The New Look

Emily, a friend of mine, did this--put together a new look for my blog. I remember the day that picture was taken—April 7, 2006. Paul had a Friday off so after working around the house much of the day our family decided to travel 56 miles north of our home to Skagit Valley to the annual tulip festival. It cost less than traveling almost 5,000 miles to the Netherlands. It is an incredible sight to see acres of colors.

This snapshot of the the three of us close together and smiling captures a moment in time. For me it says we like each other, we enjoy being together, we like being silly and going places together. According to my journal one member of the family was grumpy but we don’t see that in this picture. Knowing what the daily landscape of our lives looks like I am sure there was name calling and tattling also on this excursion. Every day is reminders and remembering—reminders to "talk nicely", "be kind", "no name calling", "say you're sorry" and remembering that in some ways Clark and Phil are stuck at six years old.

And in some ways the picture is misleading. Clark is the hugger, the kissy one who tells me he loves me at least twenty times a day. I’ve never counted but I don’t think that is an exaggeration. Phil usually will have none of that but he has other ways of showing his love so I am content and relish the times he does lean into me and put his arm around me for a picture.