By the time you read this weeks musings, Family Day will have passed. I was wondering the other day why it’s the third Monday in February that is recognized as Family Day and I decided (for me anyways) that it’s an appreciated push in the middle of winter to get out and have some fun with the kids. And so I will leave the cold and the snow behind, if only for awhile and do something crazy to break the monotony of the season and raise everybody’s spirits. It brings back a memory of when Lynn and Darrell were young and one Saturday in the wintertime we got up and decided to see how far south we could drive in a day. We made it to Lexington Kentucky where we spent the night and then headed down into Tennessee the next morning to see the Smokey Mountains before heading back home. Most people would think that was a crazy thing to do, and it was…but it was fun and I would do it all over again.
Since I am trying to beat an early deadline for the paper, I am writing this musings three days before Family Day. I don’t know what we’re going to do on Monday but I’ll probably use the element of surprise again because it will make our venture exciting and memorable.
Gail and I are fortunate that our family has remained close. I remember when Lynn talked about going to college in Toronto and Darrell talked about moving out west and getting a job… I would have supported them but I would have missed them terribly. And now that I’m a grandfather I can’t imagine the boys living at the other end of the country or even in another country. We’re not done raising children so I’m sure there will be a few more times that we will have to face the possibility of a distance between the kids and us, but hopefully it won’t be too great. It reminds me of something I once read…”you can travel all over the world to find what whatever it is you need but then you come home and find it”.