Imagination and Amazement

As I get older there are a lot of things I miss about being a kid, like nap time and eating cookies without ever worrying how my pants would fit the next day... (ahhh, the good old days). But I think the things I miss most are a strong imagination and the joy and amazement at the simple things in life. I remember one time when I was little, Mom was washing windows and she took the screen off the screen door to clean it. That simple act provided Annie and I with an afternoon's worth of entertainment. All of a sudden our front screen door was transformed into a drive through window we could ride up to on our bikes and order from. :)

On labor day weekend my older sister, Katie, her husband, their two kids, and my younger sister and her fiancé came to visit us. Being around my 5 year-old nephew and my 2 year-old niece all weekend definitely showed me how little imagination and amazement I have in my daily life anymore.

On Saturday while the boys worked cows, Katie, Annie and I took the kids to the zoo in Garden City. They loved looking at the animals, especially the spider monkeys and the otters, but I had to laugh because out of all the animals they got to see, the things Kolden and Kallan were most excited about were the little bronze, animal-shaped benches. Every single one of these they would run up to and climb on. Later that day we came back to the house and got out the $5 sprinkler I'd bought off the clearance rack at Wal-Mart.  It was pretty fun to watch how excited they were to run through a little stream of water on a hot day.

They also loved helping me do my chores.  Kolden was so excited to see how many times he could pet my calf, Thatch, through the fence, and it was a pretty darn big deal to put the feed in the bucket. :) They reminded me to consciously enjoy getting to take care of my animals. (They also taught me that I needed to give them lots of little jobs to help me so they could feel like they were doing something thus avoiding any meltdowns because they weren't able to help enough.) :)
 

Kallan's 2nd birthday was later during the week, but we celebrated while she was at our house too.

It was so wonderful to have my family with me and to get to share my home and daily life with them.

The other weekend some friends of ours asked Taylor and I if we wanted to play in a golf tournament with them.  When Taylor told me this, the first thing I said was, do they know I'm terrible...do they know I've never even played golf?  Taylor assured me they knew what they were getting into. :)

Well he's not Happy Gilmore, but Taylor's definitely better than I am :)

So for the first time in my life, I played golf.  All I have to say is they sure make it look easy to swing a golf club well on TV. Sometimes I think I looked more like I was chopping wood.  At least I could have been worse, although maybe not much :) There were several times when I took more "practice" swings than I intended (well maybe I just missed the ball when I swung at it, but oh well.) :) Either way we had a lot of fun, although I was pretty amazed at how tired I was by the end of 18 holes.  I'm hoping before we play again, I'll have a chance to practice up a bit.

Annie jokingly gave me a hard time about playing golf and told me to take a video. Well here you go Annie! Luckily this was one of my decent swings :)

Western Kansas Fact: We don't have much in the way of hills here, so we build our own.  During silage harvest, corn silage is stacked and packed in big piles. I rode with Taylor in the silage packing tractor and driving down the steep incline can be a little scary to start with.

This is a picture I found that shows what type of an incline they make and have to drive up and down.

Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others.  1 Peter 4:10 The lesson that went with this Scripture reminded me that God gave each of us talents. But that doesn't mean we should use them only as we please. He gave them to us for a specific purpose. The gifts He gave us should glorify Him, not ourselves.

Have a wonderful week everybody!
Lyndee