It's a Vivas Thing!

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Taking the Time to Notice…

Growing up, my family spent almost every weekend camping…and playing softball. Having lived in the city for the past 27 years, it’s hard for others to imagine me as anything other than a city girl. Until I start to share my stories, and then they laugh. You see, yes, I am a country girl at heart. If I could have it any way, I’d be in an A-frame cabin in the woods spending my days wandering around with my camera taking pictures and ending the evenings with a fire while listening to the crickets and watching for shooting stars. And somehow, there’d  be lightning bugs as well.

I’ll admit, I don’t know how I’d survive anymore without the ability to run to the store at a moment’s notice, but I’m sure I’d save on my grocery bill!

Two things stand out to me from my childhood.

One is my mom and the horseback rides we would take. We would spend the entire day, sun-up to sun-down, riding. We got to where we could spot a deer, rabbit, snake, lizard, skunk, bird….we could spot them anywhere. We knew how to listen and to watch.

The other is my dad. He loved to take pictures. He was always showing slide shows of the photos he took. I have enjoyed spending time with him sharing photos as I grew older. One of my favorite photos is this one, where he and B-boo are sharing photos on one of our camping trips.

Cayton Campground

My dad taught me how to notice the little things as well. We’d go on walks and he would take time to point stuff out. A flower here, a butterfly or bee, the way the water ran over a certain rock in a river, or the shape that some sticks in the woods made. And if we were too noisy, he’d “shoosh” us so we wouldn’t scare off any animals and miss seeing them. And he would spend time with me talking about the photos we took.

Now I enjoy taking photos as I take walks with my kids. My youngest son loves to be my assistant. He helps change lenses and points out things I need to take a photo of. I mean, how many photos of bunnies can one possibly take, right? But, he’s starting to notice the surroundings now when we walk. Once home, I love to put them up on the computer and go over them with the kids as we critique them together.

Too often, we become so busy with life. Especially living in the city. We work hard all week, and spend our time relaxing in front of the television or playing video games. And there is nothing wrong with any of it. But I think in doing this, we often forget to notice what is around us. We forget to notice the little things. My advice? Take time to notice what is around you. And if you have a camera, try and capture it as you go along.

Here’s some fun from my weekend.

Special Memories

I was sitting here in the dark tonight with the Drama Queen, listening to my son’s music. I played it several times.

She finally asked,

“Mommy, why do you keep playing it over and over?”

“Because,” I said, “It takes me back to a special memory.”

“What’s a special memory?”

So I told her, “A special memory is a memory of something special that has happened to you, or with you and someone else. It can be anything, but it brings back that special moment.”

“But why is this song special, Mommy?” she asked.

So I told her about the song and the memories it created the day that the Talented One played it for me. And no matter what, I’ll always consider it “our song.” And when I”m tired, or he’s just there playing, sometimes I can ask him to play “my song” and he does. I don’t have to tell him which one or why, because he knows. And he plays it for me. And I think back to that first time, when he played it for me over and over. And so, sometimes, I just like to sit and listen to it over and over.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

So she asked again, what kind of special memories I have. And I told her about one I have of the Smart One. He was younger, and it was just the two of us and we were listening to praise music in the living room. And a song came on. And he just lifted his hands up in praise to the Lord. He lifted his face up and closed his eyes and just sang and swayed back and forth, with his arms outstretched and his face shining as he sang along. I honestly don’t even remember what song it was; but the moment..wow. I’ll never forget that moment.

And so we talked of why I want to keep homeschooling her for now; so that we can created special memories together. ‘And we talked of things we’ve done together. And we talked about just knowing, some day, that there is that one special memory we can share and how she’ll have other special moments with other loved ones; maybe even her own children some day. And we talked about how important it is to just stop sometimes, and grab that special moment; make a memory, because you won’t ever get that chance back. Grab it while you can.

“Mommy, why can’t we go back?”

“Because, those moments only happen once. We can’t do it again.”

And she asked me, “Mommy, can you be there with me when I have my baby, so we can have that special memory?”

I’m not sure what her future husband will say about that one, but I know, when she has that precious baby, I’ll be reminded of this night. The night when we sat and listened to the Talented One’s beautiful music and talked about grabbing the moments in life that we can and making those moments count.

Because tonight, we made our own special memory.

 

 

Whatever in the Whole Wide World

should I write about? (BTW…"Whatever in the whole wide world is something I say a lot). Anyway, there are so many choices! I could write about our crazy pets and what happens when you let your bunny loose in the backyard with two new puppies! I could write about my latest cooking experience. Hey, it's not easy to find a recipe for a delicious banana bread that does not contain eggs, dairy, wheat, gluten, soy or nuts! I could write about the wonderful party that my family threw for my 40th birthday…and how I'll be eating chocolate for the next 40 years!

What about how much fun it is being a parent of teenagers! Now there's something I could write about forever! I mean, will it ever end? We finally got one to adulthood only to have four more coming up! And what were we thinking, really? I mean, we have not one, but TWO teenagers right now! I honestly haven't' figured out which is worse, boys or girls, so God is having a field day showing me!

And then it happened! I was sitting here, minding my own business at 10:22 pm, thinking I've finally come to the end of my day when the unthinkable happens. It's calm, it's peaceful. Children are asleep, the hubs is quiet downstairs and the eldest daughter and I are finally done with her report on our new President's speech. She's off to the shower and I'm sunk into the pillow ready to type away. Yes? No! Because in that next moment, she lets out a blood curdling scream that could wake the dead! I rush into the bathroom to find her out of the shower screaming about some giant BLACK spider that is going to eat her in the shower! Amazingly, her father hears nothing, so I guess I am the one to be the spider killer of the night!

While she hides far enough behind me, I calmly creep to the shower, pull back the curtain and access the situation. Sure enough, there is a HUGE, BLACK SPIDER just sitting there waiting to be ambushed by said spider killer. (That'd be me, in case you didn't know!) I promptly say a prayer of quick thanks for my hubs who thought to install one of those shower heads hooked onto a hose while I grab it and aim it at the poor unsuspecting HUGE BLACK SPIDER! I quickly turn on the water as HOT as I can and let loose on the monster while my daughter questions my every move.

"Are you sure you're getting rid of it?"

"What if it comes back up?" (I'm thinking dear, that the scalding hot water alone would kill it, but I'll keep going just to keep you safe.)

After several minutes of a hot water flush, I turn off the faucet to wait and see if the thing will work it's way back up. Nothing, zilch, nada.

But said teenager wants to make sure it's gone…..so again with the hot water flush.

Finally, I think I've managed to convince her it's safe to shower, right? Sure, ok….but just in case…

I get to type up my first blog sitting on my bathroom floor with my laptop in my lap (now there's a funny) and listen to her take the fastest shower in her life!

And that, my dear readers, is what why we say,

"It's a Vivas Thing!"