I found this unfinished post from December and decided it was finished. We're ready to get outta' here, but getting ready to leave takes a lot of patience. My dad always said about vacations, "I can get ready to go, or I can go, but I can't do both."

Yearning for Adventure (December 30, 2011)

I’m practicing contentment. It’s a tough one for me. I have a real yearning for adventure, and when I feel like we’re stagnating, it takes concentration to be thankful for daily ups and downs. Just when I think I’ve got it—finally happy just where we are, even staying at the dock for another season, Jay says, “We gotta’ get out of this slip,” and off runs my active imagination, back to where we were this time last year (the Exumas) or somewhere else I’d love to go (French Polynesia).

Life with five children has no lack of daily adventure, but I long for the kind which takes us far from home and out of our comfort zones. Even the adrenaline-filled trip to the ER with Rachel brought on some kind of exhilaration that I had a hard time explaining until I recognized that the feeling reminded me of leaving the dock or navigating a shallow rocky coast. Some people like roller coasters, and some people like to go to sea. I hate roller coasters.