Familiar

Hello.

I hope you had a blessed Easter weekend.  Although I missed my man terribly, I had an incredible weekend with my family.  Incredible.  What a beautiful weekend!  Seriously- perfect, with a capital P and a capital ERFECT.

Saturday morning I talked Katie into going walking and jogging with me.  It was a little chilly, but lovely, and we had a nice opportunity to catch up.  (You know, more than just posting funny things to each others' Facebook walls all day.)

We spent that afternoon at The Farm.  The pool lost its winter coat, but still lacks its summer appeal.  I spent a few hours lying out on the deck, reading and then falling asleep in the sun, listening to the rambunctious sounds of my family playing cards.  It was so gorgeous out, I just wanted to be outside for the entire day.

   

Miss Selah just keeps getting cuter every time we see her.  She's a funny girl.  The little lamb she got for Easter received lots of kisses from her as soon as she opened it.  Too precious.

  

After church on Sunday, we had Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Tony over for lunch.  We got spoiled with shrimp and chocolate bunnies, laughed alot, reminisced over old CDs, and attempted to take one good picture for Easter.  It may have taken awhile, but we got there eventually.

  

The girls enjoyed another beautiful afternoon by lying out on a big blanket in the yard, listening to music, reading, and falling asleep in the sun.

Then I was royally spoiled with what looks like a week's worth of Easter dinner leftovers for Jered and me, and a full gas tank to start my journey home.  Some of the old CDs we found included Shania Twain, so obviously I rocked out to some old favorites all the way to Des Moines.  It's funny how you can not listen to something for years, but as soon as you pop in those songs, the lyrics come back to you as if you've never stopped listening to them.  They're still familiar.  Still part of you.

We've had the comforter we used that afternoon for as long as I can remember, and the most amazing thing happened while we were enjoying it.  I turned my head to the side and caught the scent of the blanket.  I don't know if it was a combination of the heat in the blanket and the smell of grass beneath it, or what, but it smelled exactly the same as it did when we were little.  I might as well have been lying out on it fifteen or more years ago in that moment because it felt precisely the same.  

Just like when we go out to The Farm.  My feet know that deck.  They've walked across it countless times, and even after seasons of being away or shut inside, it feels as though it was just a day ago that my toes last encountered it.

I love the familiarity of home.  I drive in Canton and don't have to think about where I'm going.  It's as if everything I do while I'm there is by muscle memory.  And my house.  My house still gets the same smell every year when it starts to warm up outside.  And although it always feels the same, I find myself needing to look all around the house as soon as I get home to see if anything is different.  But each time, it amazes me how quickly I'm able to settle in and feel as though absolutely no time has passed.

That familiarity, like you've never left, like all those things are a part of you, is amazing.  For me, it feels like a special gift from God.  A gift to hold all those little details in my heart.  To hold on to the familiar.  At least, that's what I felt for the majority of this weekend.

Back to the writing prompts tomorrow!

Aim