Retreat

I'm back! Did you miss me?  This is one of the busiest times of the year for us, and right smack dab in the middle of our craziness, my husband let me take off for a few days with some of the gals from church to attend a "Ladies Retreat".  It was really fun but I couldn't help but think about all of the things that still needed to be done back home.

- Building the new set of corrals
- Ear tagging the heifers
- Deworming the cows
- Fly tags for the cows
- Fixing the Sprinklers
- Tilling the garden
Etc. Etc.....you get the point.

Despite my growing list of chores, I was whisked away in a church van and taken to a camp that could have doubled for the one in the movie "The Parent Trap". It was tucked in at the base of a small canyon and a little stream ran right through the middle of camp.

(Sorry about the low budget pictures, I took them all with my iPhone.)

I stayed in the little cabin below with 9 other ladies, and it felt like we were all 14 again as we rolled out our sleeping bags on the vinyl mattresses of the bunk beds.

Here are a few of my best friends while we were waiting for dinner to be served.  We ate Chicken Cordon Bleu, stuffed turkey breast, Asparagus with sauce, salad, rice pilaf, and rolls.  For dessert we had cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  Yummy. It was definitely more gourmet than the camp meals I remember eating as a child, and the best part was that I didn't have to cook it!

 Meanwhile, back at home my husband was slapping together barbecued pulled pork sandwiches with chips in between the kids' baseball games.  I think the kids ate junk from the Little League snack Bbar for dessert.

Our retreat was based on a Bible study by Beth Moore called, "Loving Well". The main text we studied was found in 1 John 4:7-21.  In between video sessions, we played games and looked ridiculous.

This particular game involved pantyhose and a tennis ball. The object was to wrap the tennis balls together with a partner, and try to pull the hose off of the other person's head without using your hands.  It was sort of a weird tug of war with pantyhose, but we were laughing so hard that we could hardly play the game!

While all of this nonsense was taking place, I was missing my son's baseball game back home!  He hit two doubles and a triple, knocked in 5 runs, and struck out 3 of the last 4 batters to end the inning, and win the game.  I nearly cried with excitement when I got the text message! I was so sad that I missed it!

It was nearly 11:00pm before we got back to our cabins that night, and we were told to bring a flashlight with us so we could see where we were going.  At home, we normally use headlamps.  When you are irrigating, pulling calves, or looking for something in the dark, it's nice to have your hands free, even though you look slightly ridiculous with a head band on.  However, it's a little tough to talk to people in the dark with a headlamp on because you can see the other person clearly, but the lights completely blind them and they feel like they are being interrogated.  My husband had the headlamps with him in the truck, and I didn't want to look like a nerd, so I splurged and bought myself a new flashlight for the occasion.

I'm in LOVE with this little MAG- LITE.  It's small, light weight, and takes only 3 AAA batteries, but it packs a mighty bright punch! It has a whopping 104 lumens!! That's blindingly bright!  Plus, it's an LED light so the batteries will last twice as long, and it fits in my pocket.  It was expensive, but I returned a faulty garden hose to the local Home Depot in exchange for it. It outshines every flashlight in the house, with the exception of our spotlight that we affectionately call the "Cyclops". 

Anyway, I digress.  On Saturday, we woke up and had another full day of Bible Studies, food, skits, and hiking.  I would stop and pray often for my poor husband who was alone with our three busy kids. They all had little league pictures that day, which meant that their hair had to be done nicely, and their uniforms had to be cleaned from the game the night before.

My husband does not do hair very well...especially little girl hair.

I was nervous.

I didn't want my pretty little girls to look like boys with their hair pulled back into a ponytail with a ball cap on, but my husband doesn't know the first thing about curls or alternate hairstyles.  He barely knows how to do the pony tail.

I prayed hard.

I get the feeling that things were a bit rough.  My husband kept saying that it was REALLY windy, and my girls said that Daddy did their hair weird, and my husband's coaching buddies were giving him "tips" on doing girl hair.  That doesn't sound very promising.  The proof will be in the pictures, and I won't have them back for another month.  I hope they look better than everyone makes them out to be.

My poor, poor husband... abandoned by his wife during his time of need.

I got home on Saturday evening, and I could tell that he was glad to have me back.  Sometimes moms are just better at juggling things when it comes to the kids...especially when the kids have to look "ready for their close- up". Ha Ha!   It feels nice to be needed. I had a relaxing retreat, and enjoyed fellowship with many of my dear friends, but I missed my family a ton! It felt good to be home again.  I have such a sweet husband, and I'm thankful that he told me to go and have a good time while he took care of things at home.

Now that I'm back, it's time to start crossing some of those chores off of my list.

Hope you have a great Monday!

Nell