Spring Break 2015

You know all the energy and excitement that surrounds the first day of Spring Break?

Last night - the very last hours of Spring Break - were exactly the opposite.

It was low key around our home. The college kids had gone back to their colleges, and our high schooler had checked her books to see if she had any loose ends to tie up before today.

Today we are back to the routine and rhythm of "normal" life.  When I read a Lent devotional this morning, I came across these lines describing the Monday of Holy Week:

This particular Monday may have felt like the proverbial Monday morning in the modern Western world — a time to reengage the grind and get back to work. Jesus, indeed, walked into Jerusalem to take care of business.

To hear that twist on a 2000 year ago time made me pause, but I liked thinking through it. Today, 2000 years later, felt more Monday-ish than usual, though, because we were coming off Spring Break.

Spring break is such a welcome event. It doesn't even matter whether you travel anywhere or not. The focus has shifted from winter and doldrums, to spring and break.

We planned a little trip to warmer climes - that "whole nuther country," Texas. After packing our faithful 2004 suburban here in Bolivar, MO, with luggage and two beautiful daughters, we hit the road toward Fayetteville, AR. It was time to pick up another beautiful daughter, who was going with us, and to say adios to our David, who was going skiing. Of course, I made them pose for a picture.

Then we headed southwest toward Dallas.

As I was planning this trip, I looked at the little towns we'd be passing through in OK, and googled "interesting things to see in ____, in hopes of finding something that was Instagram worthy in at least one of the HWY 69 towns.

Durant, OK, boasted:
The "World's Largest Peanut" is located on the Southeast Corner of the Durant City Hall. The monument is a must see for visitors to the Durant area. 

Alrighty then! To make the event even more exciting, I bought peanuts and was going to pass them out in the car a few miles out of Durant to add tasty drama to such a must see.

Well, it turned out, nobody was in the mood for peanuts when I offered them and the statue was a little farther off 69 than I'd thought. Questions like, "What exactly are we going to see?" were coming from the back seat. Sitting at my kitchen table, this had seemed like such fun, clever planning on my part. Sitting in the front seat of the suburban describing what we were detouring for felt like the dumbest suggestion I had ever had.

I still felt pretty lame when we eventually found it, but we ended up laughing about it. I'm sure it will find its way into future teasing when I tell them I've found something worth detouring for.

Dallas was our first stop and we packed good stuff in those 3 nights and 2 days. First order of business was dropping our Mary Grace off at the home of a Kanakuk friend, Nicole. We'd shown Nicole all around Bolivar for a couple of days at Thanksgiving, and now she was returning the favor with Mary Grace.

We don't have Cupcake ATMs in Bolivar

We don't have Alamo Drafthouses in Bolivar, either. #dinnerandamovie

Nicole's family not only treated Mary Grace like royalty, but us, too! They took us up 48 floors and let us see Dallas in all its nighttime glory.

Very cool

Sunday morning, we visited The Village Church, where we ran into a friend from Bolivar! I love completely unplanned, unexpected happy reunions!

J.L. West and the girls!

The afternoon was spent touring the The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza. It's worth a visit.

That open window...

Early Monday morning, we hit the road again - this time for Austin.

First order of business there? A nap by the pool and a dip in the pool.

Then, we saw the capitol,

Another unexpected happy meeting with Kaden Burlison

hiked the Barton Creek Greenbelt,

checked out the bats on the Congress Avenue Bridge,

Daughters are more fun to take pictures of than bats

and played putt putt with our dear friends from Llano, who drove to Austin hang with us.

That's a seriously big Peter Pan

All that looks pretty fun, right? It was. But it was mainly fun because I was with some of my people. If I'd spent my Spring Break doing the exact same things, but all alone, this blog post would have a decidedly different vibe. It might be a little more Edgar Allen Poe.

Thanking God on this post Spring Break Monday for the gift of time away with people I love. We made some good memories and ate a lot of desserts.

I hope you're making good memories with those you love, too.

And...before we're done, here's another thing we (thankfully!) don't have in Bolivar, MO.

Blessings!

March 4th Mary Grace!

Yesterday was March 4th.

I like March 4th.

I like it because when you say the date you've got a little word play going on. Believe it or not, I'm not the first person to pick up on this. One of the national day calendars I checked said yesterday was

March Forth (Do Something Day)!

Who doesn't want to march forth and do something good and meaningful and helpful? Just saying the date spurs you to get up and get going! Cue some grand march music!

Even more, I like  March 4th because it reminds me of the caboose of our little family train - Mary Grace.

I think of her because "March forth" is an imperative sentence, and when I think of imperative sentences, I think of Mary Grace.

Here's why.

Back when I was homeschooling, grammar time often consisted of quizzing her about the four kinds of sentences. One day, when I asked her to name them for me, she replied:

"The four kinds of sentences are declarative, interrogative, exclamatory...and....(pause....thinking)...   demandatory?

Demandatory. She may not have named it correctly, but she understood it perfectly.

It's actually a better name than "imperative." We laugh about her cleverness to this day.

There was also snow on the ground yesterday, which spurred my memory about a little barefoot marching forth that a preschool Mary Grace did on a similar snowy day many years ago.

On that particular day, I was in the thick of homeschooling the 5 oldest. Mary Grace was still too young to "do school."  She was, however, old enough to play by herself for periods of time while I was teaching one of the others. One day, while I was on the main floor working with one of the kids, she went down to play in the basement. 

She played there for a while, but I guess the beautiful white snow on the other side of the glass door was beckoning. She ventured out the basement door, coatless, barefooted, and took a little trek through the snow. For whatever reason, she didn't turn around and go back in the door she'd just exited, but walked around to the front of the house to the locked front door and started crying for someone to let her in. I remember stopping what I was teaching and saying, "Do y'all hear something?"

I felt like a terrible, negligent mother when I saw my preschooler standing outside our locked front door barefooted and in nothing but her play clothes. That passed pretty quickly, though, because after we scooped her up, warmed her up, and dried her tears, I headed out to take a picture of her adorable tracks in the snow.

I was lucky to capture these sweet footprints in the snow - and this before the handy cell phone camera. I actually had to go to the trouble to get the "real" camera. I'm glad I did.

I'm glad these fun stories marched forth from the back of my mind yesterday and made me smile.

You've got some of your own stories that are just waiting to be summoned. I hope you can take some time in the next few days to remember them and smile.

Blessings!

The Preschooler - complete with scratched up nose;)

The Homeschooler

The High schooler

Love.