Home Sweet Home

I guess God has His ways of making a person grateful for the things they forgot to be grateful for ... today as our zippy little red rental car crossed over the Oklahoma/Missouri border, I was humming along with John Denver:

It’s the sweetest thing I know of,
just spending time with you;
It’s the little things that make a house a home
Like a fire softly burnin’, supper on the stove,
The light in your eyes that makes me warm
Hey it’s good to be back home again.
Sometimes this old farm house feels like a long-lost friend ...
Yes ’n’ hey, it’s good to be back home again.

We decided that instead of spending more money on another night in a motel, we'd just rent a car and come home instead.  Tomorrow it's back to Tulsa (why does that sound vaguely like it should be a country song??!) ... back to Tulsa ... where my dead car waits for me ... back to Tulsa ... payin' the toll road fee ... back to Tulsa ... I'd really rather not be ... back to Tulsa. Oklahoma. USA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.   Hmmm, probably better keep my day job - my lyric writing stinks.  ;)

Anyway, I think we all lit up about about 100 watts when we pulled into our driveway this afternoon!  As we took turns finding our favorite spots in our old house, you could hear the kids say "it's SO good to be HOME!!" ... and Miriam couldn't decide which way to go first to find her beloved books and toys.  Personally, I can't wait to sleep IN MY OWN BED ... I've felt like Goldilocks on this trip with most beds at motels being "too soft" - definitely none were "just right."  :( 

So, tonight we enjoy HOME ... tomorrow, who knows.  Dan and I are going back to find a mechanic and get an assessment of the car (praying it might just be something simple, not a complete transmission fail).  Thankfully, we can drop the kids off with Dan's parents along the way.  That is a blessing they live along the route. 

In the end, I do know God isn't surprised at the trouble we've had on this trip (to include being pulled over by a state trooper even on our way home!!  He said I was "following the truck ahead of me too close" but Dan thinks he just wanted to check out the new red car that was hiding behind a semi!) ... thankfully, I only got a warning and a lecture on counting car lengths on the interstate.  I am trying to remember to count my blessings - and not worry about the future expenses and consequences if worse comes to worse.  Mainly we need wisdom as we talk to mechanics (becasue neither me or my husband are mechanically inclined in any way). 

I told Dan though - after all the added expenses we've had between new tires and now this mechanical problem, we probably should have just gone to Hawaii instead.......