October 26, 2010

• {looking for the lovely}

  Today it rained.

  Like one of those chilly fallish kind of rains that causes you to reach for your favorite gray knee socks and coziest sweater – you know the one, with the little lint balls all over it and maybe a hole under the arm..

  I stood at the back door for awhile and watched the rain pour down. Noticing the few remaining leaves on the trees whipping and shaking in the wind.. as if holding on to their branches for dear life not wanting to let go. Tonight, the big huge oak outside my bedroom window is much emptier now. I think in the end the wind won. Now the leaves lay in a wet lifeless heap on the ground underneath. I find a melancholy settle over me as the thought comes to mind that I won’t be here in the spring to see that tree in all it’s glory once again.

  And suddenly I realize.. I’m going to miss that tree.
  Is that dumb. To miss a tree?
  If it is that’s okay. I’ll be the dumb person who’s going to miss a tree.

  But if a tree could talk, man oh, man the stories it could tell of our times here!
  Standing as a wooden guard by our house over the last 12 years…
  creating the perfect shade for picnics and dream of a climbing tree for the kids.

  But.. I didn’t mean to write a post about a tree.
  I guess I was just thinking out loud there a minute…

  What I was going to write about was the gorgeous day we had before the rainy one –
  and how glad I was that Emma and I took a walk on that day and gathered up all the pretty things we could find.

  
   

  …it struck me when we were walking how that from inside our house looking out things didn’t seem too colorful or inviting… but when we got out and looked for the beauty we found it! sometime things in life appear worse than what they are, simply because we choose to stay in the box we’ve created around ourselves.. instead of being willing to step out and look for the good {the beauty} in the situation. Sure, it’s not always easy to spot. We might have to search a bit, dig a little deeper, and even push a few things aside – like I had to do for some of the pretty berries and flowers that were buried beneath the dead leaves. But, if we’re wanting to see it, wanting to find it, we certainly will!

  That was a good lesson to me in searching for the lovely in the drab times of life… even though it might seem from first glance there’s none to be had!

  
   
  
  {i loved the different color berries we found}

  We brought all our little finds home and spread them on the kitchen table.
  Emma decided we should open a flower shop, telling me-

  “you do the debt-or-ating wif our stuff and i will do the money…”

  (: Sounded like a good arrangement to me. 

   
       

  Actually, she turned out to be a good little business woman…
  making eight dollars and something from the guys who work for Shayne!
  One of them asked her how much for one of the leaves and she said,

  “Two dollars.”

  “Well, let me get my wallet from my car…”

  Emma looked up. Eyes wide with surprise and answered,

  “You are weally doeing to div me TWO DOLFERS for dat!!”

  
  

  Later while Kate was at ballet Emma wanted to go somewhere and spend her newly found business fortune.
  After walking the toy aisles of Target for the whole hour and half time slot we had before picking Kate back up,
  she finally settled on a generic rubik’s cube. hello kitty lip gloss. and a small plastic laptop.

  In the checkout lane she fumbled with her Barbie wallet, spilling the quarters nickels dimes and 12 million pennies all over the floor.
  When the lady told her the total she handed her the fist full of change she’d just scooped off the floor…

  “No, baby… ” I corrected. “You need your big money.”

  I reached into her clutched Barbie wallet and pulled out the singles.

  “But I want to pay wif these…” She said, bending down to pick up more of the spilled coins.

  “It doesn’t work that way, sweetie..” I explained as I attempted to count out the waded bills, aware of the impatient looking lady in line behind us.

  Now my kids have never been public fit throwers. Key word on public. They each know how to throw a royal dish of a fit in their own right just fine… But suddenly, Emma {very publicly} flung the change in her hand back on the floor and grabbed my leg, burying her head in it and crying loudly.

  “But I don’t want to div dat wady my money…!!!”

  I patted my heartbroken child on the head as I handed over her prized dollar bills and felt very much like the scary looking old men in the bank scene of Mary Poppins singing, “Tuppence,” as they greedily eyed the coin in Michael’s hand. I could feel the stares of the fellow shoppers and wanted to turn around and explain, “Look, people.. she WANTED to buy these things. I’m not some mean mom making my daughter spend her money when she doesn’t want to!!!” 

  I paid for my own things. Gathered our bags. And limped out with my sobbing 5 year old still attached to my leg.

  In the van as we talked things through I asked her if she wanted to return what she had bought -
  She told me, no. She wanted those things. But she wanted her money too!

  Oh, don’t we all.

  I tried making her understand it just didn’t work that way, but wasn’t sure she really got it.

  But this morning when she woke me up with,

  “O-tay. Dis is what I doeing to do. Take my fings to da store and det dem to div me my money back! Den… you tan buy me dose fings wif YOUR money!”

  Hmm. On second thought. Yeah. She got it!
  And I’m thinking there’s a future in there as a business woman after all.

  
  {picnik has a new textures effect that i had fun trying out and playing around with}

  
   
  I don’t think our little flower shop venture worked out so well for me though – -
  I started itching something fierce last night and woke up to a nasty rash all over my neck!
  Apparently one of the lovely red leaves I pulled was poison ivy!!!
  I’ve never had it in my life, and man! hope it’s the last.

  My grandma was telling me when she was a girl, going to school in a one room school house that one of the things the girls would do at recess was find a poison ivy leaf and write the name of the boy they liked on their arm. Then, when they broke out in the rash it spelled out the name!! Hmm.. I told her they must have been short on entertainment back then.

  Well, I’ve been jumping up and down throughout trying to write this to take care of one fussy little Reese.
  Not sure if I ate something she’s not liking or what..
  sure hoping she doesn’t get this poison ivy – is it contagious?
  I should google it. But google usually freaks me out more than helps.
  She’s finally settled and I think is sleeping, which means I should be too.

  So, one last slathering of Caladryl and I’m off to bed!

  ¸.·´¸.·¨) ¸.·¨)
  (¸.·´ (¸.·´ (¸.·¨¯`♥ amber
  
  
   
  

  • 11:54 pm
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