Vacation Endings

Well, the time has come for vacation to end.

Sigh.

It has been wonderful.  We have had such fun-filled days, loving our kids, watching them enjoy the world around them, and have succeeded in creating sacred family memories.  Zach and I have laughed so much together at all of our children's little idiosyncracies, like Sammy's constant Monsters Inc. discussions (I think they have watched that movie about ten times since we left home!), Micah's out-of-this-world intelligent questions and topics of conversation, Ella's dancing and clapping with delight at life, yelling and talking and giving us a play by play of everything around her, and Sophia's constant smiles and amazing ability to take anything within inches of her hand, grab it, and shove it in her mouth as quickly and forcefully as possible (the poor, teething baby).

We splashed in the pool, sat in awe at the Dixie Stampede, played at the park, ate picnic lunches, went mini-golfing, went out for breakfast, played games, made puzzles, baked cookies, took naps, and made meals together.  The kids built Legos and read books and watched movies, and Zach and I enjoyed our time after the kids were sleeping playing games, eating ice cream, and watching movies, ourselves.  We laughed a lot, relaxed, and enjoyed doing family.

And now, I admittedly am nervous returning tomorrow to "real life."  I was starting to feel some tension creep up at the thought of going home to chores and schedules and appointments and busyness and doing the stay-at-home mama thing while Zach goes back to work.  But I know this is life, and I am desiring to take with me the calm, un-rushed way about us we had this week.  (If you know me, you know that "calm" is not necessarily my strongest personality trait.)  I want to create time to come and go so I am not always flying out the door, yelling orders at the kids, and losing patience when they don't obey quickly.  I want to work hard to create our family's schedule with more down time so we can enjoy each other more and not always have a full calendar.  I want to love my kids as best as I can and make sure they know every day how crazy I am about them.  This is how I want to return from vacation.

Thankful we had this special time together and knowing that, only by God's grace, can I return transformed.