a little happiness

My husband was working rather late this evening (until about 9) ... he really wanted to finish the deck he was building. So ... since I hadn't had any exercise yet today ... my kids and I took an evening "bike-walk" by the nearby lake. "Bike-walk" is a term we have used for years and it means: one or more children are on bikes and Mommy walks ~ usually pushing a stroller ~ or occasionally jogs. As we were bike-walking along ... I asked my oldest daughter (who is now 8 2/3) to finish this sentence with something about her day today.

Happiness is ... and she said, "Playing with dolls and playing school." (This surprised me a bit as she usually is reading OR listening to Adventures in Odyssey.)

Then, I asked my son (who is about 6 1/3) ... and he said,
"Happiness is going to the lego website and looking at all of the lego kits."

My youngest daughter ... who will be 3 on July 4th ... agreed with her big sister and said, "Happiness is playing with dolls."

Then I said, "Happiness is strolling along the lake listening to my little girl sing Skip to My Lou, Jesus Loves Me, and God Gave Me The Countenance." (the last one is original to Foofie ... that's my little one's main nickname ... we also call her Foofie-Kins and Foofoo/Fufu ~ I don't usually spell these ... so I'm not sure how they're spelled ;) )

Then we went on and took turns saying other happinesses ... it was a good way to get into their heads a bit.

I also said, "Happiness is a long summer evening." I love summertime ... and it always seems to zoom right by. It's never long enough. This got me to thinking about heaven ... I think/hope it will always be summertime there.

For me ... happiness is NOT when my son does stunts on his bike or scooter. I don't really like it ... and I wish he'd just use things the way they are intended to be used ... but alas, HE'S A BOY!

So ... when we were pretty close to getting home ... he had a new idea ... "Look," he shouted, "I can bike with my eyes closed!" He quickly crashed into the curb before I could tell him to stop being so foolish! I was a bit slow to respond because I wasn't sure I heard him right. Surely he wouldn't be so foolish, I thought. My counsel was something like, "Use the eyes God has given you to SEE with ... you never know how long you'll have them. Do you think biking with your eyes shut is wise or foolish?" Thankfully, he knew the right answer ... and thankfully, he wasn't injured.