Re"Treat"ing and Treasure Boxes

Well a couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to have an entire weekend with a big group of friends (20 of us!!!) up in the mountains in a beautiful cabin. All homeschoolin' moms!
Mother's Retreat Time ~ Yippee!
The weather was perfect, the lake was gorgeous (still snow-covered), so many of my favorite friends were there hanging out with me (the only thing missing was my sweet family enjoying this beautiful weekend) but it was good for me to spend that time refocusing. Refocusing doesn't come about very easily with a bunch of little people running around needing your attention. Although I didn't have much "quiet time", it was refreshing and a fantastic way for me to focus on what is most important in my life.

Back to all twenty of us momma's hanging out...You would have thought we were a big group of teenagers ~ up until all hours of the night, I guess girls just don't grow up! Maybe we all just love to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk...losing all track of time and before we know it 3:00 a.m. is staring us in the face (yep, it's true, insanity sets in for a few of us now and then when we have a little freedom, we think we're kids again, the only problem is we don't recover quite as quickly as when we were a bit younger) I was exhausted for days!!!
We had some great times together...the highlight for me each year is cooking for people who love everything I make. No one complains, they all smile and are sooo very happy to be eating something they did not have to prepare themselves ~ it's really quite refreshing! I truly get so much joy from putting an event like this together and watching as these ladies relax and enjoy themselves...just makes me happy!!! We even fit in a little time for haircuts on the deck, dancing in the living room, hiking, walks into town along the lakefront, and fabulous advice from some great speakers!

It was so much fun to bounce ideas back and forth...everything from schooling to parenting to cooking, crafting, exercise, writing, creating, learning about who we really are and then on our final night together...my favorite time of all: Sharing the wonderful things about our hubbies that we adore. Husband bashing is absolutely forbidden, we don't come together to go home hatin' this and that about our significant others, we come together to focus on the beauty of marriage and motherhood, to share and uplift one another. This is such a great way of filling our cups so that we have a little extra to pass out to all of those waiting back home for us.
Speaking of those waiting back home ~ my Dear Husband is so lost without me...he really doesn't quite know what to do if I am away (Good thing I stick around most of the time!) He even sent me 4 text messages while I was away... For those of you who know this sweet man of mine, this is BIG. He NEVER sends text messages and thinks that it is a silly waste of time. But he just needed to tell me He loved me and that he missed me. One message, probably my favorite, simply said, "Hi Loverdoll, I miss you" How sweet is that???


Well, this weekend he kept himself quite busy out in the shop. He completed a beautiful gift he'd been working on for our oldest daughter. After I returned, we delivered it to her...she was so surprised and I think quite delighted with the fact that her dad made such a sweet gift for her. Take a look! After the first "Treasure Chest" that my wonderful man made me for Christmas, our two oldest daughters were "nicely battling it out" to see who would get the box when I die (how morbid is that?) Well, anyway, he decided they would each need their own and he is designing them to fit who they are and what they would love the most. I think he was quite successful ~ she was way loving this new gift! HOPEFULLY NOW THEY WON'T BE WISHING MY LIFE AWAY JUST TO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL BOX MADE BY THEIR DAD!
I'm sticking around so they will just have to wait for a verryyy long time!

Hope your weekend is full of laughter and joy!
I'm quite sure our weekend will be full of many moments of laughter with all these crazy kids running around cracking jokes and such...can't wait to see what they come up with next!