Saturday, February 21, 2009

All my Dreams Have Come True....

Luke woke early, early Saturday morning and crept into our room, hopped in our bed, gave me a cuddle and whispered in my ear, "Mommy, I had a dream last night that I swung higher on my swing then I ever did and I got on it all by myself..." "Neat...", I said drowsily, "…now let’s go back to sleep...it's still nighttime." He didn't. He wanted to talk about the swing...so we chatted in a sleepy haze…and finally, he drifted back to sleep and back to his dreams until we were woken up to Henry dragging himself and his very large stuffed bear by the ears for some Saturday morning cartoons. I knew it was going to be a long day. Jon was playing golf with buddies, which means I would have the kids for the day...I wouldn't say I was dreading it, but I just wasn't sure what we would do all day and I was not feeling well on top of that...surely, I had picked up some variety of one of the viruses that had been swirling throughout our house for the last ten days or so. I knew I could probably just put the kids in front of the TV for most of the day, but it's not fair to them and I just don't like doing that...I was frantic for some inspiration! We started with lunch…bologna and peanut butter sandwiches...yup, you heard me right! They were thrilled! This is easy. Little by little, the inspiration began to flow. CHALK PAINT...we cannot go wrong here! I got out the stuff, bundled up the baby and out we went. BIG HIT! Not because they actually painted the sidewalk, but because they decided it would be great to paint the plants, the roots of all the trees and the swing. As they ran back and forth slopping paint on their brushes...they screamed with glee, "This is the greatest day EVER!" Hooray for me. And the day just got better...we did puzzles, cut flowers and put them in water, I taught Luke how to mix paint colors to make new colors (which he assured me he already knew), made cookies together, learned the president and vice president’s names, looked at maps, hopscotch, freeze tag, Frisbee...it was really, really fun. After Henry’s 2 hour nap (score!) the boys begged to go back outside...I put my game face on because I was TIRED, sick and not in the mood. Luke dashed to the swing and I dutifully pushed him as I kept an eye on Henry as he "entertained" the baby. On a whim, I grabbed Luke by the waist walked back, back, back and let go...he swung so high, his eyes got huge and he screamed in delight..."I AM SWINGING HIGHER THEN I EVER DID, MOMMY!" His grin was bigger then ever. I went in and grabbed the camera...trying to capture his moment. My heart was lifted in his happiness because it was so pure. It was getting cold and a little dark so we were packing it all up…Luke begged for one last big swing. My hands were full so I told him to pull up on the rope and wrap his legs around it and just sit down on the swing...unbelievably, he followed my instructions exactly. The realization struck him that he did it by himself, that grin was back.…you could see his chest rise in the pride of his accomplishment, as he swung back and forth, he screamed out without any hesitation about who would hear him, “ALL MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE! Mommy! ALLLLL MY DREAMSSSS HAVE COME TTTRRRUUUEEEE!” As a parent, I don’t think I could articulate what his unabashed expression of joy did to me. I was uplifted, I felt better and I couldn’t stop laughing at his happiness. Joy…what a gift from God and what an amazing promise. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11

2 comments:

  1. Welcome to the blogging world! Great to see friends online. What cute kids. Have a great day.

    I am blogging over at www.genesismoments.com

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