seasons change

Another year has come and gone.

How do YOU measure years?

The school year?
Summer?
Holidays?

I've been playing (and enjoying the hell) out of playing mr mom for the past few days.
I know, I know, thats easy for a few days. Well, I enjoyed it maybe because it was easy.
It helps that my outside-the-house-workload has been cut in half recently, so I AM able to give more than usual. Time will tell whether or not it lasts. My ability to give more, I mean.
Some of you readers (read: WOMEN) automatically believe that I should already give more. You may be right, but by the same token, I don't believe you give not even a small percentage of what I put into my life and day on a regular basis, so I guess we're even there.
And you'll forever be wrong.



So, back to topic.
I'm playing mr mom, carting kids here and there and running for dinner today.
On the way, one of the kids asks me if we can stop at the local ice cream stand, because it is, after all, "the last day of the season".
I say, "not before dinner" and continue on our way to market.

On our way back, again the question arises, "can we go to Maureen's for ice cream?! It IS the last day..............."
I said, "It is going to be a long time before we can go again, isnt't it?"
and kids not being totally brain dead and able to see a light at the end of the tunnel, yelled "YES!!!"

So we whipped in the parking lot of Maureen's, 15 minutes after we passed it on our way to the market.................................
and there's a big sign in the window saying "closed for the season".
Man.
Talk about heartbreak on a biblical scale.
quivering lips, sniffling noses, blurry vision.....

and that was just me.


The kids in the car were in total meltdown mode.
Of course it was all my fault. We should have gone there BEFORE we went to get something for dinner.....................

Yeah, well, I may be sentimental, but I aint stupid.

"Dont push it kids", I said, "its a frickin ice cream stand, not a love lost forevermore or anything........."

They didnt get that one, they just knew that the ice cream stand they shouted about everytime we passed was closed, and that was that.
End of an era, for them.

End of light at the end of the tunnel, for them.

So naturally I got to thinking.
Naturally.
"Is there any light at the end of MY tunnel?" I thought............

Yeah. There is, but its dim, and it seems hard as hell to get to.
Probably as dim as the light as the ice cream stand opening sometime after next easter, when its not even halloween yet, as explained to my youngest.
She just shouted "we can go there the next time when we come here!!"

Sounds logical.
We can go there the next time when we come here......



A lot is going to happen before then, I fear.


And by the by, the two older kids got out of the car and went to ask if they could still get an ice cream, even though the sign said "closed".
The nice (heartless, Cruella DeVanilla) Ice cream stand owner said "No".
So teary eyed and quivering lipped, they returned to the car.
He said they closed a minute ago, and that was that.
An ice cream nazi.

I've often (and I mean OFTEN) wondered, what exactly, did I miss, by a minute or so, in my life?............

Well, add one more to the list.

The chance to make the kids happy with a lousy 3 or 4 bucks worth of ice cream.

I know that its not much on the scale of life's disappointments, but it wouldn't have done any good to tell them that tonight.
They missed their chance, and the best they could hope for is some far off, distant point in the horizon that they really can't comprehend getting to.




THAT, I can relate to.

Be careful when you ask God to show you what you missed, he might just show you.

He does, and He did.





He showed me, after I begged, often with tears streaming down, to show me where I missed, what I missed.
He showed me exactly what, and where.

Be very careful what you ask God to show you.

He will, you know.