Give Me a Break-- Or Not!

I discovered I was in for it on my honeymoon. Had he been hiding it during our previous months of courtship? Should I have taken the endless pictures as a clue to what my future held? Couldn't I have even put two and two together to recognize the signs? APPARENTLY NOT! But no going back. The hours and hours of driving the road to Hana and stopping at each and every "waterfall" (yes, some were mere trickles coming off overpasses) to explore and being told that I was a "hater" because I was more interested in reading than in seeing the countless repetitive sights, SHOULD have clued me in to the inevitable. After analyzing the data, it was clear that I was married to...drumroll...an adventure seeker!!! WOE IS ME! Over the course of the years of being married to this man, I have only finally learned to prepare for our adventures.

In 2006, we drove to Idaho and Mark thought it'd be great to make a stop in God-forsaken Elko and to take a hike in Lamoille Canyon. I was about a month pregnant, though didn't know it at the time (which accounts for the extreme horseback-riding I did in Idaho). And I didn't know what I was in for when we went to Elko. But again, this was a foreshadow of things to come. Mark made it sound like we were just going to take a leisurely jaunt in the hills. But NO! There was no sauntering. There were no "hills." This place was located in the Ruby Mountains and we were going to hike for almost SIX HOURS! I was not prepared for that and neither was my attitude. When we finally reached the summit (after passing many makeshift graves of would-be extreme expeditioners*), I had to clean the dirt and sweat off, and catch my breath to enjoy. I had done my best to conquer my attitude before I conquered the summit...and with a modicum of success, I did actually enjoy the unexpectedly glorious sight that was laid open before me.

If our "vacations" have been any indication, all of our adventures are...well, adventurous. While I love our bi-annual camping trips to Union Valley Reservoir, I have tried, albeit in vain, to explain to Mark the difference between family trips and vacations. If Mama is still doing all the chores she does at home (i.e. cooking and cleaning), except for a change of scenery to the great outdoors, then it's not a vacation. It's fun...but it's also still WORK.

So fastforward past our trip to the Eastern Sierras, our hike up Nevada Falls in Yosemite, our dozen trips to Union Valley, our honeymoon on Maui, our trips to Dallas, St. Louis and Korea, our six trips to South Tahoe, and our now-infamous camping trip to Silver Lake in September, 2010 , all the way to these past few weeks. I have FINALLY learned that when Mark wants to do something, he wants to go whole-hog. There is no stone left un-turned. There is no internet information site left un-visited. So a casual mention from him of: I think we should take the kids to "such and such," means I had better start preparing for the following adventure and kick into gear mentally, knowing the kids will be exhausted from no naps, and I will surely need to tap into my compendium of Bible verses about patience, so that I will be able to maintain pleasantness through the whole ordeal. Because even though these undertakings are always fun, they're also, ALWAYS tiring. And I surely don't want to be remembered by my children as being impatient and unkind on these legions of excursions.

So, as usual, we have taken advantage of Mark's time off for Betty's birth. There has been no dearth of activity in the past three weeks. We have been to the beach, to the zoo, had several swim-days, jack-hammered and removed 700 square feet of concrete, painted the house, been to the movies, done some picnics and kite-flying at the park, taken a trip to IKEA (yes, I mention this because it's like taking a trip to Disneyland), and more. We have packed a lot of living into a relatively short time.

In all of that living, we have experienced the many tired moods of our children. One of the most unpleasant sounds in the universe is the whine of an exhausted toddler. We have heard a lot of that in the past three weeks, as we have pushed the kids to their limits. But I am thankful to report that overall, I have begun to learn that while schedules and routine are nice, the memory banks fill up when we do things outside of those schedules. So, it is imperative for me to remember that we will recover from being tired, but there is no replacing the time that Judah saw a monkey cross a rope high above the ground and noted, "I changed my mind. I don't want to be a shark for Halloween. I want to be a monkey"; or watching Haddie run headlong into the ocean (grasping Mark's hand of course), while the two boys looked on- not nearly as crazy as she; or watching Ezra excitedly fly a Batman kite, only to let it go and watch Mark sprint madly across the field in chase. We will forget the alternating whining and discipline, but there are the lovely moments when you freeze time and your head takes those mental pictures for you to savor in the chaos. And all of these things probably would never happen if Mama were in charge. Vegging is vacation to me. And there is nothing wrong with vegging, in fact, I look forward to forcing us to take a cruise one day, so that we won't feel like we're missing anything on the ground and we'll be confined to the limits of what the ship has to offer. But until then, I am thankful to be married to a man with such energy. And I am thankful that it's because of little differences in one another that God has taught me flexibility over the years.

I have four kids now. While I may still FEEL young and hip, I am not!:) But while I am able, I want to go with the flow, to enjoy the blessings that God has given to us, and to teach my kids that in all circumstances, during adventures and in routine, we need to be full of gratitude and remember to enjoy God and worship Him always.

"As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
When the wind passed over it, it is no more,
And its place acknowledges it no longer.
But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children's children,
To those who keep His covenant
And remember His precepts to do them"
Psalm 103:15-18.

*I made that part up