Laundry and flying high

When we first moved to Florida we didn't bring a washer or dryer with us so Swink1 scored a deal on a stackable set at only $30. Woohoo! Well.....last week I washed a pillow, yes you read that right, a pillow and subsequently broke the poor little washer. Mind you, this thing was was meant for an apartment (read...tiny) and we have used it for our family of 5 since Oct. I'd say we got our money's worth! Anyway, so the poor thing died and after scouring craigslist and calling numerous appliance stores we got a deal on a commercial size washer for $75 (one extreme to the other on the size). I rationalized that we could still use the dryer part of our stackable but didn't realize it would take 4 cycles in the dryer to dry all of the clothes washed by 1 load in the washer...grrrr. I went back to craigslist and finally found a dryer (commercial size) for $75. So all total we got a washer & dryer for $150. Not bad...not bad at all. Bonus: it doesn't take 2 days to do laundry anymore :-)
In other news, Team Swink was gifted with a trampoline this week!!! Let the acrobatics begin. After putting it up on Tuesday we had a blast jumping and playing. Wednesday the first thing out of Swink3 & 4's mouth was, "Can we go jump?" So off they went to bounce happily around. We still need to put the enclosure around it (Swink3 has already been "helped" off by his little sis) to prevent unwanted dismounts from happening. The only downside to this? Swink1 did something to his back, possibly while flopping around on it and is now in pain. We are praying a weekend of rest will ease the pain. Otherwise this may spell a delay in school as muscle relaxers + EOD school = disaster. Let's see how he feels on Monday. Happy Friday all :-)

What remains...

Looking at Swink3’s legs one would think that he is beaten daily with a stick from the knees down; at last count there were 11 bruises, scraps, cuts, or other “booboos.” These wounds will heal and be replaced by new ones; what will remain?

Looking at Swink4’s sweet adorable face at 5:30 in the evening it appears as though she has been eating dirt all day – and she probably has. Once she is in the shower the streaks of grime run off her face and down the drain; what will remain?

Looking at Swink5’s little chunky knees it looks like she may have been kneeling on sandpaper and her belly is red – evidence of her low crawling through the house. Once she grows and begins to walk the redness and roughness will begin to fade; what will remain?

I pray that what remains for our children is perseverance, determination, an over-whelming sense of love and childhood happiness. The important part isn’t how banged up your legs get; it’s the fact that you got back on the bicycle after a fall, the fact that you weren’t afraid to try climbing a tree (or onto a roof for that matter), that you spent the day climbing over rocks at the beach in search of hermit crabs. It doesn’t matter that your clothes got filthy and stained, your hair was stringy and tangled or that you weren’t always perfectly groomed. The important part is that your imagination is wild, you know how dirt feels running between your fingers and toes, you can find a treasure that has been hidden (for the 10^th time), and how you know what outside smells like. The things that remain will be memories as you grow and seek your way in this world. It will be knowing that you can try again and probably succeed. It will be knowing that you are dearly loved by your parents and by God.  It will be a sense of joy that pervades your life.  

What remains is what we are made of.

Inaugural Post

Oh, the pressure!  What do I say in this, the first post, to the Team Swink blog? The questions of how to be witty, charming, and captivating run through my mind so that I can gain the attention of my audience and keep them interested in what I have to say.  This, I believe is the goal of most people who write. We want our words to mean something; to convey who we are or our thoughts and beliefs to others.   We strive to be understood or if not understood, then at least heard. One of my goals with this blog is to share our lives with the ones who are truly interested and know us; our family and friends. Another goal is to share insight and thoughts with those who may not know us yet but would like to (or perhaps are thankful they will never know us!).  Yet another one would be to maintain a record of some sort of our lives so that we (Team Swink) can look back and recall times past. Let’s see if this lives up to those lofty aspirations.

May you, my dear reader, be blessed and entertained, possibly encouraged and occasionally challenged by what you find here.