A glimpse..

As you may have guessed, the various responsibilites that fall to me in this life, have been collectively kicking my butt.

Every time I get up and running.....I slip and fall on my face, due to various unforseen curves, pot holes, and stumbling blocks that inevitably come into everyones daily experience. And it's not that I don't heed the old addage of "get back up and dust yourself off". I do. It's just that here lately, theres been A LOT of slipping and falling, and that in turn has caused me to just want to lie and wallow a bit, before the aforementioned "getting and the dusting".

I don't advise this.
Because I've noticed that after you wallow, there's more than just "dusting" that needs to be done. At that point it's more like dried mud that has to be removed, so you've really done yourself a disservice.

During my blogging hiatus, however, I have seen glimpses of a close family now and again. I think far too often I am focused on the little "fixes", and I forget to really LOOK at the little things that happen each day that ARE what we strive for.

The day that Savannah got her braces off, we came home and the boys couldn't stop talking about how awesome her "new smile" looked. She was absolutely beaming. Brothers usually don't take much notice of the personal appearance of their sister. At least THESE brothers don't. I'm pretty sure that she could shave her head bald and it would be days before one of them said something like, "Hey...has your hair always been like that?"

The day that we were going to leave for a road trip to my mom and dads, I had a ton of errands to run that morning, and this was going to set us back even further from leaving. I don't like to come home to a dirty house, and since ours looked like some nasty dwarves from middle earth had taken up residence in it, I knew it would be awhile before we could shove off. When I walked in the door, the kitchen was SPOTLESS. In fact, the whole main floor of the house was clean and swept. ANd I mean really clean. Jackson had gotten up and cleaned the whole thing that morning while I was gone! Once the smelling salts were administered we left for mom and dads.

Savannah had her birthday party at mom and dads skating center. Having grandparents that own a skating center to which you get private, VIP party rights, is one sweet deal for my kids. Just think of it: not only do you get the WHOLE skating rink to yourself, you get your own tunes, you can eat all the junk food you want....self-serve, you can play all the games FOR FREE, and what kid wouldn't LOVE to stand behind the snack bar and serve up drinks from the drink fountain??? They had been looking forward to this for-ev-er. After we arrived there was a glitch in the music. Austin saved the day, and spent the entire party up in the DJ booth blasting all of his sisters favorite music for everyone to skate to. It really did save the party. ANd while this probably WAS his dream job......he also enjoys being in the middle of everything skating, so I thought that it was really great.

Savannah is a very thoughtful and sweet girl each and every day. (No, she is not adopted).SHe really is a sweet girl, by nature. Just the other day, she spent a good part of her day helping Jackson understand and organize his ipod. She downloaded new music for him, (which she is careful to screen and be sure that he doesn't listen to anything "unsavory"), and helped him figure the whole thing out. And trust me when I tell you that Jackson is NOT the most patient student.
And then on Valentines Day, Savannah made valentines for each of us, and bought me a box of chocolates because she knew that dad wouldn't be able to send anything.

SO there you have it! Glimpses that we MIGHT actually come out on the other side of all this with something that resembles our goal. Of course all the other animal-like behaviour still happens around here too, but I will save those for another post. Sometimes I need a little reminder!

Cheers!
Melissa