Vacation

My wife and I were on vacation last week, and many people will say that we did something a bit crazy.  We went camping with two young kids - a 2.5 year old and an 11 month old....and with my wife being pregnant.  Now, it was car camping, much lighter than what we were considering (hiking for an hour into the deep bush), but that was a good decision because yep, it was a bit crazy...a lot of fun, but a lot of work.  For those considering something like this, know that while it is a 'vacation', it's not really a vacation.  It was fun, but not relaxing...

It was fun.  It was awesome to see our two boys out in nature.  They LOVE being outside.  They love playing together.  No iPads, laptops, or TV.  Just having fun outside.  We brought a bunch of toys and they had fun playing, chasing balls, swimming, playing in the sand, and getting horribly dirty.  It was fun creating memories together.  It was fun watching my 2.5 year old play with his new 'Thomas' flashlight that he got specifically for camping, and that he loved.  It was fun spending time as a family with no agenda.  It was fun taking on a new challenge, something that we knew would be difficult, but that would be worth it in the end.  And it was.

But not relaxing...  Kids can be a handful.  Little boys never seem to run out of energy.  There was never a down moment, which is a bit of the opposite of what camping is supposed to be, lol.  We were always on the go chasing after one or both of the boys.  Nap times were difficult, and night time...well that was a write-off.  Getting them to bed was quite the challenge, then keeping them asleep through the night was next to impossible.  There was very little sleep.

But despite the craziness, we would do it all over again.  We love camping, and we want to pass that down to our boys at a young age.  Next year when we have three kids, we will do it again (Lord-willing).  It's a cheap, fun vacation, away from all distractions and technology.  It's a great way to reconnect with God and be reminded of his incredible creation of nature...do you know how many deer we saw??  We lost count after the second day!

Yep, we'd do it all over again.

Family

Ah Christmas.  Such a busy, hectic, crazy, money-guzzling...amazing time.  I love Christmas.  It was so nice to be able to spend time with family the last few days.  Christmas eve through to Boxing Day, we spent with my family, and the 27th was my wife's family gathering.  It really hit me (again) this year what a blessing it is to have such a wonderful family on both sides.  It's something that I realize not everyone has.  I know many people who are estranged from their parents, siblings, or children...and I can't imagine what that would be like.  I feel for anyone in that situation, and hope and pray for reconciliation.

The more I think about it, the more I know that I am blessed to have a great family that loves me, who have shared ups and downs with me, with whom I have amazing memories, and who share the same faith and beliefs that I have. And I married into a family that's the exact same way.

If you have such a family, count your blessings this Christmas - and everyday.  We are some of the lucky few.

The week it's been

You may remember from my last post that my son was quite sick (croup).  Well that sickness jumped to my wife, then to me.  All three of us were sick for several days, making it a rough few days.  I stayed home in bed the past three days, trying to get better.  Not fun being sick - and not fun being sick on your birthday! - but at least there were a couple of bright spots.

One was being at home with my family for a few days.  Again, we were all sick, so it's not like we were playing games and going out and having fun.  We stayed at home, did nothing, and tried to get better.  But it was still nice to be together.

The second thing was that I got to watch a lot of the Olympics!  Sick at home in bed, what else am I going to do?  I love sports and the Olympics, so I wasn't complaining about this part.  In hockey, the quarterfinal game between Canada and Latvia was amazing, and the women's gold medal  game was fantastic.  Seeing Jennifer Jones win gold was cool too, as was the gold for the women's bobsleigh team.  It's great to see Canada doing so well, and it's really fun watching the Olympics...and yet...constantly in the back of my mind is the fact that they spent $57 billion in setting up these games.  No matter how fun and exciting the games are, can we really justify spending that much on sports when that money could be used to do SOOO much good around the world?  There are starving people who need food, wells that need to be built for clean drinking water, homeless people who are just trying to stay warm at night, and thousands of other social issues...  These are matters of life and death, and we spend $57 billion on sports??  Yes, the Olympics are a global stage, yes they are about uniting mankind and humanity on something we can all enjoy, yes they are about dreaming big and striving for your goals, yes it's about inspiration.  Yes, clearly it's about more than just sports.  But are we really uniting mankind when half the world's population is too poor to have a TV or internet to follow the Olympics, and when many countries aren't involved?  Is someone who is wondering where their next meal will come from - and if they'll even last till then - really going to be interested in who the best skier in the world is?

I wasn't intending to write a blog on social conciousness when I started this post, but it's near and dear to my heart, and as much as I love watching the Olympics, I can't separate it from the bigger picture of a broken and hurting world.  It just seems like we have our priorities off-kilter.  Imagine half that money was used for social good - $28.5 billion.  How far would that go??  Now imagine you were one of those starving/thirsty/homeless people, and you found out that $57 billion was being spent on sports while you were on the verge of starving to death...  Changes things a bit, doesn't it...