We took a break last weekend.

As a family.  We took a break.

And it was nice.

I’ve been reading a lot recently about creating margin in your life.  I haven’t been actively looking for such a topic; it has just been discussed on several blogs that I frequently read.  When you create margin in your life, you allow yourself a chance to refresh and renew.  One of the areas I’ve been actively pursuing in my Personal Life Plan is an area of rest, of margin.

And so we took a break.

We went up to St. Joseph, Missouri and spent a few days with my brother and his family.

It was extremely relaxing.

My wife and I decided that this would be a break from work, from worry, from ministry concerns, from blogging, and texting and tweeting (mostly).  Heather mainly encouraged this.  She’s a very wise women.

We left last Thursday and headed to St. Joseph.  We didn’t plan a travel itinerary, which was a major step for me.  I like to have even our spontaneity planned out ahead of time.

We hit the road around 9:00 10:00.  We stopped in Bolivar, MO for lunch and arrived at my brother’s house around 4:00 pm.  We didn’t do much on Thursday.  We just hung out and visited with Rick and Anna, and Jessica Williams, who I used to work with when we lived in Kimberling City, MO.

On Saturday, we had a pretty full day ahead of us.

First off, we loaded up and traveled 45 minutes south to Kansas City, where we took a tour of The Roasterie.  If you’re a coffee snob, like I am, you need to check out this place.  They have some incredible coffee, both roasted and green.  I purchase most of my coffee from them in green form, and roast it myself.  But that’s another post…

We toured the place, watching how they process their exquisite coffee, watched a brief video about the coffee industry, watched a demonstration of a cupping, and browsed through their gift store.  I left with an official Roasterie coffee cup, and three nice burlap coffee bags for my office walls.

After leaving The Roasterie, we drove just a few blocks to the warehouse and outlet store for Original Juan’s Barbecue Sauce.  There are two food items that I love to experience in all their variety:  excellent coffee, and incredible barbecue sauce.  So going to both of these places in one day?  Phenomenal!

I showed some major restraint at Original Juan’s.  I only purchased four more bottles of sauce.  Mmmmmm… I can’t wait to fire up the grill with these!

After we left Original Juan’s, we stopped for lunch at possibly the best barbecue place I’ve ever eaten:  Oklahoma Joe’s.  Their sauces are made by Original Juan’s.  The restaurant is in a convenience store.  The brisket sandwich that I had was absolutely wonderful.

After leaving there, we went downtown to Crown Center.  In the mall area, there was an Under the Sea Adventure play area for kids.  It was an undersea themed interactive display that the kids could play in and climb through.  It was pretty well designed and constructed.  And it was free.  The kids loved it.

We hung out there for an hour or so until it was time to head upstairs for our 2:30 tickets to Kaleidoscope.  This was also free, although you had to pick up a ticket to gain entry due to space limitations.

Kaleidoscope was very cool.  Hallmark decided that, instead of throwing away so much waste products from their card company, it would be better to allow it to be used for kids to be creative with.  And for free.

There were several different crafts that you could do:  color on a white square, which you could then feed through a press to make your own puzzle; paint a cardstock photo frame with water colors; design a mask with melted crayons under a black light; and a dozen more.

When we got to Kaleidoscope, Abigail needed to be fed, so Heather disappeared with her around a corner.  The three older kids immediately ran off to create.  So Jadon and I got to spend the next hour and a half together.  We colored masks, painted picture frames, drew, cut, glued and played.

It was incredible time spent with my two-year-old.  There was so much to take in, he was completely overwhelmed.  I don’t think he said two words the entire time we were in there.  And this kid usually jabbers constantly!  It was a wonderful time with my son!

When we were finished at Kaleidoscope, we headed back to Rick and Anna’s.  Almost all of the kids slept all the way there.  I probably could have too, if I weren’t driving.

That evening, after we returned, Rick introduced us to geocaching.  The next day, on our trip home, we stopped and found seven different caches.  The kids and I are hooked. It’s pretty fun to see if you can find what someone else has hidden, using a GPS as a guide.

So many stops made our drive home take a bit longer than it needed to, but it was worth it.  One cache was near a park in Springfield.  So the kids and I played on the equipment while Heather fed Abigail. It’s amazing how something like a swing can be so enjoyable for a two-year-old.

As far as I’m concerned, our three day get-away was a huge success.  We relaxed, enjoyed ourselves and some family and friends, and allowed the stress of everyday life to bleed off.

Margin.  It’s definitely needed in our lives.

This post is a bit different than my normal content.  Usually this type of stuff I post to our family website.  But I think it makes a pretty solid point for leaders.  Creating margin is a necessity.  How do you create margin in your life?  Share your ideas in the comments section.