It is extremely hard for a girl like me that April Fool’s comes only once a year.

When I picked up SassyPants in July, I was driving a red pick up truck.

She popped out with a quizzical look on her face and I said

I have taken up with a lumberjack!

This recent pick up from camp was in a Mercedes convertible.

I got that book deal, I said with excitement.

I swear it is worth whatever it takes for the look on their faces. Even if I lose considerable cred when the truth comes out.

Even if it is fiction, I do work to impress/shock/delight them with (real) change that can occur between their dirty laundry and food stops  changeover at the cottage.

One of the hardest things about more time between time with your kids than with your kids, is you can’t stand to have a sunset, a paddle, a great meal, a funny moment, an adventure, an unexpected visit, a fabulous movie, a wonderful trip, without them.

It takes some considerable getting used to.

When we are together all I want to do is share everything I have learned and experienced while they were gone, as a way of pulling them into my life. And hear their stories of LOOM (life outside of mom) in all their pain and glory too.

I came across this last week and it so touched me I had to share it with them right away. And with you now too.

And with it the discussion of what we make of what happens to us. (BTW, next to the job I presently have, hosting this favourite radio show would be ABSOLUTELY my fantasy)

Dad, today is your birthday. I miss you every day. I think of how we are the same and I am doing my best to tell the stories of you to anyone who will listen to keep you alive. LOOD is life outside of Dad, but I pull you in every chance I get.