Lucky

My youngest was singing one of her made-up-on-the-fly kind of songs about how she was so lucky. At one point in her song, she sang that she was the only lucky person in the world ... at which point, I interrupted her to say, "But I'm lucky too."

She protested. I started walking toward her and replied, "Yes, I am. Do you know why I'm lucky?" I picked her up, hugged her, and said, "Because I have you."

In a subdued voice, she replied, "Yeah, I guess you are pretty lucky."

February is here!

Welcome to February! I was out of town when February started, so it sort of snuck up on me. But I'm so excited! I love this month. When I rank order my months from favorite to least favorite, February always makes the top twelve. But in recent years, it has consistently been in the top two or three. Thanks to the genius of my wife, our family celebrates a 'Freedom from TV' month. Choosing the shortest month was just part of the brilliance of her public relations campaign. You see, this holiday wasn't exactly lobbied for by the peasantry in the Walkenhorst kingdom, but then we aren't exactly a democracy.

As the kids have grown and become more enamored with electronics of all kinds, we've expanded the 'no TV' concept to no electronic entertainment. Picture that - no movies, no video games, no electronically induced DNA modifications causing my children to become demons temporarily. I love it! February is fantastic.

So far, we're off to a good start. We've been playing games together, talking together, laughing together, and I really haven't heard any complaining yet! But the month is still young. Stay tuned. And if you decide to celebrate this holiday with us, please let me know how it goes. I always find February to be a nice wholesome time where our family reconnects and we feel a little closer at the end of the month than we did at the beginning. I'm looking forward to that.