We have a tradition that when we are all sitting around the dinner table, we share our day's highlights. We used to share lowlights, too, but they have been disallowed. Lowlights became a bit of a complaint session. Some of the members of our family would have 3-4 lowlights and be incapable of thinking of a highlight. So we banned lowlights from the table. We wanted to focus on the positive, since that's ultimately what we want to remember. We are trying to foster a spirit of gratitude for all the blessings in our lives.
One evening while we were sharing a meal with our cousins, they were sharing their "bubble up" and "bubble down" from the day. They do the same thing as us, but have a much cuter way of putting it. They are cute like that. It's just one of the many things I love about their family. Anyway, as we were sharing, Mr. N wanted to share a "bubble down." At first I wasn't going to let him, but he just wanted to say that his lowlight was that his aunt, uncle, and cousins were getting ready to leave. It was a very sweet way of saying that a highlight had been their visit.
I was reminded that sometimes a lowlight can be an aspect of gratitude, too. We just need to turn it on it's head. We probably will still forbid lowlights at the table for the most part, or work on how to turn them into positive statements, but it was a good reminder.
Grab a cup of coffee or a snack, because here are my highlights from our crazy, cross-country road trip. Lowlights are included. Because I'm a bit of a hypocrite. And the lowlights are often the more colorful parts of the trip.
Day 1: Beginning in Wichita, KS and ending in Mansfield, MO
highlight: remembering how to change my own tire
lowlight: actually having to change my own tire
Day 2: Beginning in Mansfield, MO and ending in Ft. Campbell, KY
highlight: remembering how to change my own tire
lowlight: actually having to change my own tire
highlights: the Laura and Almanzo Wilder homes and museum in Mansfield; the Superman museum in Metropolis, IL (the best place ever, according to Mr. W)
lowlights: Shorty falling out of the car and cracking his head on the pavement; carsickness
lowlights: Shorty falling out of the car and cracking his head on the pavement; carsickness
highlight: seeing family!
lowlight: dealing with the grouchies
Day 4: Beginnning in Charlotte, NC and ending in Carolina Beach, NC
highlight: FINALLY arriving at the ocean
lowlight: dealing with the landlord (honesty, frustration, cunning, and perhaps a little deceit thrown in)
highlight: FINALLY arriving at the ocean
lowlight: dealing with the landlord (honesty, frustration, cunning, and perhaps a little deceit thrown in)
Day 5: on the beach
highlight: celebrating Shorty's upcoming 5th (!?!) birthday (he said we served "sand"wiches because it was a beach party...he's funnier than I am, since I hadn't even thought of that)
lowlight: the nephew's busted lip
highlight: celebrating Shorty's upcoming 5th (!?!) birthday (he said we served "sand"wiches because it was a beach party...he's funnier than I am, since I hadn't even thought of that)
lowlight: the nephew's busted lip
highlight: sandcastles
lowlight: falling down the porch steps (at least no one was around to see me writhing on the ground)
highlight: the carnival & funnel cake
lowlight: having to squeeze my too-long legs into a kiddie ride just because W is half an inch too short to ride alone (and having to cough up 3 ride tickets to do so)
Day 8: downtown Wilmington, NC
highlight: tours of the U.S.S. North Carolina and of the historic district
lowlight: the whole family getting "hangry" and needing to speed up the battleship tour
highlight: tours of the U.S.S. North Carolina and of the historic district
lowlight: the whole family getting "hangry" and needing to speed up the battleship tour
highlight: confirming that time and distance can't change friendships, ice cream (the best in L's whole life, he said through blue-stained lips)
lowlight: a pair of pooped-in underpants down on the boardwalk
highlight: finding "treasures" on the beach: a half-eaten crab, a shell with both halves still in tact, and a live jellyfish
lowlight: B only bought a dozen of the "2nd best donuts" in the nation...and I was expected to share
highlight:starting the day with donuts (yes, more) and sea turtles with my men; finishing the day with cocktails and girl time with my sister.
lowlight: saying "goodbye" to the ocean
highlight: s'mores and back yard camping with the family
lowlight: holy mosquitoes, Batman!
highlight: nature and watching my boys love it, also playing exquisite corpses and singing my little men to sleep (they usually ask me to stop).
lowlight: nature and being slightly terrified of it
highlight: getting to reconnect with one of my oldest and dearest friends (and her family)
lowlight: the tears my little men are shedding each time we pack up and leave a place, knowing that it will be a long time before we come back
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| We failed to take a picture, but here we are in all our teen glory...she's braiding my hair |
highlight: dinner and conversation at one of my favorite places with one of my favorite people.
lowlight: knowing that there isn't time this trip to see SO MANY of my favorite people (I am already plotting my next trip back)
highlight: my children and their grandparents (oh, and getting a shower)
lowlight: that moment they stopped being little boys and started being wild things
highlight: my house, my bed, my cat, my clean and cozy PJs
lowlight: the hubby and I are like ships passing in the night...we met him for dinner as he was on his way to the Lou for the weekend.
Whew!
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