Playtime is Together Time

The other day I caught myself in a frustrated moment say to myself, "Sometimes I wish my children wouldn't pretend so much." I don't remember the situation, but when it is meal time, clean-up time, etc. sometimes I wish they would come back to reality and do the appropriate tasks... And yet, another side of me thinks it is so amazing that my children have such great minds that they can create so many things and have fun together.

David has saved this clay since a project he did last school year and has had so much fun creating many fun things. Rebecca joined him in the fun yesterday, and this is just one example of the fun things. They created "brains" (I guess along the Halloween theme), monsters, planes, a nest, and a shell. (you can see another creation on this post)

I love the eggs the snake is guarding.

Every now and then we get to pull out games and play together. I wish we could do this more often, but the littlest one tends to crawl over and tear the game up... I am sure we will have lots more time for fun in the future. I think Rebecca won this game! Way to go!

My times we take turns gathering and playing in Benjamin's fun room. He can create so many fun things with these tracks! Thanks to Grandma and others we have built up quite the collection!

There was a spot of soil that became exposed after many rainstorms, and what do you think happens? The children turn it into a fun place. Our area doesn't have dirt either. If you expose the dirt you see it is all sand! So we live in a giant sand box.

As I was looking at the school calendar this morning, I got excited seeing Christmas break coming, and Spring break in a few months, and ultimately Summer break. I love these times when we can be together and make memories.

Family is everything.

Family Heritage

Recently my mother gave me a couple boxes of special family items. I sat down on the floor and felt like a child at Christmas seeing these special items. My heart filled as I held these special things in my hands and realized my great-grandparents held them as well. It made my extended family feel so much closer and more real to me.

Family near and far-- past, present, and future-- has always been very important to me. I feel so grateful to those who have gone before, and hope I can do well in helping those who will continue after me.

I pulled this cute little basket from my cupboard because I have felt it would be so beautiful with flowers in it. Every time I saw it or smelled these flowers I thought of my family from the past.

How thankful I am that I know we are a forever family. I will get to see these wonderful family members sometime in the future. What joy we will have hugging one another.

Thank you, Mom, for passing this heritage on to me.