Day 6- lack-of-labor day

Today was a highly enjoyable day. As my title implies, it was a day when we had no real labor to do and just spent time together as a family. We made a big breakfast, had a leisurely morning, then went out to my parents' house for the afternoon. It was just about perfect.

All of this gave me an opportunity to take a good long look at my family, and I have some observations. I must say that my family is rather strange, and I love it. Let's start with my youngest son. He has a writer's soul, and though he claims to dislike writing (I think he's basically too lazy to want to sit down and do it), I believe he cannot help but become some sort of writer when he grows up. He has had a way with words since he first started speaking. For example, this morning I awoke to the sound of my boys fighting in their room. They actually don't get physical with each other very often, so this was a very unusual thing to hear. I sprang up from my bed and hurried into the room to put a stop to it. As I asked each in turn what was happening, Joshua (my 8 yr old), between tearful pauses, said things like this: "We were locked in a furious battle," "I flew at him in a rage," and why? well "He had stolen my last hope of making a lightsaber." Yes, these words were actually coming out of his mouth, and he was totally serious. It took everything I had not to burst out laughing. It was just a fight over some lego pieces, but he managed to make it sound like something out of a fantasy novel. He's an amazing little guy with quite the artist's flair, that is for sure.

Next, there is my father. He is such a good grandpa to these boys. He and my mother recently built a tree house in their backyard (they have five acres of land, about three of which are pretty wild), and he spends time with my boys out there, pretending and playing just like a kid. It is hilarious the kinds of things he comes up with. I never know exactly what they're pretending, but you tend to hear things like "zombie" and "laser" and even "spiderman" if you happen to wander through their territory. And tonight, I looked out of an upstairs window to find him teaching them to do a "fire dance" as they waited for their father to light a campfire. It involved more stomping and pointing than actual dancing, with some grunts thrown in for good measure. Truly precious.

My mother is not your usual grandmother, either. She has more energy than I will probably ever have. Mind you, she's not old or anything. She had us children pretty young, and I had children pretty young myself, so she and my father are really only in their late forties, early fifties. Still, you'd think maybe they would be slowing down a bit. But no, that was my mother racing down the paths with Joshua as they played a game of tag with her Labrador, her long blond (totally natural, too. We all hate her for it) hair flying behind her like some sort of gypsy vision.

Really, my parents, in a nutshell, are full of life. They have always reached out and grabbed life, living it to its fullest. No matter what they are doing, they never fail to do it with flare and passion. Some people would probably find that a bit embarrassing, but not me. I find them thrilling and intoxicating. And now I get to watch my own children experience it. They don't even realize how blessed they are to have grandparents like them. Someday, they will, though.

Anyway, it was a great day, spent with great people, doing not much of anything, but just being together. It's the kind of day we may not remember much about years from now, but it will build up our souls, making us into bigger, better human beings. That may not be what President Cleveland had in mind when he created the Labor Day holiday, but I'd like to thank him for it just the same.