Trip Recap and Happy New March!

Well, it's been a week already since I've been back from our short little getaway.  Life is full.  I feel like I'm busier now with the big kids than I ever was with the little babies and toddlers. 

I found out I am a great long distance driver and that time doesn't seem to mean anything when you are driving endless hours.  It all just kind of rolls into one big hour.  Though we were on the road for 12 at a time I don't even remember it.  My daughter did spell me off a little both coming and going, but I honestly think I would have been ok even if she hadn't been with us.  Makes me realize I might just be able to do a 24 hour drive to the south sometime! 

Seeing my sister and her husband in their own space with their new group of little foster kids was awesome.  My kids took to them immediately and by the end of the time we had all fallen in love with them and them with us.  They are "chocolate-coloured", as my 10 year old daughter put it, African American, and cute as anything.  One of them asked my daughter, "So....you're whole family is peach-coloured?"  So cute!  They do give my sister a run for her money, as the saying goes, but I watched in amazement as her husband runs around giving them a run for their money!  He is 6'3" and they all look like dwarves in his arms.  They love him to death. 

I even got to be involved with my daughters and my niece at a college and career/youth group event for young women.  My sister and I were the "senior women" and we went out one night to someone's house to talk about the definition of being a woman, the Biblical definition vs. the world's definition.  Each one of us got to share our perspective.  I would have stayed there all night except that we had left about 100 kids under 12 with my brother-in-law, so we thought we should save him.  When we got home, it was totally quiet...he was cool!  My girls stayed much later and came home sad.  Why sad?!  Because they had made friends that lived 12 hours away!  They don't have that kind of community around here, so maybe we'll have to drive 12 hours next week, too!  But it was a great experience and all the cousins left more best-friend-cousiny than ever.

This week will mark the beginning of Lent.  Again, we are not orthodox or Catholic or "religious" in the sense of following a church calendar just for the sake of it out of legalism.  No, we like to take the opportunity most years to take on the discipline of prayer and sometimes fasting of some kind for a particular issue or concern or maybe even a new project in our lives.  This year will be no different.  Each child is considering taking something out of their lives that is a potential hindrance to them.  Snapchat is a habit for a couple of my kids.  I cannot say enough how much I hate snapchat.  I hate it soooooooo much.  I wish I could erase it from the world.  I wish I could get into the mind of a teen and rewire them to see the idiocy in it.  However, I haven't had to say anything.  That is the one thing two of my kids are giving up, knowing how it is such a distraction in their lives.  So I'm grateful.  I didn't even have to suggest it.  They knew what to throw away. 

Meanwhile, my husband already removed the TV.  It's gone for now.  Don't know when it will come back.  I'm kind of happy about that, too, though I do love to use it for school sometimes.  But that is an easy thing to sacrifice for the betterment of the family.  We're buckling down on a whole bunch of other disciplines, too, so I'm excited about that.  Health is always a goal.  Exercise is always a goal.  We're in the middle of another major pushup challenge.  But this time, it's between me and RM.  We do multiple sets a day and are seeing improvement already in how many we can do in the few weeks we've been doing it.  The goal?  100 day.  RM has basically reached that and is feeling the pain!  I'm about half that, but can't believe I'm even getting than many done.  Super proud!  The fun part is when we get down on the floor to do them, all the little guys join us.  If someone manages to get that on video some day I'm sure it will go viral....it's a pretty funny scene.

We're also praying about a new family project - we're thinking about taking on the farmer's market world.  We've got some ideas that might make some extra cash for us and our kids, but we know that nothing can happen without God's blessing and His touch of grace on anything we do.  So we'll be praying about that as well and starting the set-up, Lord willing.

So, lots of things to do, lots to pray about, lot of goals....asking the Lord to continue to show Himself to us all as a family and as individuals.  Spring is such a great spiritual re-start.  January is old news already, so why not have a restart 3 months into the new year?  For us, it's necessary, critical and vital!  We'll call it Happy New March!