Revitalization At Its Best

I need winter to end in the worst way. My soul needs an adventure. I need to feel the freedom of carrying the essentials along while I forget the other cares of the world. I need to smell the sunshine when it kisses my bare shoulders each time I venture out of the shade of things that are green. I need to stretch out in a shallow river and feel the water trickle over my weary muscles so that I can bask on a toasty rock the size of my living room while I dry. I need the taste of food that doesn't require a pause in my journey, at the same time knowing that when the time is right, I can make a home with what I have in the middle of nowhere.

I need to travel in step with a soul mate that I don't have to talk to and spend precious time with my Maker while we browse the landscape of His creation. I want to sing at the top of my lungs the joy that overflows when I'm gazing at the wonders of His work.

I need to put miles behind me on a journey that stretches endless more miles ahead- miles that are filled with such beauty that they saturate my senses and revive my soul.

Any takers?

Ringing in the New Year "Alone"

Our plans for this fabulous evening kind of flopped and I've been in the funk all day anyway, so we're spending yet another fantastically exciting New Year's on the couch. Just another reminder (the day after my birthday, conveniently) that we're getting old. Well, I decided I was going to combat this funk with some "me" time. Hmmmmm...I have a portable DVD player and new bubble bath. Twilight and the tub were calling my name.

I arrive upstairs and am chatting with my newly neglected Matriarch cat while I park the DVD player on the sink. I reached down to start the bath water and realize I've been in this funk long enough to result in a really nasty film in the tub. Darn. There goes some of the joy of my me time, sucked right down the drain with the comet.

I finally got some scalding water running into the clean tub and was just about to start pouring the bubble bath when in bounded the offspring.

"Mommy! What are you DOING? I don't want to go to bed!"
"This isn't for you, it's for me." I replied.
"Are you going to take a shower?" She inquired.
"No, I'm going to take a bath." I answered.
"What?" This is how often I've had time to enjoy a bubble bath in the last three years. The concept is totally foreign to her.

"I'm going to watch!" She declared, quite proudly.
"Punkin, Mommy really wants to take a bath alone. And besides, this movie I'm watching will scare you." I mean, she's scared of Veggie Tales sometimes. Surely she won't endure Twilight, which was kind of the idea.
"That's ok, Mommy, I'll be alone with you." My hope of enjoying my bath was closely following the comet.

So I spent the next twenty minutes "enjoying" a bubble bath to the tune of Twilight in the background of a two year old "washing" me and throwing rubber ducks into my bubbles, accompanied by the intoxicating fragrance of "stress relief" mint bath foam. We ended our year's vacation with a "swim" in Bill and Connie's garden tub in our bathing suits, so I'm not sure why I expected to end the year any differently. Oh well, at least she's cute.