Today I Love Playing My Game, My Way...Slice of Life 19 of 31

     I debated what to call today's love.  I've gone from "Today I love being slap happy" (The Man and I were giggling at the silliest things this morning!) to "Today I love laughing" (I decided to tell the story about what we were giggling about to my 7th graders, to whom I have been very grumpy lately...it made them laugh, too!) to "Today I love Kid Snippets" (We stretched Bible class today into a lesson on Proverbs 17:22 and there's nothing that makes my 7th graders more cheerful than Kid Snippets!) to finally...this:  Today I love playing my game, my way.  This whole Today I Love thing is my baby.  I wasn't forced into it...I challenge myself to look for something positive, something that I love in each day.  As of today, I've been at it for 326 (mostly in a row) days now and I've tried very very hard not to repeat anything, with the exception of The Man, because, well, he's just so lovable!   
     ANYWAY...today was a long day.  It was picture day so the schedule got thrown off.  There was the bank on the way home, then dinner, then a meeting, but an errand, no wait, two errands before the meeting and one errand after the meeting.  There is still a lot left to do today, but not a lot of hours left in which to get it done.  Grade cards are coming and the mountain of ungraded papers that always seems to crop up right before that deadline.  Spring Break is around the corner and I really really really don't want to be grading papers over Spring Break.  As I type this, the dishes are being done by that wonderful Man of mine, and he's also put in a load of laundry tonight as well. (See what I mean by him being just so lovable?)
     So, today I break my own rule and play my game my way.  I was blessed with another handwritten letter from THE Letter Writer Extraordinaire, My Aunt AnnaMarie in Kansas today, and by golly...I love it!  Bless her heart, she was sitting out there thinking she had made me mad because I've been so remiss in writing her back after her many missives to me. Sigh...nothing could be further from the truth!  But she also tells me that she understands being busy with a husband, kids, and a career and she remembers being there herself at one time.  Thank you Aunt Anna Marie, for the letter, for the understanding, and for giving me just what I needed in the midst of a busy day...something to love AGAIN!  

(And thank you cousin Cindy for printing this off for her as I know you will!)

Today I love touch...Slice of Life 8 of 31

     I’ve known since 3:00 this morning what I was going to love today.  If you recall, I was waxing poetic over my love for sleep yesterday evening, and the lack thereof in my life these last few nights.  Teenagers, you know?  Well, at some point in the night last night, I stretched out, barely conscious, but ready to roll over and curl up as I described doing in yesterday’s post.  But, just as I curled up, the soles of my two bare feet just happened to line up with the soles of The Man’s two bare feet.  

Toe for toe…heel to heel. 

     In that briefly conscious moment, in that simple unplanned touch, every single muscle that I didn’t even realize had been tense before, suddenly let go of the tight hold they had on the day and relaxed.   I slipped right back into that sweet deep abyss, until it was a rightful and proper time to rise for the day.  

 However, just before I drifted off again, I thought to myself, “I love touch.”

      In this day of political correctness and “oh we must be careful not to offend anyone” attitudes, I truly wonder if we are forgetting this basic human need.  In our efforts not to be inside anyone’s “bubble”, and frankly, not to be thought of as someone who may show up on the eleven o’clock news, are we depriving ourselves and those around us of a requirement for survival?  I knew I had heard something years ago in my teaching career about humans needing a certain number of hugs a day for proper growth and development, but couldn’t remember the statistics.  Upon a tiny bit of research, I found this information about hugs.  I agree with the child interviewed by the author of the article…I think we all need way more than eight hugs a day!

This is a photo of My Ol' Man and his cousin Betty...big huggers, both of them, and both celebrating 8 decades plus.  We visited with Betty in Topeka at the beginning of last summer's epic Kansas adventure.  I can't imagine ending that visit with anything less than a big hug and I can't wait to return for another!

Today, I love touch.