Run Don't Walk

Several lessons must be re-learned often. One that I have had to repeat several times is when you have an opportunity to do something, do it because you never know when it will come around again. I am specifically thinking of the evenings when the DrH gets out of the hospital before the rest of the world shuts down for the evening and he says "you should get out of here for a while". Too often my response has been "I'm not dressed to go out of the house", "I have no where to go",  or "No, I'm fine".  My response should be "thank you, I'll see you when I get home if you aren't asleep". Run out the door, don't walk!

Most of the time I end up at the library looking through the stacks or at magazines. Other times I hit thrift stores because I know I can't spend too much money there:-) Or if the pantry is empty grocery shopping. Nothing exciting, but sometimes even doing mundane things can satisfy my need for alone time.

The reality of being married to a resident is that your life becomes equally as unpredictable as theirs. You have to be prepared for anything. Just because I don't "need" to get out of the house doesn't mean I shouldn't do it anyway. If I don't do it today, when I need it tomorrow it might not be available! That is usually what happens: I pass up a good opportunity and then wish I would have taken it.

This past weekend we had one of those freak days where there were no cases and DrH came home EARLY! We are talking about 9:30 am early. That is a rare occasion and cause for celebration. He suggested we take the kids out of town for the weekend and I said "OK"! Good for me, because all I usually think about is how much of a hassle it will be to get everyone put together and of course how much money we are going to spend. I am still patting myself on the back. I jumped in the shower, packed our bags, and didn't even check our bank account before we left.

A short three hour drive later and we were on the banks of the Mississippi checking out free museums and learning about our Pioneer heritage. Visiting Nauvoo always reminds me of how good life has been to me. We learned how they made cloth out of flax and wool. Did you know it would take two years for a flax plant to go from seed to cloth? That is a long time to wait for cloth. And I didn't know that linen is made from flax. They take the seeds for planting next year and use the stalk fibers to make thread that is then weaved into cloth. What a process. I will never look at linen the same way again. They made bread only once a week in a brick ovens, and candles once a year. Oh I am so spoiled! I can make bread whenever I'd like with my super star oven, and my candles smell good (not like the animal fat they made theirs out of). I am amazed at the level of the ingenuity and resourcefulness they possessed. I don't really make anything!

We only have 256 days left until residency is over and we move to another state. That doesn't give us much time to see and do what has been left unseen and undone. A rare weekend trip like the one we just took may not come around again for a long while. When it does I'm going to be ready to go! Remember:  Run Don't Walk!