Travels!

Traveling solo is an awesome time to pray and spend time with the Lord. I have been doing the "Pick a person and pray for them every day for a month" idea. I can't just choose one person. I usually pick two or three. Due to a comment Mr C made to me, this month I chose some of my least favorite people, to pray for.
   God has been whispering in my ear about the grating people in my life. The ones who shred my last nerve, the ones I'd just as soon not ever be around, much less pray for. Should they not be a priority on my prayer list? If I am not praying for them, who IS?

Last week, I drove to Texas to attend the annual H.O.M.E. (Heart of Motherhood Enrichment) Retreat in Brownwood. I went with my daughter & daughter-in-law, and got to see many old friends. As long as I was "in the neighborhood" (HaHa, Texas is a BIG neighborhood!), I stopped to see as many family members as I could in the short time frame. Most of the people I got to spend 20- 30 minutes with. It seems like you stretch time pretty thin when you are traveling on a deadline.
   I got to see Daniel's cute little garage apartment! Ben and I got to visit a short while, with him up well past his bedtime. (It was after 7 when I got to his house, he had to be up for work by 5!) I rode to Retreat with Paula. She and Becky and I sat at tables nearby one another. Becky was a kitchen helper, and mostly was NOT able to visit.
She and I had adjacent bunks in the Young Helpers cabin, where we were more or less supervising half a dozen young ladies from 9-15 years old. I helped a little bit in the kitchen, but required directions. Someone later remarked on Facebook they would rather have had some of the experienced Young Helpers than half a dozen people like me that had to be told what to do next. *Sigh* I was trying!
   I rode back from Retreat with Becky, and stayed the night at her house. By the time I had retrieved my (Sam's) car from Ben and Paula's house, it was after 7 when I got back to Becky's. We stayed up later than we ought, visiting. I was on the road the next morning by 8.
The drive to Ft. Worth was awesome, especially along the minor highways as I headed towards I20. The early morning sun was coloring the foggy mist that cloaked the scrub oak, cedar, and mesquite trees. That far south, the trees are already beginning to bud. The skunks had come from hibernation- and many greasy black and white mounds of fragrance dotted the roads. Like many creatures, when the mating pheromones are heavy, they aren't as cautious of their surroundings as they might otherwise have been.
   I stopped in Ft. Worth and got to spend a short allotment of time visiting my son Christopher at the jail. He is warehoused not far from my Aunt's house, so I stopped in to visit her afterwards. We talked 90 miles an hour for our short visit, trying to catch one another up on family. She had an afternoon Doctor's appointment, and I had to get to Dallas to see son Tommy (Stephen!) at Christ For The Nations International. We had been planning to have lunch together, but I was so late we only had time to visit for his afternoon break. He made me a cup of Turkish coffee. I was there just long enough to drink it. (Tommy heads to Peru this afternoon!)
   From Dallas, I went to East Texas. It was growing dark when I got to mom's house. We visited awhile as she made supper, and stayed up a wee bit late... 10 or so. The "late nights" were wearing on me! We were both up early, and went over to Dad and Kathie's for coffee. I stayed a couple of hours visiting with them, then dropped Mom off and headed back home.
  It was a wonderful trip. (All 1387 miles of it) It has taken all the rest of THIS week to get more or less recovered from it!
Thank you to all who had a hand in the trip- I enjoyed seeing all of my children and 3/4 of my grands.
Be blessed today!