Nearly Perfect

Before our surprise outing. Em and I were feeling a little funky in our fun glasses.

This weekend has been just that, and I find that my full heart wants to document it, so I will remember. Beginning with a Friday night during which, after dinner, the children played wild and long, all together. Tim described it as "Thanskgiving with cousins" sort of play, the kind where they all run and scream and laugh with abandon and you want to tell them to please be more quiet but you restrain yourself because you only get to be a child once. Tim and I, meanwhile, had begun our weekly Scrabble game(s), and played an entire game during the fun-fest. We put the wild ones to bed and watched two episodes of the Cosby Show; laughing aloud is good for the soul.

Today held more Scrabble, our Saturday Morning Cartoons tradition, a swim (it was a 'cool' day in the mid 80's here, making swimming akin to the polar bear plunge. At least that's what was reported to me; I'm not about to swim in such weather!), and a run. While Daddy played drums at a nearby church tonight, Mommy had planned a fun surprise...our first ever movie in the theater! We went to see 'Frozen', and I didn't tell the children what we were going to do, just walked them down the street and through the mall, enjoying their guesses all along the way, and the excitement that ensued when the plan was revealed. Somehow circumstances have never aligned for us to make it to the theater for a family movie, so this felt like a special gift. The movie was fun, fun. We also spent some time while at the mall shopping for a gift for a little girl in a family we've come to love, a family that has little and doesn't (yet) have any cultural or belief associations with the idea of Christmas; we are praying that receiving a gift on the occasion of Christ's birthday, and being told that we give because of The Gift God gave to us, will help her and her family understand a bit more of who Jesus is and what that means.

Nothing in this life is ever perfect, and I have felt flustered and impatient today with repeating instructions multiple times, subduing squabbles, navigating complaints- all of the normal stuff of life in a family. Be our circumstances sweet or sour, though, we are privileged to be walking through this season together, and the beauty is enhanced when we take time to acknowledge it.