I was sitting here at my computer looking out for deals, like I always do 🙂 and I saw the light in the room begin to fade and I heard the thunder.  I LOVE a rain storm.  Does that sound weird?

Rainstorms remind me of “home”, where I grew up.  I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida about a block from the St. Johns River, in Fort Caroline, to be exact.  The front of our house had a nice big porch, Mama had planted holly bushes that she kept just high enough that she could sit and read the paper and have a cup of coffee but the people passing by or looking out their windows couldn’t really see her.  In front of those were purple Azaleas.

I loved sitting on that porch, especially during a rainstorm. I LOVE to watch it rain, I LOVE the thunder and to watch the lightning.  So, when I see a storm or hear one coming, it reminds me of that porch on my house at home and the time I spent watching the weather.  I don’t have much time to do that now, but, when we were kids it was simpler – less to completely occupy every moment of our lives! 

It seems that if we aren’t watching TV or on the computer or our cell phones or IPods, we are quite lost.  We have to be entertained by an electronic world every second! 

We try to limit our kids TV and video game playing time.  We tell them to read a book, they look at us like, honestly “Why would I need to read a book?!”  :-D   We all need to take time to be quiet and listen for the birds singing or the wind blowing through the trees.  Will our kids hear those things, I mean really hear them? 

I remember playing ball in the street – we played kickball.  I remember one night when we lived in Orlando, our whole neighborhood got together and played Hide & Seek around the whole block!  That was a massive game of Hide & Seek!  I remember catching frogs and lizards, climbing trees (yes I was a bit of a Tomboy, with 2 older brothers I didn’t have a chance!), looking for lightning bugs, watching clouds to see what shapes they made.   

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE the computer, Reality Shows, and my Cell Phone just as much or maybe more than the next person, but, I do enjoy looking back at simpler times, too!

What do you remember as a kid?  What makes you remember back then?  What do you hope your kids remember about being a kid?