Needed this day...

~Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.~

This blog weighs so heavily on my mind sometimes. Not because of the following, the friends who read (although you know I love each and every one of you) but because when I don't keep up on it I somehow allow myself to believe that it is some sort of representation of what kind of person I am...or worse, what kind of mother I am. I beat myself up about my lack of time management, which, let's face it, I am seriously lacking skills in this area, and I start to check and recheck my priorities and make sure that that is all squared away, and then I further punish myself by doing some weird inventory of the things I have or have not accomplished this particular day/week/year and how I could have blogged instead of doing this or that or the other thing.

Let's face it. I have been uninspired. To say the least. It's 120 degrees and I am mega huge pregnant and honestly, the idea to sitting down at the computer and committing 30 minutes of my time to doing ANYTHING at this point kills me. There are many blog posts to post, I have a mental (and of course paper) list of all that I need to do to get caught up. But today I blog about something different, something regular. But something oh so inspiring. Our day.

These are the days that every family has every so often that are just perfect. The days where you find yourself getting lost in moments and love and laughter and after everyone has gone to bed for the night, the mame bear in me gets to stay awake and just relive it...and be grateful...and find ways to remember forever. Sometimes I think a change in weather is a fun way to bring about one of these wonderful family days. I have many fond memories as a child that occurred when Mother Nature was doing something radical outside the confines of our sturdy and safe shelter. It just felt so exciting...thrilling...different. And still so safe and cozy and warm.

Today was one of those days for John and I, and for our kids. It started with an early nap for Mav, after a long morning out and about braving the heat and humidity. So he woke from nap around 2:30, and that is early, normally he doesn't get up till around 5, right before we eat dinner. So I sat and wondered what I was going to do with these kids ALL AFTERNOON (like it was such a drag). Daddy was just waking up too, he is working nights right now so early afternoon is his morning, and we were all sitting on our chairs downstairs making a plan, and a big beautiful storm started brewing outside. At first, you could just see the wind, and the kids were intrigued, so we took them outside to check it out. And they ran around the yard excited to pick up and hide away all their toys so the wind wouldn't take them away. And then the raindrops started, and they wanted to jump on their trampoline, so we let them for a bit. And then a huge downpour came, so we all ran together to our little covered patio outside our back door and sat on the sofa there together and let the wind and rain and thunder put on a show for us. And then Tula had a brilliant idea to go and run around IN the pouring rain, and that she did. Mav of course was not far behind. And they screamed and laughed and splashed and jumped and smiled and hugged and twirled and just entertained us with their joy. And we sat there holding hands just watching and quiet and I could help but think about how I just live for these moments...how I love what I do...how grateful I am...how much I'll miss these days...how I hope they remember today...how I could never live without them (how did I ever?)...and just how lucky I really am. John and I hardly even spoke, I know he was soaking up as much as I was, and that was our afternoon. Our beautiful, perfect, rainy afternoon.

We came inside and John took the kids up and bathed them before dinner and then we ate veggie burgers and french fries and Tula even asked for soup (I think she thought it was cold outside), and we had a fund dinner where we talked about how we ate french fries on fun days and simple things like that. It was SUCH a perfect day that after John and I cleaned up dinner I was even inspired to do a craft with the kids, and I am by no means a crafty person, and CERTAINLY not at 6 o'clock at night, but my day couldn't get any better and I was so in love with my family that I just wanted to hang with them some more. So we made a simple food necklace, of course Mav just ate most of his fruit loops but Tula just loved the exercise of stringing the ribbon through the noodle, then the cheerio, then the fruit loop, and she even created her own little pattern that was something along those lines. Seriously she was so into it I realized tonight that I either need to hop on the wagon and start homeschooling the child (or at least incorporate some serious craft and intentional creative play time) or the girl needs preschool...which I am pretty sure I am not ready for, though she is begging to go now that she knows most of her friends get to. Needless to say, I have been creeping all over Mommy Blogs tonight, specifically homeschooling and preschool ones, and have lots of fun ideas for me and my babes over the next little while...let's hope the creativity and inspiration from today don't wear off by tomorrow!

All in all, it was a truly perfect day, and it reminded me why I need to write, to journal, to remember. So I will.

Tonight, so thankful to be inspired. Just so thankful.