I suppose I should have seen it coming. After all, she is five. After all, when we travel, we primarily eat at McDonald’s. True, I have tried to cut expenses by preparing our own food. However, that doesn’t always work. I don’t usually fix sandwiches at home anymore. I cook meals from scratch which requires meal preparation and planning. Spur of the moment trips require quick foods, like sandwiches, and I rarely have those fixings on hand. If my husband is called out of town without advance notice, we resort to eating out. Generally, we land at McDonald’s. Last week when we stopped at McDonald’s I shared how someone blessed us with generosity. Further, I shared why I like to avoid Play Place’s. The story gets richer in two ways.

First, my husband’s work kept us out of town during the suppertime hours. We were again, faced with eating out. To add variety to our food, I opted to take the children to Wendy’s. I am not sure it met the qualifications for variety. One fast food restaurant is like another fast food restaurant. Yet, the Wendy’s cashier would beg to differ. Let me explain:

I lined the children up and gave them a choice between a chicken or beef sandwich. My older children responded appropriately to the cashier telling her their choice was chicken. But not the five-year-old. She stepped up to the cashier mustered all her resolve and proclaimed loudly that she would like a McDouble. The cashier raised an eyebrow and pressed her lips together firmly. The rest of the children blushed and shifted their weight. They tried to whisper politely, “Charity, this is NOT McDonalds. This is Wendy’s. They don’t have McDoubles.” Charity continued to insist she should have a McDouble despite the explanations from the older children. We finally distracted her and ordered a sandwich that was closest to her liking. Once Charity gets a notion in her head, there is no talking her out of it.  Distraction works best. She comes by this trait naturally.  My heavenly father uses the same technique with me.  He often distracts me from my stubborn notions with other experiences.

Second, several days have passed since our Play Place experience. You may wonder if the children got sick as I predicted they would. Three days after exposure to a public play area my children contracted the stomach flu. Zachariah blessed us with a full view of his partially digested breakfast on the way to our Christmas Cantata performance. Sadly, he missed seeing Daddy sing with the choir and Mommy singing the solo “Mary did you know”.  I am thankful it was video recorded so our son can see it, but it is not the same. This is the kind of rich experience, I prefer to avoid in the future.

Today we are on the road again. My husband was called out of town for an emergency. We are so blessed to be able to travel with him. We can pack up school books and enjoy a change of scenery from our school room at home. This time we were able to obtain an extended stay accommodations which means we have a kitchen where we are staying. It was an unexpected trip, but with a kitchen, I can stop at the store and prepare our food back at the hotel. Perhaps we can avoid more exposure to viruses and other bacteria that prevent us from living life to its fullest. We can also experience less awkwardness which centers around the lively communications of a five-year-old.

Udderly His,

The Kansas Milkmaid