Cousin Hugs

Wow! What an exhilarating, mess-making, completely exhausting, fun, productive, blessed week! My mom has left to go home to Texas to help out my brother's family after graciously offering an entire week of her life to help me. She took over my daily duties of laundry, meal planning/preparation and running the kids all over the place while I dug in and tried to make sense of three years of storage and paperwork chaos.

Honestly, I probably only got about a tenth to a fifth through where I need to be for normal life to return to us, but at least with boxes open EVERYWHERE I will be forced to come out of my slump of lacking motivation. Still, God has accomplished His purpose for this trial. I have loosened up and found better balance. In fact, I wanted to take the weekend off even though it was my mom's last day here to help me. My niece was coming to stay with us for the weekend and I wanted to spend all the time we could with her. We just don't get to spend time with her like that near often enough!

On Friday after picking her up, my niece, my mom, my daughter and I went to the salon where we all got French manicures and pedicures in the "color lighted chairs" my daughter has always wanted to try. The next morning, the girls were down the street with my sons at an empty lot building a "fort" with their sandals on, getting mud and dirt under those perfectly painted toenails - and I loved it! I love the juxtaposition of their daintiness and tom-boyishness all wrapped into two cute smiling little figures of innocence. I went down to view their handiwork of tree limbs and tumbleweeds before cooking out a hamburger lunch.

That evening, we had plans to go to a place that is about 4500 square feet of moonwalk mazes and games. Apparently, though, they have switched over to a Birthday Only facility since I was there last, so we had about a half hour discussion about where to go instead. The kids all became overwhelmed with so many choices. After too many "what if we's" and "No, I don't want to's", my head was spinning. I half-joked that we should just go hang out in the tiny town down the road from here instead of the nearby metro with dozens of kid-friendly attractions, and all of a sudden they agreed! They said they were "up for an adventure." So we went bowling....in a 100+ year-old building that leaned so heavily to one side, you had to adjust your throw accordingly. And we had a blast! Grandma and my niece won the two games. The bowling alley "mascots" were two birds that talk. One of them kept us in stitches for a half hour saying "hello", "goodbye", "I'm Taco" and whistling "Boomer Sooner." My sons LOVED that! As we walked outside, the kids were treated to seeing the train pass just yards in front of them. They always love this, especially right now since their Dad has found a new hobby of train-building with them. Then we went and saw the church camp that Grandma (my mom) first attended as a kid. (This bowling alley was the first one she had ever been in too, which is funny because this is not the area where either she or I grew up.)

Driving home in the beautiful warm Spring darkness, it was easy to soak in the blessings. Good conversation with my mom, one of my very best friends. The freedom to be a stay-at-home-mom without a paid job to be indebted to on this Spring Break. And time with my niece who was creating a game in the back seat with my children.

"O.K. You be me and I'll be my mom and your brother can be my brother and he'll be your Dad...."

They would play their "roles" for a sentence or two, then yell "Cousin Hugs!" and take turns giving each other great big embraces and laughing.

Then Allie started a song they hadn't known before: "We are Family....I got my brothers, sisters, cousins and me......" with all of their giggley little voices joining in the backseat.

How funny! After returning home, my mom and I sat on the front porch and watched the kids play "flashlight tag" in the yard. I did not want our time together to end. A week with my Mom and a weekend with Allie was just too short, but I knew Allie had an exciting surprise waiting for her in Texas and I couldn't wait for her to get to go see it. Her Mommy was coming home after 6 months away at a transplant hospital in Nebraska with Allie's baby sister! As much fun as I hoped to show her at our house, there just is no topping that!!!

God is so good to us.