I donât know about you, but my family looooves the holidays!
Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, whatever - We donât mess around!!
My hubby is literally like Clark Griswold up on the roof every year, hanging all the lights, putting all the big inflatable things on the front lawn. We started doing it for the kids when they were little and itâs just been a family tradition ever since.
Whatâs really fun is that the neighbors get a kick out of our decorations, too!!! (Which youâll see in just a sec --) We are totally that house with kids out front every Christmas taking selfies with our giant 20-ft Olaf!! Itâs so fun. So, Halloween is around the corner which means we get to put our big guy Stanley out in front!! Stanley is our big inflatable dragon with big, flapping wings whose belly lights up at night. Heâs pretty awesome. (See below!)
Meet Stanley!!
How he got his name is pretty cool, too -- a neighbor drove by the other day with his grandkids asking us where Stanley was! We were like, âwhoâs Stanley??â Turns out they had NAMED our big inflatable dragon Stanley and they took the long way home to come see him!! (Long story short, heâs out on the lawn now and my daughterâs making him a big âHi, Iâm Stanley!â sign for him on her CricutâŚ)
So, Stanleyâs been out on the lawn for a few days, and the other day my husband noticed these blue little things laying around him.
He figured they were maybe some wrappers or something that got swept up on the lawn next to him, so he went to go pick them up.
He got closer and realized, these arenât wrappersâŚ.Theyâre NERF DARTS!!! You know, the plastic Nerf guns with those little foam darts and rubber ends?
At first we were like, âhow did these get here?!â And as Iâm holding the Nerf dart in my hand I look up at Stanley I realizeâŚ. âOh my GOSH. Theyâre SLAYING the dragon!!! The kids in my neighborhood are trying to SLAY the dragon with Nerf darts!!!â My hubby and I looked at each other and just started laughing. It was so cool to be in the mind of a child at that moment. I mean can you imagine?! Haha!! Kids are so amazing, right? They have such incredible imaginations⌠But it made me wonder⌠What happens to your imagination as we get older? What happened to YOUR imagination as you got older? When was the last time you thought about that? I mean, did your imagination actually fade away? Or does it just get stuffed away with all the to-doâs of adulthood, hidden behind the responsibilities of being a good mother? A good wife? A good friend? This story made me realize something somber: As adults, we just donât give ourselves that time to imagine anymore. It seems like imagination is âjust kid stuffâ, you know? "Whatâs the point?" BUT ITâS NOT "kid stuff" to dream. The âpointâ IS to keep dreaming. Maybe our lives look a little different than they did when we were kids, but when YOU give yourself space and time to dream, you open your mind in new and creative ways, to new possibilitiesâŚ. And if that's not enough reason, when YOU give yourself space to dream, you're actually showing your kids how to CONTINUE dreaming as they get older so they donât lose that magical spark. Things like what I shared here, or those fun, creative things your kids or grandkids do are actually helping you by reminding you what itâs like to use your imagination. So, Iâd love to know: What's one thing you've been imagining, something you've wanted but have been telling yourself, âI'm too old or like this is kid stuffâ or, you know, âthereâs no way this is possible for meâ? Reply to this blog post and let me know!! What I will say is that, in my work, I see women every day just like you, bravely slaying their dragons - big and small. I also know that their dreams, just like yours, are trying to make their way to you all the time... You just gotta use a little imagination to put you in a place to receive it. P.S. If you're looking to slay some dragons click here to get all the details Hereâs to slaying ALL your dragons,
Much love,
Laurie
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