Eliminating a case of the Dailys

It seems as though, lately, our weekends get pretty jam full pretty quickly. It's like one day we have nothing to do on a Saturday and then *wham*, there is more that can be done in one day alone. Despite the craziness, we had a Saturday recently that had nothing on the docket and we racked our brains to figure out what to do. When you get so busy it's sometimes hard to figure out what to do with free time, ya know?

Hello?

You know what I mean?

*crickets*

...maybe I'm just the only one who has no idea what to do if it's not scheduled...

I'm crazy like that.

And in a lot of other ways...

So, what should we do with our family free time? Go to the mall? We'd only spend money and fill our eyes and heads with things that we really don't need, but think we do.

Watch TV? We'd only be sitting on our butts, stroking the back of laziness which will only produce discouragement at the end of the day because we didn't do anything.

Invite people over? Now, there's a possibility. A good one. But we haven't had some family time in a long time. We need to be together.

Yard work? Fun. NOT!

Housework? Laundry? Oh, Lord. Not on the weekend.

So, we thought up an adventure we used to do when we lived on the otherside of Johnson City: go to Sycamore Shoals. Hiking, Rivers, Forts...outdoors!


Now THERE's an idea.

We got off our tooshies and headed out the door to a fun-filled adventure before it got even hotter then Hades it already is. We were out the door by 9 and told the kids we were going on an adventure to explore a river. They really didn't know what in heavens name we were going to do, but I'm sure they were just thankful that they were going to see something other than the walls of the inside of our house.

Needless to say, the kids had a BLAST. Daddy and I had a blast watching the kids have a blast.


It's amazing how much fun you can have being together just as a family while...


watching the river


playing in the river



playing on the bars


pretending in the fort



pretending you're a soldier with a heavy load on your back, watching for the enemy and wishing for a musket to defend your beloved countrymen



and being with the family.

I must say, it was a refreshing day. We were home by lunch and then the kids took a nap...a LONG nap. There's nothin' like tuckerin' out the kids 'til they flop into bed.

I feel that sometimes we overlook the abundance of activities that nature can bring because we get so caught up with daily-ness. I forget that some of the "mundanity" (if that even is a word) of the dailys can be eliminated when we get out, have fun, develop our relationships, and see the beautiful creation that God intended for us to enjoy.

Go forth! Get outta the house! Have fun!

Then take a nap.