Refreshed

I had a wonderful past two days that I'll share more about later.  I'll sum it up by saying that I was with 2 wonderful friends and was so encouraged in my journey through motherhood.  I was forced to spend the entire day with nothing taking my attention away from my kids.  It was great!  I'm so thankful for the opportunity we had to go camping.  Like I said, I'll share more about that later, along with pictures.  This post is mostly to say that I feel refreshed.  I feel like my vision for my family and for my children is more clear.  I see the strengths and weaknesses of both my children AND myself more clearly.  I found out that I am apparently more patient than I thought I was.  We talked a lot about judgment from others (whether it's based on food, nursing, bottle feeding, etc.) when we really do want the best for our family and that mommy guilt others give when we leave our children to keep our marriages strong.  We were reminded how important it was for us to keep our husbands 2nd and our children 3rd.  We got to see God's beautiful creation and spend all day out in it playing with our kids.  I can't believe how much better I feel after having been cut off from the world for a few days.  It was REALLY nice!  I'd highly recommend all moms take a trip with their kids where it's you and them and no house to clean, no work to do, no phones or emails to answer to.  Refreshment.  That was just what my family needed.