Little Wonders Round Two

So after we said goodbye and thought Jon wouldn't be able to be here for Thanksgiving...a tender mercy happened.  He was given out-of-state leave to come for the weekend of Thanksgiving...so we spent pretty much every second at my Mom's again playing with them.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and it was the first year I tried to make it "kid friendly" so we had fun with some kiddie projects.  So here's some more pictures of all the fun we had and the "small hours" that still remain.  Jon is now in Afghanistan or somewhere close to it, getting ready to settle in to a year's deployment.  We sure are proud of him and GRATEFUL to all the servicemen and their families! 

 Making Butter from cream

 Tired arm from shaking the butter

 Crazy Kids Table

 Chelsy watching her handsome hubby in uniform

 Playing with Jon's new knives after a day of knife shopping

 What a great Family!

 Getting ready to load the bus

Love him!

Little Wonders

My brother Jon is in the army and his unit will be deploying to Afghanistan in December.  The good news about this was that he had 2 weeks leave and he and his family were able to come for a visit.  With such a big separation about to happen, naturally we spent every second we could playing with them.  My boys are in LOVE with Uncle Jon and can't get enough playing time in with him, and Silas understands that Uncle Jon is leaving.  It breaks my heart when he says, "Mom, I'm gonna miss Uncle Jon when he's far away!"  And of course, I had to take pictures of everything we did...what a great time we had.  The only lousy part was the saying goodbye.  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I said my goodbye, then put my shoes on and headed to the car I was driving home by myself.  As I sat alone in the car, bawling my eyes out, my Mom and Chelsy came outside with Daniel to let him get some fresh air.  They watched over him (Jon was out for the evening) and it gave me a glimpse of the sacrifice that Chelsy is going to be making as a "single mom" for the next year, and the absence Daniel and Andrew are going to have from their Dad.  I listened to one of my favorite songs, "Little Wonders" and the lyrics were so perfect for the situation, and for life really. So just know that these pictures and this whole trial have the theme song of "Little Wonders" attached to them.  And through the next year while Jon is gone, these small hours will still remain. 

Let it go,
let it roll right off your shoulder
don't you know
the hardest part is over
let it in,
let your clarity define you
in the end
we will only just remember how it feels

our lives are made
in these small hours
these little wonders,
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away,
but these small hours,
these small hours still remain