What if, as adults, we all saw these young, budding athletes, entrepreneurs, negotiators, builders, gardeners, jokesters, dancers, and dreamers as destined for greatness? What if all they needed was someone to believe in them, to encourage them, to smile at them, to give them a chance? The world has enough doubters, disagreers, haters, and just down-right grumps. Enough people find ways to tear kids down. I wonder what would happen if every child, just once in their life, could be asked for their autograph by an adoring fan. What kind of a difference could that simple thing make in their little world—and maybe even in ours?
…Maybe life is less like a highway and more like a series of one-way streets, wrong turns, u-turns, side roads, traffic jams, pot holes, missed exits, and detours. Maybe life was never meant to follow a GPS. Maybe concrete plans were meant to be broken. Maybe we were meant to scream from time to time, “Crap! I didn’t want to exit here!” Because that’s when life, with all the good, the bad, and even the seriously ugly, really happens.
It’s been a month since life, for most of us, was normal. That’s meant less trips to the grocery store, less birthday parties to run to, less playing with friends, no sitting in a pew for church. It’s meant no baseball, no after school sports…no actual school. It’s been a lot of less and even more or none.
But, for us, it’s also meant more time as a family, more connecting with others in deeper ways, more patience, more gratitude, more faith, more awareness. For us, it’s been an abundance of more.
When life is normal again, I hope we don’t loose all that we’ve gained. New Post!
Long ago, while I was a mom to just one little boy, I had a friend. She had five kids, and had grown up with nine brothers and sisters. She made parenting seem like a cinch. One day while I was visiting with her,… Continue Reading “What I’d Tell My Pre- 4 Kid Self”
I love personality tests. Not the “Which Downton Abbey Character Are You?” type. I’m talking the real deal. Myers Briggs, Winslow Personality Assessment, Keirsey Temperament Sorter… The ones that leave you feeling completely exposed, like someone just dug out your soul and splattered it… Continue Reading “Be You”
This past fall we took our four boys on a backpacking trip. Ten miles in, 10 miles out, and 10 miles exploring in between. We thought we’d share a few pictures, some of the details, and a few things we learned about taking kids backpacking, in case you ever find yourself at the bottom of a mountain with little ones in tow!
Happy hiking!
Chelsi
I have never met a one-year-old that I didn’t find completely and utterly adorable. Their pudgy sausage fingers, their squeals of delight, their hilarious interpretations of new words that will, for better or worse, follow them the remainder of their lives (raga-lo-li-lo-li will forever… Continue Reading “One-kin-stine”