Stay at Home Day

We have always called Saturdays "Stay at Home" days. Not sure why. We don't truly stay at home much of the time. Lately we have stayed at home because someone is either injured and can't walk or because of the weather. Otherwise, I would much prefer to be at the zoo or on a hike. But I digress...

Today was a treat. It truly WAS a stay at home day for me.

This morning Mark took the youngest out for donuts. This was his week for "Dad" time, so that was their activity. He looked so cute, telling me "bye bye" as he headed out the door with his daddy. I just wish he had slept in just a tiny bit. That would have been a treat for all of us.

Child 2 was spending the night with someone so I just had two kids to feed breakfast. That felt very odd! Let me just say that when one child is gone, the dynamics of the house change drastically!

The rest of the day I hung out at home. I didn't get in my car one time to go anywhere. Mark did leave a few times, like to pick up child 2 and to go to a baseball game. And that was okay too. But I enjoyed the time at home.

I cannot say I was particularly productive. I wasn't. I surfed the Web. Disciplined and supervised children. Worked on laundry. Made dinner. Thinned out my daughter's shoe collection. Thinned out another daughter's closet clothing. Worked on putting some things away. But mostly I just relaxed.

Well, and maybe worried a bit. Let me preface this next part by saying I am very sad for the people on the coastline who are watching the oil spill and feeling the effects of it for some time to come. I do. I realize that our vacation is very trivial and minute compared to the pain and difficulties the coastline residents will be facing. Okay, that being said, I am trying to figure out what we will do about our vacation. We had a beach vacation scheduled for this summer. You know I love going to the beach. We have a place already rented. And that part of our calendar is blocked off. Only now we are wondering what to do. The oil spill is headed that way. I have been brewing on this all day. (Very typical for me...I get something stuck in my head and have to work through it) I have researched other possibilities. Thought of no vacation at all. (A huge part of the problem is that where we were headed was exactly what we could afford. And we truly love the Gulf waters.) Now here it is bedtime and my only thought at this point is to wait. We will wait for a little bit and see what happens. We will pray for direction in knowing what to do. Really, what more is there to do?

Let me just say that certain individuals ages 6 and under were a bit on the grouchy side today. And a couple times I thought I was going to run away. At one of those moments, I turned to this video which I had seen last week at Women of Joy. It so fits our life right now:




I wanted to show Mark the video and found myself crying as I watched it. It really is our life (plus a couple of kids). It isn't a bad life, it is just a difficult one at times.

That being said, tonight when I was working in the girls' room cleaning out clothes, I was listening to my i-Touch. The song "Remember When" by Alan Jackson came on. This song is "our song". Mark was about to get Joshua ready for bed, but I called him to the girls' room and we just slow danced for the song. I was standing there in my holey jeans with no make up on. He was in his Razorback casualwear, smelling like a baseball game. The kids were in the living room wrestling on the floor. And for just a little bit, it was just the two of us. I rested my head on his chest, listening to the thumps of his heart as he held me in his arms. Before it sounds too sweet and romantic, I will say that partway through the song, our youngest threw his little arms around our legs in an effort to not be left out. It isn't the Love Story we all dream about as a child. But it is a love story nonetheless, a true love story.

Reba