Our Inspired Journey

Sunday after church, Daddy, Ryder and Cole went outside to conquer the leaves covering our lawn! It was fun trying to capture the moment...leaves falling, boys playing, Ryder destroying Daddy's neatly made piles, but fun had all the same :) The boys are in shorts and tee-shirts since all these shenanigans took place in 80 degree weather! We went from the 60's to 80's in a week and this week promises more of the 60's again as Fall comes to rest a while on our beautiful city. Ryder loved the leaves and played in them for about 2 hours before coming inside, and asking for some cold orange juice. While he was sipping his juice, I noticed his legs were quite itchy, so after a mid-day bath and story, he slept very soundly for a great nap! Cole wasn't so fond of the scratchy feeling from the beginning, so he dabbled but mostly wanted to ride his tricycle while Daddy and Ryder played and filled 3 huge trash bags with compacted leaves.

Totally unprompted kiss for brother! I didn't tell him to, I promise! Every once in awhile, Ryder will just reach over and give Cole a kiss, and sometimes say, "Mom, Cole's so cute!" or "I yuv(love) my bruver (brother)!"

This morning we woke up to another lawn full of leaves. I was laughing so hard as I gently pointed it out to John. Feeling defeated by his arch nemesis (the leaves) he said, "I knew it!" I tried to point out that at least we didn't have double the amount out there and that since he raked yesterday, that was 3 bag fulls less than he'd have to rake next time! I think it got him out the door with a smile as we laughed and took in our new surroundings again.

It's good to laugh at ourselves sometimes, isn't it? Since we're not perfect we'll either be constantly disappointed and frustrated with our constant shortcomings, or learn to laugh a bit at the way we sometimes repeat the same mistakes despite trying to move forward and ask God to help us get to where He wants us to be in His time. Now, I'm not so sure he cares very much our our leaf saga though the breeze He brought this morning which knocked more leaves off our tree probably gave Him a little chuckle too! It's good to laugh with God, especially during a season when so much of our learning and growing has come through cleansing tears...