Inconvenient adventures

We spent about 6 hours in the car today so we could fill our freezer with a half a cow. 

It is inconvenient to drive that far to get meat for our family, and I was feeling grumpy not only about how far we had to go (we committed to this meat quite some time ago and will look for a closer source next time) but I was also annoyed that we didn’t buy a new freezer three weeks ago when we got the call that the cows were at the butcher.  We intended to go buy one, but our good intentions left us with nothing.

Thankfully there was a Home Depot right off the highway and it was a good chance to stretch our legs.  All in all today was an inconvenience that we rightly regarded as an adventure.  Even though we were unprepared, we took the day one step at a time and had fun getting snacks, dinner, and even ice cream in the midst of all the driving and pickups. 

I want our kids to be unperturbed by tasks that are hard or inconvenient.  I want them to look at obstacles and see them as an adventure rather than an impassable mountain.  I’m grateful that even though we had things we would have rather done for 6 hours today, we could (mostly) choose joy and fun smashed together in a Suburban. 

Before we left everyone had a case of the grumps about this trip.  We had to clear some space in the garage and unload a trailer, and there was a lot of huffing and puffing about it (including from me).  

Once we got home, I was surprised to hear one son talk about how much he enjoys long car rides.  In fact it seemed as though everyone felt that we had accomplished some great task together once we arrived home. Sometimes going through uncomfortable things together is all that’s needed to remember that being with each other is the more important than most everything else.

Don’t get me wrong, there were A LOT of shrieks and crying from the backseat this afternoon, but there were also a lot of laughs as we made good memories and learned more about each other.

Perhaps this whole blog post is just a good opportunity for me to once again share a favorite quote of mine from GK Chesterton: “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”