BLISS (n : a state of extreme happiness)

Do you ever have moments in life (and I mean literal moments, tiny little portions of time) when you feel almost perfect bliss? I had one yesterday. I have these every now and then, and they always involve my children. I wish I could freeze these moments and bottle them up, and open my 'bliss bottle' whenever I need a little happiness.

Anyway, yesterday, I took the kids to a small town right across the Mississippi River from my small town. It was a beautiful day, almost 80 degrees, sunny and breezy. We took the ferry across the river and went into town. It's a pretty shady, hilly area with lots of charm. We went to some antique shops (the girls have caught this shopping disease from me at an early age). I found a new place that we've never been to before, it was an antique shop on a hill, with a smaller antique place at the foot of the hill. There were 2 manmade ponds, one atop the hill linked to the other at the foot of the hill by a small waterfall. There were fountains, and benches and the little spot was so quaint and pretty. We stopped there, so that John M. could play for a while. He had the best time picking up rocks and throwing them into a little bucket of water and splashing Emma. Hold on . . my blissful moment is coming.

So, I'm watching the three of them. Noticing how they're each doing their own thing in their own way. Anna is walking around with her backpack on, exploring by herself, and looking way too grown up to be any part of what her little sister and brother are doing. Emma is talking non-stop, totally into her baby brother, and giggling at everything he does. John M. is totally captivated by the rocks and the water and the bucket. He's laughing everytime he splashes Emma and I think he would have thrown rocks into that bucket all afternoon if I would have let him. They were each so perfectly beautiful to me in that moment. I almost started crying watching them. I felt so blessed and blissfully happy.

I always stop, when I have moments like that, to thank God for blessing me with these three children that make every bad moment worth it 100 times over, with good moments. I know I complain a lot about these kids, but without them, I don't think I'd ever have moments like that one.