of Hi Ho Cherry-O!, and she is currently in the midst of her 100-minute nap.

I love the 100th day of school!