My Perfectly Cliche Weekend

My best friend, Lauren, and I came from homes with divorced parents.  Things are a little different for children of divorced parents.  For one thing, we have no idea what our future holds.  Happy, stable husbands and marriages to go with them seem so UNlikely that we don't imagine it could happen to us.  We didn't have this growing up, so it was hard to figure out what it looked like.  We've talked about it-several times.

We've had this conversation about how we could never dream this up, because we feel like we've both won the lottery when it comes to our lives.  She married Ryan, I married John.  Our last names rhyme now.  We joke so often about this-how these two girls from divorced homes married these amazing men.  Now, we both have babies, we both stay-at-home with them, and we feel like magic dust has been sprinkled on our lives.  Being married, with babies, at home is not everyone's ideal.  However, it's our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Thank you, Lord, for this.  It's weekends like the one we just had that has me wondering if this is real?  Do I really get to live this life?  Is someone filming this because it's straight out of the movies?  I'm living in the "happily ever after."

Friday night, we left Burl with my mom {we heart free babysitting} and went downtown.  Our city is pretty incredible.  We are both born and raised Chattanoogans and couldn't imagine living anywhere else as cool.  We went for dinner, ran into several friends, then did the famous grab-Clumpies-and-walk-the-walking-bridge routine.  We crossed our cool park, several people, and enjoyed the breeze off the river.  Awesomeness.

Saturday was family project day.  Burl is president of Daddy Mows The Lawn Club.  He runs from window to window, watching him cross the yard.  Drool has been left on some windows.  

Things got even better when the lawn mower broke and Burl got to watch John fix it.
Major drool.  

Then, I got going on some things.  I finished up a sewing project for a friend. Dad on machine outside + Mom on machine inside = complete Burl heaven.  

Oh how he wants to be a part of operating machines!  One day, buddy, One.Day.  {For those of you concerned, no sewing machines were harmed in the making of this picture.  I quickly swooped in and stopped that nonsense.}

One thing that I've noticed is that Burl is great at playing and staying entertained while I work on something.  Mainly, when I sew.  He just loves to be near, doing his thing while I do mine.  

{Sidenote: see those flowers?  Gorgeous, right?  They're from Jenny's wedding.  That's the bonus of being part of the cleanup crew.}

Once Burl spotted John throwing the axe-thingy, he started imitating John.  As John was digging up crabgrass, Burl was scrapping the floor with his hammer.  That's when I decided enough was enough-let's get Burl in on this action.  

Burl was there-digging alongside John.  John does great with this.  He thinks like I do, "oh my gosh, this little person wants to be involved in the same thing that I'm doing.  By-gollie, bring it on in for some fun!"  

The next day, John and Broseph went climbing, so my mom treated Burl and I to lunch.  Lunch happened to be right by Clumpies, and I happen to have a pregnancy craving for their Butterfinger ice cream.  Just like a good grandmother, my mom gave up all rights to her own cone.  She taught Burl how to eat his first cone.  It was kinda a big deal.  

Then, we were off to do stuff as a family.  We ended our weekend with a last-minute dinner with some friends.  Fun all around.

Nothing special happened this weekend; no huge events.  No one big, special thing.  Just a whole lot of little nothings that have me thinking, "wow!  This is one big dose of greatness."  Because, for me, this life is a new kind of thing for me.  This is just amazing.

A weekend like that did wonders for me.  It sprung me into Monday with a zeal.  The chores that laid before me looked like individual prizes.  Housework and toddler-what a perfectly wonderful combination!  It had me thinking, "yes!  Today is laundry day and I get to stay at home and do laundry with a toddler running around pulling things out of the cabinet."  Instead of thinking how things are going to change drastically, I marveled at Burl as he selected the biggest mixing bowl as a step stool in order to reach a magnet on the fridge.

And I hope this wonder and awe at how my life has unfolded in the past decade stays with me.  It might leave for a bit every now and then.  Then, little Meg will step in, tap me on the shoulder, and whisper, "I bet you never imagined it would be this great."