Simply

It's January? Can we just pretend it's still December and I'm better about updating our blog? :)

Actually, I'm ok with being silent around here because it usually means I'm spending some quality time with my family. At least once a day I think "I should blog about that." But at night, the motivation is gone.

We had a great Christmas break with the girls! As the girls get older, the festivities just get more and more fun.  We made lots of Christmas crafts, did lots of Christmas baking, and just enjoyed being together as a family.  The girls have inherited my appreciation of watching Christmas movies in jammies, with a fire in the fireplace, and having just the lights of the tree on. I was going to post pictures from Christmas, thinking it was the least I could do.  But I haven't even downloaded our Christmas pics yet.  So, I guess THIS is the least I can do. :)

After New Year's, we hit the ground running.  Most of the time it feels like a sprint to the end of the day.  I've taken on more leadership roles at church and the school, as well as continuing with homeschool projects, fixing up things around the house, and just doing the day-to-day stuff.

With all the busyness, I crave order and simplicity.  I get into a purging mood at the beginning of each new year.  I'm learning that the purging can also mean activities.  I'm learning to say no.  I have no trouble saying "no" to my children, but I have trouble saying "no" to others.  I want to be involved. I want to be helpful.  Above all though, I need to remember that my priorities should be: God, family, others; in that order.  I'm praying that the Lord continues to show me areas that can be rearranged (or eliminated) to keep my priorities in the right place.  

I suppose you can call that a resolution.  I'm going to call it a goal.  :)  I want to reach the end of 2012 and feel like I did my best to keep things from turning upside down.

Will you help keep me accountable?

As a sidenote: There's a free kindle book on amazon right now that talks about simplifying your life.  It's right here.  And if you don't have a kindle, just download the kindle app to read books on your computer.

Take a hike!

It's good for the soul....
We just took the girls on a hike in the hills behind our house.  The sunshine, fresh air, and family time were just what I needed.

At the entrance to the trail

We found a few sticks....

The girls and Brian looking at animal tracks

Skylar saved a piece of dried mud :)

Then, the sticks turned into baseball bats...

That little tiny person is Skylar

This girl...sometimes it feels like she's turning 15 instead of 9.

A few of the tracks we found....we guessed they were coyote prints

These look much more like mountain lion prints...

Reagan's favorite.

The loves of my life.

Tis the season!

I love Christmas!
The true meaning of Christmas, celebrating Christ's birth, is incredibly special to our family.  We have made it a point to explain the true joy of the season to our girls, but that doesn't mean we don't take part in all the fun that Christmas has to offer.

We decorate, and put lights up.  We buy a tree, and make cookies.  We watch Christmas movies and snuggle by a fire in our jammies.

We talk about giving and go shopping for gifts.  We listen to Christmas music.  Bailey sings "Feliz Nah-me-nah."  She says it's "Merry Christmas in Dora."

This time of year always puts me in a reflective mood.  I think of how much the girls have changed in a year.  I remember the fun times we have had as a family.

I am simply filled with joy.

The girls have odd requests this year and I'm cherishing their simplicity.  Reagan asked for a 3 hole punch. Skylar wants footie jammies.  Bailey wants ketchup.  :)  There are other things on their lists, but those are the most humorous.  I am cherishing their ages.  I know the time will come when their requests involve electronics that begin with 'i', but for now, they are easy.

It's hard not to be "busy" during this season.  I'm trying to take moments to pause and just take it all in.  We are done with school until January so now the real fun begins!

At our city's Christmas parade

Making CornFlake Wreaths

New Balance

No, not the running shoes.  Although admittedly, I have not run in far too long.  I guess that goes hand in hand with what this post is about.

I've discovered the most challenging part of being a wife and mother is finding balance.  Most days it's a struggle to keep just one of the areas of my life in balance.  It's a constant readjusting.  I started to feel like I was failing more than I was succeeding.

Keep a clean house, but spend time with your children.

Make healthy meals, but make them taste good.

Don't dress like you just got out of bed, but don't dress to make other men stumble.

Spend time teaching your children, but let them be kids too.

Budget wisely, but splurge on the important stuff.

Protect your kids, but let them make mistakes.

Exercise, but take time to rest.

Be stern, but be gentle.

Love others, but don't let them take advantage of you.

Have great friends, but spend time alone too.

Be helpful, but don't get overextended.

Be confident in who you are, but be willing to change.

Accept that the Lord is God and He died for you, but....hmmm.  I'm glad there's no "but" to salvation.  That's all that really matters.  Life's pressures are mostly imposed by ourselves or others, not God.  Does he want me to be a good wife and a good mother? Of course He does.  He desires the best for me and my family.  Does he care that I haven't cleaned behind the fridge in two years? Probably not.

Now that Brian's mom has passed, I am replaying our conversations, and cherishing them even more.  When they came to visit this past January I told her that I didn't have a chance to clean as much as I wanted.  She just smiled and said, "Look...you can have a clean house or you can spend time with your kids.  You can't have both.  Each day is a choice.  Some days you will choose to clean.  Some days you will sit on the floor and play with Barbies.  As a grandmother, I am glad that your house isn't spotless because it means you're spending time with my granddaughters."  She went on to tell me that there will come a time when your house stays too clean and you miss the mess.  Then she said the kids move back in, along with the grandkids and you miss the clean.  "It all evens out eventually."

Today, I'm striving for a new balance; one that doesn't leave me feeling guilty at the end; a balance that reminds me not to take things too seriously because, "It all evens out eventually."

Victory is not easy

This week has been a roller coaster for our family.

There are major changes going on at the girls' school and we're right in the middle of it all.  Brian has major things going on at work and he's at the center of it too.  That should be enough, but those are the minor parts of our week.

Monday morning, Brian's mom passed away.  She was diagnosed in January with uterine and lung cancer and by October, it had spread to her brain, spine, and lymph nodes.  She fought it every way she could, and dealt with the awful side effects of treatments.  On Monday she was healed completely.  It may not have been the way that some were hoping and praying, but it's healing nonetheless.  I've often heard the term that a person has "lost the battle with cancer".  I've decided I don't like it.  She didn't lose.  Ultimately, she won.  Cancer did not take her life.  It took her home. She gets to be with her Jesus.  When Brian was there a couple weeks ago, his mom said she was ready to go to heaven and be whole again and be with her sisters (and others that have gone before her).  But victory is not always easy.

Victory is not always characterized by jumping, shouting, and rejoicing.  Victory often has a downside.  I'm definitely not a glass-half-empty kind of girl (that's the pessimistic one, right?).  But I'm not a sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns kind of girl either.  I know the reality of life is that for every winner, there is usually a loser.  In a court case, there's always one side rejoicing, while the other mourns.  The Lord's gain in heaven is truly our loss on earth.

I've learned that victory always means change too.  Even when we were ecstatic about the girls' new school, it meant saying goodbye to old friends and learning to adapt to a new school's philosophy of learning.  Likewise, we have been praying for my dad to find a wonderful job after his department was laid off almost 3 years ago.  This week God answered our prayers.  He has a wonderful new job! We rejoice in the victory, but the job is over 4 hours away, so it means that they will be moving.  Major change from the 5 minutes it takes us to get to their house now.  Victory is not always easy.

What we cling to in weeks like this is that victory is ultimately the Lord's.  We are promised that throughout the Bible.  In Jeremiah 29:11, it says "For I know the plans I have for YOU,' says the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a future and a hope." The Lord's plan is for us to be victorious.  In Revelation 17:14 it says, "These will make war with the Lamb, but He will triumph over them.  All those that accompany him shall share in the victory."

This week we cling to His promises, rejoice in victory, but we grieve for our loss.

making up for lost time

All 3 girls are sick.  This is a first for us.  They are incredibly healthy and if one gets sick we have been good about keeping it from spreading.  Not this time.  Skylar is on the mend but Bailey and Reagan are just starting the flu bug.  So, today's comic relief was a welcome reprieve.

Skylar returned to school today but it completely wiped her out.  She rested for a while, and then started talking.  And didn't stop.  I had to laugh because she wouldn't even let me get a word in edgewise.  She hardly took a breath in between sentences.  I think she was making up for being so lethargic and quiet the last few days.  I hit "record" on my phone so I could capture her chatty-ness.  I don't know how to upload it here so below is a transcript of my favorite "story".  Just try not to laugh.

"Mommy, do you know what would be fun? If we could get a pink car for me, the kind with batteries and pedals that go when you push down on them, and we could get a car for Reagan and Bailey that was a police car that had pedals and could go fast, but not really fast, cause that's not safe, but just kind of fast and they could chase me in my pink car.  Then I could jump out and run and Bailey could jump in the pink car and Reagan could stay in the police car and I could hide behind a tree and when they drive past me, cause I'm a good hider, I could jump in the police car and Reagan would be so scared that she would jump out and then I would be chasing Bailey who thinks that she's chasing me, and we could drive all around our neighborhood, chasing each other and then come home and have a snack and laugh.  Wouldn't that be so fun?!"

Back to Basics

Martin Luther King Jr. used to say that some days his schedule was so busy that he had to spend two hours with God, instead of one, just to get it all done. I wish I had that perspective.  I wish I was better at just giving my day to the Lord before I go and mess it all up with worry and chaos.

It's been over a month since I blogged.  It wasn't a purposeful fast, it just didn't fit into the schedule.

In the last year or so we've been trying to get "back to basics." We're eating better, exercising, spending time as a family, budgeting, etc.  So, it came as no surprise last week when my devotions were about being child-like in our faith.  How much more "back to basic" can you get? I started to research exactly what that meant and in the process I came up with a top ten list of ways that we can become like children in our faith. I even prepared to share it with the ladies at one of our church leadership meetings.  But, if the Lord is going to have you teach something, He makes sure you learn it first.

One of the characteristics of children that we can learn from is believing that God is capable of anything, even the little stuff.  I had gotten out of practice in asking the Lord for the little things.

Yesterday Skylar woke up with a bad headache and a 104 degree fever.  She has the flu.  It has been almost two years since the girls had any kind of virus so our ibuprofen was nearly empty and expired.  We made it through yesterday with just acetaminophen, but today it just wasn't working.  I put a plea on facebook for someone to grab us some ibuprofen while they were out and no one responded.  I got discouraged and frustrated.  Brian has been visiting his family back east, and my mom is up north at my cousins.  So, my normal go-to helpers weren't around.  I finally just stopped and prayed.  Within 2 minutes I got a text from a fellow school mom.  She was heading to the store and wanted to know if I needed anything.  She doesn't have facebook so she never even saw my request.  Then my neighbor texted and asked if I needed anything.  Then I got an email from a friend asking if there was anything she could do to help.  Not only did the Lord answer my prayer, He answered it in abundance.

It was a good reminder.  A humbling reminder.

I still have so much to learn.

Today I'm going back to the basics.  The laundry can wait.  My goal for the day is to sit with my precious girl and possibly shower.  :)