Back from Vacation

Do you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? We returned from our three week family vacation a week ago yesterday. 4 flights and a drive home from the airport later we were home. But it has taken a whole week to feel like we are home and back from vacation. So glad to have time with family, so glad to actually feel like we experienced summer with a week at the lake and 10 days in hot and humid Ohio(it was rainy and cold when we left Vancouver a month ago!) But now that we have returned it is beginning to feel like summer here. A cool kind of summer, one that you wear pants and sweaters out in the morning and take off layers as the sun comes out. Today it is lovely and the kids are asleep so I thought I would try and write a couple of the thoughts I have been having.

First, I am still trying to get used to this new life of coming back from a summer vacation and feeling like I am in worse shape than when I left. Growing up until the time I have had children actually, summer was the time for being outside (preferably in a canoe, on a mountain, or hiking in the woods somewhere in the world) as much as possible. The result of that would be ending the summer in great shape, tanned and relaxed, and a bit more centered from months of being out in the great outdoors, spending hours in reflective quiet, as well as testing the limits of my physical condition on whatever challenge was presented. Summers generally ended with a shopping trip to spruce up the teaching or school wardrobe as excitement for my vocation, seeing old friends and starting a new school year had increased with a couple months break and reflection time.

Lets just put it mildly to say that is no longer my current experience. Besides the shopping part. I did go shopping this summer to purchase non-maternity or post maternity summer clothes (that has not happened for 3 years now!) The rest.. well... I gained 6 pounds on my vacation, spent a good deal of it sitting (inside and outside; the two might just correspond) and have returned to a week of jet lag, feeling out of sorts, and hit with the reality that I now am once again a stay at home mom with the responsibility to care for 2 small people in my little home most of the time. That is the grouchy part of me talking.

The encouraged part of my experience is that for the first time since arriving in Vancouver now a year and a half ago, we arrived home. Considering that the idea of home has been a constantly changing experience for me since leaving NY at 18, I was encouraged to feel that. We are home, in a place that people from all over the world land for a short or long period of time. We are home in a place where I can say hello to my neighbors in at least five different languages. We are home in a place that I will indeed begin a new season of my job as a mother and as an activities coordinator for the children in the place we live.

Besides the ebb and flow of feeling overwhelmed at times with the weight of family responsibility and lack of free time, I have had more glimpses of inspiration for being a wife and mother. Thanks to the inspiration of other mom friends of mine who keep their blogs fresh with ideas and their own experiences with motherhood, as well as my friends here, I feel like I can tread water for the time being. I just got back from an evening with some friends from my mom's group to look ahead to this coming year and what our mom's group will look like. It is certainly encouraging to be with women who are seeking to grow in their faith, encourage one another, and reach out the community of other moms in the area.

Dave and I are also trying to carve out time to grow as individuals and as a family. He took a class in Benidictine Spirituality earlier this summer and learned a lot about creating space and rhythms of life that help us deepen our faith and walk with God. (Things that we've learned in the past, but a good reminder of what we would like our family to look like) So, as we gear up to start a new season for this school year, we are trying to keep a couple things regular in our schedules. One, a Sabbath. That means a time to really rest, not only physically (or maybe not physically, if rest might mean exercise), but a day each week that we spend with God and enter into His rest. I recently read The Pastor by Eugene Peterson (author of The Message), and was challenged by this idea of Sabbath (especially as a Pastor and his wife), and encouraged that while he taught at Regent, he and his wife frequented one of our favorite beaches to do just that! We're even planning on taking a retreat of sorts at a Christian retreat center at the end of the month. I'm certainly looking forward to that!

I have a couple more thoughts, but those will have to come at another post.

And just for a smile... Since I know you're will read this at some point Kim Smith, you'll be amused that Josie has really grabbed onto the "thank you Jesus" version of Johnny Appleseed. :)