Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday 🎉 and we are going away for a few days to give him a ?rest? from all the things he has to do every single day to make our household run! So …  …we are taking half our house somewhere else that we’ve never been before, and packing all of it into our car. Personally I think he’s knocking off work to pick up bricks, but he’s pretty cheery about it. We will drive up the coast – where none of the services we actually need will be anywhere near where they should be … but for a little while we will have a great view!  🤣 As everybody already knows, a great view changes everything! 

Ssshh! I bought hubby a gizmo for his camera for his birthday – plus a car puzzle. He wants to take better pictures of birds, up really close. Fortunately, he does not see any sort of photography as work, he sees it as fun. And at the same time he is hoping to do some painting for our next trip. There is also a swimming pool available, downstairs, which is a big boon for his bad back … all that floating about. And me? I go where he goes… that is … anywhere but outside! Outside and I are allergic to each other — literally!

Holidays are often a big deal in many households. Lots of careful savings so we can afford all that fun! We mustn’t forget the right clothes so we aren’t too hot or too cold. And in our case we can’t afford to forget a very large bag full of all kinds of medicines … plus the … camera, of course. After all,  we must try this new whizz-bang gizmo out! Sunglasses, hats, sunscreen, the kids … Ha! I’m glad you picked up the fact that we have no kids at our house anymore … I’m just projecting your life onto mine!! 

We will also need to make sure we take all the cords for charging things, plus the things that we know that will need charging! I’m never quite sure how much of a holiday things like this are, as hubby often has to lug everything needed up lots of stairs … But fortunately … this … time … tada!! There is a lift. Happy birthday dear – I got you a lift!

The people in these holiday-land places always seem so nice, and friendly, when you get there. It makes me wonder if they are paid extra to smile – maybe they learn smile-practising 101? Meanwhile I can’t imagine anything worse than living in holiday land and having to paste on a smile every morning! We know that the staff’s smiles are pasted on, BTW, because when the Holy Spirit shows up, they cry all over the place. We are so blessed that He wants to come with us. We don’t even want to try to go anywhere without Him. Neither of us would cope!

The Holy Spirit coming with us actually stops us from fighting— whoops, sorry — disagreeing loudly …  That’s a  huge plus! Why is it when holidays happen people get a bit tetchy? It must be all that extra work we have to do, so we can get away to have fun and a rest. Oxymoron anyone? Maybe all that effort to relax makes human beings even more cranky. You’d think the very word holiday would do the trick, but sometimes it’s so much work to relax, it becomes very stressful! 

Plus there is the responsibility to make the holiday fun for everyone else. The plan-ner has to provide suitable entertainment for the other passengers on this happy jaunt to places unknown. I seem to recall when my kids were teenagers, that it didn’t matter what you planned, somebody would moan about it not suiting them! There are days when you can almost hear people on holidays saying through gritted teeth to each other: “Are we having fun yet?”

I’ve watched people work so hard to make their holiday fun – that they actually worked all the fun out of it, by over-planning every single thing for every day they were away! I don’t have a solution to this first-world problem, except I think that perhaps we might need to stop and count some blessings along the way. BTW, FYI, even the Lord Himself rested  – check out Genesis 2.

Meanwhile … we are off  🚘… and I’ll see you same bat-time, same bat-channel tomorrow! Just watch for the sign in the sky OK? Toodle-oo. Obviously – I’m bat girl, there’s no WAY I’m fitting into cat woman’s suit! 👋