A Soft Heart and other Random Thoughts

I often refer to Silas as having a soft heart. What I mean by this is he has such a tenderness in his heart towards others. He’s full of mercy and compassion that doesn’t necessarily come easily to everyone. I know everyone is built differently. Some people can cry watching an infomercial about starving children, while other’s can blindly change the channel, without even giving a thought to it. They’re oblivious.

People are affected by things in different ways. Something that I believe to be so special about Silas is that he can see the good in things and in people. Everyone and everything is his friend. Of course he loves to wrestle, fight the bad guys and pretend all sorts of crazy things with Eli. But then he will also look at his little rubber turtle, a.k.a. “Silas, Silas, Silas” and insist in putting him in a bowl of water so he can breathe. Dusty took him to the park the other day and there was a huge concrete whale that became Silas’ friend. “Willy” was covered in sand, so Silas had to clean him off to help him. Last week we were meeting Nanny after school and I told Silas that she was bringing snacks. He asked, “Is she bringing chocolate?” I said, “I’m not sure, Silas. Why? You don’t like chocolate.” “I know, Momma. But Eli does.” That’s just the way he is. No lie, he can read me when I’m upset and know when I need to hear, “I love you” or need a hug. He tells me all the time, “Momma, (such and such - fill in the blank) is my friend.” Just last night, Dusty was in his office doing his weekly class for his Master’s Program and Silas called to tell him, “Daddy, I love you. I miss you. You are my friend.” If he’s watching a movie where one of the characters is “bad”, he’ll ask me, “He’s bad, right momma? Not all ninjas or lions or dragons (again, fill in the blank) are bad, right?” You can see him trying to wrap his brain around it because “bad” doesn’t quite make since. And then there’s Eli, throwing his Iron Man (who is his favorite possession in all the world, mind you) and stomping on him. Don’t get me wrong, Eli is an absolute little love bug. Yet, he doesn’t view things the same way Si does. It’s so intriguing to me how that works. Dusty had mentioned this to me the other day after his interaction with “Willy” at the park, so I thought I’d write about it. He is such a special little boy, as is Eli, and it’s a joy to be their mommy. I am constantly learning and being challenged by them in different ways.

While I’m at it, I just have to say - Eli is really loving school. Every morning now, he asks me, “fun at school?”, basically asking me in his own way if he gets to go to school. He walks off proclaiming, “bye, Mommy!” and goes to play with his new friends. When I pick him up, he has to tell everyone he can see “goodbye” and give as many hugs as possible. Yes, he’s a love bug, indeed!

On a couple other notes:

1. I have spent a couple days organizing and tagging all my tens of thousands of photos so I can finally get a website up and running. It’s also interesting to go back and look, because photos I thought were great a year ago, somehow seem not so great. I love seeing improvement and being challenged to get better.

2. Glee premiere tonight. Can barely contain my excitement. Enough said.

3. We love the $.99 store and sometimes find amazing finds. The other day I saw these Slimfast bars and picked up a couple boxes, because it’s an easy, on the go breakfast. Love! I kindly asked Dusty to go back and stock up. He brought me home 18 boxes - And yes, I will probably go back. The only sad thing about the $.99 store is once something is gone, it’s gone. So, we stock up! We found these drink mixes that you put in your water that we absolutely loved and enjoyed for months. When they finally sold out, I told Dusty it was the end of an era. Sad. So, at some point there will come a day that my amazingly delicious “Sweet and Salty Chocolate Almond” Slimfast bars are gone. But until that day, I will indulge and enjoy.

4. I am so excited for the fall. I love everything about it and absolutely cannot wait. Silas and I are watching everyday, anxiously waiting for the Pumpkin Patch to open. That’s one of my favorite things to do with the boys every year. I love Halloween, I love soup, I love football, I love long sleeves, I love all the festivities, I love Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. etc. How could anyone not love this time of the year? It makes me happy!