A precious moment...

We've been keeping an eye on the weather tonight, and I just told Tater that it looked like the storm wasn't coming after all. his emphatic reply was, "Jesus stopped the storm!" I smiled. "He sure did, baby. God can do that, huh?" Very quickly, he said, "Let's pray to God, come on."
So we folded our hands, closed our eyes, and this is what my precious boy prayed.

Dear God,
Thank you for stopping the storm.
Thank you for taking a bath.
Thank you for Nico, and
Thank you for putting me together.
Aaaaaamen.

Date-Day with Tater

Today is my last official day of summer; tomorrow I go back to school for staff development days, and even though I have a four-day weekend, I have a feeling a big chunk of that will be spent on school stuff. So today, I refused to even think about school (previous sentence excluded) and decided it would be Tater's day. He planned the agenda and we shared a fabulous morning together. A morning that plumb wore him out, hence giving me the time to post documentation this afternoon. :)

We started the morning at the river; we went to Kid's Kingdom yesterday and saw some newly hatched baby ducks (when Mommy did not have her camera), so of course we had to come back to check on them. Sadly, they were all gone. We're hoping they made their way down to the river, and were not eaten by hawks, like the nice man we met yesterday told us all about happening to the last group of baby ducks he watched hatch (thanks, dude).

Here's a rare Tater/Mommy pic, taken by a not-very-skilled-in-self-portraits Mommy.

We arrived around 8:15 and had the park to ourselves for quite awhile, which was really neat. I played and climbed on just about everything Tater did (except the slides - there I draw the line), so I'm counting that as my workout for today.

He went up.

He came down.

He swung for the briefest of moments... I'll never understand how a kid as fearless as he is doesn't like to swing.

Then we decided it was time to feed ducks. There is a little pond right across the street from the park, so we walked over to say hi. We took our deliciously stale bread and made some friends very quickly. Those ducks are surprisingly well-conditioned to that Mrs. Baird's bag. In the same little pond lives a random crane of some sort - he was a little snobby and too good for our bread - he opted for the native minnows for his morning meal instead.

Tater was fascinated by the minnows. They attacked the bread with as much ferocity as the ducks, but they took much smaller bites.

Finally, we moved on for the next leg of our journey - exploring across the river. We went across the same bridge I remember crossing the very first time we came to San Angelo before we moved here.

There we made some turtles very happy with our remaining bread, but that's a blog all it's own. Then it was on to the little path that leads to the Sunken Gardens. I told Tater there were two paths we could take; one was a nice sidewalk out in the open, and one was back through the woods and might be a little creepy. I couldn't contain my pride when my adventurous boy chose the creepy path. We played it up too - listening for scary noises, looking for strange bugs or other critters... when we finally got to the garden, T wasn't the least bit impressed with the flowers twice his height. He wanted to go back to the "forest," so off we went, stopping to throw rocks into the stream every now and then.

Well, by now we were pretty worn out, so we took a little snack break at the Visitors' Center. Daddy called while we were resting.

And on our way out, we just HAD to have a quick sheep ride.

And then we were ready for more playtime at Kids' Kingdom. Finally, Tater found some kids to play with and we stayed until almost noon when I practically had to drag my sweaty, sunscreen-plus-sand sticky boy away. He chose Burger King (or Kings, as he says it) for lunch, which, of course, involved more playing... indoor, air-conditioned playing this time. Finally we rounded out our date with snow cones. What ending could be better?



Poor tired, sweaty boy. Naturally, he fell asleep on the way home, and has been asleep for over two hours now. We had a blast, but the day isn't over. I'm sure the afternoon and evening will involve playing puppets, watching Bolt, and eating mac n' cheese, all the the current faves. I am just so blessed to be this little boy's mom.

30 by 30 update

I just realized I never posted the result of my big Day One endeavor - seeking the forgiveness of my "enemy." Well, it couldn't have turned out better.

I left the note I wrote her on her pile of stuff when we were on a break. Then I waited. I wasn't sure she had even read it until after lunch, we both happened to be the only ones in the hallway at the moment. She walked toward me with a smile on her face and gave me a hug. I'm talking a real, genuine, squeezy hug. She said she agreed with and was great with everything I had said in my letter, but that she was not up for a truce (what I'd asked for in the note). She said, "Not even a truce; it's just over." I couldn't do anything but grin this big, ridiculous smile. The rest of the week we laughed and joked like nothing had ever happened, which is exactly what I was hoping for. That right there made the entire 4-day (semi-boring) workshop worth it.

I was thinking of doing a weekly update with some of the fun stuff I was doing, but then it occurred to me that would be bragging, which pretty much defeats the purpose. I would still LOVE some suggestions though - I may run out of creativity once school hits. Anybody have some neat "random acts of kindness" ideas I can use??? Anybody know of a need I can fill? Anything I can do for you?

30 by 30

OK, it is no secret that I am not in the least looking forward to turning thirty next month. Yes, next month. In 31 days to be exact. So in all my wallowing in self-pity, I came up with an idea. An idea to make this not so much about me. Because in my reflections and thoughts for self-improvement, I have come to realize that as much as I gripe about the self-centeredness of others, I'm a pretty self-involved person myself (yes, I did purposely put that many self-hyphen words in that sentence).

So back to my whininess over turning thirty... I already decided I am going to buy myself a fabulous German chocolate cake from Halfmann's. On my birthday. But up until then, I am going to do something for someone else. Something that helps, uplifts, encourages someone else. And something that brings the glory to God, not myself. Because it's not about me (another mantra to add to my list - It's not about me, it's not about me).

Yeah, I know it brings to mind that episode of Friends where Phoebe wants to do something unselfish and Joey says there is never any truly unselfish act, since you feel good even when you do for others... and she lets a bee sting her, not knowing that the bee will now die. I will admit, I'm not opposed to the "warm fuzzies" I will get. But I can't think of a better birthday present, can you?

So the plan is, starting tomorrow, I will seek out opportunities to DO for others. Actually, I already have a plan for day one. I will admit, this one is a little selfish, but definitely for the greater good.

I can count on one hand the number of people on this planet I do not get along with. One of them is a fellow teacher that I am spending the week in a training with. There is a long history of hurt feelings and grudges on both sides, and for all our sakes, it needs to stop. Tonight I wrote her a letter apologizing and asking for forgiveness and a truce. What is it the Bible says about showing kindness to our enemies? Heaping coals on their heads, right? But I don't want her to be an enemy. I'm not naive enough to expect friendship, but to set both our souls at peace and for the good of our departments, I have to try.

They are not all going to be that "big." I don't think I have that many wrongs to make right, or at least I hope not. :) I'm actually just planning to keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities the Lord puts in front of me. And any suggestions are welcomed. But every day, for the next 30 days, I will shine His light.

And when the big day comes, I won't be able to help but be content. Yep, selfish after all...