To begin with, if you have read my January post, you will remember that I was sad about not seeing my Grands for Christmas. Well, you'll never guess who showed up on our doorstep the end of the first week of January. Aw, you guessed! Mountain Man and I had gotten up fairly early and were sitting out on the deck, having coffee, enjoying an unusually warm January morning. Since we only have three other full time families on our side of the mountain, we recognize by sound and sight all of the cars that come past our cabin. As we were looking out over the mountainside, we heard a truck coming up the road that didn't sound familiar. As it appeared around the curve, Mountain Man remarked that it looked just like Token Son's truck. Me, being the curious and slightly nosey person that I am, ran to the other side of the deck to see if I could see where it was heading. Well, wouldn't you just know it, it pulled right in our driveway! I wouldn't have been any more surprised if I woke up with my head stapled to the floor!!! After a whole lot of whooping and hollering and kissing and hugging we found out that they had plans in the works for quite a while to surprise us with a visit and I must say, it worked like a charm. So, we were able to spend some wonderful, quality time with our Chillin' and the grands. The highlight of the week being their first horseback riding experience. We knew that the older sis would ride since she had gotten to do a pony ride in the past. The younger sis? She was a crap shoot. At not quite two, you truly never know how she'll react to any given situation. She made Mountain Man's day! She took to that horse like a duck takes to water! We now have two little cowgirls in the family and I'm sure many fun times ahead riding with them when they come to visit.
The week with the Grands went waaaay too fast. You see, I'm greedy with my time with all of my Chillin' and my Grands. There is NEVER enough of it! But, seeing how, the very next week after they left, we had to make a trip back to Ohio for a memorial service for Mountain Man's first Mother-In-Law and my adopted Mama. So this meant not only bonus time with the Chillin's and Grands, but getting to see so many friends and distant relatives that we don't get to see nearly enough. Girls that were just babies themselves yesterday are now successful career women with families of their own. Young men who were busy raising families and carving out their place in the world are now grandfathers and are either retired or looking forward to retirement. The "old people" are mostly gone and WE are the "old people". It seems like just yesterday I was 18 years old, now I look in the mirror and don't even recognize the face that I see. Getting to see everyone again and catch up on our lives made us realize just how quickly time is passing and how much we can't take a moment of it for granted.
When we returned to our beautiful mountains from Ohio, we decided not to let any grass grow under our feet. We know that we will both have to get jobs soon since Social Security is never enough. But, until we start working again, we are trying to spend as much time as possible out in our beautiful backyard, the Chattahoochie National Forest. Since we have been blessed with an unusually mild winter (even by North Georgia standards), we have been hiking as many trails as possible, experiencing the great beauty of as many waterfalls as we can find and experiencing all the beauty that nature has to offer us. This doesn't mean that we are running a race to see everything there is to see. No, we are truly taking our time by hiking a slow pace. You see, we don't want to miss one little thing in nature. Whether it is a new plant peaking up through the leaves, a print from one of many little woodland critters in the mud or a claw mark from a bear searching for bugs in an old tree stump or under a rock. We are finding that when we truly slow down our pace, it is easier to breathe, easier to move and easier to rest. I pray that when we return to the working world, we will be able to keep to this slower, more mindful pace to make the most of this beautiful life that we have.
