Being a Family

Natalie is heading off to youth retreat this week, meaning we had some preparing to do! After dropping Serena off at her sleepover, Natalie and I headed to town for some shopping for camp. We hit the trial size aisle first, then the candy aisle (my personal favorite), then we headed to the cereal aisle, followed by the salty snack aisle! I think we hit all of the departments by the time we were done! After hearing the thunderstorm outside, we decided to hit the book aisle for some browsing. We then picked out some new pencils and a notebook for Bible study at camp. It was clear that Natalie was loving her alone time with me. And of course, I was loving my alone time with her too! We didn't want it to end.

After we left the grocery store, we headed over to the mall to find her some cute pajamas...for camp, of course! We had so much fun browsing the store, even finding a cute top for mom! We chose the cutest set of Hello Kitty jammies and a cute top for the first day there.

The whole time we were together, we were laughing and joking. She was trying on goofy winter hats that had scarves and gloves attached. I picked out some owl gloves I thought would be cute for a football game. We laughed over the idea of mom wearing short shorts. Yeah, right! I'd sooner expect to be hit by a meteor. We checked out the underwear aisle and had a few chuckles there as well...those will remain our little secret!! Let's just say I made a punny and some lady heard me and cracked up. OOPS. When I made some other crazy comments about grape jelly, Natalie said to me, "And you wonder where I get my weirdness from??"

I just love these times where I have one daughter all to myself, and I realized that this doesn't happen very often. It is something they clearly need, and it's something I really treasure. As Natalie and I headed out for an evening walk, she looked over at me and said, "You've been my buddy today." We laughed as we tried to skip, jump, and hop over all the "cracks" in the rail trail. We approached what we thought was a toad/bird/butterfly, and I nearly got hit by a speeding bike as I stopped. It turned out to be a leaf, and boy, did we laugh!

Tomorrow I will drop my oldest off at camp and pick my youngest up from her sleepover. I can't wait to spend some alone time with Serena, laughing and joking, giving her my undivided attention and love, doing the things she likes to do with just her mom and no one else. Tennis, maybe? I can't wait!

And when both girls will be gone at the same time this week, I will be able to have some quiet time with Steve as well. There is nothing better in my world than being with the people I love the most. One on one. And there is nothing better than when the four of us are together again, doing what we do best. Being a family.