when i come here to catalog our time together,
i find that these fall weekends contain so many of the same elements...
farm, football field, stage, pew, park, path or trail.
i begin to feel like a broken record and for a brief moment i consider skipping this part of the story.
but brief it be.
because in putting the pictures together and finding the right words to accompany the images,
i quickly realize what i have known all along...
there is plenty of extraordinary in the ordinary.
even what seems like just another saturday or sunday is anything but.
and that's one of the things i love about the ritual of showing up here:
it encourages me to celebrate the small stuff that is so easily overlooked.
the bagel date, shopping date and movie date with my girl all in the same day.
saying yes to an impromptu stop at the park because why on earth not?
snapping a selfie with my partner in crime.
picking up a porch full of pumpkins because she feels strongly that they all need a home and especially the odd and imperfect.
loving her even more for her endless empathy and kindness...for her constant championing of the underdog.
picking him up from his bar mitzvah party and chatting all the way home...car talk is the best with a teenage boy.
he waited all day and night long to tell me he threw an interception in his morning game.
i love him even more for his vulnerability.
walking along the river and up on brewer's hill with coach.
he was gone all day saturday in madison for the badger game, but he still got up to walk beside me.
he did leaves and took the kids to a party i was not in the right spirit for too.
watching an entire episode of homeland for a second time with me because i fell asleep the first.
i love him most for the way he always takes care of us...puts us first.
the way that it doesn't matter where i am or what i'm doing so long as i'm with one or all of them.
and this message...
it never gets old or overused.
and that's why i come here every week...
to remind myself that life is good and we are blessed beyond measure...
as long as we are together.
.
