Source: etsy.com via Glenn on Pinterest
Thanks to Etsy and Pinterest for sharing so many wonderful products and ideas.
And you, dear reader, feel free to share this with your coworker.
Blessings on you!
Marilyn
Traveling with your children usually means a road trip with one to twelve kids crammed into your car.
I keep seeing vans on the highway with movies playing in the back seat on those little portable DVD players. I’m all for movies, our family loves them. It just feels wrong to me to be wasting all that enforced togetherness!
On the other hand, it does cut down on the shrieking. Whether your kids fight or play there will be shrieking. (When I’m right, I’m right.)
When I was a kid we sang songs in the car: Yankee Doodle Dandy, You Are My Sunshine, and my Dad’s favorite:
When You Wore a Tulip,
A big yellow tulip
And I wore a big red rose,
When you caressed me,
‘Twas then heaven blessed me,
What a blessing no one knows.
You made life cheery,
When you called me Dearie,
‘Twas down where the blue grass grows.
Your lips were sweeter than julep,
When you wore a tulip,
And I wore a big red rose.
Then, of course, there were games. We played 20 Questions and What Does My Little Eye Spy? My dad and brothers were the main competitors in the Name That Car contests. Whoever could correctly name the make and model of the car coming toward you first got the point. I was lousy at the game, but I’m sure it contributed to my lifelong love of ogling automobiles.
My favorite game was Finish the Story. One person would start a story, stop at a random spot and the next person would take up the narrative. Sister Susie was the queen of story finishing. Her plots were unexpected and the details had us all laughing.
Is there anything more wonderful than laughing out loud with your loved ones? Sure, you might laugh at a movie. But there’s something much more intimate about laughing at a spontaneous joke. It’s a way of admiring the joke teller and feeling a little proud they belong to you.
What does your family do on long car trips? Leave a comment and let us know.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Currie via Flickr
©Marilyn Woodard 2008
When my kids were little Psalty the Singing Songbook was popular in the American Christian realm. One of his story tapes (my kids are that old!) included the song, “Make Me a Servant”.
My then 4 year-old daughter sang it thusly:
“Give me a servant, humble and true…”
And I would think, “He did! And I’m it!”
Admit it. If you have children, you’ve felt that way. Or surely you’ve said,
“Isn’t there someone else we could call, ‘Mom’, for just a few hours?”
Finally, the answer is, YES!!!!!
Admittedly, you will need a rather large kitchen to accommodate her,
but Robo-Maid has arrived.
If you can’t view the video here you can check her out at http://snurl.com/4ufgl
Blessings on you!
Marilyn
I’ve been depressed. Not the “tears in my ears from lying on my backing crying over you” type depressed. Just the don’t-wanna-do-nuthin‘ kind. The kind that makes you no fun to be around.
Finally, a helpful thought blossomed: You need to dig in the dirt!
You see, I’d been doing two things with most of my time: writing and studying. That’s all well and good, but I needed some nature time.
So, last evening, I spent two hours in the garden pulling weeds, digging out a path, hauling gravel. When it was too dark to see, I came in and, while physically tired, I was emotionally revved.
This morning I faced the computer with aplomb, verve and – dare I say it? – happiness.
What is it about gardening that turns a sour hag into a serene matron?
I think it’s largely due to the fact that I cannot think while gardening. Or if I do, it’s in a very limited, detached way. My mind floats in and out, mostly out…and is occasionally yanked into stark awareness of the incredible intricacy of a fern, or the heady fragrance of a lily…I pause and marvel at the exquisite complexity of Creation.
And then I drift off into la-la land for awhile and come back refreshed.
And that is why we use the word recreation: it is Re-Creation!
What feeds your soul? What re-creates you?
And, when was the last time you took time for Re-Creation?
Blessings on you!
Marilyn
