Stolen Moment

There are fires burning in Moorpark. We spent the day worried for the families near the flames and smoke. Even their home with their dad is only about two miles away from one hill-o-flames next to the power plant.

Last night, we should have been packing up the car with the kids’ homework and finished projects for school in the morning. But instead, we looked at the internet and found out that school had been cancelled for Monday. And suddenly, time was created. There was no rushing to get things sorted out, clothes found, the football and basketball rounded up. There was no yelling to mom to find a lost paper or pair of socks. We fell into a pocket of Time that had not existed a mere 5 minutes previous. No one had to be anywhere in the morning, except for Joe. Poor Joe. He asked me why, if I was going to orchestrate a fire to get me more time with the kids, why I didn’t place it closer to the freeway where it would affect his ability to get to work.

The tree that had been sitting slightly at an angle and neglected since we’d brought it home suddenly perked up. There hadn’t been any time to attend to it what with the football play off game and other commitments. But now we could. We popped popcorn and made hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and stayed up watching My Cousin Vinny and the Oregon State at Hawaii game that started at 11:30pm. Just because we could. We went to bed at 2am. The kitchen is a complete disaster area. All the kid paraphernalia is piled around the front door.

I think we’ll go out for breakfast. We continue to pray for those being affected by the fires.