Posted by: Bethany
Isn’t is funny? You think you’ve given your children a wide range of experiences….
My daughter has been in a Bahamian straw market. She has snorkeled, kayaked, planted gardens….
She creates artistic masterpieces and has baked cookies, brownies, pies and cakes, roasted hotdogs and marshmellows, danced around bonfires, written and illustrated her own books, made model dinosaurs, and built a bamboo teepee….
She has been to parades, museums, parks, farms, fields of wildflowers, aquariaums, zoos….
She has cruised on steamboats, oceanliners, and been sailing, motorboating, and on a waverunner…
She’s been horseback riding and four wheeler riding….she’s even ridden an elephant.
Visisted mountains and beaches….has hiked through woods, mountains, swam in creeks, rivers, lakes and oceans….
Slept in tents and sleeping bags, and the back seat of a car many a time….
Been to NBA ballgames, many college basketball games (USM, LSU, MSU, NCU, NCS, Duke), The Blue Lagoon (where Gilligan’s Island was filmed), and Disney World (twice!)
She’s looking foward to a mission trip to Mexico in the next year or two.
She’s raised money for her school and tsunami victims in Indonesia.
She’s won a fishing rodeo and reading fairs…
She has done much more than lots of adults have had an opportunity to do.
How is it that she’s never made Kool-Aid?
This morning I was making a fresh batch of Kool-Aid when Shiloh came in from playing with our new pet.
I had only put the sugar in the pitcher when she saw me. “Can I help?” she eagerly asks.
“Sure.” says I.
I let her select the flavor. She mulls over the incredible responsiblity. Contemplates blue raspberry before selecting orange. I show her how to shake the powder into the bottom of the package so it doesn’t go everywhere when she opens it.
She sprinkles the powder over the sugar delighting in the color. “It looks like colored snow!”
I let her fill the pitcher. “Wow! It starts to change color as soon as I put the water in!”
I give her a spoon and she mixes the concoction in complete awe at the ever darkening orange spreading throughout the entire pitcher….
Then she’s done. “May I please have a sample drink?’
We pour her a glass of Kool-Aid. She relishes each drop and determines that it is the best glass of Kool-Aid she’s ever had….
I’m just amazed. A simple pitcher of Kool-Aid….funny what will bring utter and pure delight to the eyes of a child!
March 11th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
I’m pretty sure I want your daughter’s life!
March 12th, 2006 at 7:06 am
ahhh . . . .to be a kid again!! what joy!
March 12th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Yes, I second what Lauren said . . . and I think of all the things that were ordinary to me as a child that my sons will never know. Like dialing a telephone. Like eating shortening with sugar.
March 13th, 2006 at 11:31 am
Bethany…that is a wonderful post…you should win an award for that! I am still smiling all over it.
Christie
March 13th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
wow…..don’t think I’d manage all that even if I lived to 100……which I have no desire to do!
March 14th, 2006 at 9:23 am
How sweet! Oh, to be so innocent again!