We are back from our week-long vacation in Estes Park. It was a beautiful, refreshing week! Now we are back to normal life here in Golden, wherein Caleb is away much of the time either working or training for his upcoming ultra-marathon. But I am doing surprisingly well here this time around. 

As I said in an earlier post, I experienced quite a bit of lonliness at the beginning of our travels. I think it hit me so hard because I didn’t see it coming. But things have really improved the past couple of weeks. For one, I have been using my time to pray more, which has helped me see this strange season as God’s best for me. It is hard for me to put this all into words, it still feels largely mysterious to me. I guess I can say that the more I resign myself to my circumstances (in other words, not wishing things were different), the more joy I find. 

  
  
So all this talk of inner peace and joy would not be complete without some serious stressors, right? Well, you got it! On our way down from Estes Park our transmission went out on our truck (we have affectionately named him Beast). Thankfully, we made it all the way back to Golden before we noticed that transmission fluid was POURING out. We were able to get Beast to the shop right away and now, after $5,000 that we really don’t have, Beast has a newly rebuilt transmission. Yay! We had to put the repair on our credit card and will be working like crazy to pay it off by the end of the year. So much for being debt free (insert sad face). 

I see more free time in my future now as we try to conserve in all areas of our budget. I will choose to see this as a good thing. 

I’ve been using a lot of this “free time” to write, read and listen to podcasts. I have come to quite enjoy these little pockets of time. It seems as though I am supposed to take advantage of this season… as an exhale of sorts. It’s a time to refresh and rest, to lean into the lonley and find God there. Of course, it’s not all spa days and naps by the pool – It’s my real life, which is largely filled with these two little people. 

    
 

By the way, can I just say that I love them SO MUCH! I love watching them discover the world. This new RV park we are at has bunnies, dozens of bunnies! Every morning we watch the bunnies come up to our little lawn and bounce around nibbling grass. Abby likes to pretend to be a bunny right along with them. She doesn’t realize she is scaring them away. 

Josh, my baby, just started playing peek-a-boo with us. He likes to lay on our bed, completely still, fully covered in blankets, and wait for just the right moment to spring up and make this adorable cackle-laugh. Of course the boy-version of peek-a-boo would have a slightly scary element of surprise. He thinks this is hilarious. 

Speaking of my ridiculously cute kiddos, they are waking up from nap time so I must go let them out to enjoy the next four hours of fun before sleep reclaims them. Caleb won’t be home until after 11pm tonight so I’m on duty alone this evening. We might just have pancakes for dinner.