{life's lessons through ferris bueller}

The Golden Globes are tonight. I've seen just one of the films (which I find amusing because usually I haven't seen any of them and if I have, it's an animated film because of the kids) and it just happens to be nominated for Best Motion Picture. It's a bit eye opening because it tells me that Erik and I need to go out for date night more often! TrainWreck is hysterical, I loved it and I love Amy Schumer who is also nominated for Best Actress. As much as I loved the movie though, my heart belongs to 1987. I was nine years old. 

 In 1987, Matthew Broderick was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Performance in my all time favorite movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I'm pretty sure I saw it when I was nine years old too, which makes me laugh because there are certain parts that I wouldn't want Kieran to see now! And though there are countless movies that have come after Ferris Bueller with far greater depth, complexity and everything else, it's still my favorite movie and it always will be.

Maybe it's because I think of life in its quotes...

"Life moves pretty fast,

if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Life can be pretty tough, and around our house (especially lately), 

it's not always sunshine and rainbows.

I'm a glass half full kind of girl though, and I try my best to pass this along to my kids.

What better way to release tension than a snowball fight?

"The question isn't "what are we going to do", the question is "what aren't we going to do?"

Anna was pretty excited about hitting Kieran with some snowballs made with the snowball maker.

 "Les jeux sont faits. Translation: the game is up. Your ass is mine."

Liam thought it was pretty great, too!

And though I was able to capture some of these images...

which are pretty much pure joy,

I put down my camera to sled with them, laugh with them and connect with them.

It's like the scene in the art museum, where Ferris, Cameron and Sloane are walking hand in hand with school children-I get weepy every time. Childhood is so fleeting! Cameron then finds himself staring at (what is also my favorite painting) "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". The creator of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, John Hughes, was once interviewed saying, "I always thought this painting was sort of like making a movie, the pointillist style." "You don't have any idea what you've made until you step back from it."

It's so important, even amongst the chaos, the crazy, the stress of life as we know it, to take a step back. Just like a Sunday Afternoon, just like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I'm reminded...

to be present,

to take a look around,

to take it all in,

to experience the glass half full,

 instead of half empty.

I'm reminded to take a step back when I look at my husband and my children, to revel at what we've been through, what we're going through, and what is yet to come, good and bad.

To be thankful.

To know what we've made...

and I'm not going to miss it!