“Blessings crown the head of the righteous…” Proverbs 10:6.

I’m spending some time this morning counting my blessings. It’s not something I do enough of, but today is one of those days where I am focused intently on it. My kids and I are about to head back home to Colorado after two weeks in Florida on vacation. Two weeks of vacation is a blessing in itself! But the biggest blessing has been the ability to spend a ton of time focused intently on my children.

This past year has required a lot of my time be spent on challenges and issues at work. A lot more than usual, normal or whatever word I could pick to describe it. It has also required me to spend a lot of time away from home, traveling for meetings, events, etc. As a working mom with two elementary school-aged children, this is not an easy task. But that’s where we get back to counting our blessings. Even in the trickiest of “work-related” situations, I have been blessed with an amazing support system. My mother-in-law is my daycare – who could be better than Grammy!? And, my husband has been home a lot more in the past 8 months, so Daddy’s there, too. And, while my paying job may have its challenges, I have THE best earthly boss a woman could ever ask for. So, all-in-all, God has been so good in placing these incredible people around me, and giving me the opportunity to help provide for our family. And, all the traveling this year gave me more than enough airline miles to redeem for our vacation trip.

Which gets me back to the vacation. Two weeks of beaches, aquariums, boating, pool time, hanging out, seeing relatives we haven’t seen in years, watching movies, relaxing – sheer bliss in the midst of crazy times. Sure, not all of it was “off,” I put in a fair amount of work due to uncontrollable circumstances – but it’s easy to squeeze in a conference call from the deck of a beach-front condo when I know that tomorrow I’ll still be able to build sandcastles with the kids!

I’m grateful that these past two weeks have given me the chance to reconnect with the kids – not that we were disconnected, but I think I fell in love with them all over again. They are dynamic, amazing, sometimes fearless, adventurous little people with their whole lives ahead of them. Most important, they showed me over and over again in the past couple weeks that they are very aware of God’s greatness and that they know he is a part of everything they, and we, do. From perfect sun-filled days to raging Florida summer thunderstorms, He was here with us and is present in all our days – and they know it.

And last-but-not-least, I am blessed and grateful that they still think their mom is pretty fun to hang out with for a couple of weeks of vacation. God is so absolutely amazing!