Down to Earth

 

Lots of lineups, french bread fast food, customs 3 times, a late flight which meant being bumped to a later flight, and many hours in the air, and we're home. 

I didn't know how I'd feel about coming back to earth, but as we came in for our landing, I was glad to be home. 

Home to Christmas lights on the houses, clean sheets and my own pillow. Home to snow, and brighter skies than they have in Holland this time of year. 

Home to a house that feels surprisingly light and airy after a month of high, dark ceilings with loads of character.  

I walk into the kitchen and it feels unfamiliar. I back up, come in again. This is what it was before?  It's the oddest feeling. Probably happened because I spend so much of my time in this room, ordinarily. 

Kevin isn't exactly excited to go back to work; so I am calling this vacation a success. He is so good at his job that he usually is ready to go early; energized by the challenges of each day. Which is awesome, but it's nice to be good at resting, too. 

I am so thankful to God to have had this opportunity. And, as I settle back into homeschooling and my old routines for housekeeping and mothering, I'm also thankful that my ordinary is actually quite nice. 

From for the family's sake, by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

"Is it actually more valuable to push a pen on paper or buttons on a computer than to be expert in human life and its care? Is life more worthwhile because there is never time to pick wild blackberries and make a fruit crumble? Are things really more important than people? Will the warmth and wisdom of the expertise if caring for each other be handed on? Isn't this an amazingly interesting and complex life vocation on the one hand, and yet clear on the other?
I find it so. To me it seems an enormous privilege to be what my children call "Mum.""