We're Home.... There's No Place Like Home


This is so very true. We got home from our very long vacation late on Saturday night and felt so relieved to pull up in the driveway and see the house still standing tall waiting for us to come home. As we drove up the driveway I noticed that our lawn had been mowed, my gardens had been watered, and our trash can had been put back where they belong. Justin did a great job taking care of the homefront for us while we were away.

Sunday was spent in a whirlwind trying to unpack, reorganize, and do some grocery shopping between church services and meetings. It was a long day. I was looking toward the rest of the week with a little fear..... My schedule is a crazy one this week. I spent the entire day Monday in the car taxing the kids around. Anabelle had swim lessons at 9, Meg to work at 11:30 (her car got a flat while we were away and Bob didn't have time on Sunday to fix it ) boys to deliver coutea, 12 lunch, 1:30 piano lessons, 3:00 deliver Public Opinion, 4:00 boys swim lessons and pick up Megan, 5:00 pick up Boys, 5:45 Meg back at work, 6:00 dinner, 7 pm Boy Scouts.
Whew,, I need a glass of wine!

Tuesday was much of the same craziness but minus the Cotuea delivery and piano lessons. I am so glad that Meg is life guarding at the water park...same place where swim lessons are taught. This past vacation really brought home to me some important life lessons that we tend to take for granted. There is a big world out there with so many people that have sacrificed and bled for the preservation of our country and for the freedoms that we so take for granted. Seeing all the different battlefields and walking where so many lost their lives during the Civil War really was a somber experience. The kids were so in awe of everything and shared their thoughts and reverence for all the men that fought on both sides of the war. So often we think that the war was fought over the issue of slavery. It wasn't.... so many of us put Mr Lincoln up there as a savior, he wasn't. Mankind has a way of rewriting history to make it more palitable and comforting. Before heading south we studied quite a lot on the Civil War era and battles/geography/political viewpoints/laws/arguements, etc. from both sides. Sadly, Mr. Lincoln was bound by the constraints of his time and was prevented from doing so much more than he did. In reading through the legal jargon of the Emancipation Proclimation, President Lincoln only gave freedom to slaves in states that were in open rebellion against the union. Slavery was previlent in states as far north as Maine and those slaves were not given their freedom until much later. Lincoln freed the slaves in the rebelling states as an economic way to cripple the states in hope of expediting a victory for the north... No workers = no production= no funding for the war... etc. Sadly, too is that most people think that the men of the south were fighting to keep their slaves.... they weren't... they were fighting in order to preserve the integrity of the state. All major ports and manufacturing was done in the south and the north wanted a piece of the revenues that were enjoyed in Dixie. Well, enough of my history lesson. I just came away from so many of the battle fields and cemataries thinking that so many of these fallen and lost soldiers were someone's son, husband, father, brother, loved one, and their lives were so cut short by greed and pride. How tragic is that?

The big thing that I noticed when driving up our driveway on Saturday night was this...our home seemed so lonely sitting there with no one running up the drive way or sitting out on the veranda and it too, must have been happy to have us home. Does this make sense???


Love you!
Mary