I’m a wanderer. I can’t help it, it’s in my genes. I love nothing more than to get in the van (or car) and just… drive. I don’t need a purpose. I just need a good playlist, or a great audiobook, and a ginormous bottle of water.
Spontaneity is a bit harder with four kids, but I still manage to go some now that the baby doesn’t hate her carseat with the fire of a thousand suns. Thankfully my girls are perfectly content with a few Taco Bell $1 cheese roll ups, and other than answering “But where are we going?” a thousand times, and stopping for potty breaks, it’s pretty doable.
The thing is, there’s no real answer to the “Where are we going?” question most times. I usually just say “We’re going on an adventure!” and leave it at that. After reading Sally & Sarah Clarkson’s book “The Life Giving Home,” I started implementing “Saturday Suppers” both as a chance for us girls to get out of the house for supper one day a week, and to give my parents a break (we eat supper over there most days my husband works late). As summer as traipsed on, Saturday Suppers have been more sporadic and on different days of the week, but its a tradition I hope to keep up with them throughout the years. In doing so, we wander. We take off in one direction and just drive. Sometimes I have a destination in mind. Sometimes I’m just too tired to go far. But regardless, we go.
My Mamaw Jean was this way to an extent, and my Papaw certainly was. I texted my poor husband last week and told him I was taking the girls to town for supper, and then said something along the lines of “You know I can’t sit still, right?” to which he responded “I know.”
It’s not that I’m not content with my day-to-day life. I really am. It’s just that there is something about getting out of the house, getting out into the “wild” but still being in the safe confines of your van, that I just adore. I love exploring Kentucky. I love going to certain areas (I’m looking at you Red River Gorge) over and over again. I’m so thankful that most of the time my hubby is more than willing to trudge along with me on bis days off (I do try to give him Sundays free, ha!). My only regret about having our first child so soon was that we didn’t get to do any traveling together, just the two of us. We were poor as church mice those first few years of our marriage, and so centered around school and work that we didn’t even get to do any fun couple things outside of just living together.
Add in 5 months of bedrest last year, and I may be a bit worse than I used to be.
My girls are always up for an adventure though, and that makes my heart sing.
Backwoods Musical 