Boomerang

Sometimes things return back to you in the least expected moments.

I was thinking recently about a video that I vaguely remembered. The memory is so clear, I remember sitting on the floor in Grandpa Shorty's living room. There were probably a few cousins around. I watched this fun movie with songs from different movies, all the words were on the bottom of the screen and we sang along. And my favorite was from the Jungle Book, the elephants marching and singing. I wonder how old I was then. I haven't seen it in decades. I sort of missed it and thought my own kids would enjoy it, but who knows what happens to these things? Some old video, long gone and mostly forgotten.

Then, Christmas rolled around, we went to Mom and Dad's, there was a frenzy of food, gift opening, packing up the car. When we got home and unpacked our car, there was a little treasure in the bottom of a gift bag. Something old and almost forgotten, remembered only as a vague thought of a moment at Grandpa's house so long ago. There it was, the video.

Right away I put it into the VCR and there he was... Jiminy Cricket hosting a 24 minute sing along. The kids settled in to watch and I sang along to all these classics and finally, the one I had remembered, it came up and we laughed and I almost cried at the thought of it. This little clip from a video so long ago, from Grandpa's house with family and all of the memories from that place and those people, and here was this silly little song singing right out of my past. Thanks for passing that along to us, Mom.

Vacation, and More

The kids had an unusually long Christmas vacation from school, two full weeks. Add the weekends on either end, and that's 16 days at home. We had a great time together, David also had almost two full weeks off from work. We played games, put up the Christmas tree, took it down again, celebrated the holidays. Then... The arctic freeze set in. The jet stream of cold air from the far northern parts of Canada, or something. They predicted it for a week and then it came, the cold. On Friday, they cancelled school for Monday. The kids were happy, an extra day! Except, we talked about the people who don't have homes, who will be seriously at risk over the coming cold days and even colder nights. We prayed. We took a spur of the moment trip to the store to buy blankets and then dropped them off at the homeless shelter. We prayed some more. Last night the cold really set in, the kids and I haven't been outside for days. This afternoon I got another call from the school, its cancelled again, no school tomorrow. I'm so thankful for this warm, safe home we have, and the furnace that just keeps running and keeping us warm.
 

We'd be going a bit crazy, but we're all in project mode, and we've got lots of work to do! We'll be throwing a birthday party for Shelly, there are LOTS of girls on the invite list, and we need to get planning! Its amazing how there's no fighting when there's a common cause. Making invitations, working on making yarn dolls, brainstorming ideas for games, crafts, food, decorations.... I've got a shopping list two pages long, but can't leave the house to buy the stuff. In the mean time, we'll use what we have and listen to some fun music while we party away the day!

I got a CD from the library and we discovered this fun little song, we listened to it over and over, laughing every time!

SV 13 & 14: Sleepover & Camping & Fishing, Oh My!

Last night the kids had a sleepover with Grandma Shell. I didn't get many details out of them, but the summary is that they visited two libraries, stayed up till midnight and spent a lot of time in the pool. Archer's review of his time was "why do we have to go home? Its more fun here. I wish we could live here." So that's definitely positive feedback! The party's over - on the way home tonight, they both fell asleep in the car around 7:00, didn't wake when we brought them into the house, and are still sleeping soundly. They're worn out now but I expect them to be back on schedule around 7:30 tomorrow morning, ready for yet another day of non-stop action!

Oh yeah, while they were partying in Hales Corners, Grandpa Craig and I went camping at Lake Kegonsa and fishing at Mendota. No fish, but lots of time playing cribbage and talking, and a nice morning spent with Nana and Papa today.

 Tonight we're all back together in Racine. Again I had that feeling that travelling was nice and visiting family was great, but we belong together as a family and I never feel completely content when we're separated. The strings that hold our family together continually tug at my heart when we're apart, and I'm glad we're all home again.