Beach Time

I'm convinced that time at the beach moves more rapidly than time at home.  How has more than a week already passed?  The days go by so quickly... too quickly if you ask me.  Our days are not necessarily jam packed with a ton of activities - it's just that every thing that we do we do it for a while... not to mention, my typical early mornings at home have been replaced by sleeping in and lounging around here at the beach.  I may be looking into joining a Couch to 5K running program upon my return because exercise has been few and far between.  This morning, the boys went crabbing where they used chicken pieces to lure crabs. That was a fun activity, albeit very hot.  Brooke hung in there for an hour or so and then in her own little way, she said let's get out of here...

We went to the pool for a quick dip, home for lunch and then she napped.  And while she napped, the boys and I read our books and we actually cleaned up a bit!  I don't know what it is about being at the beach, but I had them taking out the trash, vacuuming and using Windex to clean glass - all with great and happy attitudes!  Life on vacation without stress puts everyone in a good mood.

The beach provides the landscape by which you can think about the bigger picture of life and that which is most meaningful to you.  At home, and I'm sure I speak for many of you, we are clouded by time constraints, carpool, school, homework, paying bills, work, errands, dressing appropriately for this party or that event...and after one minute in front of the great wide ocean, I am reminded of how great God is and how small I am.  I look around at all the other families frolicking in the sand - each with their own busy lives at home... and I look toward the ocean and like magic, all of my trivial little concerns and problems just disappear - how small they seem when you're standing in front of that big beautiful ocean.  We're all trying to do the best we can but it's so easy to get wrapped up in the small stuff.  That's why I love this two week vacation of ours - it clears the mind and soul...

Now, I will say that I have learned the importance of checking the news occasionally while in the beach bubble. I happened to wake up around 4 AM on Saturday morning and didn't want to turn on the light to read my book and chance waking up Matt, so I grabbed my phone and checked my news app, which I hadn't done in days.  Now, if you don't have a chance to stand in front of the ocean this Summer to gain the much needed perspective we could all use, the tragedy of the CO movie theater shooting will give it to you.  None of us should EVER have to worry about this sort of thing happening.  How terribly tragic for those who lost lives and their family and friends.  What can we take from this?  We can pray for everyone directly affected by this shooting and we can hug our children and do our best to cherish each and every moment we are blessed to live on this earth.