Fortunate

I feel very fortunate.  I feel very blessed.

I suffer from trip anxiety prior to any trip we take.  If it weren't for my very sweet husband, we may not go anywhere.  Ever.

The stress of packing up a family of 5 doesn't bother me (I've made a great computer generated list to make that part easy).  But the planning, getting the animals taken care of,  and remembering to unplug every item in the house to prevent a fire when we are gone starts to wear on me.

What if Sam doesn't nap?

What if he won't nap once we go back home?

What if the kids are crabby the whole time?

What if I forget to remove an item from the refrigerator that rots by the time we get back?

What about all the stuff we need to get done at home?  

What if we spend more than our budgeted amount of money?

Blah, blah, blah....

If this anxiety is timed with a certain week during the month then there will be a major meltdown associated with the pre-trip planning.  It can get ugly.

So here we are, sitting in our hotel room on the 11th floor in a suburb of Chicago.  While Jason is off working as a physicist (I can't even spell that word), Sam is on hour 3 of a nap in the bedroom.  I just woke from a nice slumber in the middle of the day - something I don't ever do back home.  Ella and Owen are starring like zombies at the television.  The only thing they have said in the past 2 hours is, "Mom!  Look what happened to the---" when the t.v. lost a signal for about 3 seconds.  Tragedy.  (I figure since they don't watch t.v. back home that it will all balance out.  Right?)  I just ate a piece of Chicago style pizza left-over from dinner last night.  I ate half of it cold and the rest hot just to see how I liked it better.  It was so good that I would eat it frozen.  Well, you know what I mean.

I can't help think of how fortunate we are to be enjoying the luxury of food and shelter.  It makes my anxiety about taking a trip seem really ridiculous.   I feel so blessed to watch my kiddos sail through long car rides, be in awe of big cities and to see their excitement when we first walked in to our hotel room.  Who am I kidding?  I was the one jumping on the king size bed and doing a happy dance when I saw the little kitchen.   That is the same dance I did when I saw a Target across the parking lot and a Costco 2.7 miles away.

These are all luxuries.  They reach beyond our basic needs by a long shot.  I might still have anxiety about trips, but I hope I can always remember how fortunate we are to take them.

Now off to snuggle with Owen and read some books.  It seems he is actually tired of watching t.v......

Surprises

Winters grasp has given way to spring. 

We are breathing in the pollen and the sent of blooms from flowers. 

This is our first April on this land, and it has been full of surprises.  I love surprises.

 

Yellow tulips now brighten our kitchen.  

A bouquet of yellow daffodils (and weeds) that Ella made.

A big toad.  

Children trying to catch the big toad.  

Flowering trees

Flowering weeds

Asparagus ready to be cut and eaten!

And for some reason, this weather makes me want to crank a little Guster on the radio with the windows open. 

The Good Stuff

It may not look like much, but it is. 



Creamy and delicious goat milk has now taken the place of 3 different kinds of milk that cluttered our refrigerator and my grocery shopping cart. 

According to Jason, if you add some high-fructose-corn-syrup-laden chocolate syrup, you get the best glass of chocolate milk in the world.  To each his own, I suppose.......

Dirt

Meet our neighbor, John.  You might catch of glimpse of him inside the Bobcat.

He moves dirt for a living.  He raises cattle and goats and wheat and I don't know what else.  He has that rugged, sun tanned skin and white teeth to contrast shining out from under his dirty hat.   He has taught his 17 year old son how to drive his machines, and lets him get them stuck in the mud to learn his lesson on how not to do that again.  He rides a dirt bike by our house (John, not his son).  He is a very nice man. 


John moved some dirt at our house. It provided 2 hours of entertainment for my machine-loving children.  Then he let them sit in the Bobcat AND the dump truck.  It was the best day ever.  I think it was even a great day for John.  He grinned ear to ear just watching the excitement that he brought to our quiet Saturday morning.

I love that our nice neighbors own heavy machinery.