SPC - 'Widescreen' - #1

The theme for September at Self Portrait Challenge is: Widescreen

Friday night, we each (the four members of my immediate family) had individual experiences entirely (or at least partially) separate from one another.

I took Hannah to an all-girls sleepover with her church group of 5th/6th grade girls and their adult leaders.

Harrison had an all-night lock-in at another church in town for Cub Scouts. This is a new adventure for us. Harrison, like his Father, often struggles with facing new experiences. We encouraged Harrison to attend the event to get to know some of the boys and leaders with whom he will be scouting. He was still tentative about it, so I said that I would stay as long as he wanted me to stay. I fully expected that we would stay until the events of the evening wrapped up and that he would want to go home to sleep. Turns out, he decided to stay for late-night movies, sleeping and breakfast.

I ended up helping with a different group (not Harrison's) for most of the evening, so even though we were at the same place, we still ended up separated and having different experiences.

Christy ended up with an evening at home, unexpectedly alone. She got a couple of her school assignments done and got hooked on a Netflix show (Friday Night Lights).

Saturday, we had plans to visit a few Goodwill stores around Indianapolis ("I don't always shop at Goodwill, but when I do, it's half-off Saturday").

Once we were all together, we decided to stop at a Steak 'n Shake for breakfast (a "Second Breakfast" for some of us Hobbits) before beginning our treasure hunting adventures at Goodwill.

Normally, we function very much as a unit (especially on the weekends), but I also see the value in having these individual experiences not only for the experiences themselves, but also for the opportunity to come back together as a family and to share these experiences with one another.

We ended up only visiting two Goodwill stores before we hit the wall of exhaustion, but treasures were found nonetheless.

At our relatively early bedtimes Saturday night, blessings were counted, as usual, but for me, the blessing of which I was most keenly aware was nothing I had found at a store, it was this family, both individually and collectively.

They are my treasure.