Don’t you just love surprises?
I am not talking about surprises that catch you off guard.
Rather surprises that make your day.
Surprises that make you feel special.

I never liked Cracker Jack, the candy coated popcorn.
However, I loved the prizes that were found at the bottom of the box.
Now as a grown woman I can see those prizes for what they were.
However, as a little girl, those prizes were so exciting.

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I have a Robert Redford armoire.
At least that is what I teasingly say.
There is some truth to that statement.
Technically, it is not an exaggeration.

Years ago, I received a catalog in the mail.
When I opened the catalog, I saw a picture of Robert Redford.
I knew the actor from some of the classic movies in which he starred.
I found myself intrigued by what the catalog offered.

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When my children were little we read books quite a lot.
There were always trips to the library.
Each of them would leave with their own satchel of books.
We had a basket in our family room for books; not one library book ever got lost.

The kitchen island was always the place to do creative things.
Playdoh, coloring, drawing, stenciling, and making magnets were some of the things done there.
There was always something creative or imaginative going on in the kitchen it seemed.
Of course, there was wonderful outdoor play as well.

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For my entire married life, I have food shopped on Thursday.
I cannot tell you why that day was preferred above all the rest.
I just wanted to shop before the weekend.
I also noticed that the shelves were being stocked to prepare for the weekend shoppers.

It just became the way of things.
There were always those times when a Thursday excursion to the grocery store was not possible.
If one of my children was sick or had to go to the doctor or dentist, I shopped another day.
Other than that, I headed to the grocery store every Thursday.

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I pass by something in my living room every day.
I am so used to it being there I forget about it.
It happened to catch my eye.
I began to ponder its significance.

It would be considered just a simple, country decoration.
It is something that is a conversation piece for those that may know nothing about it.
It has lost the meaning and purpose it once had.
It was used especially by the father to set necessary boundaries for his daughter.

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For years, my alarm went off at 4:45 am every day.
I am a morning person but by many standards that was far too early in the morning.
Though not for me.
I needed the time to myself before I started the day.

I knew that by the time I got downstairs at 5:45 I would soon have children waking up.
I wanted to get my shower, get dressed, and be ready for the day.
I really don’t think my children ever saw me in pajamas during the week.
They would see me in a robe on a Sunday morning before church.

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My husband planned our honeymoon.
I had no idea where we were going up until the last minute.
I only knew that it would be much warmer than our October weather.
I remember finding a few summery dresses at a vintage shop and a flowered skirt.

My husband booked our trip as part of a tour.
All of our hotels were booked in the three places we would go that week.
My husband planned a honeymoon trip to Mexico.
We were scheduled to land in Mexico City, travel to Taxco, and then on to Acapulco.

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It was a full house this weekend.
It was an impromptu family time.
It was a time for my sons and daughters, son-in-love and daughter-in-love to be here.
It was wonderful.

Different things brought them home but the focal point was my youngest daughter’s birthday.
She turned 21 years old.
That age does not seem possible but the calendar does not lie.
Her birthday was a reason to be home and celebrate.

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I went to an all girls college.
Needless to say, there was no football team.
My husband went to Georgia Tech for his undergraduate degree.
There was most definitely a football team.

There was a Georgia Tech song, which my husband sang to our children.
It was not a lullaby by any means.
It was the victory song whenever Georgia Tech scored a touchdown in a televised game.
He would sing the song after every touchdown as he lifted the children in the air.

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Growing up, I used to watch the reruns of Leave it to Beaver on TV.
The show actually ran from 1957 to 1963.
By the time the show went off the air, I was only four years old.
At that time, I was too little to appreciate many of the plot lines.

The show went into syndication in the late 1960s.
It was then that I was able to watch most of the episodes.
The show centered around Ward and June Cleaver and their sons, Wally and Theodore.
Theodore was known as Beaver.

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