38:52 Outside the Lines

If I pretended we had a set of lines that we, as parents, were following for this journey called 'raising children', they would not be straight.
If you were to look back at our lines of the last nine plus years, you would find that while they started heading in one direction, they veered off course several times, and that we are no longer heading in the same direction now.
But I think that is good.
We are learning, and we are learning that what we once thought was important may not necessarily be so any longer.  I'll call that living. Living and learning.

While we may have once walked in narrow lines, I think they are starting to broaden. It's when we step outside of our self-created lines, that we push them out, expand them. I'll call that growth. Personal growth.


I think that I may have stepped outside of our pre-set lines earlier this week
(the only kind of growth I see at this moment is the tangible one of another breathing body occupying this household).
I brought home a four legged friend.

As crazy at it is to me, my kids now have a new best friend.

A very energetic, shedding, and kind of smelly best friend.  Oh, what did I get ourselves into???

But the kids love her already.  

They want to be in the same room as her.  

They think about her when we're not at home.

They give her endless hugs.

And they *cringe* share their snacks with her.

Definitely outside the lines!

I never would have thought this would be a sight you'd see in my home...

So yes, perhaps this step of acquiring a family pet was a bit 'outside the lines' for us, but then again perhaps it will soon seem very apropos and our lines will make yet another, broadening shift on their ever evolving course.


I'm linking up to Maaret this Friday.
Enjoy your weekend!