Expectations

Through my life, as a widow, as a foster parent, as a sister, daughter and mother, I have learned that having expectations of others can lead to disappointment.

When my son is expecting to go kayaking  during free time and I am expecting him to rest, one of us will have unmet expectations.

When I am expecting my child to be healthy and he instead struggles all week...

When I expect my child to obey and she is disrespectful....

When I am expecting the most relaxing week of the year and instead it becomes one of the most stressful.

When I have expectations of my family, of my kids, and of my friends...

A long time ago I learned that life is much better if you have no expectations of other people. No one else is responsible for your happiness. People do let you  down.

I had high expectations for this week. I struggled to let go of those expectations. I struggled with so many aspects of this week. But reality is reality. I need to come to a place of acceptance.

 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. phil 4:11-13

I wrote the above on a day when I was working through the many things of this week.  Looking back over the week, I have come to a conclusion. God needs us to do his work, not on our time table, not just following our own desires but His.  He is more worried about our eternal then our present.  Sometimes this requires us to give up and give in.

I also learned that if we give what little we have to give, willingly or unwillingly. :) God can take that and use it for his purpose.

Day 3, a dinner, a dance and movie

Night number 2 was pretty easy compared to night #1. I was up from 1:30 to 3 tending to kids, then up at 5:30 because Nesiah was awake and singing. I did not want her to wake the other kids, so she and I got up, dressed quietly before sneaking out the door. We got some coffee in the main lodge then came back to walk the circle by our older lodge. It was a refreshing morning. 

The other kids were soon up and dressed, gone are the days of even wishing to sleep in.

We headed over to the main lodge once everyone was dressed.  I had planned to sit and hang with my kids who had been running full force the day before. Instead I had a long chat with the lady who had come to do massages. She is also a single parent and a new believer. 

While she and I chatted, the kids played checkers..

Day 3 is a bit of a  blur. It was not a good day. The kids had their regular programming. I got my hair cut on The Porch. 

I had a beautiful picture of The Porch, where wonderful things like massages, manicures and facials happen.

We had an adult only dinner planned for that evening. It was a delightful evening of fellowship. We had a formal dinner and I did not get a single picture!! This was probably the first time in over a year that I had a dinner out without kids. (the kids were right next door in the main cafeteria)

The tables were set beautifully and everyone was dressed beautifully.

David had fun playing basketball with T. This kid really made David's week wonderful!

After dinner there was dancing.. oh what fun for the kids!

Pictures do not do it justice.. It was so much fun to watch.

After the dance, they had an outdoor movie, finding Nemo. This is one of the kids favorite activities. I was extremely tired, so I put the littles to bed and stayed with them until the big kids were done with the movie. I was thankful for good helpers with my kids!

Day 2

Day 2 started out at 4:30 am, with an asthmatic reaction to the new furniture, carpet and paint in the beautiful new lodge. I ended up sitting outside on the beautiful porch, chatting with C. The wonderful angel that God placed in my morning.  I chose to stay outside from 4:30 to 7:30 to keep my 2 littles breathing calmly. We chatted and had coffee. It was a beautiful morning to watch the sunrise over the mountain.


After breakfast I sat on the 4th floor balcony and had a long chat with my heavenly Father... I needed some encouragement and refreshment. 

The kids had their day camp style programing after which they met us for lunch.

Everyone was breathing much better. But I had asked that they move us to the other older building. I did not want a repeat of the night before. So we moved...

From this ^^ beautiful 2 room suite to

^^ this one room lodge bedroom.

The funny thing is, the kids did not complain. They all agreed this was "more like camp". It was def more cramped, not nearly as clean and nice as the first camp, but everyone could breath!

We had a fun afternoon swimming during family time. It was fun to see so many families hanging out. There were a lot more families of 4-5 kids then we had seen last year. The kids groups were quite large. My kids were delighted to have so many new friends!

After dinner it was power swing time! My boys had been so excited for this! They had talked for weeks about doing the swing! Sadly I was changing diapers in the bathroom when it was finally their turn to swing. I missed most of it. sigh.