A meal out....

Last Thursday, we made plans to meet Reagan for dinner since we had several commitments that evening and Mom really didn't want to come home and prepare dinner at 8 o'clock in the evening. After many suggestions, we decided to eat at Chick-Fil-A (which is one of our favorite restaurants). Our meal was good and conversation was full of fun, honest banter. Later, as we were leaving, I drove past a nice, sit down restaurant full of couples and families enjoying their meals and a small part of me wished for a time when we would eat at places that didn't have a playground for the kids. You know those kind of places where you sit down at a table to place your order rather than stand in a line at a counter???


Don't get me wrong, we do eat at those kind of places, but it isn't very often. Why is that? Well, part of the reason is that we now have two growing boys that eat A LOT and it is cheaper to feed them at fast food establishments. Another part of the reason is that fast food restaurants are more accommodating, at times, to families and their needs-an indoor playground is such a treat especially in this hot Texas heat. I also figure that if you are eating at Wendy's, McDonalds, CFA, and etc... you are not planning to have a nice, quiet, romantic dinner- in fact, if you eat at these places you expect a certain amount of chaos and noise.


This is what I realized.... this is my life right now. (Isn't that a deep, complicated thought for your day?!?!) This time of my life full of hungry boys which is often a little chaotic and loud is fleeting. It will not last. There will be a time when the house stays clean, laundry doesn't pile up in mounds, and I will cook for two instead of an army. I will enjoy that time, but it will have shades of sadness because it will mean that my boys have grown and are living individual lives. I am choosing to appreciate the noise of my boys playing in the next room and cooking for an army as well as laundry that seems to never end. I am choosing to cherish this time of my life knowing that it will change all too quickly. Quiet, sit down dinners (with just Reagan) will come and our montage of fast food establishments may fade........ truthfully, I may need another CFA sandwich just to watch a young mother with her precious crew.... and let the memories flood me of my own chaotic season of life- the part of my life that I am living now.

A Stinky Situation

I know it has been awhile since I have written, but the past few weeks have flown by in the midst of many hectic, summer activities. In the past few weeks we were blessed to go on a vacation to New Mexico which was a great memory making event. Yet, it was not a totally restful event as Kendall was a little off his schedule and found it necessary to eat in the middle of the night again. Plus, have you ever been camping where the bathroom was a distance away? Without fail, in those situations I always need to go to the restroom in the middle of the night- I might never need to go at 2 am when I am home, but make it across the campground and 40 degrees outside and then I have to go! In addition, we had seven of us sleeping in our pop-up camper on two of the nights and five of us on the other nights. So, I often had to climb over children just to get out the door to make the cold hike to the bathroom..... and do it quietly without waking everyone else up.

This wouldn't have been that bad except the bathroom (and notice that I said bathroom, not bathrooms- there was only one for the WHOLE campground) was not that grand. It was a converted shipping box with warped wooden floors. It also rarely had toliet paper, and so you were wise to grab a roll to tuck under your arm when you made this journey. In addition, this facility was only cleaned by throwing a bucket of water in it to splash around the dirt, germs and grime. Isn't this where you would want to spend your time for daily grooming? Thankfully, our family let us use their personal restrooms in their campers.... at least, my boys won't need counseling after this experience! So, what did we learn from this experience? We learned that it may be time to upgrade from our awesome pop-up camper to one with a bathroom.... a clean bathroom, with a shower, potty and sink.... that would be ours... all ours.... and one that would not be so far away!

Honestly, our vacation was great! We made many fun memories.... the only thing that stunk was the bathroom situation.... literally!