at least she's not Eve

Jared, you lament that Brooke loves shopping for clothes at age 5 ... are you sure she likes the shopping for clothes, or was she just excited about going to school? And at least she's not Eve. Eve is our friends' 14-month-old daughter - SHE likes shoes and phones. She liked the phone even before her first birthday, and played with Anne's shoes before she could even walk. Now THAT is an omen for the future ...

My thought about your talk on service did make me think of an experience, which did not involve you. When I was the activities director of the student ward in Monmouth, we had a weekly service project where members of the ward would go visit with the residents of the local senior care home. We didn't DO anything - just sat and talked with them in the dining room during the Sunday dinner hour. Sundays were so totally busy for me that I was usually completely wiped out by the time the service time rolled around, and there were many times when I did not want to go. The only reason I did was because I was required to as the activities director. Without fail, I always walked out of the care home feeling less tired and much more cheerful. EVERY time. So my lesson was/is that when you provide service, it uplifts the people you're helping AND it uplifts you. Granted, some mental depressions require medication. But a lot of them just require you to not think about yourself for a while and help someone else, and you'll feel better.