Joy in the Journey

Heading somewhere new. Dealing with transition. I love Jesus. Like, A LOT! This is not a "Christian blog" but both Lee and I, love Jesus and you will hear that love throughout our blogs because it's part of us authentically sharing with you our journeys. Today, I want to share with you some things that have to do with my relationship with Jesus and the new direction He's leading me. I hate change! Let's start with that. Change is scary. Change is difficult. Change is stressful and I don't like it! I'm the kind of person who will eat the same thing every time at a restaurant because I know I like it. Or buy the same makeup product again and again even though I looked at a million other options. I know what I like and I like it that way. So change, though exciting, is pretty daunting to me. I have known about Jesus and been "A believer" since a very young age but it wasn't till I was 19 that I really gave God the cont...

Last weekend I loaded up my vehicle with as much camping gear as I could, and the kids, and headed up into the mountains. I left a list of things for my husband to pick up after work before he joined us (because bedding and camp chairs for seven people takes up a lot of space and it doesn’t all fit in our SUV!). I was going to be an independent woman and get everything done that I could before he got there.  If you’ve been a bystander and arrived when my husband did, you would’ve thought that I had accomplished it. I had picked out a lovely site to camp. The tent was up and our vehicle unloaded.  There was a laundry line with wet bathing suits and towels hanging on it showing that I had taken the kids to the river to have some fun. The fire was going and dinner was cooking on the camp stove. It looked like the picture of a serene, perfect camping trip. I had done all this with my five kids in tow, one of them only five weeks old.  My crew and I But let’s ta...

How to encourage and model hard work. Hardworking kids? Sounds a little funny I think. Hardworking Moms and Dads, sure! But kids? I'm a teacher at heart. I love to teach and everywhere I have gone and everything I have done in life I have loved to teach. To teach skills, or classes, or about facts of life.  This carries over into motherhood very well. EVERYTHING I do is teaching. Teaching my child how to put on their clothes, teaching them how to use a spoon or fork. Teaching them how to say please or thank you. The list is endless. Parenting is about teaching and training your child in the skills and lessons you want them to have in adulthood. When my daughters were 4 and 6 I began teaching them how to do their laundry. Little steps like putting their clothes in the washing machine, adding soap, and starting it. How to move the wet, clean clothes over to the dryer and add a dryer sheet. Then teaching them how to fold and put away their clothes. Step by step, lay...

Ever hear that before? I think I would have to alter it and say the BEST things come in small packages, since that ’ s how our babies come to us.  My husband and I weren ’ t exactly planning to have our fifth baby.  Don ’ t get me wrong, we wanted to have another baby. We both had baby fever pretty badly, and we ’ ve always wanted to have a large family (well, I have always wanted to have a large family, and I brought him around to wanting one, too). But with my hernia problems and the amount of pain I ’ ve been in for the past six years, which included my last two pregnancies, we didn ’ t think it would be a good idea to have another baby right now. (You can read about my health problems here ) We were wrong.  Well, we weren ’ t wrong that the pregnancy would be hard (although it mercifully wasn ’ t as hard as the last pregnancy, when I was waitressing with one fully open hernia and one partially opened one). And delivering the baby was very painful ...

Building Responsibility in Preteens There is lots of sadness as our children change and grow up but there is also so much joy. We get the honor and privilege of not only being witness to our changing, developing child but also to support, encourage, and lead them as they grow. My eldest is 11 1/2 years old. She's in the middle of puberty and she certainly has her challenging moments. But she's amazing! She is just entering that "Adult Training" phase and she's pushing for her independence. As we lead and guide her in that independence and wise choices along the way the fruits of all the years of teaching, training, and loving seems so vibrantly evident and beautiful. My daughter glows when she expresses love. She is filled with joy when she gets to help. She exudes pride when she gets to be responsible and she is becoming a young lady that I am SO honored to know and even more delighted to have as my daughter. It's not always been easy. There...

Having a good day in this motherhood journey But nothing is perfect... In motherhood I feel like having a perfect day is such a rare thing at least for me it is. A perfect day feels like a special gift of love and a special reminder that life is beautiful and God is good ! Today was a perfect day.  :) It rained today and I love the rain. It made me feel cozy and a little sleepy and nostalgic, like hot cocoa and Christmas does. Today felt like fall and I love fall time! The changing of the seasons, the beautiful maple leaves, and school time. I love learning along side my kids! Today was a perfect day. We accomplished our tasks for the day early in the morning, we got out the house, and we connected with people. :D  At home, after putting the baby to sleep, I sat down with a soothing second cup of coffee and cuddle up to my oldest daughter and we read our special book together, Beautiful Girlhood. We talked and chatted, then parted ways with hugs and...

Do you ever feel a little…claustrophobic? I do! Not that I spend a lot of time in small spaces, but I spend a lot of time with little people who what to get up in and take up my space.  Picture this: I’m sitting cross legged on one corner of my king size bed. I’ve got a baby who is hungry and having trouble latching on in one arm, and I’m trying to hook up the haakaa with my other hand. At one knee I’ve got a 5 th  grader who is crying about how much work it takes to divide and simplify fractions. At the other knee I have two little boys who want to have a punching match and one of them keeps getting knocked into the haakaa and detaching it. The baby is super frustrated because he’s still not latching right and the little girl behind the boys is wanting me to correct her language arts worksheet so she can move onto the next one. Right. This. Second. She’s not being rude or anything about it, she’s just not my most intuitive child and can’t see that I’m a little busy at th...

The Changing of the Seasons Motherhood changes. The seasons are changing. The sun is up and bright but the morning air has a bite of cold in it now and the leaves are just beginning their time of fall. Change. Seasons change. Not just the weather but in the matters of life as well. My son is now 13 months old and we just entered a new season of change and what feels like loss... Weaning! I want to take it slow and spread it over a few months but yet, every time I think about intentionally not connecting to my son, feeding him by nursing, I feel AWFUL, like I'm denying him. I know he's old enough. I know it's time. I've been thinking about it for awhile now but it's still HARD, and it's still a loss, still a change of season. I thought I was fine most of yesterday, after realizing it was time to start the weaning process. I had a plan, I'd looked up information, it would be gradual, it would be fine! I went into town, did some e...

It’s 10 PM Monday evening and I just realized that I have not written my blog for Tuesday! That’s not the only thing I’ve forgotten today. I left some dishes soaking in the sink because I started them but didn’t get back to finish them. I was supposed to go up to my grandparents house this afternoon and didn't realize that I had forgotten to do it until this evening. I made it up there around 7:30 PM. I wanted to make an apple crisp and forgot that I was out of oatmeal. So I had to run up to my grandparents' house a second time to borrow some oatmeal.  I was also going to give the baby a bath today, and possibly bathe myself since I don’t know how anybody can stand to be in the same room as me right now. But I forgot.  I’m pretty sure I haven’t brushed my teeth or my hair today either. And I left a load of laundry in the wash, so I’m probably gonna have to run it again tomorrow. But I did have a nice little time of reading my Bible this mor...

I've been feeling pretty convicted lately. On the topic of rest. Going camping  two weekends ago and realizing just how much I have been working and prioritizing other things ahead of my family was convicting. Reading Lee's blog on Just for Fun was a great reminder and encouragement. Also, a friend of mine recently shared with me about a lady who highly prioritized a day of rest like the Sabbath in the Bible and that, too, was convicting. That lady's Day of Rest included "covenant relationships": God, spouse, children and whatever was rejuvenating to her personally. I loved that!  So, I'm trying to find rest... Sounds funny, I know. Find rest? Well, I'm trying to find how do I intentionally rest? How do I balance work and rest? How do I prioritize restoration?  Yesterday went really well, I thought. We all got up at a reasonable time. My eldest watched the baby while I painted a dresser for my bedroom. Both girls did their school work (we st...

Is a Clean House important? I'm going over to a friends house today. She is a mother to five precious children. Four out of the five kids are age 5 and under. She messaged me earlier and said her house looked like a bomb went off in it and she was stressing about what I would think of her when I saw it. I loved the honesty of that statement. We ALL feel that way! But WHY?!  Why do we all think we are going to be looked down on for how our homes look? Judged by how our kids effect the look of our homes and the mess level?  Photo Credit: mylifesuckers.com WE ARE MOMS! We have young children. Our houses are often, if not always, messy. No judgement from me! I find a messy house that is full of children a beautiful thing. :) Now, I do have to admit my house is usually clean. It's usually put together, but there are several factors that contribute to that: 1) I have got rid of 60-70% of my stuff which makes it a million times easier to keep clean ...

My baby will be four weeks old on Friday.  How is this possible? I wonder the same thing about my oldest, who is going to be 11 years old this winter. How can that be? Wasn’t she JUST four weeks old a few days ago?  The last four weeks have included a lot of learning and a lot of just pure survival. I’m rejoicing in the small victories.  I talked about my nursing struggles here, but at his three week appointment I learned that he had gained 3 ounces in three days, while only receiving a total of 2 1/2 ounces of supplement over those three days, so my milk is now built up enough to sustain him! (YAY!) His skin and eyes are less yellow, which means his jaundice is going away and his poop is more yellow which means he’s getting good breastmilk. (YAY!) I’ve learned that he sleeps best when I am holding him, but he will sleep pretty well when swaddled, so that has made little tasks like washing the dishes and cooking much easier and doable. (YAY!) ...