My Fantastic Weekend

My weekend was amazing. Nothing spectacular or over-the-top amazing happened, it was just a weekend filled with joy, peace, and happiness. There might not be any deep spiritual insights in this blog, and there probably will not be any political ranting, but I want to share about my weekend and who knows; maybe I'll stumble on something deeper.

Friday night I got home from work and my wonderful wife went through the house and cleaned the place up better than normal. I walked in and it smelled so fresh and clean...The air sparkled almost. The counters were cleared, kitchen clean, dishes done, laundry put away, floors vacuumed and she even mopped the tile with extra attention to the little details and specks. It is so nice to walk in to a wonderfully clean home and know I get to just hang out and enjoy it with nothing on the agenda.

My parents stopped by for a little while and we got to visit with them for a bit, which was nice since we haven't really been able to do that in a couple weeks. Later that evening, we were planning on watching a movie together after the kid-o went to bed. Well, we were both pretty beat from a busy week, and we ended up falling asleep on the couches in the living room at about 10PM.

Saturday morning, we slept in as late as the munchkin would allow us, after which we spent the majority of the day in our pajamas and relaxed. Brooke made some tasty waffles for breakfast and we just enjoyed our quiet, mellow Saturday. Just before church, Aaron stopped by and dropped off the rabbit he shot earlier in the week when we went hunting. I threw it in a big stock pot to boil while we were at church and I chopped up a bunch of veggies and fried them in bacon grease (mmmm...so unhealthy, but so tasty). I threw all the veggies in the crock pot after I fried them, checked the bunny, and headed off to church.

My dad preached an awesome and timely message about "going beyond the map." He took a quote from a sailor around 63AD; "today, the storm pushed us beyond the map." Man, that's exactly where we've been and are, and we are not alone. Pretty much all of our close friends are in similar situations where the storms of life have pushed them into unfamiliar territory and uncharted waters. It was a timely sermon about trusting God enough to let him take us into the unfamiliar and scary to bring us through to the blessings He has waiting for us.

We had everyone over after church for rabbit stew. We had a wonderful time talking about the sermon and just hanging out eating rabbit stew. Some liked it, some couldn't get over the fact that it was a rabbit, and Thomas thought it tasted a bit hoppy. (I almost fell out of my chair when he said that!)

Sunday we got up and got around and had everyone meet us at our house. We loaded up firewood, guns, and food and headed to the hills where we built a fire and shot guns and hung out. I made chicken gumbo in the dutch oven, which turned out fantastic. We enjoyed our day-camping a ton, but I'm not sure if it eased or intensified our spring fever.

Oh, and my kid was so adore able. Brooke dressed him up warm and we let him run around up there in the mud. He was SO filthy by the time we were leaving, but man was he cute.

Once we got home, Quinn got a bath and a nap and the wife and I got cleaned up and into our comfortable clothes. We ended up taking a nice long nap with Quinn and got up just in time to make pastrami burgers for dinner. So good.

On my Mom's recommendation, we watched the movie Fireproof. The acting was definitely amateurish, but the movie itself was amazing. I won't go into what it is all about, but I will tell you that if you haven't seen it, you need to. Ignore the bad acting and focus on the message and you will be blessed and changed. It made me stop and think about my marriage and about how blessed we are and about much we still have to work on. We have a wonderful marriage, but it's comforting to know that there's always room for improvement.

As we watched the movie last night, Quinn sat in the floor and played with his books. He was playing so quietly and was being so good...I sat and watched him for a couple of minutes and nearly cried. The sweetness and innocence of this young child; the massive, unspeakable amounts of love I have for this little being; this little life I created and am responsible for. I suppose this is the great spiritual concept of the blog; I love my son more than words can say, and God loves us infinitely more than that. How precious, amazing, wonderful. Our weekend was so wonderful. We weren't worrying about bills or money or anything else. We didn't have an agenda packed full of "have-to's." It was just peaceful. If it wasn't peaceful, I probably would have never stopped to appreciate the beauty of my relationship with my son and the love I have for him. It's so sad, but we get so wrapped up in this life's cares that we fail to even notice the truly priceless blessings we have.

Around 930PM I changed Quinn's diaper, put him in his pajamas, and gave him a bottle and watched him fall asleep in my arms. After he fell asleep on me, I picked him up and took him to his room. As I carried him into the dimly lit room, I whispered a prayer for God to bless him and watch over him as he slept. I laid him down in his crib, still partially awake, and he didn't even cry or whimper. He went to sleep so peacefully. The whole evening of bonding with my little buddy absolutely wrecked this daddy's heart all over again. He is so precious and wonderful, and the older he gets the more I realize the depth of a father's love for his son. The more I realize that depth, the more I realize just how much God loves me.

After I put Quinn to bed, Brooke and I finished watching the movie together, snuggled on the couch with our 3 dogs. It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend.