a manless journey of 16 days and nights

So tomorrow's the big day. The beginning of a 16 day challenge for my girls and I. Mitch is leaving on a ministry trip~ the longest he's done since we've been a family. God's always poured out grace when Mitch goes away. And I expect this trip to be no different, it's just longer so it makes me feel a little nauseous when I really think about it.

The kids will be kept busy with school for the better part of the days, so that's good for them. And in planning for this time, I have developed quite a list of things to do that, hopefully will spread throughout the weeks without me losing motivation. That's my key: keep busy.

These are the times I wish a had old college buddies to hang out with. That I didn't really take Colossians literally when it says {amplified style} "...wives, adapt to your husbands...." I've adapted to him and my life is entangled with his. I don't have a separate life ~ like the kind where you have a job to throw yourself into or friends you chat for hours with or whatever. Nope. My Beloved and I do life together so it makes 'doing life' challenging when he's not here.

But it's all okay. Because I have another Lover. One that I can throw myself into loving even more so without the 'distraction' of my earthly lover. I anticipate many hours basking in the intimacy of this Lover for the next weeks. With the blessing of IHOP's webstream and a quiet house, I can take advantage of My Beloved being gone and having all kids in school and spend much time loving on My Jesus.

So that's the plan, Stan. A long list of organizing and cleaning {and maybe even painting} at the church and home. The glories of spending some extra time with My Jesus. For the evenings, the kids and I plan on working on some scrapbooking. Projects long neglected. A quick trip away this weekend~possibly with hotel room since a couple from church just dropped off money for 'those left behind'. A couple guys offered their services should any 'man-sized jobs' come up. (I asked one if he would come take out the trash everyday - he said yes.) But seriously, I have awesome church guys who would come if I had car trouble or house issues. And most importantly, the abundant grace of Jesus. I think we might have everything we need to survive our manless journey this month.