Here's the thing...

Here's the thing about vacation - it's incredibly hard to come home. We were gone for 18 days, we've been home for 3 weeks tomorrow. Between you and me, I'm still not terribly excited about being home.

Vacation was amazing! We have visited family, but we have not been on a pleasure vacation since Punkin was born. We went to DisneyWorld for 6 days, the beach for 2 full days and 2 half days, and saw our family on the trip as well. (Yes, I'm still trying to go through all the pictures and get a post or video together.)

I LOVED:

• being with my family
• lazing around at the beach
• watching the kids have a great time
• just having fun
  
• not having to enforce choretimes or schooltime
  
• not having to clean the house, or cook supper, or do my bookkeeping work, or plan school, or..., or..., or....
  
• having time and permission to do nothing

I guess any fool, given a choice, would choose vacation over work if he could.

And there are some amazing things about being home:

• a comfortable bed
• a shower that actually has some water pressure. I LOVE that whenever we move, my husband always changes out the showerhead to one that is water efficient but somehow has sufficient water pressure to get the shampoo out of my hair. Hotels just never have that. Plus, as tall as I am, just getting my head underneath the water can be a challenge - but I digress. So, moving on.
• Friends.

But, here's what I wonder:
1. How do I take the lessons learned from vacation and incorporate those into my life? By that I mean, I was reminded deeply by our vacation time- particularly the time at the beach - that I need to make the time to breathe deeply, soak up some fun time with my family that is only for fun, and have time and permission to do absolutely nothing now and again. How do I do that? Which "ball" is going to be on the ground and which one is okay that it is there?

2. Where did my contentment go? I don't want to do my work. Yes, I'm pouting and yes, I know I'm acting like a big baby. Knowing that doesn't seem to be making the attitude go away. *grin. Again, what sane person wouldn't choose the beach vacation over a to-do list?

But, I do have a question about contentment. Do you think God ever uses it to lead us?

In the Bible, Paul says that he has "learned to be content whatever the circumstances." I'm pretty sure there are other places that command us to be content.

Ok, I get that. God wants us to trust Him and not be so caught up in the here and now. I get that Paul is saying God has put me in this place at this time for a purpose, and he has learned to trust that God knows what He is doing.

But, I still wonder if discontent is really always a bad thing? Do you think God ever uses discontent as a way to lead us? Maybe we are not a "sinful" path in black & white terms, just not exactly where He needs us, so He causes us to feel a little discontent in our spirits so that we notice we're in the wrong place?

What do you think? Do you have trouble coming home from vacation? What do you think about contentment?

Also, I haven't read a good book lately. Any suggestions?