In a conversation with my friend the other day, she said, "Martha, you always seem to be so busy! You are always talking about how much you have to do and you're always doing something for someone else. When do you do something for yourself?" I told her that I didn't usually have time to do things for myself because I have so much other stuff to do. I rush all day to get things done before the kids come home from school and then when they're home, I have to give them all my attention. Then there's supper to get on the table once the babysitting kids are gone and then supper clean-up, homework time, tidy up time, bedtime snack, pajama time and off-to-bed time. Once the kids are in bed I have to clean up after the whirlwind of disaster that has been left behind. And this is usually all done with a very negative spirit. It's a never ending cycle.
That's when she threw out the lifeline comment: "I work on flex time."
I felt like I just smacked myself in the head! Duh! Of course! Flex time! She said that when her family gets home from school and work, that's when her job starts up again so she works on flex time by taking some time off during the day to do what SHE wants to do before her afternoon/evening shift starts up again. She said, "It cut out the resentment when I was the only one cleaning up after supper and everyone else was lounging around. They finished their jobs and have earned their free time, but my shift starts up again when they get home."
Now, why in the world did I never see this before?! I do NOT have to run around like a crazy woman trying to cram everything into my days, thereby burning myself out and causing resentment to flare up, uncontrolled. Even Christ went out in a boat to get away from the press of the people and to be ALONE and REST! He even took a nap!
So, I've been trying this flex time method the last few days. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! My attitude has improved tremendously because I know that I have already had a break during the day and now cleaning up the supper mess and packing lunches and directing traffic is not done with constant griping and (ouch) whining anymore. I'm quite cheerful, if I may say so myself!
I've also found that I've been getting a lot more done in my day because I KNOW that my free time is coming up and I want to finish my projects before I stop everything to take a break. I've been focused and, yes, even more organized if you can believe that coming from me! Haha!
Is it working perfectly? No. My to-do list today was very long and my tasks were not all quick ones that could be killed off in a matter of minutes, so I started to panic this afternoon and was rushing around trying to do as much as I could in the little time that I had left. When I realized this was happening, I just set the timer for 30 minutes, grabbed my book and plopped on the couch. When the timer rang, I went back to my work and kept going, but with a much more relaxed feeling. What a difference. And guess what? I DID get it all done before the kids came home so I could sit and talk with them, listen to Christopher read his Green Eggs and Ham book to me, watched a little Peanuts video with the boys because they kept telling me to "watch this, Mommy" anyway so I just went in and sat with them and I got supper finished and ready to serve in no time!
So maybe most of you are reading this saying to yourselves, "But of course! I've always done that!" Well, I'm a slow learner, I guess. I also want to be a quick learner because I'm sure loving this new attitude toward my "job"! Flex time. Who knew?!
To my friend: God bless you for sharing this wisdom with me! You have given me fresh wind for my sails. And thank you for holding me accountable for my rest time every day. You are a blessing to me more than you realize!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
One Tomato, Two Tomatoes, Three Tomatoes ... MORE!
I haven't been on here lately. Have you noticed? Ah, but of course you have because some of you have reminded me that I haven't posted anything recently. How could I? I've been overloaded with tomatoes and HAD to deal with them before the fruit flies did! FINALLY I am finished dealing with all my tomatoes so I can sit down here and tell you what I've been up to.
We had our first frost warning a few weeks ago, so the day after that warning, I decided to take a trip up to Mennonite farm country to see if anyone had any cheap tomatoes that they needed to get rid of quickly. My hunches were correct as I drove along and found a sign at the end of a lane at the corner of Northfield Drive and Line 86: Long Lane Farm - Roma Tomatoes - No Sunday Sales. Ahhh.... just what I was looking for! I drove up the long lane and found an old order Mennonite woman standing on her porch surrounded by bushels and bushels of tomatoes! They had to pick fast the night before so that they didn't lose the rest of their crop to the threatened frost.
The tomatoes looked beautiful! I told her I'd take a 1/2 bushel because they looked so nice and she started sorting through them, pulling out ones that had tiny blemishes. I asked what she was going to do with all of her seconds (that really looked like the "good" stuff that you'd find in any grocery store) and she replied with a heavy sigh that she would probably have to can them for her family even though they had more than enough for the year. I offered to take the seconds off her hands so that she could sell the good ones at the produce auction and not have to worry about what to do with the seconds. I ended up getting them for $10 a bushel! Well, being the bargain lover that I am, I decided to take TWO bushels of seconds!
What in the world was I thinking?!
For the next two weeks I was up to my eyeballs in tomatoes! I canned tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, diced tomatoes and more spaghetti sauce. Then my friend Jenny shared the most delicious roasted tomato sauce with me and I fell in love! I so regretted not having that recipe at the beginning of this whole ordeal because it quickly has become my favorite! So much so, that when a friend of mine told me that their family was going to be out of town and they needed someone to use their tomatoes from their garden, guess what I did? Yep. I went and picked another half bushel just because I wanted some more of this sauce!
I do believe now that I'm done with tomatoes. My house has smelled like pasta sauce for the past two weeks and we have plenty to keep us going for a long, long time, but oh, am I thankful for those delicious, fresh and fragrant tomatoes!
Here's Jenny's recipe. You HAVE to try it, especially if you are up to your eyeballs in tomatoes! Tweak it as you see fit. I used many different varieties of tomatoes and I also added several cloves of garlic. I also ate some of this incredible deliciousness as is after it was roasted and before it was blended. Mmmmm! Then I tried it warm as a soup and then cold as a gazpacho variation and then on pasta and then mixed in with leftover, fresh tomato soup and then with crackers as a dip. I'm telling you, this stuff is fantastic! You won't be disappointed!
Roasted Tomato Sauce
 |
| Some of my homemade spaghetti sauce |
Makes 3 cups
2 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes, quartered
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, cut into 1 in pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 in pieces
1/2 cup extra virgin oil
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tsp fresh oregano
Preheat oven to 375 F. In a 9X13 baking pan toss together tomatoes, onion, bell peppers, oil, salt and crushed red pepper. Roast for 1 hour. Remove pan from oven and fold basil and oregano into vegetables. Cook for 30 min more.
In a food processer, blend vegetables until pureed. Use immediately, refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, or freeze.
Jeremiah 15:16
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16
Timothy, Mr. Creative, decided that this year he wanted a Holy Bible birthday cake. He gave me specific instructions on how it should be made, what color it had to be (he insisted on black and I kept hinting that brown would be just fine), there needed to be a red bookmark with pointy ends and the pages needed to be gold. Oh yeah. And it HAD to say Holy Bible on it.
Yikes. How in the world could I do a cake like this?! I'm so thankful for my friend, Barb, who I happened to be telling about this cake that I had to make and she said, "I have an idea. Come over on Wednesday." That's when Barb introduced me to fondant! WooHoo! She was amazing! She had fantastic ideas of how to make the pages gold (yellow food paint with food grade glitter mixed in and then brushed onto white fondant), she had cut out letters for Holy Bible, she designed the red bookmark with pointy ends and made the beautiful black cover. In real life, it looked just like Grandpa's well-loved Bible! Did she do a fantastic job on this cake or what?!
 |
| Barb and her finished work of art! |
When the kids got home from school that day, they all hovered around the cake and one of the after-school kids said, "Holly Bibble? Who's that?" While I held back a giggle, Timothy ran over to the book shelf and pulled out his Bible and replied, "It's Holy Bible! Have you ever seen a real one? You can look up verses in here and everything!" and then he proceeded to look up some verses that he's memorized and told the kids that they can read this Bible any time they wanted because we have lots of them! What a witness he was. What a blessing.
 |
| Timothy's joy was undeniable! |
 |
| I made tabs with their names and ages. |
We did enjoy eating God's word in the form of a cake and we're so thankful for our sweet birthday boys, Timothy - 7 and Christopher - 5.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Maybe Mothers Shouldn't Multi-Task
Seriously, I'm thinking after today that maybe mothers should NOT try to multi-task. Well, maybe I should just be speaking to myself. Ever have one of those days, moms? (Please agree with me here!)
I may as well just jump right in and tell you why I'm saying this. No need to beat around the bush (since it burned up at McDonald's anyway. Hahaha! Ok. It's late at night and my humor is lacking.) so I'll just tell you what happened.
This afternoon I decided to freeze corn so I got all my supplies ready, had the water on to boil and started filling the kitchen sink with cold water to stop the blanching once the corn was done. I couldn't remember how long I was supposed to blanch the corn, so I came over to the computer and looked up pickyourown.org to find out how long I should keep it boiling. (By the way, this site is really good for telling you where to find pick your own produce as well as telling you how to preserve just about anything! Check it out sometime, when you're not doing anything else.)
As I was sitting there reading how to freeze corn and getting totally sidetracked by all the pictures and links and suggestions, I remember thinking once that I should turn off the water at the sink. Being distracted by the discussion on enzymes and blanching, that thought of the water didn't cross my mind again. In the back of my mind, however, I heard a fountain of sorts, you know, running water in a continuous stream that is quite soothing - uh - when it's out in nature ... but not when you realize that it is coming from your kitchen sink and is now flowing across your kitchen floor!! Oh boy! Did I ever jump up fast! Water was absolutely everywhere! I've never, ever in my life seen a kitchen sink overflow, but I'll tell you right now, I wish that I could still say that.
Christopher, my little helper, ran to get the mop and did a great job (for an almost five year old) of cleaning it up. There was way too much water, though, and both of us worked and worked at it to keep the water from going much further. What a disaster. What a mess! All because I was trying to do more than one thing at a time.
And by the way, I never did find out how long I was supposed to blanch the corn because by that point, those cobs had been boiling away for quite some time! I froze it anyway, so we'll see if it really makes a difference in the long run.
I may as well just jump right in and tell you why I'm saying this. No need to beat around the bush (since it burned up at McDonald's anyway. Hahaha! Ok. It's late at night and my humor is lacking.) so I'll just tell you what happened.
This afternoon I decided to freeze corn so I got all my supplies ready, had the water on to boil and started filling the kitchen sink with cold water to stop the blanching once the corn was done. I couldn't remember how long I was supposed to blanch the corn, so I came over to the computer and looked up pickyourown.org to find out how long I should keep it boiling. (By the way, this site is really good for telling you where to find pick your own produce as well as telling you how to preserve just about anything! Check it out sometime, when you're not doing anything else.)
As I was sitting there reading how to freeze corn and getting totally sidetracked by all the pictures and links and suggestions, I remember thinking once that I should turn off the water at the sink. Being distracted by the discussion on enzymes and blanching, that thought of the water didn't cross my mind again. In the back of my mind, however, I heard a fountain of sorts, you know, running water in a continuous stream that is quite soothing - uh - when it's out in nature ... but not when you realize that it is coming from your kitchen sink and is now flowing across your kitchen floor!! Oh boy! Did I ever jump up fast! Water was absolutely everywhere! I've never, ever in my life seen a kitchen sink overflow, but I'll tell you right now, I wish that I could still say that.
Christopher, my little helper, ran to get the mop and did a great job (for an almost five year old) of cleaning it up. There was way too much water, though, and both of us worked and worked at it to keep the water from going much further. What a disaster. What a mess! All because I was trying to do more than one thing at a time.
And by the way, I never did find out how long I was supposed to blanch the corn because by that point, those cobs had been boiling away for quite some time! I froze it anyway, so we'll see if it really makes a difference in the long run.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Earthquakes and Fires
I heard that there was an earthquake today. Some people around here said that they felt it, even though the epicenter was in Virginia. Supposedly the ground was swaying a bit here and people felt "wobbly" for a few seconds.
I was trying to figure out why I didn't feel anything. Nothing. Well, maybe I did, but not really. I'm not sure. We were at McDonald's for an after-blueberry-picking treat with Auntie Jo and as we were sitting there I heard a terrible rumbling sound and the ground was shaking but that was from the guy in the front of the store who was using a jackhammer to rip up the old sidewalk. The thought briefly crossed my mind (seriously!) as I watched a girl pull through the drive-thru that I wonder if she thought that was an earthquake. Hahaha, my tired mind thought. Why would anyone think there would be an earthquake around here?!
We finished our ice cream cones and headed out to the van. As I opened my door to get in, a thin trail of smoke in the mulch of the flowerbed next to me caught my eye. I stuck my foot out and tried to stamp it out, thinking that some irresponsible customer must have thrown a cigarette butt in the flowers. The funny thing was the every place that I tapped my shoe, another blackened and burned spot appeared. I figured that I should probably warn the employees inside that there was something smoldering outside so I went in and told the teenagers behind the counter that there was smoke coming from the flowerbeds. (Those oblivious teenagers, I thought. They won't take me seriously.)
I went back out to the van and an older manager came out to check it out. She stamped it a bit and then said, "Thanks. We'll keep an eye on it." and went back inside. I finished buckling in the kids and turned around to see a modern day version of Moses' burning bush next to me! The whole thing was in flames now! The mulch, the flowers, and a bush! Smoke was billowing up in the air and into the van.
I went running in, pushing past the long line of people and shouted, "There is a fire out in the flowerbed! You need to get it out!" The teenagers stared at me blank-faced and then repeated, "There's a fire in the flowerbeds" to which the manager shouted from the drive-thru window area, "I know. I told her I'd keep an eye on it." I shouted again (across the whole restaurant), "NO! THERE IS A FIRE IN THE FLOWERBEDS! The whole thing is on fire!" They really didn't seem to care, so I went back out, along with a few more customers who could see the evidence and watched as the area was totally going up in flames. A man ran to his truck and pulled out a huge fire extinguisher and started to blast the fire when the manager came out with, get this, a cup of water to pour on the fire! Another employee came out chowing down on her McChicken Wrap and a third stood there and said, "Wow. There really IS a fire." Well, DUH! Do you think I'd go running in there shouting like a maniac that there was a fire out there if it wasn't true?!
By this time, a few more customers had grabbed fire extinguishers from their vehicles and were spraying the whole thing down while the manager waited until they had finished and then she bravely walked over and dumped her little cup of water in the middle of the smoke. POOF! By this point, Jo and I were no longer sympathetic, but laughing with great amusement at this manager. This McDonald's had just been remodeled and the finishing touches were being made. They spent a pretty penny on this place and she wanted to put out a flowerbed fire with a little cup of water. We pulled out and backed away and she impishly glanced at me and mouthed, "Thanks." No problem, Ma'am, but the next time someone yells to you that there is a fire in front of your new store, you should probably take it seriously.
And so sometime in the middle of all that ruckus, there was an earthquake. And I missed it. Sigh.
I was trying to figure out why I didn't feel anything. Nothing. Well, maybe I did, but not really. I'm not sure. We were at McDonald's for an after-blueberry-picking treat with Auntie Jo and as we were sitting there I heard a terrible rumbling sound and the ground was shaking but that was from the guy in the front of the store who was using a jackhammer to rip up the old sidewalk. The thought briefly crossed my mind (seriously!) as I watched a girl pull through the drive-thru that I wonder if she thought that was an earthquake. Hahaha, my tired mind thought. Why would anyone think there would be an earthquake around here?!
We finished our ice cream cones and headed out to the van. As I opened my door to get in, a thin trail of smoke in the mulch of the flowerbed next to me caught my eye. I stuck my foot out and tried to stamp it out, thinking that some irresponsible customer must have thrown a cigarette butt in the flowers. The funny thing was the every place that I tapped my shoe, another blackened and burned spot appeared. I figured that I should probably warn the employees inside that there was something smoldering outside so I went in and told the teenagers behind the counter that there was smoke coming from the flowerbeds. (Those oblivious teenagers, I thought. They won't take me seriously.)
I went back out to the van and an older manager came out to check it out. She stamped it a bit and then said, "Thanks. We'll keep an eye on it." and went back inside. I finished buckling in the kids and turned around to see a modern day version of Moses' burning bush next to me! The whole thing was in flames now! The mulch, the flowers, and a bush! Smoke was billowing up in the air and into the van.
I went running in, pushing past the long line of people and shouted, "There is a fire out in the flowerbed! You need to get it out!" The teenagers stared at me blank-faced and then repeated, "There's a fire in the flowerbeds" to which the manager shouted from the drive-thru window area, "I know. I told her I'd keep an eye on it." I shouted again (across the whole restaurant), "NO! THERE IS A FIRE IN THE FLOWERBEDS! The whole thing is on fire!" They really didn't seem to care, so I went back out, along with a few more customers who could see the evidence and watched as the area was totally going up in flames. A man ran to his truck and pulled out a huge fire extinguisher and started to blast the fire when the manager came out with, get this, a cup of water to pour on the fire! Another employee came out chowing down on her McChicken Wrap and a third stood there and said, "Wow. There really IS a fire." Well, DUH! Do you think I'd go running in there shouting like a maniac that there was a fire out there if it wasn't true?!
By this time, a few more customers had grabbed fire extinguishers from their vehicles and were spraying the whole thing down while the manager waited until they had finished and then she bravely walked over and dumped her little cup of water in the middle of the smoke. POOF! By this point, Jo and I were no longer sympathetic, but laughing with great amusement at this manager. This McDonald's had just been remodeled and the finishing touches were being made. They spent a pretty penny on this place and she wanted to put out a flowerbed fire with a little cup of water. We pulled out and backed away and she impishly glanced at me and mouthed, "Thanks." No problem, Ma'am, but the next time someone yells to you that there is a fire in front of your new store, you should probably take it seriously.
And so sometime in the middle of all that ruckus, there was an earthquake. And I missed it. Sigh.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
And Now ... the Rest of the Story
You don't think that the incident we had with the carrier on the way home from Virginia was the end of the story, do you? Well, read on, dear friends. Read on.
Fred and I left the carrier on top of the van because we're going to the cottage this weekend for a week and we decided to keep it on instead of taking it on and off. WELL......I was coming back home from a visit with my friend Jenny today when all of a sudden I heard flapping around on top and saw the straps that were once securely tucked inside the carrier now flapping behind me. A transport truck was flashing it's lights at me so I pulled over on the 401 as soon as I could and saw that the other lock had now lifted from it's secure position and the straps that were stored INSIDE were now hanging outside and nothing was secure anymore.
I climbed up and tried to pull the straps back into place to maybe secure it again when a truck stopped in front of me. I heard the beeping of it backing up and thought, "This is the last thing that I need right now - some trucker telling me what to do and trying to 'help' me." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy get out of his truck and run over to me. Can you believe, it was Chris, Jenny's husband!! He had seen me on the side of the road and thought, Look at that. Someone else is having problems with their carrier (because he had read my blog last night and laughed about it, so said Jenny), I'd better stop. Once he stopped, he saw that it was ME! How amazing that God allowed HIM to be on the 401 at that exact moment! Chris climbed right up there and buckled that thing down like it was no big deal at all. I couldn't have gotten it strapped up without him there. What an amazing blessing to have him on that 401, see me, and then stop just when I needed it.!! Thank you, Lord!
Now, I hope that this really is the end of the story.
Anyone want a car carrier?
Fred and I left the carrier on top of the van because we're going to the cottage this weekend for a week and we decided to keep it on instead of taking it on and off. WELL......I was coming back home from a visit with my friend Jenny today when all of a sudden I heard flapping around on top and saw the straps that were once securely tucked inside the carrier now flapping behind me. A transport truck was flashing it's lights at me so I pulled over on the 401 as soon as I could and saw that the other lock had now lifted from it's secure position and the straps that were stored INSIDE were now hanging outside and nothing was secure anymore.
I climbed up and tried to pull the straps back into place to maybe secure it again when a truck stopped in front of me. I heard the beeping of it backing up and thought, "This is the last thing that I need right now - some trucker telling me what to do and trying to 'help' me." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy get out of his truck and run over to me. Can you believe, it was Chris, Jenny's husband!! He had seen me on the side of the road and thought, Look at that. Someone else is having problems with their carrier (because he had read my blog last night and laughed about it, so said Jenny), I'd better stop. Once he stopped, he saw that it was ME! How amazing that God allowed HIM to be on the 401 at that exact moment! Chris climbed right up there and buckled that thing down like it was no big deal at all. I couldn't have gotten it strapped up without him there. What an amazing blessing to have him on that 401, see me, and then stop just when I needed it.!! Thank you, Lord!
Now, I hope that this really is the end of the story.
Anyone want a car carrier?
Monday, July 25, 2011
Well, THAT Was A New Experience!
Saturday morning our family left the Eastern Mennonite University campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia and headed north on 81 toward our afternoon destination of Syracuse, New York. Fred and I were recapping our week at Eastern Camp and had only gone about 15 or 20 miles when we heard a whump - THUMP on the top of the van. I didn't recognize the sound, so I glanced behind us to see if we had hit something on the highway. OH NO!!!! What I saw sure surprised me and we all started shouting as Fred tried to find a place to safely pull over. Somehow our car top carrier had opened up and our clothes were ALL over the road! I still have visions of cars and semis driving over our clothes, dragging some of them down the road and blowing others into the ditches. Unfortunately, Christopher also saw his sock get blown down the road and run over by several cars.
When we were finally able to pull over, we noticed two cars in both northbound lanes stop and the traffic backed up behind them. As we backed up, the kind people in those vehicles had jumped out and were gathering up our stuff. One lady ran over to me with a handful of my dirty underwear, handed it to me and we both just burst out laughing at the awkwardness of that brief moment!
As Fred was running across the lanes gathering up as much as he could and the other helpful strangers did their grab-and-runs, we noticed a van had stopped ahead of us and was backing up across the now-empty lanes to our side of the road. I glanced up and recognized the license plate of our friends Gary and Darlene who had left Camp later than they had hoped - but designed perfectly by God to be on that long stretch of highway at exactly the time we needed them! Gary helped Fred fix the carrier enough to keep temporarily until we could get to an exit to buy a bungee cord or strap to tie around the carrier and I got to decompress for a few moments with Darlene as we talked about how embarrassing this was, yet how thankful we were that it was just a few garbage bags of dirty laundry that had exploded all over the road.
We think that what happened was that a burst of air had somehow managed to get between the top and bottom lids of the carrier and just sucked it open, ripping the locks and clamps off of their "secured" positions. It must have just been a freak thing because Fred said that he had double checked the security before we left the parking lot. All I know is that it was a shock and we're thankful that God protected us through that whole ordeal!
Poor Christopher, though. He was so traumatized by that sock that he saw that he wept and wept for about 15 minutes straight until he finally fell into an exhausted sleep. Timothy wanted to know when we would go back to pick up the rest of the items that were in the ditch on the other side of the road and we had to convince him that it was ok that they were left there and that we would never see them again. We did our best to reassure the boys that we can replace socks and Sunday shirts and underwear, but we could never replace Daddy if it had been him or Mommy if it had been me. We had so much to be thankful for since it was ONLY dirty clothes and not someone in our family or another person.
The rest of our trip was quite uneventful, but we will never forget that experience, that's for sure! It also didn't help that it was another hot and humid day in Virginia. Running around on hot asphalt with your adrenaline pumping at extreme levels does NOT help for remaining cool and collected! We are now home, all clothes are washed and it looks like only one pair of shorts has been destroyed by tire marks. We are missing some articles of clothing, but nothing that can't be replaced. God is good and we are safely home! HOME SWEET HOME!
When we were finally able to pull over, we noticed two cars in both northbound lanes stop and the traffic backed up behind them. As we backed up, the kind people in those vehicles had jumped out and were gathering up our stuff. One lady ran over to me with a handful of my dirty underwear, handed it to me and we both just burst out laughing at the awkwardness of that brief moment!
As Fred was running across the lanes gathering up as much as he could and the other helpful strangers did their grab-and-runs, we noticed a van had stopped ahead of us and was backing up across the now-empty lanes to our side of the road. I glanced up and recognized the license plate of our friends Gary and Darlene who had left Camp later than they had hoped - but designed perfectly by God to be on that long stretch of highway at exactly the time we needed them! Gary helped Fred fix the carrier enough to keep temporarily until we could get to an exit to buy a bungee cord or strap to tie around the carrier and I got to decompress for a few moments with Darlene as we talked about how embarrassing this was, yet how thankful we were that it was just a few garbage bags of dirty laundry that had exploded all over the road.
We think that what happened was that a burst of air had somehow managed to get between the top and bottom lids of the carrier and just sucked it open, ripping the locks and clamps off of their "secured" positions. It must have just been a freak thing because Fred said that he had double checked the security before we left the parking lot. All I know is that it was a shock and we're thankful that God protected us through that whole ordeal!
Poor Christopher, though. He was so traumatized by that sock that he saw that he wept and wept for about 15 minutes straight until he finally fell into an exhausted sleep. Timothy wanted to know when we would go back to pick up the rest of the items that were in the ditch on the other side of the road and we had to convince him that it was ok that they were left there and that we would never see them again. We did our best to reassure the boys that we can replace socks and Sunday shirts and underwear, but we could never replace Daddy if it had been him or Mommy if it had been me. We had so much to be thankful for since it was ONLY dirty clothes and not someone in our family or another person.
The rest of our trip was quite uneventful, but we will never forget that experience, that's for sure! It also didn't help that it was another hot and humid day in Virginia. Running around on hot asphalt with your adrenaline pumping at extreme levels does NOT help for remaining cool and collected! We are now home, all clothes are washed and it looks like only one pair of shorts has been destroyed by tire marks. We are missing some articles of clothing, but nothing that can't be replaced. God is good and we are safely home! HOME SWEET HOME!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
