This past weekend, the new bedroom suit we ordered for Ethan arrived. So Saturday was spent moving bedrooms – moving items from one closet to another, and from one set of drawers to another. Through the process we ran across all sorts of things that brought back all kinds of memories. There were coins from trips we have taken together, old souvenirs, ticket stubs – a wide variety of reminders.
But the things that caused me to stop and take a break were the pictures. Each of the boys has a framed picture of the four of us on a camping trip several years ago to Cloudcroft – I labeled it, “The Camping Fiasco.” It was a miserable trip. In fact, one night as it got close to bedtime, a thunderstorm rolled in and it started a downpour complete with lightening. A tent is not where I wanted us to be in a lightening storm so we all climbed in the truck and for 2 hours, tried to get comfortable. When the rain finally let up, we got back to the tent to find that it had leaked and all our stuff was soaked. So at 12:30 am, we rolled it all up, threw it in the back of the truck and headed home in the rain. We arrived back home at 6:30 am. Yep – good times!
Honestly, as miserable of a trip as that was – I would not take anything for that experience with my boys. Now that I have one in college, one in high school and one in middle school, I look back and think: “there aren’t enough of those memories – I wish we had made more.” Then I remember, there is still today!
What kind of memories are you making with your kids?
My challenge for us is this: make one today!
Clay in the Hands 
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