Favorite Part of Vacation

Are you coming or going?

For the longest time, I thought the best part of vacation was BEING on vacation.  Until this year.  I finally realized that while I am on vacation, I am usually disappointed that I am there (although having a great time) and not counting down until time to go on vacation (only three more days of vacation, etc., etc.).  What a waste of a perfectly good vacation that is!  To always be worried that soon we'll be on our way home, and then it's just "back to the ole grind" as they say in my family (do they say that in yours?).

And why should the "ole grind" be that bad?  I finally have a job that I absolutely LOVE.  Compared to some other jobs I've had (mostly involving changing dirty diapers or cleaning dirty tables), sitting at my computer, typing legal documents and answering the telephones while sharing funny stories with Abby across the hall, I've got vacation every single workday!

Nevertheless, no matter how wonderful your job is, everyone NEEDS a restful vacation and the casual weekend adventure (even if said adventure is played out between the bindings of a book while I sit soaking in a hot bubble bath on a Saturday evening).

So, last week, my family took a vacation.

And when I say "my family," what I really mean is my almost-ENTIRE extended Perry family.  I believe there were 25 of us in a cabin, together, for an entire week.  Twelve FAMILIES (think small children screaming and racing up and down the stairs, shooting each other with water pistols) under the same roof!

Scared yet?

In my personal opinion, with a couple of exceptions, that is the BEST way to have a vacation!  Granted, it was a twelve-bedroom, twelve-bath chalet called Morning View Manor at the Preserve Resort, not some dinky little cabin in the woods.  And it was set on the very top of a mountain the Great Smoky Mountain range, just outside of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  The view from the many balconies looked very much like this:



Heaven.

With our own little suite for Johnny, Angelyn, and me, and a car to help us escape when we got "cabin fever," we had a great time.  Thanks, Mamaw, for such an awesome vacation home, and for being the Matriarch of the most AMAZING family EVER!

But I still caught myself thinking, "only three more days of bliss, and then it's 'back to the ole grind'".  Ugh!  Get out of my head!  I spent the 52 weeks before vacation counting down to the day we left, and spent the week we were gone miserably counting down until we had to return.  Thankfully, while we were there, Mamaw reserved another cabin for us for next year, so I have something else to count down to.

But why do I always have to be either coming or going?  Why can't I just BE somewhere and enjoy myself?

Looking back on the week, we had a blast.  I taught Angelyn to swim, she rode a horse, we went to shows and museums and drove around the mountains "getting lost" and seeing how long it took to get back, we went "bear hunting" at Cade's Cove, Johnny ziplined (you won't catch me DEAD hanging by a wire over a mountain valley!), and we all just had so much fun.

But that's just it.  I'm looking back.  I need to learn to quit counting down to the next Fun Time and create one here, now.

I don't want to come or go.  I want to be.

Today, I may not be in the hills of Tennessee, but I am in my favorite state in the U.S.  I'm home in Louisiana, with sunny skies and green grass (well, mostly - we are in a record drought, you know) and fabulous heat and humidity.  I have a husband who loves me, a child who wants to be like me when she grows up (so she said this morning), parents who still look after me, and one amazing church to go to tonight.

"This is the day the Lord hath made.  I WILL rejoice and be glad in it."

"For I have learned that whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content."