Quiet Time

As I write this, I am sitting at my local Chick fil A indulging in my favorite sweet tea (other than my own) and doing some people-watching! I warned Nick last night that the “grandparent detox” days were harder than I remembered and I was going to need some down time tonight. (Harder probably because the kids haven't stayed overnight without us for even one night, let alone two, since the supposed “no kids reception on Father's Day” wedding we attended in June. I forget how much our parents love to spoil our kids...and how much energy they expend being soooo good for the grandparents that, when they finally get to release some of that crazy energy, it's no holds barred! Which is also an adequate summary of the past three days...no-holds-barred crazy energy!

So I tell the girls Mommy needs some quiet time and head out after dinner. They tried to convince me I could use their room for quiet time, but I politely declined in favor of a location that would actually be quiet. It was almost 7pm when I left, Nick and the girls were done eating and Drew was about to have his dinner, then bottle. All the kids are usually in bed by 8:30pm, so don't feel too bad for Nick who was really only left to fend for himself for about 90 minutes :)

So what do I do with these precious few moments of quiet? Well, I got started on thank you notes for the girls' birthday presents. Something I know I should have done last week, but let's be honest, last week was/is a blur. When I arrived, I spied the newspaper up at the counter but somehow I'm just not in the mood to read article after article of bad news...who needs to add bad news to their day? Even the Sports section is mildly upsetting if you're a Colts fan who was so excited when the team started camp “their healthiest ever” but now every day it seems we learn of a new veteran starter who will be out 4-8 weeks or more. Blah!

I think about this past weekend some more. Saturday was supposed to the the girls' family birthday party – just our immediate families, much smaller than the previous weekend's affair. The girls were so excited to see Mia and Jeeps, Mamaw and Papaw, their aunts and uncles and cousins. I felt horrible explaining to them that there would be no party...rather they would be spending the entire weekend at Mamaw and Papaw's house! They were super-excited by this news, so that certainly helped. But it was hard explaining that Mommy and Daddy wouldn't be there because we were going to “say good-bye to Grandma”...I know they didn't really understand, but we got to talk a lot about Heaven and Jesus and God's love and amazing grace that day.

That conversation came back to me when I opened a sympathy card from our pastor today. Yes, in my church of 3,500+ regular attendees, Pastor Steve had, as usual, been reading up on the prayer list. His hand-written note inside the card read, “Thinking of you as you give your Grandma back to God.” Of course, this made me cry (I'm tearing up as I write this) but he made a very important point. We often hear how every thing in life is simply on loan from God, but the same is true for our loved ones. Our parents, our children, our families, our best friends, even our grandparents...they are all God's children and when He calls them home we know they have served their purpose in God's great plan here on earth and now they are celebrating in Heaven.

I know God doesn't need to read the newspaper to know all the sadness in our world today. But I like to think He knew He needed an extra-special angel in Heaven to help Him watch over each one of us...and He chose my Grandma!