Vacation or bust

Some of you might not know this, but my family and I do not go on a lot of vacations.  We have not had the opportunity to go on vacation just the 5 of us in a really long time.  To be completely honest, the last vacation that we took just with our family was when Bill and I took our oldest daughter to Atlanta when we got married.   Two kids, a house, a dog and a lifetime later we have just returned home from Frankenmuth!  We had a great time!

Side note:  I am so incredibly thankful for my family who so generously shares with us the opportunity to go with them to the family cottage in the summer so that we can enjoy a vacation with our entire extended family.  :)

Early Thursday morning, we threw all of our luggage into the car and made the hour and half drive to Frankenmuth Splash Village.  This hotel was amazing.  The hotel has an incredible splash pad with water slides and dumping buckets, etc.  The splash village had so many components that for the three days we were there we hardly ever stopped swimming and we never got bored.

I of course, having gone to Frankenmuth as a kid  wanted to go to the Chicken dinner and walk around in the little shops for a few hours to do some window shopping.   Our second day there we dragged the kids out of the pool and all got dressed and went into downtown.  The event started off a little rough because the baby was so tired and she kept attempting to crawl out of her stroller.     After about 40 minutes of window shopping we decided just to go to dinner because the kids were starting to whine and the baby was hungry.  

I have to admit in a perfect world, I would have made it to all the shops and made my kids try the chocolate cheese which tastes terrible.  Alas, the kids had different plans so we went straight to dinner.

At dinner the seams started to unravel.  Samantha began to cry.   She cried at the drop of a hat.  If she didn't like what was brought to the table she cried, if a crayon fell on the floor she was distraught, if Phebe even looked at her she had tears streaming down her face.    Phebe added to the fun by having an attitude about chicken.  If the chicken even dared to touch her plate, she would....  I don't know what would have actually happened if the chicken touched her plate.   Claire of course, seized the opportunity to add to the fun.  She grabbed anything within a 3 foot radius and chucked it on the floor, or at Bill.  She was throwing herself out of the booster seat and climbing the walls of the booth.   To top it off Claire got a bloody nose right there at the table.

As you can imagine my rope was unraveling fast.   We just wanted to go to one nice dinner.  Why were my normally well behaved kids acting like a pack of wild hyenas?

"We just can't have nice things."  I said to Bill as I burst out laughing.   He responded with something equally as funny and we laughed.  How could I not laugh?  We had officially hit that point on vacation where the kids are so tired that everything causes a meltdown and all they need is a good nights sleep.  We cleaned our stuff up from the table, and went back to the hotel.  On our way back, I reveled in the fact that I had now experienced another parenting moment.  An important milestone.  And I thanked God for giving me the humor to enjoy it.

Random Acts of Prayer

I love my mom.  One of the things that she taught me as a child was to pray fervently.   She prayed in the car, the shower, at the table, even in her frustration she prayed out loud.   This is one of the most important traditions that I hope to pass down to my children.   I admit that I am a fervent prayer.   I do not always, however pray out loud.  I think because my mother was such a powerful woman of God I have often times felt intimidated to pray out loud.   I am working on getting over this fear, however, and here are some of the ways I am trying to seize the opportunity to pray.

1.  Every time we hear a siren.  This one my mom passed down to me.  We always took a moment to pray for the emergency teams whenever we saw an accident, or heard some sirens driving by.

2.  Prayers of praise.  It is surprisingly simple to stop and pray a short prayer of thanks multiple times a day.  My kids love this one because we thank God for the good things that have happened all day.

3.  License plate prayers.  This is a new one that I absolutely love.  I pray for people that are driving with me.  It started a few weeks ago when I noticed the same license plate of a little old man who is always on route with me in the morning.  I see his car a few times a week and whenever I do I pray for the man who drives the car with license plate XXX XXX.  I have branched out and on every drive I pick one person I see and pray for them.  You never know what God is going to do with that prayer.  

4. Facebook prayers.  I pray for friends on facebook.  I pray for everyone who I see is having a bad day, or a struggle.  Sometimes I pray for someone who is having a great day, but facebook keeps us so connected why not use it for prayer?

5.  Praying out loud with groups of people.  One of the things I have learned is that praying out loud is more important than worrying about the words, or if I stumble over what to say.  It doesn't matter if I am the most eloquent and well spoken person in the room.  Lifitng up my voice to the Lord is enough.

6.  PUSH prayers.  This is a new idea that a friend gave me.  Basically, PUSH stands for Pray Until Something Happens.  I have a list of 5 PUSH prayers.  I pray for these 5 things constantly, and when something happens I update my list.  

Other ways you can pray:

Pray before meals, pray for leaders, pray for your children at schoo,l, pray for unborn children etc.   Just get to praying!!


^" Rejoice always,  pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18