February 14, 2020

LOVE! Long, Lost, and Lasting

Since my kids are exploding up in age, attitude, and agendas, the adage that “time flies” seems true. I found myself at a skate-park last week- with temps in the low 30s and the winter sun low but shining, it felt balmy that day so we donned skates, scoots, and sweaters (for Camper) and went off. I stood still in my roller blades for a moment and did some reflecting on what we love as a family. We’ve been going to skate-parks for over 10 years!

Other passions have come and gone. Sometimes our whole family is swept up into the obsession of one person, other times we all share together. We are lucky and blessed and lack for nothing. Sometimes we’ve shared better than other times. Hopefully we’re giving more away, changing, growing and slowing down. Over time, we’ve held onto some of this stuff.

Loved for a LOOOOONNNG Time:

Castaway, Colorado, and Camping
Skate parks (with siblings and in days of old, the Sollars kids joined often!)
LEGO (Eli 2009-2013) Andi (briefly, 3 sets total), Oaks (LEGO ALL DAY)
The Oscar Movie Showcase (2013- Present) and movies in general
Wearing and sharing hand-me-downs
Chiefs Games at the Pearces (2002- Present) and nachos for lunch every Sunday we’re not with Binny.
Puzzles and Playing Games
Skiing (1986 Linds, 2003 Drew, 2011 Eli and Andi, 2020 Oaks?)
Making and sending Valentines (April Sustad instilled the love celebrating in me)
Cloth Napkins and the Library

Loves LOST…Not So Much Anymore:

Running (no more marathons or half marathons for us)
Rube Goldberg building
Home school years and learning Latin (we still write on the white board a lot though)
Trains, Barbies, Princesses, PawPatrol and our Arcade room
Slime (Andi had quite the factory in her room last year)
Rockets, movie making, American Ninja Warrior, domino tracks, and cool cars (Eli, Eli, Eli, Eli)
Gymnastics classes (but Oaks still needs to learn a backflip…)
Giant bowls of ice cream almost every night
Our first home
Eldon, Gladys, Orville, Jesse, and Pearl.

LASTING Loves…

God
Camper- He’s the best. He will always be our first dog. Maybe he’ll be our only?
Cereal
Intimacy
Sharing questions
Extended family
Halloween and Christmas Parties
Neighbors
Eating outside
Vacations

We’ve tried to embody and share with our kids that love looks like a lot of different things such as help, sacrifice, steadfastness, smiles, and surprises. We believe love is costly and a choice you make over and over. We think love lifts us up and pushes us out. We know love can be shared and never diminish. We know God IS Love and the love we receive from the periochoretic union of a mutually interdependent God-head overflows in a dance of love that invites us to define our lives by worthiness, inclusion, and a responsibility to share. God has given us room to rest and enough to give away.

Happy Valentine’s Day

A few other things we have loved and still do: Young Life, Nerf, salmon and sweet potato dinner, our new deck, Crossfit, scheduled chores and meals, school lunch on Wednesday, family dinners with the Bruces, Linds working at Drew’s office, READING, Royals baseball, Shop Til You Drop Day, craft beers, dry champagne, pumpkin patches, being Aunts, Uncles, and cousins, Bad Lip Readings, homemade cookies, scrapbooking, pictures on the fridge, our kitchen chalk board, bike rides to Hy-Vee, Coves Swim Team, Star Wars, Marvel movies, Jacob’s Well, 10 year old birthday books, Celebration at the Station, Poinsettias, Electronic Time (Wednesdays and the Weekends, like cereal), GG days, birthday affirmations, Plaza Lights and Winstead nights, the Line Creek path, Christmas with the Henkes in KC, trampolines, Advent, nighttime blessings, 12 years of bunk bed sibling shared rooms, Loose Park, Aldi, donuts, houseplants, and hard work.