How much longer?

"The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:26



The boys had been bugging us (me) to go camping. On Thursday, they had made some tents with blankets draped over some wood. All this located on our driveway. Yesterday, I used the concept as leverage for finishing school. You know, "If you don't finish school soon you will not go camping tonight." You know you've done it as well, so don't give me that innocent shock gasp. Anyway, we went to buy a tent, because I can't see my 6'1" husband sleeping in a tent that is only 2' x 2' and 1' tall. And because he gets grumpy if he doesn't sleep well. But don't tell him I told ya'll that.

I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of tents. There are tents with rooms for goodness sake. I've never been camping before in a tent, only in a travel trailer of some sort. I'm not one for showing my exposed bottom to a bunch of bugs or creepy crawlies or whatever is out there. I have nightmares of going out to the nature bathroom , and getting bit something on my shiny moon. No thanks.



So back to my point, because trust me, there is one. I finally pick a tent after arguing with the boys that no matter how wonderful the one with the rooms sounds, they are not going to sleep in their own "rooms" anyway. They will be velcroed on our sides. Or should I say daddy's sides.



We come back home and we finish school and wait and wait and wait and wait some more for Loren to come home from work. If you have kids and they have something on their minds, then you know that waiting is worse for the parents than for the kids. You get the same question, "mom, how much longer before dad gets off work?"

"I told you that he will be home by 5:30" (I'm trying to sound June Cleaverish here)

"but mom, how much longer is that?"

"since it is only 2, it will be an eternity for me"

And it just continues until daddy gets home.



Loren gets home and he wants to mow. Finally after what seems like that eternity shows up, we start to assemble the tent. I don't know about ya'll, but my husband and I can't do "projects" together with that "peace" that the verse above talks about.



I read the instructions, he listens, then he asks again, I repeat, he repeats, the boys want to know how it goes, I want to know how it goes, Loren wants to know how it goes and even the dog wants to know what we are trying to do. GGGGRRRRRRR



So after many attempts at reading the instructions, we get the tent up. The boys were extremely excited. Even if it meant just camping out in the backyard. They had a fire going, were roasting marshmallows and were planning their night out. The life of children.



I came inside my house to my comfy bed to watch TV all by myself. Isaac made it in the house at 5am to tell me it was time to wake up. After remembering that he is only a child, and I can't be too mean, I yell at him to go back to bed, not wake anyone up and let us sleep.



When everyone is awake and the wind picks up tremendously( if you've never lived in Oklahoma, then you don't know what wind is) we start to disassemble the tent. I thought assembling it was a challenge, good grief, that was nothing. I just don't understand how you can start with something all nice and neat, rolled up to look like a perfect tootsie roll, and end up looking like a chewed up tootsie roll. Seriously, how do they do that? How do they make it look so easy on commercials and magazines, and I can't even get the thing to go back in the bag. So we just leave it in a big wad, I tie it up and throw it in the closet for the next time we need it. Naps are sounding really good for today.



Now to my point. I realize that during the "hardest" times of a task, I need to ask for peace for me. As much as I think the other person needs it far worse than I do, because I'm perfect you know. I need it the most. I need the kind of peace that is around when things don't go the "right" way. I need kind of peace that I don't understand. The Bible says that it's a peace that exceeds all understanding. That is what I want. See I told ya'll I had a point.