Summer for a night

One of the biggest challenges in my life has been to find the positive when feeling weary or in tough situations.  It's difficult to find the silver lining when you feel your sky is completely overcast.  That being said, one of my goals recently has been to try and look for the positive in everything.

And then it snows.  Again.  And this really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone in Ohio.  Although it's still winter for another month I'm pretty sure all my fellow Ohisians have had their fair share of snow this year. To be honest, I can't quite remember a more snowy season in Ohio.  But this girl from North Carolina  Arizona  Alaska... Ohio is not ready to let the snow beat me down yet.  When life gives you lemons, make lemonade; and when winter seems to never end, invite summer to come along.  That's what me and Madison did tonight.

Grocery shopping was excruciating the other day.  Starting completely fresh in a new house with nothing... well, it gets expensive to do the first grocery shopping.  I've been sticking to a strict budget which has been a huge financial blessing to Byron and I's financial situation.  It's made me appreciate how my mom taught us girls to budget, watch for deals and shop smart... even if it means finding something for $.50 cheaper somewhere else.  I have a constant awareness of what I'm spending and how it affects our new lifestyle.  And it gave me some anxiety with me and Madison venturing out on our own once again not knowing how it would change the current budget.  So I painstakingly made it to the grocery store.  As soon as we walked in Madison spotted a bin full of fresh, ripe watermelons for $5.  Her eyes lit up and I could see the little watermelon fairies dancing in her eyes. 

You have to understand something here.  Madison lives for watermelon.  And it makes sense because that's pretty much all I ate while I was pregnant.  Not many pickle and ice cream moments for me.. get me some slices of fresh, sweet watermelon and I was a happy pregnant person once again.  Studies have shown babies in the womb tend to take on the tastes their mothers experience during pregnancy.  Things that we crave they will generally like and things that revolt us they tend to stay away from.  In other words, the watermelon is no surprise.

At first I couldn't bring myself to spend the $5 for a whole watermelon we likely wouldn't be able to eat half of.  But the longing look in Madison's eyes tugged on my heartstrings and I'll admit, it sounded pretty good to me as well.  I rationalized it by saying it was just as much as a happy meal at McDonalds would cost me for Madison these days and with no further considerations I heaved the whole watermelon into the cart much to the delight of now ecstatic Madison.

So today we're pretty much snowed in.  Nowhere to go for once and just mom and daughter hanging out together itching to get out and run and play.  Enough of the snow.  Bring on the sun.  And then I saw the watermelon.  That was it! We were bringing summer to the dinner table.  Watermelon slices, sweet tea for mom, kool-aid for the kiddo and even napkins with hopeful suns and flowers on them.  The delight on Madison's face is apparent.

She was nearly shaking because I had to tell her to wait to take a bite until I got a picture of her. 

Think she was enjoying it???

So bring it on mother nature.  Go ahead and snow.  Threaten to shut down half of Ohio.  We're ready for you.  Afterall, we still have the rest of the watermelon :)