just doin' it.

After hopping on this blog I read from time to time from another family in Haiti on "guilt free R&R", I made (remade) a commitment for this year that I haven't followed through well on in years of the past!

We spend a lot of time during the week away from our girls, and a lot of time with our girls with a lot of other people or cooking for or preparing for or discipling or entertaining or sharing life with a lot of people (ie, not focusing on our girls.)

We four always eat dinner together, but almost always with another 1-10 people.  We are together in the afternoons (the girls and I) but most often with a lot of other people, too.

Don't get me wrong...it's GOOD.  They love it, we love it, and having so many others in our intimate family life has been SUCH a blessing.

But this year, I re-commit to NOT FEELING GUILTY about focusing on FOUR sometimes.  

Re-commit to NOT FEELING GUILTY about doing things, sometimes, for ONE reason...because the girls LOVE IT.  The one always making me feel guilty about this??  ME!!!

Recommit to making sure that as they grow, they KNOW that they were and are a precious priority in this life of full-time ministry, because of lots of memories of FAMILY time ...even in Haiti.

Most of the time, that's still just going to mean that even when the house is full, we're snuggling at 7:30 and reading bedtime stories.  That when we can, our ministry INCLUDES them.  That as much as possible, they are right there with us.

But today, that meant that after weeks of Lily begging and the next four weeks looking like CHAOS... the four of us went to the beach.

  And we did not sit or sun-bathe or grab a cat nap.  Oh no.  That chair you see was for holding towels, sunscreen and a half-naked mermaid doll (WHY don't they paint underwear on those things?  I just don't understand.)

We were BUSY, because to a 4 and 2 year old, busy is ALWAYS best.

 We played boat in the hammock.

We did lots of kissing, and someone else did the cooking, so mommy wasn't focusing on lunch...

 We babysat this adorable little dog-esque thing for a French woman trying to eat her lunch, which the girls, as you can imagine, ADORED...

We dove and swam and searched for lots of "mermaid glass"...

We played a lot of "pretend"...both girls favorite games right now, except YOU can't actually pretend ANYTHING, but just have to do and say EXACTLY what they tell you to pretend.  

 We played in the sand, we went on a long walk, and we talked about anything and everything these two could dream up...

And on our way to visiting friends afterwards, Lily sang her lungs out in the car, making a great day, and a guilt-free re-commitment, complete...

"TO-DAY, we went to the BEEEEEACH!  

With my MOMMY and my DADDY and my SOFIE.  

And do we love it?  Yes we do!  

I did love it, how 'bout YOUUUUUUUUUU?"

***

Total unrelated side-note

Several of you have asked what camera we use for photos on this blog and for all the water shots.  After years of the dust and humidity of Haiti killing our cameras, about a year ago we bought a $74 Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS20 at Wal-Mart...dust proof, drop proof, water proof (up to 16 feet) tiny little camera in ugly-orange.  It is the same length as my driver's license and 1/2 inch thick, and it. is. AWESOME.    If that's the kind of thing you're looking for, if you have small children, if you want a camera to go in the water and in your pocket, if you don't have a lot of money to spend, and if you want something conspicuous (that might just be a "taking pictures in Haiti" thing)...This is the camera you want.  There...I finally answered you all :)