Massanutten, Virginia

Oh the memories of this incredible vacation!!!  I could never have dreamed this time away would be so breathtakingly beautiful.  It was a gift that we seemed to open again and again throughout our seven days away.  And because I had started a "Eucharisteo" journal in March, I took it with me to record the gratitude moments that flowed throughout our days.  And so it began...

322.  Driving to Virginia together
323.  Protection together
324.  Contentment together
325.  Gorgeous mountain scenery

326.  Massanuten!!
327.  Deer on the road
328.  Late dinner in our new "home"

329.  Jacuzzi tub--gigantic.  King Size Bed.

330.  Waking up together
331.  Peanut butter and Almonds

332.  Kneeling to pray with my husband
333.  Bambi touched my hand

334.  Hiking in the mountains
335.  Breathtaking views

336.  Kissing in the rain
337.  An afternoon nap
338.  A restful evening
339.  Hearing from Cam
340.  God's Word
341.  A new day
342.  Peanut butter...on toast, with apples, on a spoon, liked off my finger :)
343.  Dishwasher
344.  Mountain thunderstorms
345.  Massanutten Presbyterian Church--a friendly community
346.  Watching PGA with my husband
347.  Deer out my bathroom window
348.  Sun shining in
349.  A warm bath
350.  God encouraging me
351.  Shopping, shopping, shopping!

352.  Sales and more sales
353.  Love those U.S. prices
354.  Cracker Barrel Restaurant & Sugarfree Apple Pie  (38 carbs)
355.  Wind chimes for my front porch and t-shirts
356.  Sugar Free Turtles
357.  My husband serving me..."this is your day..."
358.  Luray Caverns  "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"

359.  Skyline Drive...magnificent beauty...mountains...lush forest

360.  Enjoying my husband...togetherness
361.  Ice Cream
362.  Buffet at Massanutten
363.  "Home" to rest, relax
364.  A new day with Jesus and my husband
365.  Christian music station
366.  Country Store Shopping

367.  "Bittersweet" Pillow
368.  Coldstone Peanut Butter Ice Cream
369.  A new purse
370.  Applebee's with my hubby
371.  A good cry over abundance with my hubby
372.  Peanut butter on toast...bedtime snack
373.  Leisure reading

374.  "Jesus--Safe, Tender, Extreme" by Adrian Plass--love his writing
375.  Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

376.  My Abba Father hears me
377.  Talking with my husband
378.  More Deer

379.  The Shoppe's @ Mauzy
380.  Brewster's Ice Cream
381.  Kohl's Sales

382.  The Golden Corral Buffet
383.  Awesome clouds

384.  Packing for Home
385.  Deer "just for us" when leaving
386.  Safety from thunderstorm
387.  Smooth border crossing
388.  Home again

How grateful we are for this memory-making way of celebrating 20 years of togetherness.

The Turn Around

We are back from Paradise.  It's one of the words I would use to describe our time in Virginia. 

Other-worldly...perfect...beautiful...contented togetherness...quiet....restful....Paradise.
 

And I would love to share with you the "Eucharisteo" moments of our trip, but it will have to wait.  Because this, right now, is "The Turn Around". 

We arrived home Friday evening around 8 and I have done laundry and half-unpacked, and now am mostly repacked, and then some, so that Ashley and her friend Sarah, and I are prepared to leave for Eden Sunday at 10 a.m.  I wasn't really sure if I could handle this chaos, but I have survived.  We are gone until Thursday, leaving my boys at home.  Brian needed to get back to work, and Cam has much to do to prepare for moving and university.

Next weekend, I do another "turn around", as our family leaves for Ottawa on Friday at noon for Brian's nephew's wedding.  We'll return home on Sunday.  Then, I think I just might crash.  ha,ha

For sure, I look forward to journaling all of these adventures right here.

The Anticipation

Just two more sleeps until the big day!!!  I can hardly wait...

Friday at 8 a.m. my hubby and I will get into our packed car and begin our road trek to Virginia to celebrate 20 years of marriage.  This week, although too busy for my liking, has also had so many moments of planning and discussing and anticipating our time away together.  Brian has printed off 20 pages of maps/directions and our little pile of things to take is growing here on our family room floor.  I have all the laundry done which leaves me to do all of my packing tomorrow. 

And write out a brief list for our kids.  Being almost 19 and 16, I have not prepared any meals or gone grocery shopping.  They will be on their own to plan a menu(or not) and prepare their meals.  I've basically said that I don't care how the house looks for 6 days, but on the 7th day, I want all the laundry done, dishes washed and away, floors swept and washed.  You get the picture.  MAKE YOUR MAMA HAPPY TO COME HOME!!!  ha,ha

Brian and I have gone away 1 weekend every year since the kids were born, but never this long, or this far away from them.  But I'm ready.  I probably wasn't up to leaving them even last year, but this year my Mama's heart is at peace.

Truthfully...I feel as though I am waiting with baited breath for Friday morning!!  It's not only about going away together, but spending time in a part of the country we've never been and exploring it hand in hand.   I look forward to waking up together with entire days stretching out before us...just for us.  Dining in unique restaurants, golfing at prestigious courses(Brian) and shopping at never-before-seen Scrap booking stores (Juanita) are on our list of "can't wait to do".  Brian found a "Mercy Me" and "Rebecca St. James's" concert on line about 30 minutes from our resort one of the evenings we're there.  Sounds fabulous!!  Hiking and picturesque mountains and  oh so much more to revel in once we actually get nestled into our home away from home. 

Sigh.  Just two more sleeps.  Which is more than fine, because I could really benefit from some good zzzzzz's.  :)

I Never Tire...of Eden

 

This must be a taste of heaven...this Eden-home we have been gifted with. I never tire of our days here.  It's not one thing, but  a host.  Like when I start driving down the last winding stretch of tree-lined road, that leads to our front porch.  Or opening the door to the van and inhaling Eden's air. 

Upon arrival this time, a smothering hug from my sister and her family awaited us.  And I just knew there would be a candle lit in the bathroom.  It's just part of living at Eden.

I longingly wait for these days of living "unplugged".  

No computer, and although a phone, rarely a phone call.  My cell phone activated only to keep in touch with my daughter and how much longer she and her friends will be hanging out at the beach.  I am grateful for technology.  It affords us so many benefits.  But it is a drain on me as well and I struggle with the way in which it nags me at home.  

But not here.  

Here at Eden, I can "hear" the quiet...the serenity. 

I think my family basks in this also.

And then there's the "work" that is actually play.  

I just smile when my Martha Stewart sister comes up with another creative work.  

Someone's throw-away picked off of the side of the road...a few select muscles to wrench out some "hooks", and...voila!!  A place to hang life-jackets, towels, etc.  Now, if only people can manage those few steps to actually hang up their belongings!!!!!  (The clothesline seems to be too far for them...ha,ha)

Eden is about slow mornings and endless scrumptious barbecuing.  It's about flexible meal times and afternoon naps...boat runs with tubes whipping over the waves.  It's about campfires and double buttered stove top popcorn and Chocolate Brownie Indulgence Ice Cream. over at the camp.  Eden is for shopping at the Keady Market...feasting our eyes and then our mouths on fresh produce.

   Eden is about Friends

And Family.

Eden is about watching old VHS movies because it's one of the few places still housing a VCR.  And because of this...it's about watching our Wedding Video from 20 years ago...and laughing and holding hands and remembering and gratefully appreciating His Presence on our journey.

Eden is about beauty...beauty that can sometimes only be more fully realized because we are at this place.

I never tire of Eden...her wealth of abundant beauty and her well of rich gifts is never ceasing. 

Eucharisteo...Eden!!!!

July 27, 1991-2011 " Walking Through Life Together"

"I had no idea it would be this hard--
     To serve you, especially when I don't feel like it
     To say, 'I'm sorry', when I think you should say it first
     To appreciate our differences when they seem to be pulling us apart
     To work through a conflict day after day after day..until we find a solution
     To tell you what I need, when I think it should be obvious
     To care for you, encourage and support you, when I am busy, tired and empty
I had no idea it would be this hard, but I always hoped it would be this good--
     To have actually found someone that I feel totally safe with
     To tackle a problem and emerge on the other side--closer than before
     To laugh with you, dream with you, enjoy you
     To be thankful for our oneness, yet value our individuality
    To walk with Christ...together, and marvel at how he works in us
    To be there for you as you are for me...in everything
I had no idea it would be this hard, but I always hoped it would be this good...
To spend my life with you."
--May 1998
Juanita

Eucharisteo, gratitude, blessed, content, privileged, deepest thanksgiving.  All words to describe how I feel on this "moment" of a day.  Twenty years is a long time and yet how those days and months quickly add up to years is still something of a surprise.  And so here we are...my husband and I celebrating twenty years of oneness, of a love that blossomed from those early years of learning how to love, to something deep and strong and rich and beautiful.

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart...there is no one I would rather journey through life with than you.  Your love for me...a Christ-like love is my treasured gift.  I love you.
Juanita

She got married!!!

She got married yesterday.  Katelynn...a friend...truly a beautiful, radiant bride.

Eucharisteo moments throughout the day are stored in my memory with God being clearly among us.

Blessings Katelynn and Grant on your new life together.

Resting at Eden

How thankful I am for our time at Eden this past week.  I felt as though God gave me a gift within a gift.  The time I had for resting was measurably more than I had expected.  And so God's whisper in my ear to rest came with His provision.

I was about 2/3's of the way through Mary Beth Chapman's book, "Choosing to See", when we arrived at Eden and I found my soul deeply settling in to this latter part of her book.  These chapters were primarily compiled of blog entries...the raw, honest emotions of a broken Mama's heart.  If you don't know the story, she and Steven Curtis Chapman's(Christian music artist) youngest daughter was run over and killed by one of their older children.  It was within these blog entries that Mary Beth drew me in, as some of the broken shards of my own heart, although from different circumstances, are painfully fresh.

It was during a walk on the beach one day, that Mary Beth thrust her hard questions heavenward.  "Why, What now, How, What?"  God's answers to her were answers for my own heart:

Why?  "Because I am God and I know all and am in control and know what is best.  Even though it looks like a mess...it is my mess."

What now?  "I am God...keep walking and keep trusting...love well the ones still in your charge and care...realize that time is short, life is hard, but I've given you so much, do not squander it!"

How?  "By remembering that I am God and your trust has to rely completely on me...no striving of your own will to fix, heal, cure, help, calm any of what you see as a mess.  I allow what I allow for reasons you can't even comprehend...rest.  You won't figure this out, but He who holds Maria, holds you."

What?  "Realizing I am God, do the next thing.  Tell people of my amazing faithfulness, love your family and friends well...rest!  It's okay to take the time you need for you.  Make changes if you need to.  Life on earth is short!  I am coming to get you...soon!"

 
Did you notice that God seemed to have a theme?   "I am God."  and "Rest".  

God is so gentle with us.  He knows us so well.  He knows what we need to hear and what is better left unsaid until another time.  I'm grateful for His calming ways...His timely wisdom.

Hard Eucharisteo

That's what Ann Voskamp in her book, "One Thousand Gifts" refers to when she talks about giving thanks in hard circumstances.  For me, "hard eucharisteo" looks like this:

--honest confessions that burden a soul

--bringing the darkness into the light

--smothering with scandalous grace

--all our tears in God's bottle

--strong, faith-filled husband

--caring, empathetic, listening friends

--growing through the pain

--remembering these words..."Let God be big enough"

--hope-filled scripture...Zechariah 9:12

--countless moments to speak truth in countless open-hearted conversations

--Romans 8:28

--Eden days just around the corner

As I paged through "One Thousand Gifts" I came across this particular highlighted paragraph.  I am so in need of God-reminders and hope and eyes of faith, because today I lost perspective, and my faith was small and my fear overwhelmingly burdensome. 

"All fear is but the notion that God's love ends.  Did you think I end, that My bread warehouses are limited, that I will not be enough?  But I am infinite, child.  What can end in Me?  Can life end in Me?  Can happiness?  Or peace?  Or anything you need?  Doesn't your Father always give you what you need?  I am the Bread of Life and My bread for you will never end.  Fear thinks God is finite and fear believes that there is not going to be enough and hasn't counting one thousand gifts, endless counting gifts, exposed the lie at the heart of all fear?  In Me, blessings never end because My love for you never ends.  If My goodnesses toward you end, I will cease to exist, child.  As long as there is a God in heaven, there is grace on earth and I am the spilling God of the uncontainable, forever-overflowing-love-grace."

I am at 212 of counting my own  one thousand gifts.  The last few days my gift list is growing measurably. 

"Hard Eucharisteo"