Vacating

It is such a delicious luxury to blog today. Summer offers a new freedom to me because I was in the classroom for the past year. While teaching high school at my children's beloved Christian school, I was all in: 24/7 it seemed. What an amazing experience that was. Our youngest was in preschool, one daughter in elementary, the first born in middle school, and I was in the high school all day. We will always hold a love for those people and hallways. It was our second home for the past three years.

OK! Those high school students and their sarcasm and their honesty and their emotions and their excuses and their creativity and their wounds and their problem solving skills and their leadership theories and their political confusion completely won my heart. But I did not stop moving for 9 months. The job was not at fault for that. The way that I parent (all in) and the way that our family invested in our small school (attend everything) was (of course) a recipe for fatigue.

But I am strangely energized now that I am home again. I tackled summer vacation with all of its hazards: too much togetherness, needing a vacation after your vacation, the workload when you return to reality, and the letdown when it is over.

But we Crawfords were in need of Sabbath. That rest that only God could design and provide.  We booked some wonderful vacation places this summer. In July, we played in mountain streams in the Smoky Mountain National Park and swam in the Gulf of Mexico in the same week. We enjoyed great views and great conversation with my husband's clan and mine. We celebrated my Granddaddy's 90th birthday. We stayed at a Disney resort for the first time as a family of 5. None of our Orlando native kids remember ever having that opportunity, even though we play in the theme parks on a monthly basis.

Miles in the car and piles of laundry: Worth it!
The sighs when I request one more picture: Typical!
The superfluous souvenirs : Oh yeah, Baby!
The way gas prices skyrocket when we plan to drive: Oh joy!

We have waited on the Lord, and He has renewed our strength.

Have a blessed end of summer.