Did You Miss Me?
Here’s a fun fact for you: the last time I was out of the presence of a child for 24 hours straight was 10 years ago when my husband and I travelled without our kids to help a friend plan their father’s funeral. Before that, it was two years earlier for the same friend’s wedding. Before that, it was the week I took off before giving birth to my oldest. 19 years ago. And I have come to the conclusion that being in the presence of children continually for years on end constitutes a form a torture. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my kids. Most of the time I even enjoy them. But you can never fully relax around kids. You can’t start a project and feel comfortable knowing that you’ll have the time you need to complete it before a child needs your attention. You can’t even just allow yourself to become absorbed completely in something without running the risk that you’ll discover that your child decided to entertain themselves by emptying a king size down comforter all over your bedroom. I’ve been trying to find ways to get away from my kids for years, but lacking resources and/or generous friends who want to give me the keys to their vacation home and money for transportation to get there, it has not happened. So this summer, I decided to take an impromptu sabbatical to recover a bit. I told my kids that I was on “pretend vacation” and taught my kids to bother and manipulate each other instead of me. I spent time with them (I called it “visiting”) on my schedule rather than theirs. Mostly I just sat and thought and thought and thought and thought. In between thinking, I sought out a few other adults and just talked and talked and talked and talked. It was good for the soul. I learned a lot, in fact. And as you may have noticed, I didn’t write at all. Because writing is much harder than talking. But today the kids went back to school. Not only did the kids go back to school, but my youngest started preschool. Which means that for the first time in 19 years, I am going to be at home, without kids on a regular basis. So, no more writing like this:
(Yes, that is an actual picture of me writing with a child sitting on my shoulders.)
I have a lot of interesting things coming up. Like an appearance on Moody Radio this weekend (more on that later). And the whole gospel that’s hidden in two words which you’ve never heard about. A post on free will, which several of you have asked me about. Another on what the blazes is going on with the world – is it really as bad as it looks, or is their reason for hope? (The answer is yes.) And a whole bunch of other Upside Down World awesomeness. So, stay tuned! I’m baaack! 🙂