This is the story of a scooter...

Once upon a time it was Christmas Eve...2011.

I was giddy as always, because I love the wonder of Christmas. 

And I love, love getting things for people. To buy things I think will bring a smile to their face.

And not to brag, but usually I think I'm pretty good at knowing people, from listening to conversations, to sort of checking out their style etc. 

But my dear, dearest Chief always blows me out of the water! 

Which I've learned I need to be less curmudgeonly about and more grateful. ;0)

Back to 2011.

 Where I thought I got this awesome gift for my hubbies new "Man Cave"...a leg lamp! You know..from

 A Christmas Story  ?  In my family, we quote movies pretty often, dating back to the early 90's when my family would take road trips back to Mississippi and sing every song from Sister Act (oh yes...I can do ALL the voices!) so that has carried on to my own little brood. So since we quote "You'll shoot your eye out", "It's a major award!" and "FRAG-EE-LAY, that must be Italian!". I thought this was a pretty rad gift. And it was.  But of COURSE, he "outdid" me.

At first I unwrapped a super duper cute helmet! 

That alone made me excited, so I wouldn't feel so manly when him and I go on motorcycle rides. 

But then he has me go to my stocking which holds...a key. And he says "let's go to the shop!"

 

Where this beauty was waiting for me!

I went through the emotions at first of "Well poo! My gift looks LAMMMME compared to this!"

But pretty quickly, I moved on from that and just enjoyed "the open road"...ok it goes 60 MPH tops, but STILL, the road felt pretty exciting to me this mama!

And even MORE exciting? 

My youngest (Peanut) was just a year away from going into Kindergarten, which meant I would have ALL THREE KIDS in school! Which started my "dreams of adventure"...I could take my camera anytime, anywhere and GO!

 Go relish in His creation, go and not have anyone to answer to for a few hours...EVERY DAY if I wanted (and if weather permitted).

Then those desires of my heart soon changed.  You can read about that here. 

Suddenly I didn't have those extra hours in the day.

Those hours went towards teaching.

I didn't "get to" immerse myself in peace and quiet at the beach.

I instead went to the beach to play, to hand out waters & snacks. To wipe off sandy feet.

I didn't have long moments of no one to answer to.

I had questions every 10 minutes. ;0)

 And the best part is?

I'm OK with that.

I'm more than ok with that, I'm BLESSED by that.

I feel this immense gratitude in my heart when I stop amidst the chaos that can take over our lives and think "WOW......He led me to this.".

Because yes, there are days when I feel overwhelmed. When I feel like I'm not getting through, when they aren't digging it, when I would truly like to just GO.

But above all that, there are days when we laugh together, when they conquer an "educational hurdle" and feel victorious, when we learn TOGETHER, not just lessons in the curriculum, but lessons in LIFE, lessons in THE WORD. 

So, while I still get a little twinge of sadness when I think of selling my scooter, due to lack of time to "go". I also get a sense of excitement thinking of what new adventure is around the corner.