Friday 25 January 2013

One Thousand Gifts...Days 18 ~ 24

My husband and I went away for a couple days this past week to Couples Resort up near Algonquin Park.  It was nice to get away...just the two of us.  The drive up was peaceful and relaxing, barely anyone else on the road.  We chatted about life...our kids...where we saw ourselves going in the next number of year...the business, etc., it was good to connect.

Of course we did arrive at the start of a cold snap, it was bitterly cold.  Since this was our second time at the resort I was given a free pedicure, it was nice getting my feet done.  The room where I had my feet done and where our room was were in two different buildings and in order to get back after the pedicure I had to brave the - 30 degree celsius weather in bare-feet and flip flops so as not to mess up my newly polished toes...that was one cold cold cold cold walk...I think it took the rest of the night for my feet to warm up :-) Thank goodness for a wood burning fireplace.

Wednesday morning we woke up to - 38 degrees celsius but the sun was shining brightly.   We went for breakfast and then headed for a drive through Algonquin Park...it was beautiful...barely a soul on the road.  Every now and then we stopped and I hopped out of the car braving the bitter cold to take some shots of the beautiful winter scenery.  I am continually amazed at the beauty of God's creation.

Thursday afternoon we came home taking a different route, it was quite beautiful.  One thing I love about living in Canada is our four seasons, each one is beautiful and unique.  As one season draws to an end I'm always looking forward to the next.

So we arrive home to a house that smells strangely of gas fumes and about a dozen lit scented candles...

Our youngest son's bedroom door is shut.  I knock and enter in to find two dirt bikes and my son and his friend doing some mechanical work.  My son with a grin on his face, and a look like there was nothing unusual about his room, was surprised to see me.  This is not what you want to come home to after a nice connecting time away with your husband.

We had just redone our basement...new flooring, new paint, new furniture and the last thing you want dragged down into your new basement are two Suzuki 250's.  Needless to say my husband was furious.  I took it a little differently...there are worse things two young guys could be up to.  The saving grace was the fact that my husband had to leave right away to get paycheques to his guys...this gave him time to "decompress."  That's our daughter's advice as to what he needed to do...she's taking Youth and Child Care Worker at college right now, so she has lots of parenting tips for us ;-)

After my husband left I talked to these two guys about the fact that Matt's room was not a workshop.  And that I had specifically mentioned that there was to be no dirt bike brought in the house while we were gone...somehow the son doesn't recall this conversation.  You see this has happened before...too cold out in the garage and so you come home to a dirt bike in your front entrance and a son with a grin on his face like it's perfectly normal to have a dirt bike in your front entrance.

So the husband called a number of times while he was on the road and we discussed the problem in the basement...the disrespect...the way it made him feel...the anger and well he decompressed, just as his daughter advised him to.  It didn't make what had been done right but it made a way for GRACE instead of the sledgehammer of anger and the law.  And while he was gone we got those two Suzuki's out of the house and everything was back to normal...well accept for a little gas fumes...

That evening I wrote in my gratitude journal :  Working together as parents ~ unity.
You see this incident could have very well taken away all that we just had together in our time away.

My husband spoke those very words, "coming home to this just takes away what we had."  I had to remind him that it doesn't have to...that it's a choice as to what we do with it.  It's times like this and though this be a little thing, these are the things that can drive wedges in your marriage and have in ours.  Instead of working together as parents you end up in different corners when you should be drawing towards one another.

Over the years if my husband and I have had to deal with difficult situations with our kids it hasn't always been easy, so many times I would close my heart to him...thinking that he was being too tough or I just didn't know how to share my mother's heart of pain with him and so I'd distance myself.  Over the years this has been changing and that's why yesterday I was so thankful that we worked together as a team instead of against each other with a kid caught in the middle.

My husband came home different than the man who had left...the son apologized...GRACE is good...God is good...

Gifts journaled for days 18 ~ 24

51. Serving
52. A house to frame ~ answer to prayer
53. Warm sunshine streaming through my window
54. My son asking me to go for a walk
55. Girls getting the groceries
56. Jocelyne helping
57. Humour
58. Responsible husband
59. Church community
60. Fellowship with friends
61. A friend blessing me and my husband's time away
62. Cozy with the cat on the couch
63. Relaxing quiet night with Jocelyne
64. Peaceful and relaxing drive with my husband
65. Snow covered pines
66. Delicious five course meal
67. Beautiful warm sunshine streaming across our breakfast table
68. Gorgeous snow covered Algonquin Park
69. Abundance
70. Warm wood fire on a bitter cold day
71. Home
72. Working together as parents ~ unity

Here are some pictures from our trip...


The morning sunshine was beautiful




We were treated well at the resort, five course meals for dinner and the breakfast of your choice in the morning.  Ruby Red Grapefruit is one of my favourite juices.


Passed by a logging company.  I couldn't believe the amount of log piles they had.



Headed for a drive through Algonquin Park, this park is 1, 891, 167 acres and it's beautiful.  









Stopped at a river near our resort, the trees were covered in frozen mist from the river because the days were so bitterly cold.






On our drive home we passed these beautiful old barns that looked gorgeous against the 
brilliant blue sky.











2 comments:

  1. Winter there looks sooooo cold! Glad you enjoyed your getaway. Won't it be great when the kids grow a frontal lobe?

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  2. I'm trying to imagine having teens. Mine are 10 & 5 right now, but I know that there are challenging times ahead. Thankful that there is hope if we stay the course and seek God's way. Love your images of winter.

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