It’s 4:30 am and something has stirred our Malamute who guards our home from his back yard compound. It’s usually a fox but one night a few months ago we were awakened to a louder than normal howl as he had pulled a raccoon down off the top of a six foot fence. You should have seen my wife out there in her pajama’s trying to stop the fight in the dark! Thankfully all three survived, (the dog, raccoon and my wife), but now whenever we hear him howling or barking, we jump up and head down the stairs as we have even had mountain lions in the neighborhood.
Well the battle is over and the beast has been subdued. Finally by 6pm last evening all was well. With the kitchen looking like a bomb went off, and with 5 days worth of dirty dishes, (my wife did the best she could but how much food can you cram down the bathroom sink), we loaded the kids into the car and headed out for a quick bite to eat. Now comes the clean up stage. We still need to decide if we should pull the rest of the walls down or just wait and see if the water will dry. We live in a fairly dry climate so my thinking is to leave the part of the wall and ceiling we had to tear out open for a few days and see if it’ll dry out. Anyhow this tragedy too has passed and now it’s time to move on with life. Here’s another example of something that was such a huge deal a week ago that will soon be forgotten.
Last year our family lost our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, and many I know lost loved ones as well. I feel the worst for my Mom as I can’t imagine life without my wife. We are all reminded how precious life is when someone close to us is all of a sudden gone. Too often it takes a tragedy for us to appreciate what we have in life. If I am learning one thing as I get older, it’s that it is not the materialistic things in life that are important as they are just things. What is truly important is family, friends and what you do with your life to help others. It’s sad that the majority of the world has developed a “me first” attitude and think that success is measured by how much useless stuff you own or how big your house is. I think back to my grandparents who are long gone and wonder what they would think of people and the world today. They were really good people who lived a more simple, but I think much happier life. I guess it all comes down to the individual but I wish the whole world at once would get a wake up call to reset their way of thinking. Oh well, can’t change the whole world (or can I, hmmmm), so we’ll just keep on trying to live life the best we can. I do worry what kind of world our children will face in 40 years and can only hope mankind will come to its senses before all is lost.
My wife pointed out yesterday that we need to get out more with the kids and that we have forgotten to include our 2 dogs in the family makeover. She did her part yesterday by taking them both (the dogs) for a walk, and we decided not to let the kids turn on the TV, (their usual routine), as soon as they got home from school. After a few minutes of begging and hearing things like, “I’ve been waiting for this show my whole life”, (where do they come up with this stuff?), both boys found something to do or enlisted one of us to play a game or explore, (that means pull apart), all the boxes in the basement we had moved to deal with the water leaks.
Lot’s of work to do but looking forward to the weekend. We’re giving the kids the opportunity to choose what the family should do for fun. The only rule is that they must both agree, it needs to involve some exercise, and can’t cost too much, if anything. There’s really a lot of things to do if you think about it, family hikes or football games, bike rides, picnics, trips to the zoo, the museum or even projects in the yard such as tree trimming or gardening. Give kids a shovel and turn them loose and let the fun begin.
Time to get some work done before the kids get up so goodbye until tomorrow and go tell someone you love, that you love them, before it’s too late!
God Bless,