These are Days

K has been asking all Summer if we could have a lemonade stand. I am never one to turn down an old fashioned childhood experience, but it has seemed a bit impractical. We live on a very quiet dead end street. There is not much traffic AT ALL. Additionally, it is 100 humid degrees outside. Lastly, I feared that I would be the one doing all the work while the children quickly lost interest and moved on to something else.

This afternoon, however, due largely to K's persistence, we gave in. Little did I know what grand plans my children had! They wanted to make lots of posters and place them all over town. I managed to get them to settle for one and a last minute facebook and text message campaign.

R decided that they must be in costume and perform a routine "to at-twackt a LOT of cust-da-mas."
I was also thrilled at their desire to do most of the work without help. At one point, R even took it upon himself to go knock on our neighbors' door and ask them to stop by.
We had about 10 different friends and neighbors stop by over the course of an hour or so (including the new neighborhood stray terrier that has adopted my children.)

The children had a blast and made $8 they plan to apply to a mission trip this Spring.

As I looked back at these pictures tonight--complete with the worn out wagon, upside down poster, messy lettering, random costumes and even the stray dog I couldn't help but rejoice at the sweetness of childhood.

And as sappy and trite as it sounds, I couldn't get these lyrics out of my head...

"These are days you’ll remember
Never before and never since, I promise, will the whole world be warm as this.
And as you feel it, you’ll know it’s true, that you – you are blessed...

These are days you’ll remember.
When May is rushing over you with desire to be part of the miracles you see in every hour, you’ll know it’s true that you are blessed...

These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break.
These days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face.
And when you do, you’ll know how it was meant to be ."
-10,000 Maniacs, These Are Days

As I was copying the lyrics for this post I started thinking about what it means to be blessed. This verse came to mind:

"You are blessed when you are content with just who you are--no more, no less. That's the moment when you find yourself proud owner of everything that cannot be bought." Matthew 5:5 (The Message)

And as for 'how it was meant to be'--days of innocence and love seem pretty close.

These are days, indeed.