Saturday, December 15, 2012

The Best Day Ever... yep, I said it.


It’s not that I don’t feel badly for the families involved in The Events of This Week. It’s just that I was extremely selfish today.

See, instead of being crippled by something sad that happened, I went about my day.

I did what I do on a typical Kid Saturday. I aspired to make today The Best Day Ever because my kids deserve that from me no matter what happened yesterday, or what happens tomorrow.
 
Saturday morning my kids and I woke up and had our usual breakfast. We got dressed, shared some dog licks with our dog cos sharing dog licks is part of the routine, packed the bikes in the car and went...

...To deliver a meal to a friend of mine. 

Yep. Seriously. But I didn’t do it because she was impacted by yesterday’s events... instead it was because she is a single mom living the same day, day in and day out, without a support crew. I mean, I am part of her support crew, she has a crew, we are just a less traditional “crew”, and I thought, “Hey. I’m going to do something nice for her this week”.  

The other night when I was cooking, I made a little extra soup with her in mind. Because EVERYONE deserves GOOD SOUP. Right?
 
Right.

Also, my kids appreciated that we did something nice for someone just because.

Then I took my posse to the park. It’s a great public park with a large play area that happens to be surrounded on three sides by single-track mountain bike worthy trails! I got G all set up, and tooled around with him while the girls played with some friends.  Can I just say, showing G a tiny snippet of what his MTB is capable of was a little like showing cocaine to a crack addict? Uh huh. He’s SO hooked. Then I came back to the park, and the B’nut looked at me, smiled impishly, slapped my arm and shouted, “You’re it”, as she took off running with a squeal of giggling. And just like that, B'nut started a high-speed game of tag.  Do not be fooled by her impish 6 year old self. B’nut is surprisingly fast.

It was amazing. We had SO much fun just PLAYING.

We played tag until we were breathless and giggling and I thought, “Today is just turning out to be one of those special days with my kids. Lucky me.” I am lucky, I know.

And then this afternoon...evening... night, my Nursing School Wife came over to assemble Gingerbread houses, and eat candy, and decorate, and eat candy, and paint nails, and eat candy. We had a super day. My blood glucose level right now is probably around 350.... #seriously, holymotherofgod we totally junked out today.

All of us. Including my normally exquisitely behaved dog.

What? The candy on my nose?
No  idea how it got there... on a
completely unrelated note, those
gingerbread houses you built
tonight may not be "structurally
sound". Just sayin'.
And then it was 9 pm, and our friends left, and I snuggled my kids into their warm beds. We gave Eskimo kisses and butterfly kisses and good night kisses and even Desi came through with licky Dog Kisses. And we did all these things because it’s just a usual day for us. This is our normal.

It’s part of having another Best Day Ever.

And maybe I’ll offend when I say this... but I think it’s OK to be normal after something bad happens to someone else. My kids and I do stuff together. We did it as usual today because it’s just what we do.

Maybe that makes me selfish, but what better way to honor someone lost than to go out and live?

And to my kids, today was another The Best Day Ever.

5 comments:

carrie said...

Amen! We can not live in fear but appreciate the days, the moments we do have. No one knows the time or the place... all we can do is live for today, loving those that we have in our lives.

So glad you and the kids had the best day ever!! Y'all deserve it!!!

Kortni said...

Good for you and your kids. Drew and I did not tell 3 of our 4 children because we decided they did not need to know. They have a lifetime to be afraid and I selfishly don't want it to be now if I can help it. I wish my oldest did not know either. Making memories is the best!

Pam @ herbieontherun.com said...

You are the best mom ever.

Michele @ Running for Oreos said...

That's awesome! Good for you and your kiddos! I'm sure they enjoyed it as much as you!

bobbi said...

Can't even tell you how much I am struggling with this. But like you, I think normalcy is key. So glad you could go out and enjoy the heck out of that day with your favorite munchkins...that time is precious.