Things I've Learned About Journeying in the Last Few Weeks
1. Sleepovers are for kids. So, if you're getting any urges to have a sleepover with your married friends and their children, think again. Remember that you might be sharing a bed with your friend's baby, not your own, who will snuggle against your back and make you feel as though you are cheating on your own kids, and that the kids will take turns waking up all night and to top it off you'll have insomnia and will lie awake for hours wishing someone would just hit you over the head. However, you will have formed some good memories, as well as seen just how far your friends will go to show you their love and goodwill towards you (letting your kids sleep in their bedroom...) so it may be worth it. Maybe.
2. Ford vehicles have leaky transmissions. Apparently. Because ours ended up exploding on the road home from San Francisco, after which we sat in the car for several hours waiting for a tow truck. And this was very late at night. Which brings me to my next thing.
3. Not fighting with your husband in a crisis really does make it less of a crisis. Shockingly enough, the aspects of love that God has voted for really make life better than the ones He doesn't endorse. So, I'm learning to leave things like blame and irritation out of the picture when something and breaks. (I still have a hard time restraining the heavy sighs, though.) This way, the memory of the night that the car broke down when you had everything important that you owned in it, plus your exhausted and sick children can be a good one, somehow. (Which it is, actually.) Like, remember how we didn't fall apart when this happened? Rather than that sick feeling you get in your stomach when you think about a certain day or event and remember that you ruined it for everyone with your bad mood.
4. Driving a car for twelve hours consecutively is hard on your butt-bones. Although, I've learned this lesson before, so you could say I'm actually re-learning it.
5. It's not the best thing to feed your kids chicken and fries twice a day. But sometimes necessary, as when you are on the road and your kids are allergic to almost everything.
6. Most people caught with guns in their cars crossing the border into BC have California plates. Or, this is what the Canadian border officer told us, anyways. I completely forgot that they would ask us about guns. I guess none of my friends have guns, so I forget about all that American/Canadian stuff dealing with guns.
7. I really really love Canada. And things Canadian. Like, Shreddies (which Chinua has never had) which are a type of cereal, Coffee Crisp, all the Canadian chocolate bars that we don't have in the States, the RCMP because they're just so nice, my parents, my sister, French Canadian pea soup, tea, and oh- lots of things.
2. Ford vehicles have leaky transmissions. Apparently. Because ours ended up exploding on the road home from San Francisco, after which we sat in the car for several hours waiting for a tow truck. And this was very late at night. Which brings me to my next thing.
3. Not fighting with your husband in a crisis really does make it less of a crisis. Shockingly enough, the aspects of love that God has voted for really make life better than the ones He doesn't endorse. So, I'm learning to leave things like blame and irritation out of the picture when something and breaks. (I still have a hard time restraining the heavy sighs, though.) This way, the memory of the night that the car broke down when you had everything important that you owned in it, plus your exhausted and sick children can be a good one, somehow. (Which it is, actually.) Like, remember how we didn't fall apart when this happened? Rather than that sick feeling you get in your stomach when you think about a certain day or event and remember that you ruined it for everyone with your bad mood.
4. Driving a car for twelve hours consecutively is hard on your butt-bones. Although, I've learned this lesson before, so you could say I'm actually re-learning it.
5. It's not the best thing to feed your kids chicken and fries twice a day. But sometimes necessary, as when you are on the road and your kids are allergic to almost everything.
6. Most people caught with guns in their cars crossing the border into BC have California plates. Or, this is what the Canadian border officer told us, anyways. I completely forgot that they would ask us about guns. I guess none of my friends have guns, so I forget about all that American/Canadian stuff dealing with guns.
7. I really really love Canada. And things Canadian. Like, Shreddies (which Chinua has never had) which are a type of cereal, Coffee Crisp, all the Canadian chocolate bars that we don't have in the States, the RCMP because they're just so nice, my parents, my sister, French Canadian pea soup, tea, and oh- lots of things.