Grateful

We’ve been gone the last couple of weeks or so.  First, we were adult sponsors for our teens as they took a VBS and black light puppet show to Topeka for several days.  Then home for a day and back on the road to Colorado for a family reunion at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp.  We got home Thursday evening, and have been sort of recovering ever since then.

You know the drill when you’ve been gone.  You give the laundry room a workout; you go to the store and restock milk, fruits and veggies…all of that.  You catch up on emails and messages.  You are glad you’re back in your own bed.  You check on the stuff that’s growing in your flower and veggie gardens.  And you prepare to go back to the grind of work.

We’re doing, and have done all of that.  Monday will be a full day of work for the both of us.  We’ve been to the grocery store, but have a couple of other places to go this weekend.  I’ve counted how much we’ve spent the last couple of weeks, and am preparing for a visit from my Michigan sister later on in the week.  So all in all we’re getting back on track.

Several things have come to mind in the last couple of weeks as things to possibly use as writing material.  As normally is the case, however, most of them will fade in memory and I’ll struggle to remember just what I was thinking or what I wanted to recall.  I never seem to make notes or reminders about things like that, and I always pay for it later on when I can’t remember.

Some things I can recall now might be cleaning up the parking lot at The Bridge, eating with the kids who came to the VBS, having lunch every day at the Rescue Mission, enjoying the good behavior and attitudes of the teens, and the man at the hotel who was working the breakfast area and was soooo far behind in cleaning tables.

Notable moments on the Colorado trip might be the trouble the women had checking us in at the motel in Hays, taking the grandkids to Sternberg Museum, stopping at the Monument Rocks north of Scott City in 100 degree plus heat, the car overheating west of Woodland Park, and the difficulty we had getting acclimated to the altitude.

Other moments would be the bike trip downhill from 9,600 feet into Colorado Springs, the cog rail ride up Pikes Peak, feeding the chipmunks at the camp, the fire and songs on the last night, and the collapsed empty water bottles after we got back to Wichita…collapsed due to the difference in air pressure from there to here.

There are other things, of course.  But these sort of stand out right now.  Whether or not they will ever be fodder for a blog, I don’t know right now.  What I do know is that it has been a great two weeks, and I’m grateful for the opportunities.

I’m also grateful to be back home.