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Scraps of Beauty

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By kcharles, June 19, 2010 12:05 am

This blog I suppose is a good reflection of haphazard me.  Random and all over the place and lost in laundry and buckets of sand.  I left France.  Returned with a post or three.  Ran a race.  Got found by life.  And intend to post more April photos in November or maybe not.

And so it goes….Thank you, friends, for coming along.

For now, I just have to tell you about our yesterday.  The youth group headed to Cedar Point and the kids and I tagged along with Paul.   Practical Me was concerned about over-stimulation and age-appropriate activities, but somehow the Meager Fun Side squashed the Other to smitherines. 

As with any amusement park, there were high thrill rides roaring above us at deafening speeds.  There were moms pushing strollers, eleven year olds dribbling their prized basketballs, and masses of crazed humanity sweating in long lines with slushies.  There were also people who probably should have been wearing clothes.

For Selah and Adden, it was our day together for the sole purpose of play.   They ran and jumped with sunburned grins and arms propelling them from kiddie car to kiddie jeep to kiddie helicopter.  It was all the same circular ride, but from their delight you wouldn’t know it.   

Food fare of the day served up munchkins, hot dogs, fries, pizza, and green Pepsi.  It’s a special day when the watered down daily cup of apple juice gets trumped by green Pepsi.  I have never seen Adden move so many limbs at once after two sips of the good stuff.

There was Snoopy on Ice and Extreme Bikes and Boards.  There was a brave little girl who jumped into her first real roller coaster and climbed out with a trembling lip.  There was even a bird, beak stuffed with fodder for a nest, who came to perch next to us on a bench. 

Maybe I’m emotional (yes).  Maybe I’ve got a thing for birds (oddly so).  Maybe I just really loved our day together (yes, yes, yes).  But in that quiet amidst the crazy moment, we found a bird building a home. 

And it hit me that we were building a home even in this place.  In crazy life together, wherever that may happen.  With this smile and that tear.  With all that we’ve dreamed and nothing like we would have imagined.   From miles away, we were collecting scraps of  beauty amidst relationship. 

Today sure was one fantastic scrap.

categories celebrating life, children and youth ministry, family and friends

Feathers, Friends, and Maggots

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By kcharles, March 31, 2009 9:31 pm

I woke up at 7 too giddy to pull the covers back over my head. I’m almost embarrassed to say why. Cause I was psyched, like a kid waiting for Christmas, to see birds. Yep, egg-laying vertebrates with wings and beaks:)

The kids and I trekked to the Aviary today. And it was fabulous! We listened to stories, created pieces of art, and fed a 12-toed chicken out of our palms. We went nose to beak with Elvis the penguin, soaked up random bird factage (Rainbow Lorikeets always travel in pairs…hmmm…good principle?), and fed small birds large rocks (well, that was Adden. I caught the little man before we had a tragic bird homicide.)

But the highlight of the day had to have been the maggots. Well, that coupled with Selah’s courage. My shy daughter volunteered of her own accord to feed birds in front of a large audience. This entailed me holding Selah as still as I could, squirmy maggots in our palms, and swooping birds flying in out of nowhere. One winged chap even chose to perch on her hand for a couple of minutes. I think I was probably beaming.

Anyway, if you’re local and you’ve got little tykes, head to the Aviary! The building has some kinda weird configuration going on, you’ll need to camp out with a bagged lunch somewhere (they don’t have seating for that sort of thing), and it’s a bit pricey. (I would suggest scouting around for a coupon. We saved $8.50 that way:)

Besides birds, our day ended with a great dinner and conversation with some new friends (new for me, old for Paul) who happened to be visiting from out of town. We indulged in Primanti’s and walked around Ikea (without spending a dime – even better.) Our kids adored theirs so much that a pink bear was just recently named Lexi.

Incredible day, feathers and all.

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