Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Vacation ~ Tuesday

I woke up at 8:45 PM, did my personal devotions, and then headed upstairs. Lydia was already up. When I got upstairs I found her sitting by the fire, and Mom and Dad were getting breakfast. Joe came upstairs shortly after I did. For breakfast we ate cornflakes with banana and milk, drank orange juice and cinnamon tea.

After breakfast I sat in the living room and cross stitched while listening to the Marshall family sing. Meanwhile, Josiah kept feeding the fire and Dad snoozed in a chair. We had family devotions at noon, and then I got myself ready for the day. I love lazy vacation days! I noticed that the water was considerably softer than ours is in Holland; it felt good! After I finished up downstairs I headed back up to our living quarters. Everyone was seated for lunch. Mom had broccoli soup, carrot sticks, and bread and cheese waiting. It was yummy!!! I really felt spoiled rotten! God is so good to us!

The conversational topic over lunch was about some recent church issues we’ve been dealing with. You can take the pastor’s family out of the church, but you can’t take the church out of the pastor’s family. (chuckle) Speaking of which, I had this thought as we were driving to Belgium: I think I should be an evangelist’s wife because I like driving in the car so much. When I mentioned this to Dad he laughed. Oh well, only God knows what the future holds.

We quickly cleaned up lunch and then got ready to drive into town and shop at Carrefour. We shopped there for several hours. It’s so neat to go to big stores like the ones they have in the States. It’s not like here in Holland where you have to go to several small stores to get different things you need. Sometimes I really miss Wal-Mart! By the time we got out of there I was tired from walking around for so long, and it was nearing dinnertime.

We got home, unpacked the groceries, and I helped Mom get dinner on the table. The guys insisted on spaghetti even though Mom had other dinner plans. Mom is so nice! Dad and Josiah bought an axe at the store, so they were outside chopping wood. As I glanced out at them through the kitchen window I prayed for their safety. Swinging axes scare me! Soon we were eating. The meal was delicious!!! Mom had a bad headache, so I cleaned up dinner by myself and then settled on the couch to cross-stitch.

Josiah and Lydia got a crackling fire going in the fireplace. It was so nice to be warm! The chalet was quite damp, especially downstairs where we slept. That’s probably why I felt like I was fighting a cold. I wish we had a fireplace in our house. The Kamps have a wood burning stove in their living room, and I just love it!

For our after-dinner entertainment Lydia suggested we watch a nice movie which we all enjoyed. I listened as I worked on my cross-stitch. Then we decided to play a game of Apples to Apples. I think the slogan of the game should be “Think like the judge.” That’s the best way to win! There are certain cards that I would use if Lydia was the judge that I would never use if Josiah was judging. For instance, if the green card was the word “exciting” I would wouldn’t use a red card reading “deer hunting” if Lydia was the judge, but if Josiah was the judge I probably would use that card. At one point the green card was “natural.” Since Lydia was the judge I put down the red card “hugs.” I knew she’d like that one. Josiah would’ve never picked it! (chuckle) Lydia and I kept teasing each other about having the same brain waves. As they say “Great minds…!” Ha! She always knew which card I had put down and she would pick it, and I did the same for her. We have a pact. (grin) Josiah was annoyed with us; it was funny! Lydia won the game with 7 cards, and I had 6. Not too bad!

I love my family! We had such an enjoyable evening together. It was so nice to not have any Internet or phone calls or anything else to distract us from being with each other. Sometimes I think all these newfangled electronics and whatnot are more of a curse than a blessing, especially to family life. Families need to spend more time with each other! What an enjoyable evening we had!

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