Common Ground

Common ground...that special something that creates a bond between parents and child or husband and wife.  We have alot of that in my family, especially with my husband and I and the boys.  We like sports, nature, family movie nights, country music and board games.  We like to travel, but we love home just as much.  We like rainy days in pj's and football Sundays in the fall.  Common ground.  Tonight we got in the car, my husband, Dakota and I, and drove to the state park in Elkridge.  We didn't have long, only about an hour before dark.  All we were looking to do was spot some deer and maybe walk by the water.  Nothing "special", I suppose, but something that we enjoy doing and that can be easily shared without much planning, time or money.  We were rewarded tonight with about 12 deer sightings and we even got to see a beaver.  He was swimming upstream and making no ground, but it gave us time to appreciate him, since beavers aren't a very common sighting for us.  We walked along a path, raced sticks in the river and made a big rock go kerplunk.  We looked for owls, but still, they are elusive to me. We threw in a little homeschool science lesson and looked for animal habitats as we walked.  Most of all, we relaxed and had a nice night together.  We didn't do anything "special".   Some families may have found it downright boring.  But for us, it is enjoyable, common ground and that's what holds us together.