It's busy, and full
Full of
Togetherness,
Laughter,
Heat,
Fishing,
Time,
Swimming,
Sweat,
Sunscreen,
Running,
Water,
Band-aid's
And a little irritation
The kind that comes with lack of routine and increased presence of each other
But
It's the giggles,
Smiles,
Courage - to try and to be
Encouragement,
Imagination,
And capacity for more
That lingers in my mind
Little hands, that are much bigger than they used to be, rest in my palm
While Crossing the street or shopping for groceries
Little hands that now hold pom-poms and baseball bats
And little voices that have real conversations,
And tell me they prayed for me and hope I have a good night while taking care of the sick kids
Cutely-wrong words are seldom spoken
Rather, books are read, aloud and "in heads"
It's not been full of learning, except learning more about each other
And how to be what we need to one another
I've gotten out of the habit of doing laundry because J loves me so well
The house is a place for rest and nourishment between activities and travel
Hamsters, turtles, snakes and cats are easy pets but
Elle misses us dearly,
Or is she just extra loving because she's pinning for a scoop of non-diet food ?


For the Love of long summer days, time, fat-cats, clean laundry, and growing up
Me

Retributive Justice

Within this post you find the following truths:
1.Summer maintains very little routine for the G-family
2.We allowed our much less than 13 yr olds take in their first PG-13 flick
3.Movie run time 2 hrs 24 min (9:30-11:54 in the PM)
4.Cavity inducing candy was enjoyed by all, 4 hours post bedtime
Now...You have two options; stop reading or continue without judgment of our parenting skills

Action figures and superhero gear have cluttered our home since E was 2-ish

Tshirts and pj's are dawned in seasons of varying favorites

Images stitched and pressed on tees incite in-store childish begging, and often...parental surrender

There's been Spiderman, Transformers, Iron Man, Hulk, Star Wars and most recently The Avengers

He knows their powers (or assigns them one he's imagined) 

But not their back story, then again - neither do I

So when previews for The Avengers started to infiltrate our home via commercials

The excited nagging and petition for viewing began

We let our friends and family test it out first before we agreed

C wasn't sure she was into the superhero drama

But E sparked her interest with a little Black Widow enticement

"Oh, yeah she's my favorite" was C's proclamation to the new found female-character knowledge

With a pre-dinner nap, and bellies full of chips and salsa we headed to the IMAX theater for the late night showing

Too full for popcorn dripping with buttery goodness,

But not too full for Hot Tamales, Jr. Mints, and Reese's Pieces

Good guys and Bad guys were identified and updates whispered as the plot progressed

The literal handful of "words our family chooses not to say" went undetected

And the reviews were all raving:

"AWESOME" - Ethan

"OFF.....THE.....HOOK!" - Charlie

Gun fingers were waved, invisible shields thrown and the air karate chopped as we exited the building

Even as their heads hit the pillow E and C couldn't stop talking about it

E's favorite scene "when the Hulk grabs Loki mid-insulting sentence and pounds him back and forth into the concrete" and C piggy backed E's love for the Hulk smash

For the love of  Family movie nights, Reese's pieces, Joy found in the happiness and innocence of  children, and Hulk smash,

Me

Favorite quote "Ma'am, there's only one God, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that"

- Captain America