Ah, I remember the days when Ron and I went off for a romantic “get-away” – just the two of us — booked at some fabulous five-star restaurant where they serve you ‘art’ instead of ‘food’.   You giggle at each other wondering who is going to be first to topple the triple layer salad with strange skinny breadsticks sticking out each side, topped with an origami-like vegetable-thingy.

Those were the days.  But these are the better days.

 This past weekend, we selected our romantic get-away for the Great Smoky Mountains and Clingman’s Dome.  And we had a ‘blast in the Pass” as we hiked up to the top of the Dome.   We went off path making our own way because that’s what we do, and at the end, set our own five-star table in the grass.

“AWE,” you say.  “I wish we could do that.”  Thing is, you can. Just take your schedule and a little carving tool, and scratch out some time.  A couple of days is a great romance-refresher and a nice break from running to this event and that event, and a picnic in the grass beats the socks off a bucket of KFC to go.

Ron and I don’t consider this selfish; we believe it’s essential for every married couple to step back and look at the ‘art of family’ they have created from a distance.  There is plenty of AWE to be found  in the Smokey Mountains.  Course, it  might have been the wine and cheese or maybe it was Mother Nature, in general. But I think it was more just having each other to ourselves.

Just do it!  (Oh, I guess that’s been used already.)  How about Find Ur AWE?

Dawn

Advertisers coined the word:  ‘slogan.’  But I believe every family needs one. In my world,  we all share the same dream, one or two status cars, designer-titled jobs, at least one super-fancy roof over our head, and kids known by their grades, sports ability or talents.   None of this calls attention to the direction we are going.   We need a slogan.

A slogan is different than a nickname;  it’s a motivator, a call to action, a direction, an intent.  Nobody else can give you a slogan.  Those of you who have been hurt by birth or life should always remember this! It’s never about looks or circumstances.  it’s about intention.

Before kids, Ron and I loved to travel and we weren’t willing to save those words for job applications in the place marked:  Hobbies.    We agreed- you can never truly tell people you love about doing something unless you actually do It!  A slogan should be a motivator or a call to action or accountability.  We chose AWE – Adventure With Engagement.

Early in our relationship, Ron and I bought a junky old VW camper in Germany, and set out  for a year of adventure to see places we had never seen and to meet the people in the world!    We were working the AWE, but we knew it would be even better when we added our first sons Ryan and Tyler, and eventually Trenton and Colton to the adventure.    When we lost Ryan, we shelved our dream for awhile.  But true dreams can never be completely retired.  We realized that an adventure is most grand when it includes strangers whose background and life-stories were different than ours.  We heal by sharing each other’s stories of surviving life’s hard knocks.

AWE is the recipe for our family cake.  Each one of us brings a different element to the mixing bowl.  Sometimes the heat of the oven is intense, but we know it will all turn out well.  The frosting on that cake is composed of the hours and days we spend with each other.

Your family cake may be perfectly baked, beautifully frosted and have a flawless presentation.    But unless you reach out an include new places and new people, you may never experience the joy of ‘sprinkles.’

Find a slogan.  And before you adopt it, think long and hard!

Dawn

Since school kicked back up, everyone is in “serious stress” mode.  For the guys, it’s another grade, another challenge.  For Ron and I, it’s squeezing two pounds of sand into a one-ounce hourglass!

The other night, we found ourselves ‘in between’ the frenzy of homework and extra-curricular events.  You could feel the pressure floating in the air (sort of an oppressive color of burgundy/black) and I recognized it was time for us to ‘lighten up’.   More accurately, the Hirn Fam needed to spend some time ‘being Goofy.’    Sounds like a fairly simple directive, but nobody easily drops into ‘being goofy-mode’ on command.   Tyler had already moved on from homework and had dug his tendrils into his Play Station’s ‘Destiny’ and Trenton and Colton were just anxious to escape and find their own fun.

“Game night,” I declared.  And for the thousandth time they looked at their mom as only a disgusted man/child can.  It was easy getting the two younger guys interested in a game of Euchre, which for those of you who don’t know, is a trick-taking card game using standard playing cards.  With a bit of coaxing, Colton dragged his teenaged brother into some friendly competition.  Colton knew he could beat Tyler, and Tyler finally took the bait.

The beauty of this game is that it is fast!  There is no dress code or gaming table.  We slung the deck of cards on the bed,  each of us grabbed a space, and for forty-five minutes we played hard. Nobody tried being Goofy – it just happened.

Never be in too much hurry to let each family member run off to  ‘wind down’ electronically after their hard work has finished.    Encourage a good game of cards, or Farkle or Scrabble.  Recruit!   The laughs you take away are well worth the sarcastic eye-rolls you get at first.   And game playing is one of the purest forms of AWE, with heavy emphasis on the Engagement part.    All of us need an audience when we are  being Goofy!

Dawn