Travels

"Four kids.  Four kids!  If you want to know what it's like to have a fourth, just imagine you're drowning... and then someone hands you a baby."  -Jim Gaffigan


Jason went on a business trip last week.


All week.

We carried on.  We continued school, including Ada's writing practice.

We took an all-day field trip one day.


Caleb continued being adorable.

We had friends over for dinner some nights.  I tried to fill all the evenings so as to miss him a little less acutely.


On the last night, we had a pizza party and I rented Hello, Dolly! with Barbra Streisand.  They loved The Sound of Music so much we finally had to get rid of it, so I figured Hello Dolly would be a hit.

Jeddy and Ada thought the "situation comedy" was hysterical.  Lizzy thinks everything on TV is scary; when a man got a cream pie in the face, she thought he was a "white monster."  Caleb enjoyed pointing out the many "choo-choos."

I told them that their aunt and uncle had acted in Hello Dolly some years ago, playing the parts of the ever-weeping Ermengarde and a dancing waiter, respectively.  Seeing the professional dancers in the restaurant scenes doing stunts like one-handed cartwheels without spilling their silver tray, they were awed and asked, "How did Uncle Kevin do that?"


I myself was entranced by the high school production as an eleven-year-old, so it warmed my heart to see them enjoy the show too.


We even tried to keep up with our chores while Daddy was gone.  Here, Lizzy is charging her vacuum cleaner.

Thank God Jason's back.  It's so nice to have good company when you're drowning.

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Unbelievable to say, I'm headed to the beach next week.

Alone.

Eek!

Well, 'alone' meaning my parents invited me to share their 2-bedroom beachfront condo with them.  

And Caleb.  He's coming too.  

But for me, that's pretty much alone.

They invited me for the first week of our homeschool spring break, which I had intended to use for potty training.  However, the beach offer took precedence, so potty week has become party week!

(I guess you're officially old when spring break with your parents is the ultimate party scenario.)

Jason, being the man he is, encouraged me to accept the offer while he stays home with (most of) the kids.  

I'm incredibly blessed to have kids.  I'm blessed to be able to stay home with them.  I'm blessed to be able to homeschool them.  I'm blessed to have my life filled with time with my kids.

Sometimes I'm.... overwhelmed with the blessing.

At these times, Jason often reminds me that I don't have to stay home with the kids.  I can choose to do something else.  

My response is always that this is what I want to do.  But it's like swimming:  I don't want to get out of the pool, but I do need to come up for air once in a while.  Clinging to the edge for a breather doesn't mean I don't want to swim.

I've long struggled with the idea that if I really believed children are a blessing (which I do, because the Bible tells me so), then I would want unlimited doses of them.  Why would you walk away from a blessing?  

More recently I've realized that chocolate cake is a blessing too, but sometimes you need to walk away, because an unlimited amount of chocolate cake is not a blessing at all.  Cake, swimming, jogging, sunshine, children:  these are all good, precious gifts from our Father.  But they are all limited in their ability to bless us.  Too much of any one of them is not good.  Neither can any of them satisfy our deepest thirst.


This means that


a) I need not feel guilty about leaving my kids for a week at the beach (need not; I didn't say will not).  This doesn't mean I don't like them or don't believe they're a blessing.


and b) I'm reminded that only the Giver is truly good:  in unlimited doses!  There's nothing else that you can't have too much of.  God even uses my weariness with my dear children to remind me that He alone satisfies continually.  May I not forget who is the One who never stops being good for me.


"I have no good besides You...
I have set the LORD continually before me...
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."  Psalm 16:2, 8, 11