...My 4 Boys and Me...: Pieces of my heart

Have you ever just looked at your life and thought...this is too good to be true.
As I hear the sweet voice of my children laughing

or Hunter singing like an angel along to his beloved Trucks Tractors CD (a CD that came in the back of a book in Kroger that my mom found...the simple, inexpensive joys of life!)

or watching my boys play together (mostly it is football these days or firemen)

or snuggling up to my sweet husband at night after the babies have gone to bed with our doggies laying next to us and their wet noses laying on our feet

or listening to the rain outside when it is 2am and every member of our family is snuggled in bed together

or all of us playing soccer outside (or some form of it)

or Drakey "watering" my flowers with his plastic pretend fire extinguisher.

I am sometimes so overwhelmed at how lucky we are. It is so easy to think of what is wrong right now between the economy being down and maybe not being able to get each other the 30th birthday presents we want this year or planning a big fun trip for next year. But instead, I find myself feeling more and more blessed for the things we do have. I am starting to believe the economic downturn is a blessing in disguise for us because it shows you what matters the most in life. Or maybe it is because every week in August and September we either had guests in town or were out of town and we were so busy, that now getting to stay home with no plans is amazing after feeling so exhausted and rushed! Over the past few weeks I have left my normal duties slide a little so that I can just play with my children more, or watch a show with them, or read more books. My normal instinct is having my house picked up, but recently I have found it easier and easier to let it go.
I am not sure what brought the emotions on tonight, but after rocking my baby into sweet dreamland, I could not help but think of how blessed we are. I cannot imagine how hard it was for Abraham to agree to sacrifice his own son when God was testing his faith (thank goodness for the ram "tangled" in the bush:), or how hard it was for the mother of Moses to have to hide him from Pharaoh and then send him down the river in a basket just hoping someone would find him in time to feed him or love him and take him in. Can you imagine those sacrifices? I would like to say I have the same courage but just looking at my children makes my heart ache thinking about the day they will be leaving for college or moving or even just going to Kindergarten 5 days a week for goodness sake!
I was just thinking how I had not posted anything in a while (unintentionally!). I have found that the only time I can do a post is at night, and I have usually fallen asleep by now, but I just had to let it out a little bit. I wish I were more computer savvy. I hardly even know how to post a link on my blog so I need some serious help. But for now, I am content with being able to go back and read these feelings on days where I find eye liner on the wall of the bathroom, or the previously folded laundry in the basket strewn about the den, or peanut butter on the couch or a constant battle of separating my 2 "Wild Things" (thanks David Thomas at DayStar...not that you are reading my blog or know who I am) from the screaming and crying from pinching, stealing and tackling.
But I do know that "It is the life for me!" (quote from Scuffy the Tugboat)

When we came home from the "Hoo-Rah" at church this afternoon it was raining...again.
(quick pic of the boys fighting with their balloon swords. They were hysterical but because we broke our camera (again I know) we don't have any other pictures that turned out!)

And the boys new favorite thing to do when getting out of the car is "picking berries" from this bush on the side yard that is producing those red berries. It is not a Holly bush and I swear it was honeysuckle this summer (Grammie you probably know exactly what type of bush it is!)
Anyways, they like to pick them and line them up on the bumper of Kyle's car. When we got home I went inside to get dinner ready and then it just hit me. Dinner can be made later. Where I want to be is outside in the rain with my boys picking berries in the cold and wet weather! And it was totally worth every second!