My husband’s dad was in town for a visit this past weekend. I call him Dadoo. The kids know him as “Ba.” Because when “Nana” chose her grandmotherly name, he thought Ba was a perfect fit. Get it? Ba-Nana? Banana. Yep, he’s just plain funny like that. And I just plain love it. He’s a perfect fit here at the silly, crazy, cacophony that is CampClem… or at least he’s a good sport if our mayhem does drive him a bit batty.

Well, he, the kids, and I were on a walk/stroll/gator/bike ride around the neighborhood when the gator battery went flat. It’s easy enough to push the gator with the gas pedal pressed, so we pressed on. But it’s not so easy on my back, bending over to push that thing. So when we passed by a construction dumpster, I plucked an obliging 2 x 4 off the top of the stack. It was a perfect handlebar as I pushed Li’l Bro in the gator; I just wedged one end in the back and pushed on the other end.

But that child kept barking at me to “go faster! go faster!” So I told him that it took some energy to push the vehicle and he could just trade places if he wanted to go faster… And he exclaimed “OKAY!” [He is always up for an adventure.] Um… okay? So out he climbed and [half way] in I squished.

I’m sure we were quite the sight, my four-year-old pushing his broken down gator and his lily-white-legged mama around the neighborhood.

But he LOVED it, and here’s the lesson: break downs happen. Sometimes you just call your hubs for an emergency evac… Sometimes you find a 2 x 4 and make it work… And sometimes you end up having a better time than you ever imagined you would when you first set out because you allow something silly and fun and not very practical to happen.

As a parent, lots of situations arise throughout the day. You weigh your options, then you end it, you limp along, or you look for the memorable magic in a moment.

I like the last option. I like to seize the magic.

And when I manage to manage the moment well, we’re all blessed.

How about you, what do you do when something in your day breaks down?

*

Perhaps you’d enjoy these other ideas on how to seize the magic in the everyday…