We promised our children we would do "one fun thing" with our tax return this year. Many ideas were bandied about, each child had a decided opinion: movies! water parks! pool pass!
In the end, it was decided that a family pass to the campus pool and rec center was the best bang for our buck. The pool is indoor, so it's open year-round. We figure it will only take ten trips as a family for the pass to pay for itself. And the rec center means I can finally learn how to play racquetball. Against my husband. This should be good.
Tonight was our first night with all of us going together to the pool.
It was a hoot.
I actually sat on the pool deck with the burbling baby and watched the action (and counted heads repeatedly and compulsively). It was my husband who got in the pool and won the prize for Awesome Dad by playing - simultaneously - with all six of the kids in the water. What a guy. The lifeguards think we're so cute. I suspect they wait all week for us to troop in and liven up their shift.
Those water babies swam and splashed and swam some more. For over an hour. No one climbed out and took a break. No one started a fight. It was non-stop getting along whilst treading water. They are going to sleep sound tonight, I tell you! Go Team!
I am grateful for our pass. It is the first time we have made the commitment of time and money, and I think we can actually make it work for us this year. I am grateful for a tax return, and for the wiggle room it gives me to do "one fun thing" for my family. And I am grateful for a husband who will squelch his distaste for swimming and plunge right in to play with his kids.
What have you been blessed with today?
Today I'm grateful for the ability to run on five hours of sleep when I need to. Even when it's my fault I stayed up late. And I'm grateful for time spent with my family. I miss them a lot, but that just helps me to appreciate them more. Also, I'm so grateful for the Maryville Branch. The people are such a wonderful example of unity and love, and I hope that wherever I go next will have a congregation half so loving. I hope that I can serve there. But I will never forget the wonderful people here that have helped to shape my testimony while it's still growing so much!! Truly, you were all placed here for me, or I was placed here to be with you all, or something.
ReplyDeleteHeavenly Father's works are marvelous! :)
I'm grateful for down to earth people who know that happiness is about splashing with your family and laughing with your spouse instead of getting a bigger house or a bigger boat or a manicure. People like that are my kind of people.
ReplyDeleteBut I'd never cry if I had to get a manicure. Just sayin'.