shamrocks are green

St. Patrick's Day has never been a big holiday for me growing up or even since I've been a parent; however, my mind won't let me forget about always needing to wear green or I'd get mega pinched at school. 

One St. Patrick's Day (I think it was fourth or fifth grade), I was all ready to walk to school, and my mom realized I didn't have on any green, so she pinned a cute shamrock and leprechaun pin onto my shirt to keep me safe. But the crazy thing is that I still got pinched a couple of times. I recall yelling and pulling that pin toward someone's face (still attached to my shirt) showing them how perfectly green it was, and reasoning that I deserved to pinch them double hard for that!  

Nowadays, pinching people on St. Patrick's Day for not wearing green is like totally banned from many schools, but I'm glad I had the experience. A little fear goes a long way in making a good little story. 

penny candies

Big League Chew. Penny candies. Nickel gum. Orange Tic Tacs. Slurpees. These are the things I'd save up my money for when I was a kid. 

My brothers and I would scrounge up change and make the trek down Owens to Nellis to the corner 7-Eleven, crossing the superhighway of a road that Nellis always has been (or so it seemed to my little girl self). We would load up on treats just enough to give us the strength to make it back home all sugared up ready for another row in the mud or a dirt clod fight. 

There's something that makes me smile about all that. It was so simple, and yet it means so much now that the time has passed. 

summer fires

The promise of fireside chats in the backyard have me excited for summer. Burning marshmallows and doing Dutch oven chicken are what summer nights were made for. Seeing the stars on a clear warm night that's just chilly enough to need the fire and possibly a blanket, children playing nightgames with flashlights in the park behind the house, wishing for the day to linger: these are the things that make summer something to long for. Adventure still whispering our names means summer to me. Driving in cars, going for plane rides, jaunts on the train. Trying new things, dancing in the dark, and taking time to connect and make new memories. Summer does something to us. Perspective  shifts and perception deepening each year with the sunshine on those warm, sunny days, lighting fires in hearts that never go out. 

Summer is coming. 

the tipping point

Sometimes growing up can be tricky with not really knowing what to let go of and what is valuable forever. 

I did this funny thing called grow up, but you know what's even funnier—how it didn't seem like I was growing up at all. Little by little it just happened. 

It really is difficult to tell when the scales were tipped, but I believe it could possibly have been the first time I decided to not go outside to jump on the trampoline when everyone else was going. It truly could be when I gave my Barbie collection away when I went into sixth grade because "I am too old for Barbies now."  Or maybe it was when I finally stopped dressing up for Halloween (last year). Maybe it was when I had to say goodbye to my parents. 

But then again, it could possibly have been the moment I decided not to run after the boy I like, realizing that he will come to me when he's ready. 

tiny friends

The little children see me in the hallway, and they either smile or they cry. Being the song leader at church for 1 1/2-3-year-olds has been one of the happiest things for me in a long while. These tiny people love me just because I make sure they have snacks and I sing with them for 5-10 minutes (depending on their behavior) once a week. 

The cutest thing happened when one of the little cuties' mother ran into me at the store. Her son was in the shopping cart, and she didn't call attention to me until he was right next to me, and the look of pure surprise and wonder and disbelief at how his music teacher could be at the store was priceless. I'll never forget that look. I felt so beloved as a person in that moment—even though he was rejecting reality!