weekend away

pat's parents watched our kids this weekend. friday morning (pat took the day off on friday) through sunday morning.

we stayed about 20 minutes away :-) but it's our FAVORITE! (reston town center. you park. all our favorite hotels are right there. my favorite store it right there - athleta! and a running trail is right there. we LOVE it!)

 the view from our room.

we got a lot done. we aren't very good at "just relaxing." we car shopped (we're in the market for a BIG van. oh, yes, BIG!) we finished (!!) christmas shopping for ALL our kids. (haven't bought a thing for anyone else...but that will happen! pat loves to be a part of shopping for the kids. and we have so much fun doing it together.)

we also ate meals at crazy times. went to see a movie (argo - SO good!) ran together (pat ran 3 miles with me...then i kept going ;-)) talked about all kinds of things. laughed about all kinds of things. and just ENJOYED being TOGETHER and not having to rush to do anything. it was so so great. perfect even!

and we picked our kids up at 8:30 am this morning, went to church to teach our 3rd graders, loaded our car with about 150 operation christmas child boxes (the car was PACKED so full that the kids had to HOLD boxes on their laps! that BIG van would have come in handy ;-)) came home and ate lunch, then went to a going away party for some neighbors, and then i went to a baby shower! boom. right back in the saddle, huh??

CRAZY week ahead. for those of you that "do" american education week. um. UGH! so, basically, every grade has 1 day this week where you can come in a do a special "project" with your child in the classroom...THEN eat lunch with them. so, that's 3 days for me at the elementary school. PLUS there is a veterans day assembly tomorrow. so. if you need me this week, i'll be at the school! and not getting ANYthing else done!

sometimes i come back from weekends/time away feeling refreshed and ready to go. honestly, this time? i feel tired and overwhelmed and i've cried a couple times because walking back into my life just feels HARD and makes me want to cry.

but, i will get up tomorrow morning and go for a nice run and tackle the day ahead. because He has blessed me with this life. and because He will give me the strength to walk through it, step by step.