Home

I have more to post regarding what I learned at the arts conference, but here's the recap of the journey home:

• Arrive at airport early Friday afternoon; find out plane has been delayed 30 minutes. Half an hour turns into a full hour. Failed attempt to nap briefly on chair at gate leads to extreme muscle aches. Know that I'll have to see Mr. Chiropractor Friend and give him money early in the week.
• Hungry for chocolate, in need of coffee. Stand in line at Starbucks and experience the worst service I've ever encountered. Guy at the register keeps calling his two co-workers 'stupid'. He doesn't appear to be kidding. When I hand him my money, he looks at me, shrugs and says, "I'm hungry. I ain't got no break and I ain't eat yet." Okay. Turns out they don't have any coffee ready. I wait.
• Walk the length of terminal C looked for something to munch. Settle on a large Snickers and a bag of raw almonds. Eat half the Snickers and throw the rest away. Almonds make my teeth hurt.
• Read part of new TIME magazine about obesity in children. Feel glad that my kids aren't struggling with weight issues.
• Realize that I really want to go home.
• Get on airplane. Take off successful. Read. Type up notes for posterity and future blog post.
• Landing successful. Hello, DC! We're home!
• No, wait. We're not. We have two hours to drive.
• Thank God for the guys in our group who paid attention to where we parked the cars.
• Start the long drive home. Talk incessantly to stay awake. Stop at WaWa in Fredericksburg for fuel ($3.95 - talk about WAWA! Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!) and coffee. And a gargantuan blueberry muffin.
• Drop off friends at their cars. Drive home. Drag in luggage. Fall on bed, fully clothed. Set alarm. Note time - 3:45 a.m. Fall asleep, fully clothed.
• Alarm goes off. Note time - 5:30 a.m. Ugh. Drive older girls to meeting place for mission trip departure. Am not very social with fellow parents and youth leaders, all of whom appear to have gotten more than two hours sleep.
• Go home, longing for more sleep. Realize that daughter number 3 needs to be at babysitting job in 45 minutes. No sleep. Wait for her to get ready, and drive her to job.
• Go to friends' house. Crash.
• Wake up. Note time - 4:30 p.m. Yay.

The rest of the evening has been a blur. Syd and I had a nice date together at Chili's, where we talked a lot. I've run kids here and there, ending up with only one at home, who has a soccer tourney tomorrow. The others are with their dad. I'm discombobulated.

I'm looking forward to worship tomorrow and getting reacquainted with the rhythm of life here. I am determined to make some changes, and plan to make some room in the next few days.

Blessings...