Catching Up On Rest

I just visited the Five Minute Friday blog and learned that the word for this week is REST..... Rather appropriate considering what I planned to post about this week. (Although I am PRETTY sure that it will be longer than a Five Minute blog entry.)

Last Sunday was not only Father's Day; it was also my sweet hubby and my 23rd anniversary. Knowing that it was a doubly special day I knew that I needed to plan something extra special. Glenn had been talking for at least a year or more about his desire to visit the Museum of Appalachia located in Clinton, Tennessee. He has always enjoyed seeing the way things used to be here in the Appalachian mountains and is even working to help set up a Pioneer Village right here where we live.

The tough part was going to be getting Glenn to actually take the day off and just rest. He is a VERY hard worker and often over-stretches himself. He loves to help community and church groups, as well as the local schools with any project that he feels in beneficial. All of this piles stress on top of the stress that he already feels and takes up much of what should be free time.

I decided the best way to get him to just give up a day was to conspire with our two children. Our son NEVER wants to go anywhere with us. He has reached that age of early adulthood where he has begun to find his own interests and therefore his own recreational things. On Friday night we told Glenn that we had decided to go the frugal route for Father's Day this year. We cooked him a meal, including cake and presented him with a single card and his "gift": an air popper for popcorn, some corn, and seasonings. (He loves popcorn, but usually burns it in the microwave.) I followed that up with a simple request. "Keenan wants us to go somewhere with him tomorrow. You know that he NEVER asks us to go anywhere with him, so I really think we should go." Needless, to say, Glenn agreed.

That night he tried several times to get one of us to let out the secret location, but all he got in answer to his question, "Where are we going?" was a single word, "Distance".

The next day we set out bright and early with Glenn posting this on Facebook: " My family is whisking me off to some unknown destination...Should I be happy or worried??? Hey, I still love them!!! "

We had prepared 4 cards, each with a clue inside. Glenn was given one every 30 minutes. When he got the first one he started posting the clues on Facebook as well and friends back home started trying to guess the secret destination.

Kari, my daughter, had prepared the clues and had really gotten creative:

You are in for a mountain of fun!

You won't be the only 10 I see on our anniversary!

This town is a great CANDIDATE for a road trip!

You won't be sawing any logs today, but you will be seeing them!

By the time we got just outside of Clinton, Glenn finally figured it out. He was having just as much fun with the clues as we thought he would have with the trip.

The day was a great one for us all and a much needed rest. Viewing log cabins is not really up Keenan's alley, but I truly think that he got into the whole experience too.

By the end of the day, we had all decided that we definitely need to do something like this again. Rest is one of those things that we can all use more of and it is even better when we get that rest together as a family!

Five Minute Friday- Want

Time again for another Five Minute Friday.  For more information about the Five Minute Friday be sure to click on the link to the right.

This week's word prompt is- WANT.

Right now in my life I want one thing- rest. I have just finished teaching my third week of Summer Boost Camp at the local elementary school. This involves a full day of activities 8:30 to 2:30 daily, with kids ranging from rising 1st grade to rising 5th grade. It is constant teaching, one group in- then out to allow another one to enter the room. Three more weeks of this remain ahead of me.

To top it off, this week has also been our church's vacation bible school. I am the resident craft teacher. Every night I have had groups of 12 to 14 little kids, many of whom could not follow my simplified instructions or who managed to drop their finished creation, sending beads or gravel tumbling out all over the floor- thus requiring us to take more time to recreate the original piece. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy working at VBS and I love doing God's work, but it can get very stressful and definitely very tiring!

I come home from school, rest for a few minutes, then jump back into the car and head to church for the nightly program. All of this constant activity has really worn me out! 

I WANT to sleep in late tomorrow. 

I WANT to enjoy a leisurely breakfast when I do decide to leave my bed- preferably some wonderful pancakes or waffles. 

I WANT a day to just stay in my jammies and do what I WANT to do.....

What I am going to do instead is get up bright and early tomorrow morning and go geocaching with my daughter. She saw online that it is geocaching day or something like that and that there is a special button you can earn for finding caches that day. The tired mommy in me wants to say, "Don't you know I am too tired to go traipsing around looking for tiny little boxes with strips of paper inside?" The sentimental mommy in me knows that this may be one of the things that we won't get to do together much longer. She is growing up and will soon be geocaching with friends, boyfriends, and- one day- her own little family. 

So, tomorrow morning when I WANT to stay tucked under my covers I will get up, shower, and put on some nice sturdy shoes- preparing myself for a day full of looking (and hopefully finding MOST of the caches we look for).

Oh well, there is always NEXT WEEKEND to look forward to, right?

Uh oh- I almost forgot..... next weekend is Father's Day!........ SIGH.

Five Minute Friday- haven

Time once again for the Five Minute Friday. This week's word is "haven".

My haven would have to be my "scrap room". About 20 years ago I discovered scrapbooking and fell in love! I had TONS of photos of my then infant son. I began accumulating stickers, paper, scissors, and every new scrap tool that I thought I might need.

At the time, the only place I had to work was on the kitchen table. Supplies would come out when I found myself with a few moments and then get stored away in boxes until some more time became available.

As my scrap "stash" grew, my husband, being the wonderful man that he is, allowed me to move into his office. We shared the little L shaped desk, with me working on my scrapbook albums when he was not working on schoolwork.

About 7 years ago we found ourselves with the money to go ahead and add on a new master suite. This allowed us to move my son into our old bedroom and my daughter into my son's room. There was little discussion about what would become of the now extra room- it was Momma's! Invariably, when my husband or one of my children was looking for me the answer would be, "She is in her room."

Over the years my hobbies have gone from scrapbooking to sewing to crocheting to Bible art journaling. One thing that hasn't changed is the variety of materials that I have accumulated: paper, glue, markers, colored pencils: you name it- I have it. I have weeded through supplies several times and given or sold many, keeping the things that I know I can use the most.

This stash has created a large storage issue. What once was a peaceful haven for me has lost a bit of its glimmer. I still creep away to "my room" to work, as my computer is located there, but I find myself doing more bill paying and Facebook checks than crafting. Supplies are stacked and crammed in corners and the closet. It is difficult to find what I need when I want it and I don't spend nearly as much time there as I would like.

I hope to remedy that in the near future. I want to dedicate some sweat and organizational hours to rearranging my room into the haven that it once was. God has blessed me with a loving husband who allows me space and time to do things that I love and has given me talents that I can use to interact with others around me. When my haven (and my scrap time) was at its maximum I had a group of friends who met on a monthly basis to scrapbook, laugh, and have a good time. I would love to be able to do that again. The friendship and fellowship that took place at those get-togethers were some of the best things about my month. I NEED to renew my haven and renew my personal time!

If you enjoy these Five Minute Friday posts and would like to join in or just see what it is all about, please click on the link to the right. I would love to have you join in on the fun!