I’m not spontaneous very often. Okay, I’m not really “leave the house” spontaneous very often, except in cases where I find a rare weekend of a little freedom and think, “Gee, wouldn’t it make all kinds of sense to use every spare moment of this weekend and, you know, paint a hallway?” I’m that kind of spontaneous, but I’m not really, “Hey, I think I’ll call up a friend and see if they can meet us at the park in 10 minutes” kind of spontaneous. This character flaw of mine actually cost Chloe a friend once upon a time because that friend’s mom was that way and she’d call quite a bit to see if she could drop her daughter off at our place in five minutes or pick up Chloe in ten or some such. I very rarely took her up on these offers and as such, she stopped making them. End of story.

It was just the five of us girls this weekend and while that was all kinds of good for part of it, it was all kinds of hard for another part of it. Something in us just let down our guards and everyone became an easy target for everyone else. There was definitely a mixture of exhaustion and stress playing into that, but if we’re to be completely frank, it was mostly just sin.

Today was really our only and best day to sleep in a little. I didn’t wake up until 8:45 and it was bliss. Millie bunked with me again last night and we just stayed in bed all snuggly warm under the covers for a bit this morning before we defaulted to her on the iPad and me on my phone. We stayed that way for about 15 minutes before I just had this sinking feeling that today was going to take another wrong turn for the Dunham ladies and I needed to do something about it. Stat.

At 9:30 I decided it was time to be spontaneous. I woke up the stragglers and told everyone to put on shoes and a jacket, grab a blanket and a Bible and meet me in the van. We headed off to Lake Hefner for a little family reset time.

I can’t say it was particularly profound, though it was good. And I’d like to say we didn’t sin against each other with our words, actions, or thoughts today, but we did. But I can say we worked a little harder, we were a little more intentional, we were a smidge more loving with each other. And maybe it’s going to take a lifetime of resets to keep working on loving each other well, but it’s worthy work and we will keep at it. By the grace of God.