Sibling visit and the creek

A long time ago, Foster Cline visited the church I was attending, and preached a sermon I will never forget.  The main point of the sermon was "Act better than you feel."  The idea was, if you acted better than you felt, most of the time, you end up feeling like you are acting.


Today, I got a chance to put that sermon into action...

For the last three weekends, I've gotten to pick up Luke's siblings, the two sisters we are hoping will get to come live with us soon.  This weekend was one of those.

I had trouble sleeping last night, and finally got up pretty early.  I got dressed, did a few things...you know, like - scrub the bathroom, wash three loads of clothes, clean up my bedroom and the living room, do the morning animal chores and eat a bunch of doughnuts that Max picked up for us, before driving the two hour round trip to pick up the girls.  Getting back home right at lunch time, I fixed Max's favorite lunch because he, Beau and Bill were working on my new addition. 

Soon after that, I had comfortably settled on the couch to do what old mommies do best: crochet.  I was well on my way when Beau decided to take Mary Susannah and Luke's older sister out to the creek behind our pasture to show them some rocks he had found.  Luke wanted to go, and Beau wouldn't let him.  When they truly left him behind, he collapsed in my arms, sobbing "Why can't you take us mommy?  Why can't you take us?"

Why?  Well...because I was comfortably settled on the couch, crocheting.  I had no desire - let me repeat that NO DESIRE - to go to the creek. 

But honestly, I had no reason not to take them.  My work was done for the day.  It was mid afternoon - my free time.  So I hauled my old lady body up off the couch, and told them to get their shoes and head for the car.  No, I was not going to walk across 12 acres when I could drive across 12 acres to reach the creek. 

We were soon on our way...

I parked in a great spot, where rocks actually made a stairway down into the creek.  Once there, it took my breath away.  I had almost forgotten how beautiful it was there:

The kids were so happy.  They were soon finding big rocks and making crossings, which was good for a while, but they soon figured out it was a lot more fun to walk IN the water, than to cross it on rocks!

The two older ones soon ran off and left the two younger ones.  I think it's kind of nice that Angel-Leah, age eight and Luke, age seven, have each other, while Tommy, age 4, has Luke's little sister, age 5.  Maybe very soon, I can show you all her sweet little face:

I made Luke so happy by taking him here:

 

And I got this pretty shot of Angel-Leah:

Tommy's day was complete when he triumphantly held up the tiny frog he caught.  That frog is now in the cage with his turtle.  Or at least it was...I keep telling him that turtle is going to eat his frog, but he doesn't believe me.  I guess some things you just have to learn by experience:

And you know what, I DID end up feeling just like I acted.  We had a good time.  I had just forgotten what it was like to spend an hour at the creek.  Sometimes us old mommies need to relearn how to have a good time.  I imagine we will do this again, but next time, Luke won't have to beg me!