{ASHLYN} While driving along this morning I passed a lovely pond reflecting the gorgeous fall trees. I thought how beautiful it would be to live near and look at such beauty every day. Then, a sudden panic hit me square in the chest. While most of life just goes on, every once in a while I'm nearly paralyzed with the memory of my little girl at the bottom of the pool a little over 2 years ago {read about it here and here}. Even though the house I grew up in was on the water, I don't think I could ever live on or too near water now. I would constantly be worried abouut my kids and any other kids who came over. Maybe I'll get over this fear someday, but it'll be a long while. In any case, sometimes I think God sends things like this to me to remind me how blessed we are to still have Ashlyn with us. I think of all the things we would've missed out on with her life if a few more seconds had passed on that July afternoon in 2008. Thank you, Lord, for every day you give me with my sweet girl!
{MAGUIRE} After picking Maguire up from school this afternoon, we had some errands to run. Usually I slightly dread running errands with Maguire because he has SO much energy and never wants to stay in the cart. Instead he prefers to run circles around me...literally. This afternoon he was so helpful and just so darn cute! First, he shared a few of his french fries with me, which was fantastic since I had a salad and was needing a little fat and salt with my lunch ;) Then we headed to Goodwill to drop off a load of stuff and...who am I kidding?! I can't go into a Goodwill and not look for some great bargains! I didn't find anything to sell on ebay {check out my stuff if you're curious}, but I did find a few things to try on for myself. We walked around for a bit and Maguire said, "Let's go to the tryer-on room so we can see how cute you look!" Once we got in there, he had definitely opinions about the things I tried on, which I found adorable :) He said of one shirt, "That looks so cute on you, Mom. It'll be cute for Christmas." He wouldn't let me take all the things in at once, so after each try-on, he went back out to the cart to trade one thing for the next. Before I tried on the last sweater, he told me he didn't think it would be very cute, but once it was on, he said, "Hmmm...it's a tiny cute. No, I was wrong--it's very cute on you!" When we came out of the dressing room, there were a few women there smirking and holding back chuckles. He even wanted to pick out earrings that would look "cute" on me. Everything was about me looking cute :) It was a surprisingly fun and special afternoon with my sweet, funny little buddy! Another reminder from God to treasure the things about Maguire that sometimes make me sigh in exhaustion {non-stop talking/questions, desire for independance, definite opinions}.
Thank you, God, for these special reminders. Help me to see them daily!
