5 Friday Favorites: There’s no place like family…

The chorus to one of my favorite John Denver songs goes something like this:

Some days are diamonds some days are stones
Sometimes the hard times won't leave me alone
Sometimes a cold wind blows a chill in my bones
Some days are diamonds some days are stones.

Well, there certainly are a lot of stones, but amidst all the stones the last while, here are some of my favorite diamonds:

1 - Going to St. Louis to visit my brother and sister-in-law and my darling nieces and soon to be born nephew.

2 - Visiting another brother and sister-in-law and my sweet nephew in Phoenix (and A-Rod and Jeter).
3 - Getting picked up at the airport by my dad who came prepared with ice cold DDP and Cheetos.
4 - Arriving at another brother and sister-in-law’s house for dinner to be greeted by two precious nephews running up to give me hugs.

5 - And, last but not least: having lunch with my last living grandparent and hearing her sing, I Know Bill (or something like that) and reminisce about the good old days. What a gem she is. (Get it, Dad - "gem" & "diamond" - pretty good for me, right? hahaha)

Some days, I do feel like the hard times won’t leave me alone, but then I realize two things: 1 – it actually could be a lot worse; and 2 – there’s not much that matters more than my loving family (and I haven’t even written about my Mom and the other three wonderful brothers and their families, and my uncles and my aunties and my cousins – I could go on and on…but I won't).