.Home Sweet Home.

After twelve days away, five of which were spent in a minivan, we are home! We are sun kissed and all probably ten pounds heavier. Buhahaha. I love my family - my little family of five, and my extended  family. It struck me while on vacation that this was the longest I have been able to be with my sister in over ten years. It was amazing! And this was the longest I have ever spent with my niece and nephew - both who are hysterical! We had the best time. We were able to spend one day at Magic Kingdom, thanks to the generosity of some sweet family members. I got teary in the very first line as I held Jamesy and marveled that he was there with us.(Oh, and if you have a child with a disability - for example Jamesy is legally blind and has a sensory processing disorder and therefore has trouble in crowds or lines - you can get a special pass. We were able to sit in the front seats at shows and skip to the front of almost every line!) Jim and I were able to splurge on a date night, and then the rest of the time we pretty much lazed around in or by the pool. It was perfect. Absolute perfection.  And our children are champion travelers. We could not believe how well they did in the van for FIVE days!! So it is home again, and with such a full, wonderful time away, I am recharged and ready to start our crazy life back up.

....and ADD to the crazy! While on vacation I read Seven: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker (a fellow AWAA adoptive Mama and author/speaker extraordinaire). I wish I could make you all read it, really I do. It was so NOT a book to read on vacation, but I did it cringing much of the time as I sat surrounded by excess. Her book is not a guilt trip, though, it really isn't. Jen's experiment is completely Christ and cross-centered. It takes seven months where one area of excess is targeted every month: clothes, shopping, waste, food, possessions, media, and stress. Jim and I are jumping in and joining the experiment....starting tomorrow {gulp}. We are starting with food. We will choose seven foods and seven foods only, and that is all we will eat for the month of May (and coffee does not make the cut. I am shaking already just thinking about that). It is a fast of sorts.  A fast in which I pray opens our eyes to the ridiculous excess around us and binds our hearts closer to the heart of our Father. I think this is a perfect way to prepare our hearts for our mission trip to Ethiopia. I am going to blog my way through it, for accountability, for reflection, and for fun - cause writing is what I do. That is essentially what Jen did with her book - she wrote her way through the experiment in real time. Again you SHOULD read the book. I think Jim and I have narrowed our seven foods down (thankfully we have had friends who have gone before us in doing this and we have stolen some of the items they wished they had chosen).

For the month of May Jim and I will be eating:

1. Chobani Yogurt (A little sneaky here as we did not choose a flavor {ahem}, but Jen emphasized spirit of the law not letter!)
2. Chicken
3. Avocados
4. Whole wheat bread
5. Sweet potatoes
6. Peanut butter
7. Apples

Only water to drink.

Tomorrow I will be back to write after I survive day #1. I am terrified of the coffee withdrawal, so much so I contemplated making coffee one of my seven foods! Ummmm.....yeah. 

Pray for me? 

Join me? I wish I had a group of like-minded friends that were into this! {hint, hint}