Ice and Yankee Cande

March 1, 2015

The original plan for today was to pack up in the morning and drive up to Maryland to visit with Carl’s family. Apparently God wanted us to stay right where we are for now. We got a good dose of freezing rain this morning that covered everything in a coat of ice. Not conducive to traveling with a 36 ft. 8000lb. travel trailer. We made the decision to stay here for the day and to stay in communication with Carl’s parents and make a decision later on about what we would do for the rest of the week. We had planned on staying up in Maryland until Thursday but there is another storm with snow and ice coming in on Wednesday night and Thursday. Boy, I am so tired of snow.

It took us until about 2 to decide what to do for today. We spent the morning watching a sermon video series we have been watching. Dr. S M Davis has a great series on anger and we finished watching the third in the series today. It was entitled “What Impatience Does”. All I can say is “Ouch.” Very convicting. The kids always tease me because I always pause the DVD to take notes and write down things that he says that I want to remember. I always stop his DVD’s quite a bit. It bugs the older 3 boys who are NOT note takers. It is a practice in patience as Esther takes notes along with me but she is not a fast note taker. We are constantly waiting for her to catch up but I am so proud of her effort and do not want to discourage her from sermon notes.

After lunch we headed out to a place that I had been asking to visit but the boys always outvoted me. Today though, it was one of the places that was open and would not cost an arm and a leg to get into. In fact, it was absolutely free. We went to …THE YANKEE CANDLE FLAGSHIP STORE. I was so excited. I had never been before today. The boys protested until I showed the little ones a picture of what it looked like. They got excited then. The three older boys still protested and refused to come in. They insisted on staying in the car.

We walked in and all of us fell in love. It was like a wonderland. The kids had a blast waiting for the snow to start falling. Tirzah chased the train around the store and danced to the music in the Christmas area. Caleb went to go visit Santa (yes, Santa) about 10 times. We kept losing him and that is where we found him every time. About 30 minutes into the visit the 3 older boys ventured in. This was after Daniel ran out to the van and told them how cool it was inside. They had a blast playing with all the toys in the toy area. Caleb was fascinated with the clock that kept “coming to life.” All of the kids had a blast. We ended up spending over 2 hours in the store.

I found a purse that I was in desperate need of. With all the traveling we have been doing and visiting of national parks I found that my current purse was too big and bulky. It was hurting my shoulders and I needed to find a smaller, more comfortable one. I was so excited to find the perfect one and on sale too. I also found a silicone, collapsible funnel. With the confines of our current kitchen I need to find creative ways to store things. This funnel takes up hardly any space at all and was very inexpensive. I also found another cool Melissa and Doug water works activity book for Caleb. He has the one to practice his letters and I was able to find the one for numbers. He was so excited. We also found some Virginia nuts that were Old Bay flavored. Carl could not resist.

After our snack of awesome popcorn in several flavors and soda ( a treat for us these days) we left to go grocery shopping, Since we had planned to be in Maryland for the next few days I had to go restock my fridge and pantry. We also ran over to the outlet stores to find shoes for Daniel and Nathan who had outgrown their tennis shoes. You would think it would be easy but we went to every stupid shoe store in the outlet mall and found nothing. The shoes either did not come in wide sizes (curse these genetically wide feet of mine) or they were so expensive. For outlet stores I saw prices that were more expensive than normal mall stores. I was so frustrated and I kept saying that I wish I could just find a New Balance store. I love New Balance shoes. The employees are always so knowledgeable and I am always able to find exactly what I need in half the time of other stores. Well, I had just expressed the desire to find one when we turned the corner and almost everyone in the car yelled …that’s right “New Balance store” right in front of us. I was elated. We were in and out in 20 minutes with 2 new pairs of shoes and we paid $75 for both pairs. That is pretty good for high quality, name brand tennis shoes.

Back to the camper and dinner was served. Things are now clean and the little ones are in bed (although not asleep). The older boys are up at the bathhouse taking showers and IT IS QUIET!!!! Ahhh!!!! I need to savor this moment because any second the door is going to be flung open and three teenage boys are going to come in laughing and talking about their latest book idea or the latest movie quote or youtube video quote (curse you Holderness family for making so many videos). Not that I do not enjoy hearing them talk to one another but you can only hear movie lines from Big Hero 6 or lines from their book characters so many times … an hour.

I am so glad though that my boys like to talk to me and discuss things about their lives. Yes, I have listened to hours of Critopia and Bug Obliterators but it is worth it to have these boys still have open lines of communication with me. I want to build memories with them and tie heart strings while I still can and if that means listening to them quote movies and tell stories and listen to Josh Groban , Pentatonix , Piano Guys, and Warren Barfield and hear the latest football statistic and what the latest air soft gun looks like and discuss character development of their book heroes then I will. It will all be worth it.

This is why we are doing what we are doing. To build memories and tie heart strings. This is why we are teaching them and training them every day. This is why we watch sermons about anger and patience. This is why we are making the sacrifices we are making to spend this time to build and heal relationships. Our relationship with Christ and with each other is the most important thing in the world. Everything we are doing is to bring Him glory and honor. Yes, we are making mistakes and will continue to do so. But we are also learning and confessing and repenting and training and talking and loving and laughing and having fun. The joy is slowly increasing and that is the whole point. Has it been easy? Not really. Would I change anything? No. We have learned so much and look forward to the next 4 months to grow even more and increase our JOY that much more.