23°F clear NE2 SR0715 SS1719

Morning Offering given

Village quiet

Coffee good

The man & Chopper sleep

Got home shortly before 10 last evening. Was good to get here. Today we will empty the truck, pack the Expedition and get ready for the 2nd leg of our vacation beginning Tues morning.

Good time at K&S’s. Both working hard for their dreams. Yesterday they picked up the keys to their new home. So excited for them. Looking forward to seeing it at the end of the 2nd vaca leg.

Things I learned while on Leg 1 of Vacation
1) pack snacks or don’t eat at all
2) set a daily plan on driving time, enjoy the drive by stopping and seeing but don’t extend the time frame to attain a mileage goal.
3) use driving time to extend knowledge i.e. find out why a town is named what it is, for example: (Rich Hill, MO), read markers as you go (Hwy P historical marker Ontario, WI) play a game, or walk down memory lane.
4) keep a travel journal, make notes along the way, and include everything including the stalled car in the middle lane just S of KC or the livestock trailer NB on 35 spewing gravel that hits windshields. Never know when something will be important.

Found the following on a card at Cracker Barrel on our way home. I found it to be true enough to save. However, it misses the most important aspect of marriage…God. It doesn’t touch on the commitment God has made to your sacrament of marriage. It doesn’t speak to the necessity of praying together, asking God to direct your lives as you form and mature in this union. It doesn’t address the necessity of listening for answers to prayers, waiting for requests made, and accepting the possible answers of; not yet, let’s wait on this, maybe, or outright no. It doesn’t speak to the necessity of becoming one family unit perhaps at the expense of the family unit each grew up in.

Marriage Is by Barbara Cage
A commitment.
Its success doesn’t depend on circumstances, feelings, or moods-
but on two people who are,
loyal to each other and the vows they took on their wedding day.
A relationship where two people must…
listen, compromise, and respect.
It’s an arrangement that requires a multitude of decisions
to be made together.
Listening, respecting, and compromising go a long way toward
keeping peace and harmony.
A Union in which two people learn
from their mistakes,
accept each other’s faults
and willingly adjust behaviors
that need to be changed.
It is caring enough about each other
to work through disappointing
and hurtful times
and believing in the love
that brought you together in the first place.
Patience and forgiveness
It is being open and honest,
thoughtful and kind
Marriage means talking things out
making necessary changes,
and forgiving each other.
It is unconditional love at its
most understand and vulnerable
love that supports, comforts, and is determined
to triumph over every
challenge and adversity.
Marriage is a partnership of two unique people
who bring out the very best in each other
who know that even though
they are wonderful as individuals
they are even better together.

I’m looking for to the day. I have Valentines to finish, packing, laundry, mapping, and all those other little things that pop up along the way.

Know you are prayed for.