On relaxing, chilling out and doing nothing!
Yes, it can be done. I think my wonderful sisters-in-law (Hey, Lianna, note what is plural!) are trying to establish a tradition. Three years agothe girls and I joined them at "Mo-Beach" for a weekend of no stress. It was wonderful ! We read, walked on the beach, played on the swings, ate easy meals and went out to dinner. Everyone pitched in for any work stuff and we laughed.
The following year my beloved son put the kibosh on the trip by.... can you believe it..... planning his wedding for that weekend! It was a hard decision but we chose the wedding over the beach weekend! (Sarah, if you're reading this you KNOW I'm only kidding on the hard decision part!!) Last year I was all packed and traveling when I realized my health was going to interfere BUT this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even Mike joined us! We were a little skeptical about the weather because of the horrible weather we've been having but we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.
Mike kept asking what we do and I'd reply with, "Nothing"! He didn't get it.
Now I've seen him relax many times. Just get him in a canoe, on an isolated island or a remote spot, put up a tent and start a campfire and you have----Mike-- Relaxed! A more formal atmosphere of a beach house on the cape threw him a little. It took us about 24 hours of doing inconsequential nothings to convince him. I think he thought I was a complete sluggard when he kept seeing me glued to the same book until I finished it!
He had received a kite for his birthday (this was given so Annie could fly her own and not have to ask Dad for it!) and we packed that. The first activity after unpacking was to get his kite up. I won't tell the "guy thing" story about the ropes here though (what do you think Cindy, should I?) but he had fun.
Day 2 he began to loosen up a bit more and went for fishing supplies to go with the sea pole we packed. He planned an evening fishing trip complete with a tiny dinghy. He and Lianna were gone for a few hours. He also took in many War movies. The Beach house has more channels than we do at home and being Memorial day weekend there was a War movie fest going on. I think it was a "John Wayne fest" in disguise!
Day 3 brought on another fishing expedition complete with a 'God thing'. Lianna and Mike were heading out to fish. Mike had dropped the line of the pole in and was trolling. Lianna only had a string line on a handle. Somehow ( I won't debate the blame here) the seapole got hit with the oar and knocked into the ocean to sink down out of sight. Mike was trying to control his frustration and be the spirit controlled guy by not verbalizing his thoughts and feelings. He told Lianna that they were returning back to the house. Lianna still had her little handle line out and decided to keep it trolling on the way back in hopes of catching a fish. As they proceeded beachward Lianna started getting a tug and thought she had something. Mike told her to start reeling it in but then they realized that she had snagged something pretty solid - not a fish. They backed up and Lianna pulled hard, winding in her handle only to discover that her hook had caught on to the hook on Mike's seapole! Two little hooks in that vast ocean 'happened' to snag onto each other!
That evening Annie and Mike went bike riding. The girls had decided that they really liked the paved bike trail along the Cape Cod Canal. Hey, I even rode it a little way!
We had quite the time finding a restaurant that night after the one we planned on going to had a power outage but because of it we were able to see more of the area and enjoy a wonderful dinner outside!
Day 4 while Annie and I were packing Mike and Lianna went to the canal to ride bikes. They did 13 miles! Mike said he wasn't sure what was going to give out first, his knees, feet or butt! While they were biking Annie and I finished packing and went for a long walk on the beach together.
The biggest evidence of Mike finally relaxing was when he cooperated with the family hula-hoop event (spectacle!!!!- I've seen the pictures- spectacle!!). Yes, folks, Mike hula-hooping! What a mental picture eh? (For purpses of health they better stay mental pictures Cindy!)

On missions and missionaries..........
Recently we had a missions conference at our church. I've heard a lot of missionaries speak, fed a lot of them and housed many. (I was going to say 'put up with...' but 'housed' them sounded better!) I've never been part of a missions conference though. There were 3 families of missionaries coming to be involved with our conference. One, a family of five whose children didn't speak English! That is the family Mike told me we were housing one Sunday when I stayed home because of a migraine!
The children were approximately ages 2, 5 & 6. They were delightful children, very well-mannered and eager to learn English. The 6 yr. old loves horses and thought our home to be just about the best place to end up. Lianna faithfully gave rides to all. Both L & A played many games learning how to express thoughts with hand signals and demonstrations. They got a little taste of what we did in Russia and Ukraine! "Mr. Missionary" had that special glint in his eye and I recognized him as a prankster from the word go...er.... 'hi' ! Mrs. Missionary was a very sweet fun loving and delightful lady. The week went well and we really enjoyed the time together. I would be amiss however, to let the blog entry end there. Having had become familiar with other families that were a blessing in the past this family really stood out in their dedication not only to their Lord and ministry but to their children. Although all we have met love their children some try to 'cover-up' a child's fallen behavior rather than deal with it immediately.
Not that I'm comparing children and dogs but back when I was showing dogs in obedience we used a term called 'ring-wise'. It was against the rules to correct your dog while competing in the ring. Dogs are rather quick to learn this and will be perfect during training when they can be corrected but be little animals when in the ring and they know you can't do anything about it. How I appreciated the judge who would acknowledge the disobedience and then tell me to correct it! Later, is to late.
This couple would speak to their child then if the infraction continued they would remove the child and deal. When they returned to the meal or group they would apologize. I had mixed emotions over their apology and 'commenced to think' about why. After a couple of days I responded to Mr. Missionaries' apology by saying, ' Please don't apologize to me for training your child in a God honoring way, only apologize to me if you don't train them and they become beasts and then apologize to God who has entrusted you with these children." He grinned and told me that he has discovered that a lot of folks feel that because they are christians and children of missionaries that they are immune to the curse of the fallen nature we all have.
We need to hold our leaders and each other accountable for God given standards but do we inadvertantly put different standards on them that we ourselves are not following? Just a thought!

WHY?!?!?!?
Why, is what I was asking myself as I was getting up on a cold, rainy, gray Saturday morning, earlier I might add than on a normal work day even! Why was I getting my sleeping cherubs up to ride for almost 2 hours to stand out in the rain and watch hubby and brother Bruce run a canoe race? Of course they weren't even racing! They claimed, "Aww, we can't race, it would make others look bad. We're just in it for fun." Ahem, do you believe that?
We arrived in Bangor and met Bruce, on time, sipping a cup of coffee. I questioned whether coffee was the best thing or if he should be drinking a V8 or something more energetic. He informed me that "Jeremiah Johnson" didn't drink V8! On we all traveled to the starting line of the race.
There was a myriad of canoe styles. We saw classic styles, racing, kayaks, aluminum, Fiberglas, and some like Bruce's, a little more...er....um.... well, as Bruce put it 'seasoned'.
We retrieved their number bib which Mike was to wear because he was to sit in front. Bruce incidentally, insisted on taking the rear because it was his 'seasoned' canoe. The girls thought that Dad and Uncle Bruce would win a prize for the ugliest canoe! The guys unloaded and we stood around in the rain watching and waiting.
It was really festive as folks were in various racing form, costume and attitude. There were the serious, "I'm gonna win" types. They didn't socialize much and kept their pristine canoes and gear away from those with, let's say, less than perfect (ugly) canoes. This included a team with an absolutely gorgeous canoe. 'Gorgeous' may seem like an inappropriate adjective for a canoe but it was sleek, pretty, shiny and new. These gentlemen didn't speak when spoken to, kept boundaries around their craft and didn't have much fun. Then there were father and son teams including a 5 year old boy and his dad. Although they didn't 'win' and get a prize the Dad sure won in the boy's eyes for taking the time and trouble.
I really felt bad for the older couple who, as they were putting in he slipped and tipped the canoe over dumping his wife and were eliminated from the race before starting! Did I mention the water was a mere 36 degrees? They were good sports and laughed about it. I believe they did run at the end though. There was the man who runs the whole race standing up! Yes, even the falls! He does crouch a little but he never sits! Then there was Mike and Bruce. After seeing everyone, the canoes, gear and attire Mike donned an old fashioned yellow raincoat with a red life jacket over it. Practical but not Cabela or LLBean racing attire. He wore sneakers and not fancy racing shoes. Bruce, on the other hand forgot his raincoat and donned an extra large black garbage bag under his black life jacket! It was quite the sight. We watched the guys put in, tip their hats to us and off they went. We trudged through the mud and wet grass, down the sidewalk to the car figuring to get to six mile falls and wait near the river in the car staying warm and dry. HA! A couple miles down was a bridge folks were standing at watching. We had to stop, walk and stand in the rain to wait for them to pass under. The camaraderie among the spectators was great. Folks would call out to those passing under the bridge and encourage them. You could really tell the purpose of the racers by how they responded. Those counting out strokes and instructions didn't respond at all. Those having fun hollered up and thanked us. Then there were the clown type or in one instance the pirates. There were 3 guys in the canoe dressed as pirates and whenever spectators (called river rats) called out to them they'd lift up a pirate flag and start the "yo-ho-ho" song. They were having fun!
Along come Bruce and Mike, wet but grinning. They slowed for me to take pictures and be cheered on. At this point Bruce was still using a nice yellow paddle.
Off to 6 mile falls, with a stop at a restroom! My theory of sitting in the car by the river was off by about 1 1/2 miles! We trudged through the rain and stood on the bridge to wait. Waiting was wet and cold but humorous. I now believe that IF I had the desire I could run the falls and not dump. Watching from my vantage point I could tell who would dump, who would take on water and who would get through by the way they went into the falls. God does have a sense of humor too. Remember the gorgeous canoe with the less than social team? They not only dumped, they dumped at the entry to the falls! They were not to happy.
We waited quite a while and almost missed the 'seasoned' team. They had shed their rain 'gear' and Bruce had a different paddle! Hmmm, I wonder what happened to the nice yellow one? It didn't matter, "After all," he said, it WAS Chuck's, not mine!" They made it through like pro's taking on some water but staying afloat. They stopped and emptied the water, chatted with us and ate a quick lunch then off they went.
We headed back to the car and on to the finish line soaking wet. We weren't even in the race but we could have made up a great story and convinced people we were by how wet we were. We found a decent parking space, sat a while in the warmth but I felt a little guilty that we would miss them crossing the finish line. We dug out some umbrellas to use and headed down to riverside. We felt a little wimpy using the umbrellas, after all this was an outdoor, show your stuff, sporting event but one man came and asked if he could share my umbrella. I felt rather chivalrous until he pulled out his camcorder and said he didn't want it to get wet! He filmed and commented for a few minutes and then left. We waited quite a while, although Mike tells me it couldn't have been long as they whipped through that race....., and then I noticed I was able to get the car closer to where they guys could load the canoe on and I moved it and sat in the warmth for a while. The girls watched for them and we ran down to greet them. I was chilled to the bone and knew they were too. I put the heat on full blast while they loaded the canoe and changed. The race committee doesn't tell you where you placed for a few weeks but Mike's comment was, "We may not have won but I came in ahead of Bruce!" By the time the race ended Bruce used 3 different paddles having lost 2. Mike had just the one he brought. I asked him why he didn't bring extras and he said, "I didn't need them." About this point Bruce asked me if the garbage bag raincoat made him look fat!
By the time we got Bruce's truck and headed to "Govenor's" to eat a HOT meal the race story had changed drastically. Every time I spoke with Bruce or Mike about it over the next week I didn't recognize the race or the results! I'm still trying to figure out why I stood in the rain etc... because the race they tell about wasn't the race I watched!
~~~~The results came in this week that for the category they were in they finished in 12th place! Not bad for two guys that were only doing it for fun, stopped to shed rain gear, eat etc... Bruce still asks if they get a huge trophy for winning 12th!