A Divine Day (Day 3)

Well, today was one of my favorite days of the entire week thus far! We woke up very early and got on the road. Mr. Incredible had to do an observation and take a tour of The School for The Deaf & Blind in St. Augustine...which is right down the road from Historic Downtown St. George St. so we decided it would be awesome if we could hang out and leisurely walk through St. Augustine with out the children. (The only other time we've done that was when I had my first 5K on the Bridge of Lions.) I was so preoccupied back then...so this was so peaceful. One of my goals this week was to read a book from cover to cover. I don't get to read just for pleasure too often. Between studying for Bagels & Blessings and my Life Transformation Group and my personal devotions...then add schooling and reading the read alouds...I don't get much time to read just for fun. So...I borrowed this book Forsaken and was planning on reading for hours. However, my cousin in Jacksonville wanted to join me for a bit too, so we got to St. Augustine around 8:15am. The only things open were coffee shops and the visitor center.

I love coffee...if you haven't figured that out. City Perks is a great coffee shop on St. George St. They brew espresso for their coffee. That makes me smile.

So Mr. Incredible and I had a little chance to take a walk until he had to begin his observation...loved looking at the cemetery and taking our time to read anything we wanted to read. When we are with our children...reading the descriptions of things gets old...they want to MOVE! Made me smile when we were there.

I felt like today was a day of divine appointments. On the way to St. Augustine Mike and I talked about some of the changes we might be having to make in the next month. Financially speaking..we are running very low on money. We've budgeted so well, and God has been so good, but the next month or two are going to be a real test. Mike will be done school in August and we are praying he gets a job quickly. We also talked about the changes in our children (had to talk about the children right?) and how we have to begin to adapt our parenting to their growing needs and changes as well.

As we walked back through the city gates of St. Augustine...we talked about how grateful we are to be where we are right now. Gratitude is a vital part of joyful living...no matter what the circumstances. Our time this morning filled me with such peace and joy. Once Mr. Incredible left for school, I found my spot....

...and read. I watched as the store owners arrived to open their shops. I thought about how wonderful it would be to come here and stay a few nights...just Mr. Incredible and I. We would totally do this very thing...he and his book, me and mine. Makes me smile again. Shortly after reading a few chapters my cousin called to tell me she had arrived. This will be another divine appointment.

She and I walked around a bit. I love her. I'm thankful to have her in my life. We talked about the boys and how I missed them, but knew this was so good for all of us! We went to lunch and we continued talking. She said she woke up with Nana on her mind. Nana would be our grandmother who passed away the year after I was born. She felt strongly that she had to talk to me about my family. I never met my grandmother on my father's side. Come to think of it..I've never met any of my grandparents. As she began to speak, talking about family history, I felt my eyes beginning to well up. I've been mourning the fact that I feel so disconnected to family. I know I have family (not very many), I have memories as a child albeit limited. Because I'm the youngest of all my cousins, she has memories that don't include me..because when I was born she was already 26 years old. She filled me in on details of my history. Are you ready for this...I am related to..wait for it...JOHN ADAMS! I can't wait to tell my kids. Yes, I actually qualify to be a Daughter of The American Revolution. WOW! Our cousin Kathy traced our blood lineage on my father's side directly to John Adams. She also told me things about my grandmother back in the early 1930s and what she  did to survive. Such fascinating stories - such a divine appointment.

Mr. Incredible joined us for lunch and Ilene had to go shortly after that. We walked around and explored things we had never seen before. Like the history of New Smyrna which is the town directly above where I live presently. I love Florida History. Then of course we absolutely love international foods. The part we miss about New Jersey...however you can find just about every international flare right here in St. Augustine (the oldest city in the United States by the way!)

Cafe con Leche and a guava & cheese pastalitos. OH yummy! We continued walking up and down the town, all over the side streets and then decided to walk over the Bridge of Lions. It was such a beautiful day!

As we were walking over I ask Mike what would happen if the bridge would go up...is he sure they would see us? "That's not going to happen." Well....we step onto the section of the bridge that would go up and no sooner than our feet hit the ground...all these alarms go off! The bridge was going up. We had to run off that part, by the time we got to the flashing gates..they were closing us in on the wrong side. I think they finally saw us and lifted the gates for a second so we could run through.

 That was invigorating to say the least. I love watching boats. So peaceful and relaxing.

We ended up having dinner at Harry's a New Orleans style restaurant...where I enjoyed jambalaya and he had shrimp and grits. Again...yum! We held hands, talked, laughed, missed our kids together but realized an important fact, we need more of this. Someday our superheros are going to be on their own, we need to take care of us, enjoy us...we don't do this enough. What a divine day! I'm so in love with Mr. Incredible...22 years of marriage and he still gives me butterflies when we hold hands.