Age 33

For my 33rd birthday Keith gave me the one thing I've been craving for a very long time: 

Twenty-four hours of solitude at a location of my choice (within reason).

Around 12:30 I made the short drive down to Pittsboro and checked into a no-frills bed and breakfast for the evening. It had a big front porch and a comfortable bed. That's all I needed.  

For the next hour or so I meandered (meandered! without a preschooler!) through the antique and consignment shops, toy store, and bakery. 

I then found myself a rocker at the B&B and read The Indy before starting the refreshment portion of my stay.

I finally finished a book I've been reading in snatches of quiet for the past few weeks - Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst. And I discovered the real name for what I was doing there in that tiny upstairs room.

Sabbath.

I was having a much needed and too often neglected Sabbath.

So, other than read Unglued, what did I do? I read my Bible, prayed, and asked God to open my eyes to whatever He needed me to see. I kept notes to remember whatever I learned. It was exactly what I needed.

After walking two blocks for some delicious hummus, pita, and ratatouille, I climbed into bed with new reading material. At 9:00pm I did something crazy... turned out the light and went to sleep!

This morning I woke without anyone calling my name at 7am, but decided to stay under the sheets for another 20 minutes. Heavenly. Downstairs I had a nice breakfast with two lovely ladies, cousins who enjoyed traveling together. We talked about everything from the state of American education to mead they tasted yesterday.

Oh, and I got this:

When I left the B&B I intended to hit up an antique yard sale, but when I drove by the house there was no sale. Hmm. So I drove back to my house a couple hours early, read on the front porch, and dug up some weeds until my sweet fellas came home from Mighty Dragons.

The little guy says, "I'm well," but he's running a low fever and definitely not himself. Perhaps it was mother's intuition that brought me home 2 hours early. (Nah, I just missed him.) I spent the rest of the day lollygagging, as my mom would say. I can't even say the last time I felt so relaxed. I also took a nap with Henry and woke to find this:

Mr. Dangel made homemade bruschetta, sauce and meatballs, Italian bread, and cookie cake. I'm blessed. I don't brag a lot on facebook or even in person, because I know I get sick of people doing that all the time, and I know some wives wish they had more supportive and attentive husbands. But I am truly blessed. I hope I have many more years with these wonderful boys in my life.

But, wait! There's more! After dinner we had S'mores with our neighbors around their new fire pit.

I have desperately wanted a friend, and preferably a neighbor, who had a child to be Henry's friend. In fact, it was on my "Life Goal" list as a teenager. The very day we moved in our new house, we met Brian, Melissa, Abel and Eli. It is impossible to describe how grateful I am that God has answered this prayer, and Keith and I pray daily that Abel and Henry will always look out for each other. (And Eli, of course!)

Thanks be to God for redeeming the ashes of age 31 1/2 to 32 1/2. Here's to age 33.