You know you're in the south when...

1) There's an entire aisle devoted to grits
2)  The funniest t-shirt you've seen says " Paddle FASTER ... I hear banjos"
3)  As a Filipino who might also pass as spanish (read mexican) you are stared at like a strange anomaly.
     P.S. we aren't all nannies or hotel maids and even if we are, we go on vacation too. Totally legit.
4)  Church signs say " Keep on keepin on for Jesus"
5)  You pass a place called the Chesterfield Inn and The Buzzard's Roost Motel and still have hopes for a great vacation
6)  You read the slogan " I got my crabs from Dirty Dicks" and you simultaneously cringe and laugh out loud, because it's the slogan for a seafood restaurant.
7)  You lose your family at a rest stop in West Virginia and a local smiles at you with his teeth sticking out at a horizontal angle, bends down to clean the glass door you're about to walk through and all you see is crack. And not in the glass door. Then you swear you can hear banjos and you run... just a little to find your family. Quickly.
8)  You keep passing a restaurant called "Fat man's dream. Dogs n' cream."
9)  Y'all is fine, but an old war vet corrects your english when you say "kinda".  And by the way you crochety old man, she is KINDA cute and I do watch over her very carefully, thank you very much.
10) There are biscuits here and biscuits there. Biscuits, biscuits everywhere. Mmmmmmm.

We had a mighty good time (except in W. Viginia where I experienced some uncomfortable and what I interpreted to be hostile stares) driving south.  Thank y'all for your hospitality. We'll all come back real soon. Bring our igloos, dog sled teams and everything!

little slices of heaven

There is something to be said for taking pleasure in the little things.  It is easy to get caught up in the difficulties of everyday life and to focus on what has gone wrong in the day, in your relationships or in your life in general.  And it becomes so easy to let that black cloud block out the sun.  Some days I need to remind myself to stop and to look carefully for the little slices of heaven I experience that are so easily over-looked.
A few days ago, I stood in my kitchen with sunlight streaming gently through the kitchen window, hulling a bucket of strawberries.  I love the smell of fresh strawberries. Crushing them for jam, they smelled and tasted like sunshine. It brought a smile to my face to remember my kids, crouched down in the strawberry field excitedly, looking for the biggest, ripest berries.
  Gentle sunset sunshine, the smell of fresh strawberries, the cool breezes of evening floating through my kitchen.  That is a small part of what I think Heaven will be like.
Having my youngest daughters arms wrap around me and crush me with love. Watching my son, follow my husbands footsteps trying so hard to be just like him with the kind of hero worship that all sons should get to experience with their fathers.
Sitting out in my backyard with a glass of white wine, watching the sun paint the sky in a breath taking show of setting colours.
These are the simple pleasures that remind me that I am blessed. And that I should never take that for granted.