Super Highway Vacation

I survived ONE entire week without FACEBOOK or the Internet! I know it sounds pathetic!! But my life and my connectedness is directly related to how much time I get to spend checking my email or cruising FB. It is sad, I know! But its about like someone not having a cell phone and texting. I don't get to talk to my friends via the phone very often...Pete may argue this point....but the truth is that I do not get to talk to people much face to face, via phone or otherwise. Most of my communication has been limited to FB and emails. We all have such busy lives.
Recently a friend of mine was a little miffed that I had not been the best of friends and had not actively been in touch. I also had not set up any sort of socialization outside of Church and work. As I explained to her VIA FB, I don't have a life! I don't socialize and I don't get to go and do lots of fun things. I am about as exciting as a slug. Much to my friend Sherrie's dismay, I was ready to go to bed by 9:30PM the whole time we were at the Women of Joy conference!! Yeah, I know....I went a little over board!! I stayed up until 10PM. WOOOHOOO!!! But truthfully, that was only because Sherrie just kept wanting to talk and hang out. I begged her to let me go to sleep!!
Anyway, this past week, Pete, the girls and I went camping at Unicoi State park near Helen, GA. We had a great time. Iris the dog came with us. We didn't have such a great time in the truck on the way up or back...with the girls fighting constantly in the back seat! But the rest of the time was pretty stinking fun! We swam at the "beach" (the lake water was so clear there that we could SEE the fish swimming around us!!). We hiked the Appalachian trail. What a magnificent example of God's creation! We went tubing down the river in Helen! I really, really enjoyed that! We just generally had a great time! And it did not even rain on us until the last night!! What a miracle for us!
As we were hiking up the Appalachian trail, Pete and I talked about how we wished that we had lived our lives differently. Why when we were single folk, didn't we spend more time hiking and camping with friends or some such thing? We really enjoyed hiking a lot. We talked about going hiking some weekend with out the girls, up the trail. I love to camp and I think that Pete and I would have a great time. Maybe we could hike about 10miles or so a day, camp and hike some more. I really need to put my mind to that and make it happen...and not just talk about it. There really isn't a good reason why we shouldn't or can't do it. Well, other than needing to find someone to watch the girls for the weekend. We are both in good health and CAN DO IT! Of course, we both had the Jello legs after having to switch off back and forth carrying Lyndi up and down the mountain! WHEW! 2 year olds aren't the best hikers in the world! For that matter, 7 yr olds aren't the greatest of hikers at a certain point. If they don't have a set end point...just hiking up some dumb old trail doesn't make a lot of sense...especially when its rough terrain and they could be playing at the beach or something!!!
This week, I spent lots of time with Joyce Meyer! I can't think of the name of the book, but it deals with finding PEACE and JOY in our lives! She is such a wonderful writer and minister of God's Word. I really appreciated what she had to say! What wonderful timing too! We all have stress and some form of conflict in our lives. It is so wonderful to have a reminder that we should focus on God and live for TODAY. Our past and the future are not the here and now. We have no control over either. We can't change the past or the future. And worry gets us NO WHERE!!
All week, I kept wishing that I had access to my blog or even a notebook to write in! There were so many things I wanted to share from the week! I guess it wouldn't be much of a vacation if I was still PLUGGED IN though!
This week, I got to spend a lot of quality time with the girls. I got to love on them and play with them more than I have in a long time. I have two very special, beautiful girls! The world we live in, nature, is absolutely mind blowing! I saw so many amazing species of plants and flowers that I have never seen before. God really went all out! The girls and I even stood about 15 feet away from a young deer and watched it feed. It walked almost right up to us! Lyndi hollering and Iris whining did not even make it run off.
After we returned home, I got to thinking that there are many things that we don't do...like just randomly going hiking or whatever. I don't do many things for FUN! I hope that I won't keep on that same path. Life is racing by...I don't want to miss out on living it!