Yesterday, I pulled myself out of my flannel pajama pants just to get some fresh air. We are sick for the second time in three weeks over here. And the snow is lingering, so I’m extra antsy for spring to arrive. We piled our family into the car to go for a drive, destination unknown. We wandered this way and that, finally ending up at the local fun center. Jordan pushed a bowling ball down a giant dinosaur ball-slide aimed straight for the pins. Jono slept in his car seat stroller. And we all got sensory overload wandering around the arcade afterward. It’s all a card system now, where you load a card up with money and swipe it at the machines. The machines don’t even spit out tickets anymore! It’s all stored on the card, and you cash out at the prize counter.
“Gone are the days of wandering around, sticking your finger in the coin return slots looking for left-behind tokens after your allowance ran out,” I told Josh. Or the times of dumping your piles of tickets at the table with your parents to go off and play some more. Then folding them up, zig-zag counting to see how many you’ve won. I suppose I’m nostalgic for the way things were. After all, hitting the jackpot playing skee ball is only fun when the tickets come shooting out for everyone to see.
Regardless, that late afternoon outing was just what we needed to breathe life into our cooped-up, snuffly house. And we drove home with our spirits lifted – Jordan in the backseat clutching his new Barrel of Monkeys keychain in one hand and tiny plastic fishy in the other, and me in the front grinning widely at the almost-7pm daylight.
In other news, Mercy Like Morning is now available in audio! Woop!! You can find it on Amazon and AudioBooksNow!
Here’s a three-minute teaser from the new audiobook. Happy listening!