Monday, August 8, 2011

Rest & Renewal

It hasn't even been 24 hours yet. We dropped the two youngest off at church camp at 4:45 yesterday (it took us until 5:15 to drag me away). The older kids don't live with us anymore. So, I'm home alone with just the two dogs while the man is at work. For 3 days.

It's now 1:45 in the afternoon and I haven't done much of anything. I've read some homeschooling blogs. I took a bath (with epsom salts to ease my aching body), then a shower so I could wash my hair. I did my hair and put on "clean the house" clothes. I took a birthday card out to the mailbox. I made myself a chocolate banana smoothie (just learned last week that if you put a frozen banana in the blender with some other stuff, it comes out like ice cream ... since I'm lactose intolerant, this is a HUGE finding for me!). I watched a DVD tv show that I had picked up at the library (we don't get regular tv anymore). Guess what I'm going to do next? You guessed it ... not much. I think I'll eat some potato chips, drink some pop (gasp!), and read my book.

Once a year, my children go off to church camp for 3 days and I allow myself a few hours to just shirk all responsibilities, eat some junk, and totally relax. I take the time to relish the quiet.

My husband and I don't "get away" generally, but even if we did ... we would be going somewhere else, and there would still be someone WITH me, and we would probably be DOING something. It's not the same. This is my time to be in my own house, with no children, and no husband ... just ME. (And the dogs, but they can't talk or turn on tv's, washers, driers, dishwashers, or any other noise-producing appliances.)

This won't last long, and I have a long list of tasks I hope to accomplish before they return, but for now, I want to thank God for this moment, this time ... for rest and renewal.

P.S. This is my last year of this, since the older one is aging out of this camp and will go to a different one, at a different time, next summer. I better start working now on how I will get a break next year.

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