Family Alive

I’m just picking up toys this evening, and I came across Analise’s play-doh in her kitchen area. She loves play-doh, and she got a bunch of it for her birthday right before we left for vacation.  It was one of the exciting things she found when we arrived home last night. But play-doh drives me crazy. She loves to squish it through her fingers, mash the colors together, and make little murky-colored balls, which she passes on as muffins or cakes. Everything in me wants to keep the beautiful, bright play-doh colors separate so we can create pretty little colorful creations when we play together. But inevitably, play-doh ends up all mixed together, all the colors lost into the swirly little balls.

It’s kind of a picture of my life… I’d love to keep my house neat and orderly right now, everything picked up and in its place. And there is a time for that… between about 9pm and 7am, and the 15 minutes before we get company. But the rest of the time, there’s a little chaos and disorder, blocks and Little People jumbled together. Play kitchen pieces cluttered with play-doh. And though it looks a bit messy, it signifies creativity and fun, imagination and busyness, and in the end, I give in and let that take precedence. There will be a time for a neat house, with everything in its perfect place. The play-doh will stay in its separate colored containers, waiting for little fingers that have outgrown it and are off doing things and going places being too busy to clutter up my house. So now we’ll mash our play-doh together and make cakes, and when I crave a little brightness, I’ll pull out a new container from Mommy’s "secret place".

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We’re home again! Lovely, wonderful, relaxing beach vacation. Brian’s working on pictures right at this moment, so maybe you’ll find some tomorrow. It was really a great time, and it did wonders for me. It is nice to be home though, after living with all 4 of us in a room for 12 nights. And to make this week even more wonderful, my mom is flying in on Wednesday! Yeah!

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[From Brian] – Here’s the promised pictures…

Josiah explored a lot on the beach and had a great time, but most of the time
he had a frowny face because of the bright sun, cool water, and sand everywhere.

Uncle Matthew takes the little guy for a walk. My mom and me (Brian) are in the background.

Josiah also got to play in the pool some.

When we weren’t playing in the ocean or at the pool, we relaxed on our balcony and enjoyed the view!

Our one major excursion of the trip was a visit to Brookgreen Gardens. I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves.