Home is Where Your Family Is and Friends Complete The Full-Life Package

It is finally up to 64 degrees after a windy-rainy overnight into the morning, and I have been sitting here much of the day reading and writing and sipping my Caribou blend, perhaps one too many. Occasionally I look up to glimpse the campsite of my young friend off to the left side of my window. The mother of three, ages 9 months to 5 years with one little Noah in between.

I wonder how my young friend is holding up with three little ones, a dog, and a simple tent.

When I met her little girl in the laundry area, she was close behind. I learned her husband is interning as a lineman working on electricity in the mountain where my husband is working building the wind turbines. They decided to take their little family on the road. 

I marvel at her pliability. And think about the blessings of being pliable. I was a home-body. I liked routine and predictability. I thrived on it and I still do. Having routine brings me comfort. Not having it...well, mayhem in my mind. I'm not sure I would have I would not have had her enthusiasm or apparent contentment for this type of adventure with kids that young. 

She talks of perhaps homeschooling to accommodate their lifestyle. I could encourage her there! Some of my favorite years were the years I home-schooled my two, so I shared stories and later brought her a list of resources to help her get going.

I ventured out to discover how things were going, thinking they might like to join me in my little hovel-with-a-heater. As I approached, she had just packed the three in the Suburban and was going to go for a drive. 

I found out she was in no hurry to go. She needed a change of pace and I was it . (I noticed since returning to our camper that she never left.) The kiddos watched a movie in the truck while we chatted. They are enjoying their tent-life. No complaints whatsoever. 

In this new lifestyle that I have been living intermittently, I've discovered that compared to the one I have lived all my life prior to my husband working on the road...how very little we really need. I have my farmhouse with our things, fine and fancy country that we have collected over the years, the cupboards, the couches, the bedding, the dishes, etc in WI and then here we have our little set of mugs, plates and cheap silverware from Walmart and our old raggy towels in the camper.

One bed. One mini bathroom. One kitchen/dining/living area of about 8'x10' or 12' (size includes the bathroom) and as long as I have electricity for my blow dryer and flat iron and computer, I'm quite content. For now. But I know as time passes that I will be missing my kids, my grandson, and my extended family...it isn't really about how much or how little, or even about what you are doing, it is about "who" you are with...

Always, whatever our living situation, simple on the open road, or more stationary in a comfortable home...wild adventures or reading a book at night together...

Home is where your family is and having friends completes the full-life package.

And my mind wanders to God, to His love and His Story. The Redeemer, the Cross..... 

Ultimately that is why Jesus subjected Himself to the cross...He wants His family home.

He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, 

we may live together with him. 1 Thessalonians 5:10