Labor of Love
A week ago I sat in the hospital, my 20 year old niece in labor with my first great niece. My sister called me at four thirty to inform me that her water had broke and they were on their way to the hospital. We had been waiting for this for nine months and I couldn't believe the time had come and on her exact due date no less.
We sat and we waited, my family, the daddys family and I and we talked about births in the past and our experiences. Moments turned into minutes and minutes into hours. We talked and we walked, we read magazines, ate, drank and slept. There was one point in the evening/early morning when I walked into the waiting room and it looked like a really bad train wreck.
There were members of my family, strewn all throughout the waiting room. On chairs, couches and the floor. I chuckled to myself in amusement at the sight of this. I went back to my nieces room and she looked at me and said "Aunt Nay, I'm done, I don't think I can do this anymore." I laughed and looked at her and said "Sweetheart, the waiting room looks like a trainwreck with all the bodies strewn about, I don't think you can quit now." She laughed and we then sat in silence with one another. I looked at her, this grown woman where a little girl used to be. The little girl, that I used to bath and give horsey rides too. The little girl that I used to carry on my shoulders and run through the sprinklers with and the little girl that used to, when she was really tired, put her thumb in her mouth and crawl up on my lap and go to sleep.
That little girl, is now replaced with this beautiful young woman, who was about to have a child of her own and suddenly the rush of years was audible in my ears. The years that went by me so quickly, that I almost didn't even notice.
She had grown and I had grown older as well. It had all changed and yet as I sat there, breathing through her contractions with her, in my heart and mind it was all the same.
Thursday morning at 7:47 a.m. my great niece Cheyenne, entered this world. She was bright eyed and beautiful and she was a bonding moment between both families. All these people who had come together the night before, some of strangers to one another, were now a family, because of this little girl. We all exchanged hugs, tears, congratulations and words of well wishes. We all told one another how proud of our kids we were and we all beamed at the sight of this little girl.
I held her for the first time and just stared into the face of the future. She was precious. In my arms, starring back at my tired face, she was a kiss from Heaven that morning and a promise of a new beginning.
I came down the hall, from my nieces room and I got the sight of it and it made me pause and smile. My entire family was standing up against the glass outside the nursery, looking at our miracle.
I laughed as I took a picture of this crowd and they all looked back at me and laughed. This group of people, different in backrounds and life experiences for one moment, were connected by a common thread. A thread so tiny and yet so strong. A thread that held the hearts of all these people in the palms of her tiny little hands.
The years will go quickly I am sure and Cheyenne will grow and she will become a young woman too someday. Yet for now, I am going to soak in the moments while she is still young and I am going to make memories with her, like I did with her mom.
I want these ones to last a little longer and maybe slow the winds of time down a bit. I will relish this new life and hold it for all it's worth and in the process, I will thank God for the miracle of life that he has given us and for the promise of a new tomorrow that is unmistakenably wrapped up in little Cheyenne's eyes.

My list for 2003
As I sit to write this, I must offer an apology upfront. If you notice typos, it's because at the moment my left first finger and middle finger are taped together. I think that I fractured the middle finger and they are taped together right now, to prevent movement. Typing this way is not an easy task, yet I will do my best to prevent and correct all the typos that I can.
Lately, I have been seeing a lot of ads on T.V. and in magazines for lists of the best and worst of 2003. Best dressed, best music, best movie etc and it got me to thinking about my own list. Mine does not necessarily include the things that I have seen, but I thought that it would be fun, to share what I have found to be some of the best things and worst things in my world, in the year 2003.

Please note that these are not in any particular order either.

Best of 2003

1) My relationship with Christ: Yes this is always my best thing and yet this year especially has been sweet. I've seen him move, felt him near and experieced him in ways, that I never have before. It's been a time of great growth and I am loving every step of the journey.

2) Cartoon time with my kids: I must admit I became a bit of a cartoon junkie this past year. I would sit down to check out what my kids were watching and ended up getting into it more than they did. My favorites this year? Finding Nemo by far was at the top of my list and I highly recommend it. The scene with the turtles going "You were like Dude and I was like Dude and You were like Dude" just cracked me up. Also the forgetful fish had me in stitches.
As told by Ginger on Nickelodeon has grown to be one of my favorites as well. It's a preteen cartoon that my oldest loves and when the theme song starts, I don't know who runs to the living room quicker, him or I.

3) Reading: Okay granted I didn't just discover this this year, but I have done it more this past year than in recent years. I love to read, to see how other writers think and I have found some really good stories this year.

4) Slowing Down: Granted I am not a type A personality where everything is always in High Gear and yet with four kids, life is seldom slow. Yet this year, I intentionally took time to slow down. More time for doing the little things that we take for granted so often and it has truly paid off.

5) Commercials: Okay, I'll admit that normally I don't care for commercials and yet there have been a few that have just sent me into giggles this year. There is one about credit card theft, where this guy is sitting in an easy chair and when he talks he sounds like a valley girl and it just cracks me up.

6) Moon Pies: Okay so this is one of those simple things in life that most people don't think about, yet I had one this year for the first time in ages and I have to tell you that there is something to be said about a good banana moon pie. I don't like any other flavor but banana, yet they are a great treat once in awhile and for as simple as it sounds they make me smile.

7)Progress: My son Nathaniel, was diagnosed as a High Functioning Autistic child at the age of two. They told us that simple tasks like dressing himself and writing his own name, would be some of his biggest milestones. This is December and not only has he mastered dressing himself and writing period, he is doing math and learning to read. I am so grateful for the teachers God has put in our path for him. They are gifts from Heaven and watching all the progress he makes daily is one of my greatest blessings. I am truly a lucky women.

8) Singing: I have been singing most of my life. When I was about three, my dad used to sit me on the piano and play songs and I'd sing along. Yet I have gotten away from it some and started doing it more this year. I had forgotten how much I loved doing it and what a true gift it is.

9) Country Music: Okay before you start to moan and groan, I like it. I listen to almost every type of music that there is to listen to, but this year Country has been one of my favorites. I have heard a lot of songs that have pulled me through some hard times and have really spoke to my soul and for me, any music that can do that, ranks on my best list.

10) County Fairs: The kids and I went to a lot of fairs this year and I forgot how much fun they are. We rode rides, looked at the animals, ate cotton candy until we were sick and even at one fair, got to ride a camel. We spent quality time together, we talked and we laughed and we made memories and it was time spent that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Dislikes:

1) Change: Okay, I admit it, I'm getting old. I am not good with change anymore. My kids got the game Candy Land and it was nothing like I remembered it. I was not happy and I was unhappier still when my son got clue for his birthday and it talks now. I was not amused that the games I grew up with, that i loved so much had been messed with and changed. "What was wrong with the old version?" I asked and the answer I got was "Progress." I am all for progress, don't misunderstand me but sometimes I feel some things are just better left alone.

2) Wild Drivers: Okay, it never fails that whenever I get on the road, they come out. Almost as if they have a radar on me and can sense when I am there. There are two kinds that I attract. The ones that are in a massively big hurry and they fly up on my rear and they assume that getting within two inches of my bumper is going to make me break the sound barrier, risk getting a ticket and becoming unsafe just for them. The other is the ones that have a relationship with their horns.
Here's the scenario. I am sixth in line at a red light and it turns green. Ten seconds following that, the person behind me honks their horn and starts flailing their arms. Now, unless I induce the bat mobile, I have to wait my turn and yet these people feel that by honking their horn, the traffic in front of me is going to magically disappear, just so that they do not have to wait.

3) Bennifer: Maybe you have heard this phrase. It's a cutesy catch phrase to describe Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. It's suppose to be cute and funny and yet I don't find it either. I don't know either of these people, yet I am tired of being inundated with their faces, lives and personal details every where I turn.

4) One Nation Under God being removed: Okay, this one really got my goat this year. This is, has been and will always be a nation that was founded on Godly principles. Who are we offending with this phrase? What are we teaching our children? It's okay to talk about safe sex, but not to mention the name of God in a pledge at school? Does anyone else see a problem with this?

5) Thin vs Not Thin: The big debate this year was is it better to be thin or not so thin? I for one, as a woman, find it very offensive and hard to live with, when people I don't even know, set the standards for my weight and body size. I have an average body size and yet the pressure that we put on people, by insisting that to be someone you have to wear a size 4 or 6 is ludicrous. We are teaching our younger girls that the only way to matter is to be thin. Forget what you have on the inside, it's the packaging that counts, not the content within.

6) Reality T.V.: I apologize to anyone I might offend with this up front but I for one am tired of what the stations call reality t.v.
Tired of hearing about it, seeing it and every other week a new one being invented.
I am tired of love being relegated down to a process that doesn't work anyways and I'm sorry I don't care how much money you give me, I'm not eating the intestines of a goat.
I have heard interviews with people who were on these shows and most of them have discussed the staging and editing of each show which leads me to conclude that the only reality you are seeing, is what they create.
Send me four contestants to live in my house, during a week where one child has poison ivy in December and is swollen like a blow fish, one child has an ear infection, one is on a anti clothing kick and only wants to wear his gutchies and a santa hat in mid december when the highs are 30 and one has a head cold complete with the runny nose, throw in christmas shopping and a cat who apparently also has the childs head cold and keeps sneezing all over my windows, and let them survive that for a week, Now that my friend lol, is reality.


7) President Bush Bashing: This one creates a little more tension, because everyone has an opinion and everyone feels strongly about said opinion. Let me add real quick that I am not talking his politics, reasons or decisions here. I am simply talking about bashing the man that is in charge of our country right now.
I feel he is a Godly man and I also feel he is doing his best. We are all entitled to our opinions and yet I feel the best thing we can do, is pray for him and our country and our troops and leave the rest of it in Gods hands.

8)THEY: Okay, so here is my question, who are they? Have you ever heard someone say "Well they say it's suppose to snow tonight." Okay, again I ask you "Who are they?" Is there some club for the They members that I am unaware of? Where THEY meet and gather and make all sorts of decisions and then spread the word through their THEY hotline, so that everyone can say "Well they say you have to do this, that or the other."

9) Commercials: Okay so this is in both of my categories for 2003 and yet, I have seen some commercials this year that at 34, have made me say "Oh no, the network did not just have that on the T.V. at 8 o'clock at night." I know we are back to the progress again and yet I really do believe that there are some topics, that do not need to be made into a commercial and shown on T.V.
If it's that important that they are shown, then does it have to be so early? Maybe it is my age, yet I just think there is a time and a place for everything and at times this past year, I have felt strongly that we have crossed the lines far to many times over.

10) The word Ma'm. Okay so I'm 34. That's not old but it's not 20 either. I was at the grocery store the other day and the 12 year old bagging the groceries said to me "Do you need help with your cart ma'm? These bags are pretty heavy I can lift them." I was feeling particularly fiesty that day and I said "No thanks doogie, I think I got it, but thank you for asking." He smiled and said "Your welcome and you must have me mistaken for someone else, my name is Steve." The check out lady and I laughed, because it dawned on me that he wasn't old enough to know who Doogie Houser was and yet I looked like a ma'm to him.
He was a nice young man, trying to be helpful. I know all of that and yet when I hear that word, it sends me into a tail spin of crisis that I am reaching my sisters age and that I remember hearing my mom called that.
I don't feel old enough to be called ma'm. I don't want to start wearing support hose and saying things like "I remember when I was your age." Okay, so maybe I am exaggerating it all a bit, yet this age thing has me baffled. I feel like it was just yesterday when I was 17 and when did those pesky extra 17 years fly by me? I feel like I missed it all somehow and I keep looking and I don't know where they went.
Yet in retrospect, if ma'm is the worse thing that comes from this age, I'll take it. I'll take the wrinkles and the lines that weren't there a year ago and I'll take the few extra pounds that I struggle with, because in that time, I have been blessed with wisdom and love. Grace and kindness and a understanding that I've never had before my 30's. Is it awful to be a ma'm? Somedays yet I survive and for what it's given me, I guess ma'm is not so bad after all.

Merry Christmas Everyone and a Safe, Happy and Blessed New Year...

Have You Ever Been In Love
Do you remember the first person you ever were in love with? Do you remember how wonderful you thought they were and nothing anyone said about them, mattered because all that mattered to you, was what you felt about them.
They looked amazing to you, every word out of their mouth was a sonnet or a eulogy to the intelligence of the rare and few. Their smile lit up a room and their laugh was like a warm breeze on a summer day. Do you remember those days?
Now, think forward a bit. Do you remember after that epic love affair ended and years had passed by and you saw that person again? Isn't it funny how much changed?
No longer did they seem like the most intelligent, most lovely and most amazing person that ever walked the face of the Earth. They now were just a person, like every other person, with good points and bad, strengths and weaknesses and they were fallible just like everyone else.
Isn't funny though how all you have to do to remember that love though is to go into the resources of your mind and there it is and sometimes, that is so much better than the reality before you.
I am traveling to Indiana on Friday, as a Christmas Present to myself. I haven't seen my moms family in 11 years and I miss them dearly so I am taking two of the four wonder kids and we are off to Aunt Normas. I love Indiana and I love the little towns that surround where my Aunt lives. Yet, I know that things have changed. I know this because well it's been 11 years and nothing stays the same and because my Aunt has told me as much. A lot of the farms that I used to love to ride my bike by and stop to smell their fields, are now gone. They are now housing developments or they are being prepped for business. A lot of the places that I used to go and daydream at and tell my secrets to the wind are no longer there and in my mind, it doesn't seem right. I don't want the reality, I want what my mind remembers. Yet, when I stopped to think about it today, I remembered that even with reality, there are still wonderful new things to make memories with. My relatives are older, some of my beloved places only exsist in my mind now and yet just like your first love, if I ever want it the way it was, I can just close my eyes. Yet, I'll take reality too, because changed or not, it's still one of the closest places in my heart and will be forever.

Women Of Strength
I was raised around women of strength. Women who faced lifes adversity with a courage and with a strength that surpasses any trial that could come their way. They were never proud about their strength either, they just went about their lives with their heads held high and made it through.
These were woman, who did what they had to do throughout the days and yet spent nights on their knees, knowing that their real source of strength and courage came from their Father. I watched them read their bibles and pray and yet more than that, I watched them live out what they learned from their reading and what they learned in that time on their knees.
These women got through wars, job layoffs,raising children, sick children, losing children, losing friends, losing siblings, tough and lean times, times of sadness and days that seemed as if they would never end. Yet, these women also bonded with one another and forged relationships that have gotten them through all the times mentioned and more. They made one another laugh, they cried together and together, they found a way to make it through yet another day.
These women taught me to laugh a lot, because laughter is the best way to face adversity and pain and they taught me that there is no crying in tears, because tears are the water that feeds the heart and soul and makes it grow bigger.
They taught me never to hold my head down in shame and to always be proud of who I am and where I come from. My beginnings may have been humble, yet they were where God thought I would fit in the best and for that I should be proud.
Sometimes growing up, I used to get a little embarrassed at these women, for they seemed a little off the wall, yet as I grow older and see the same traits in me, that are in them, I am proud.
I am proud that I have the same blood running through my veins that is running through theirs. I am proud, that I get my looks, my sense of humor and my thought process from them as well. I look in the mirror and I smile and I thank God that this is where I came from.
My heritage is long and rich and yes maybe a little off the wall, yet it is the scale that God has used to shape me into who I am. He has built me off the wisdom, grace and love from these woman and for that I am proud most of all. Someday, when my daughter is grown, I hope she will remember the women of strength in her life and if she is lucky, she can say that they have had a hand into shaping her into who she is as well.

I went there again the other day, a bouquet of white roses, with a red ribbon in my hand, I knew she would love them. My son thought they were beautiful, as he came with me to deliver them. My oldest is sensitive to his mom and the things she does.
I pulled the car up along side of the road and I stopped. We got out, neither of us saying a word and we walked about fifty feet. We pulled up the vase and we placed the flowers in them and I was over come with emotion. I looked up at my oldest child and said "This is all I have left of her now." He smiled at me and said "Don't cry momma, Mamaw still loves you, she's just happier with Jesus now."
I rubbed my hand over the words etched into the brass plate. Her name, her birthday and the day she went home to be with the Lord. Underneath it, it says "Beloved Mother" and there is a cross and a bible in either upper corner. After 47 years of living, that doesn't seem like much of a legacy or tribute. Yet, then it struck me. We were getting ready to leave and my son bent down and kissed the stone and whispered "I love you grandma" and it broke my heart. I realized in that moment though, that her legacy is more than a stone in a cemetary. Much more.
She has four children and ten grandchildren. Many of them have different traits and characteristics of her and we laugh, my siblings and I about how much they remind us of her.
My older sister, as she ages, begins to look more and more like her everyday. She has that classic, quiet beauty that my mom possessed and she is beautiful.
Everywhere I look around me, are pieces of her. She is gone from me physically, yes that is true and yet she is never truly gone. I have fingerprints of her all around me. They envelope me and my life and keep her as close as my heart and memories.
I miss her so much and yet I know that this seperation is not forever. She will greet me one day and may even say "Baby Girl, I've been here all the time."

Welcome Home
One of my favorite songs is by a Christian Artist, Shawn Mullens. He does a song called welcome home that I love. It talks about God coming into the home inside of each of us and clearing it out. He apologizes in the song for the clutter that has accumulated over the years due to selfish pride and keeping our eyes focused on ourselves and tells him to open to the doors and windows and clean it all out. I was listening to this song on the way to work today and thought about how liberating that is.
God has been doing a lot of house cleaning with me and it's very liberating and I feel more alive than I ever have.
I like feeling free not to be tied down to the trappings of this world, that so many people fall into. Trappings that still tempt me, but that God is leading me daily away from. I wake up now, anticipating the things God is going to show me each day and it's a very exciting experience that I never want to end.
I can't wait to see what and where God is going to reveal himself to me and what new thing am I going to learn. I could regret the years I chose not to have this, but I won't, because even those years I learned, yet instead I will revel in this moment and take it for all it's worth.
Today, I open the dusty shutters and the creaking door and clutter and all, I outstretch my arms and tell God "Welcome Home." I am so very glad you are here.

Things Change
When I started this blog, I was seperated from my second husband and thought that I was headed for my second divorce. I thought that my life was once again altered to a place that I didn't understand.
Well, I wasn't completely wrong. My life was altered to a place that I didn't understand, yet God had plans that I didn't know and he has changed so much in my life, that I hardly recognize it or me, for that matter.
I met Chris when I was fifteen. I was a Sophmore in High School and he walked into the lunch room and took my breath away. I thought he was the most amazing person I had ever met and I was struck. Life was nothing like I thought it was going to be. Ups and downs, twists and turns and so many road blocks that I thought I would never move forward.
I have so much scattered out through my past that I am not proud of. Decisions that I made that looking back, make me cringe and wish I could go back and change and yet then I think about it and know that it's those situations, that God has used to shape and mold me into who I am today.
I have realized that my past is forgiven and I have the here and now and I clinge everyday to Gods hand because I know that without his guidance, I am nothing.
I have been saved by Grace and I am thankful. I am a ragamuffin that makes it through each day by Gods grace and by the realization that God has enough love for a tattered person just like me. I don't have to be perfect, which is good, because I have been far from it.
Yet, when I look at my good qualities, that God has instilled within me, I smile. I love in large ways, my heart hurts with people who are hurting, my eyes will well up with tears when others do and I don't do it just to be sympathetic, I do it because my heart feels there pain.
I laugh and I love. I care and I give and my heart overflows daily with prayers and thanksgiving for all the blessings he has placed in my life.
My marriage is whole again, better than it ever has been and I give the glory to God for that. He has done what I thought never could be done. I have a wonderful family that I love more than I can articulate and friends that I adore. God brings people into my life, who touch my heart, shape my soul and I'm never the same and my prayer is that I give back at least a part of what they give to me.
What does the future hold? It's hard telling. Yet I am comfortable knowing that the very same God who hung the beautiful stars in the sky at night, knows what it holds and he is in control. For that I am thankful, for that I am grateful and for that...I am the luckiest woman alive.

Not Like You and Me
His name is Zachary. He is three and beautiful. With a smile so illuminating that it melts your heart and blue eyes so pure that you loose yourself in them.
I met him by chance, today at work. He was riding in the front of the buggy his momma was pushing and he was very content munching on the crackers, that his momma had given him.
I asked him if he would like a cookie, and he nodded yes and after checking it with mom, I gave him a big snowman cookie. The smile that illuminated his face, not only warmed my heart, but it brought tears to my eyes.
He said thank you as he took the cookie into his chubby little hand and began to eat it contently.
Zachary is a charmer and yet to most peoples eyes, Zachary is just a little boy with Downs Syndrome.
Maybe it's because I have special need kids of my own, that I can see past it, or maybe just because in that little boys face, I could see the face of God.
He is so happy. So content in the world that surrounds him and he has no clue that the world sees him as different. His mom knows, I know that too well. I have experienced first hand the looks, the whispers and the stares. The looks of pity that come out in public and yet I hold my head high as their mother.
I am not the mother of special need kids. I am the mother of blessings gift wrapped straight from the Heavenly Father himself.
Instead of asking "Why me?" I say "Thank you Lord, because you could have given them to someone else."
No, I guess to a world, that puts so much emphasis on the exterior, that a child that doesn't look like everyone else, is different and not like you and me, yet to me today Zachary was a breath of heavenly wind. He was a kiss from the lips of Angels and tonight when I got home and kissed my sleeping angels I was reminded that I am far more than blessed, I am overflowing.
Not like you and me? Maybe not, yet better than most in so many ways and blessings that have forever changed my heart.

Holiday Season
Christmas time is upon us. Everywhere I go, I see twinkling trees, ornaments, inflated Santas and Snowmen, and I hear the strains of Christmas songs that have been familiar to me since I was a child.
This year though, is different. Ususally by this time, I am geared up in a neck bracing pace that could out do any car on the Indy track. I am rushing here and there, making lists and checking them more than twice. I am baking and filling up boxes and wrapping ribbon around boxes and filling out name tags and running out for last minute gifts and whew, just writing it, is making me tired.
Yet, this year, I have slowed down the pace. No neck break pace this year. I may bake, I may not, yet the world will not be worse off it I don't decorate dozens of cut out snowmen, santas and stars.
I can buy premade ones and feel no guilt in letting pillsbury or peppridge farm do my baking for me this year.
I will still buy gifts, I have four kids who would not take kindly to me boycotting shopping lol, yet I am not allowing myself to become part of the rat race. I am not standing in lines for the "hottest" toy and barganing and pleading to get something in before Christmas. This year I have opted to shop in out of the way places, getting still the same quality of things and knowing it's things that they will like and yet I didn't have to be beat up by mad, frenzied mothers trying to get their child that specific toy and I've probably paid less as well.
I will this year, enjoy more cartoons with my kids. Instead of sitting them down in front of the T.V. to be distracted while I bake, wrap, tag, etc, I will pop some popcorn, grab a juice and join them. I will relive the wonder of Charlie Brown, Frosty and The little drummer boy. We will read our books about Christs birth and we will focus more on that, then the worlds meaning of what Christmas is. This year, I am going to take them to a replica "Bethlehem" that a local church does every year. You walk through the town, meet guards, get money, see the shop keepers and walk up a hill to the stable, following the star, where at the end, you get to see Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. I have always wanted to go to this, yet never had the "time", this year, I do and I will.
Christmas is not a time of the year that has to put us in debt, stress us to the point where we don't revive til Easter and make us dread it's coming more and more each year.
It is a time to rejoice our freedom, to rejoice our liberation and a time to spend with our loved ones, reflecting on the year that is passing by. Good or bad, remembering it all and gleaning the lessons from it.
No this year, I won't try to be Martha Stewart and the perfect Hostess all rolled into one, yet what I will be will much better, for I won't be tired, stressed or disgusted and I will be able to focus more on the baby in a cradle, that came to save a wretched soul like me.
That truly is the greatest gift of all.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!!!!

For Jeremy and The Kids
When was the last time it rained, that you ventured out afterwards and ran through a puddle? When was the last time you ventured out in a rain storm and ran through the rain?
How about had a pillow fight? Food fight? Sat up til two blowing bubbles and giggling?
Okay, so all of this may sound like something you wouldn't work in to your everyday life and yet as you think that, I want you to stop and think about this.
Most of us feel that unless we have kids, we can't do something like that. You may think to yourself "I am too grown up to blow bubbles, or go for walks in the rain" and yet if you think that, ask yourself when do you make time for fun?
Two weeks ago, we had to take my daughter Emilee to Cleveland for a day long worth of tests. I knew this was going to be a long, trying day. A day that would be spent waiting in waiting rooms and getting poked with needles and more, so I devised ways for her to have fun along the way and there.
I gave her and my eleven year old, free reign of the digital camera on the way there so that they could record their trip to Cleveland. We ended up with a lot of pictures of trees, cars and close ups of their faces, yet they giggled and laughed and shared together a time they will never forget.
The other day I took them for a walk and we were out for over an hour, looking for all the crunchy leaves we could find and we stepped on them, seeing who could crunch them the loudest. Natey giggled harder than I have ever heard him giggle and truthfully I forgot how much fun it was to play in the leaves.
Blow some bubbles, take a walk in the rain, go out and crunch some leaves under your feet or the next person that comes to visit you, whack them with a pillow and engage in an all war.
Kids or no kids, it doesn't matter. We all need fun and we all to unwind. I believe that God designed us for fun as well. It keeps us healthy and laughter truly is the best medicine.
Your assignment for today, go out and have some fun. Your body, state of mind and your entire being will thank you for it.