Our eldest feller turned ten recently. We don't subscribe to the "too
much to muchness" our culture has placed on birthday parties. We have
dinner as a family, the fare being what the birthday boy requested, and Dairy Queen cookie dough ice cream cake.
We also have a tradition of allowing the fellers to invite a few friends to join us for a guys night out (mom as a tag-a-long). They get to pick the place to dine & an activity to partake in.... Movie at the theatre, bowling, bounce house.
When the short feller had his guys night out a few month back, a blizzard hit. Making the masculine crew home bound. We Treager grilled pizzas, rented "Dolphin Tale" on appleTV .... & they had the best
night ever!
To celebrate a decade of our oldest's life, we splurged....
We rented the local roller rink and invited the whole class, plus a
few families we enjoy the company of, to skate .... AND Grandma & Grandpa made
the trip from the prairie to attend.
I had fallen going down the stairs a week before and bruised my
tailbone.... I didn't think being pulled to the ground on skates
sounded like a good idea.
The hubs, three mom friends, two kid sitter friends and another dad,
plus 38 kiddos laced up and hit the rink. They skated their hearts
out, falling a bit to start out, but smiling and laughing the whole
afternoon.
The kids requested their favorite tunes..... "YMCA"...
"We Will RockYou"... "Ring of Fire"..... & my personal favorite
On a recent trip to school one morning, my youngest was singing along to my favorite play list..."Put another dime in the juice box, baby." He belted.
Hearing an old '80's tune brought me back to my youth. When I was a 1st grader, the age of my youngest, my friends and I would swing on the swing set, and belt out Joan Jett's lyrics. We didn't care how we sounded, how we looked, or who was listening. We were just enjoying ourselves.
Watching my son and his classmates, hearing songs from my youth, reminded me:
... the joy is in the journey!
At some point in our adolescence we forget that. We loose the joy and let what others say hurt us.... to let negativity permeate our self esteem.
Yesterday, for two hours, all the classmates were joyful.... they were
equals... falling down, laughing, smiling...
I've declared skating to be good for the soul (as long as your body
can hold up). Not one person was frowning, grouching, 'putting down' or belittling
with roller skates on their feet.....
2 Chronicles 30:23 ......"they celebrated joyfully."
P.S. (post script, after original release)-We devoured the most delish birthday treat... mom mom used to make these & I enlisted a baking friend... their are actually red velvet cupcakes!
P.S.S.-In loo of gifts we asked the kids to bring shampoo & laundry soap to donate to Open Arms Women's Homeless Shelter that our church opens up Wednesday night for them to sleep over. Look at God's goodness in this loot for the ladies!!!!!
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