Life is a whirlwind right now. In the past, I would have freaked out by now. TOO BUSY! MUST STOP! JUST CAN'T DO ANYMORE! But somehow at the end of each day, I turn to Micheal and say something along the lines of, "I can't believe I'm still going." School takes a large chunk of our day, and cleaning up afterwards. Meals are constant along with the driving to and fro for sports practices and games. Trips have been planned and gone on. Relationships are being formed and deepened.
It's all absolutely great. I love my life. I love this stage. I love the crazy.
I have not always been able to say that and maybe I won't be singing this same tune in 3 months time.
But for now, I will enjoy the ride and choose joy and thankfulness.
You see, I have loved my time at home. The quiet of our days. The beautiful and steady routine. It's been a most lovely 12 years. Yes, we have done plenty in those years. Lots of activities and running amok, but this is a different season. I realize I am entering into a new span of time. A time of going, exploring and being out in our community. Things are opening up for me personally and us as a family that we have never been apart of in the past. And it's FUN!
Also, we have now been at our current residence for 2 years. We are settled. It feels like home. Oh, dulce domum, such a wonderful place.
We have friends and with that comes some of life's most terrific blessings:
Laughter!
Dinners!
Encouragement!
Tears!
Conversations full of challenging and sweet words.
I realized a couple of months ago that I have a fear of people. I don't really know how that fear got there but now that it has been shown to me, I have the power to deal with it. I am a very transparent person but with people you can get hurt, so there is a vulnerability with relationships that is terrifying. I have been going back and forth with myself and God and a couple close friends about these issues. I have been working out what exactly to do about these feelings. I have been challenged to step out and be a friend. A good friend. The kind of friend that I want. It's tough sometimes! I am such a homebody, I could be home all the time and be happy. But really, when I'm honest with myself, being a part of my community in the small ways I am right now give me great joy also. I am becoming more and more comfortable out in the great, small place I call home. I am not allowing myself to go over and over the stupid things I say when in groups. Really, I am getting over myself and seeing the gold in others.
You know what I am finding?
There's a lot of gold.
I'm rich and loaded down with blessings.
Showing posts with label seasons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seasons. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Friday, February 26, 2016
The balance of it all
Our mountain has been feeling quite Springy this week. It has been sunny for awhile now but the sun actually felt warm on my back yesterday! We are all ready for a change. Feeling pretty blessed to live in a place that has four seasons. Right when you are feeling "over it", in comes the new to refresh us.
The kids had spring fever this week and so when it came to school, it was a lot of reminding to keep to the task at hand. We kept it short with a good morning time together, math, piano, and one day of Latin. I really would like to do more Latin but you really can only do so much before you are stressed and life just doesn't work so well when stressed.
Which brings me to my cleaning projects!
Our cabin is twice as big as it was last year, but still smaller than most homes. We have no closets, not enough bookshelves or dressers, a tiny sink, no dishwasher. I could go on but you get the idea; it's a bit tight here and we don't have all the conveniences that we had been used to. Waa. Waa. Waa. :) Not really.
I have been really content. I have been really humbled, too.
I have run the gambit on how I feel about my home at it's current state, "I love our little cabin in the woods!", "What the heck were we thinking to buy this tiny space?", "No, all it needs is to be cleaned and freshened up.", "Let's try minimalism in this home.", "Minimalism as a home schooling family of 6 just doesn't work for me.", etc.
So, here we are with one closet now, winter is wrapping up, our bodies want to be moving and out and about. I wrapped the kids' school day up on Wednesday and headed upstairs. To the boys' room. They were outside or reading and had no idea what I was up to. So I began. Two bags of garbage, one pile for garage sale, and one pile to put in the shed. By this time they were all up there wondering what was going on and decided excitedly to join me. We rearranged their beds, swept everything, made a hammock for their stuffed animals, and rehung Z's apartment pictures. He loves having his own space filled with pictures of family and friends, posters, shelves, and other random tidbits 10 year old's enjoy.
They had no complaints about what we threw away or put in the pile to sell which was so nice and confirmed my thoughts of, "Most of this stuff is useless to them!"
Z even said to me, "Mom, I don't always like to clean but when I do I like to clean it all." Sounded like a meme to me!
So the boys' room is feeling great and no money was involved. Just a freshening up of what was already there. Now have you, we do still need a dresser and maybe one more shelf and I would love to paint it this summer. But that is miniscule compared to what we have done on this house so far and what still needs to be done to the rest of the house.
I moved to the small school area we have and got that organized and cleaned up.
I moved on further to the front entryway. Now when you walk into our house, you aren't bombarded with an array of things to trip you up.
Then I looked around at the rest of the house, which had quietly exploded when I wasn't watching! Yikes!
I slumped. I hunched over and sighed deeply. Then I picked myself up and remembered that I can't do it all. I can't keep up the laundry, the schooling, the dinners, the relationships, the schedules, all of it, at the same time. But that's okay.
There are weeks like this when a lot of cleaning is on the list. Or seasons where we eat simply, and get a great amount of school and reading in. There are other times when we are out and about in our community playing and connecting with our people.
And in life it balances out. We have a fairly clean house. We eat decently. We do school consistently four days and randomly throw another day in there for good measure. We hang out with friends and family regularly.
It's a blessed life. It's a busy life. A get to life. And I am grateful.
I write this to remind myself of the balance and the effort. It's not always balanced, but I try. The effort really does count.
The kids had spring fever this week and so when it came to school, it was a lot of reminding to keep to the task at hand. We kept it short with a good morning time together, math, piano, and one day of Latin. I really would like to do more Latin but you really can only do so much before you are stressed and life just doesn't work so well when stressed.
Which brings me to my cleaning projects!
Our cabin is twice as big as it was last year, but still smaller than most homes. We have no closets, not enough bookshelves or dressers, a tiny sink, no dishwasher. I could go on but you get the idea; it's a bit tight here and we don't have all the conveniences that we had been used to. Waa. Waa. Waa. :) Not really.
I have been really content. I have been really humbled, too.
I have run the gambit on how I feel about my home at it's current state, "I love our little cabin in the woods!", "What the heck were we thinking to buy this tiny space?", "No, all it needs is to be cleaned and freshened up.", "Let's try minimalism in this home.", "Minimalism as a home schooling family of 6 just doesn't work for me.", etc.
So, here we are with one closet now, winter is wrapping up, our bodies want to be moving and out and about. I wrapped the kids' school day up on Wednesday and headed upstairs. To the boys' room. They were outside or reading and had no idea what I was up to. So I began. Two bags of garbage, one pile for garage sale, and one pile to put in the shed. By this time they were all up there wondering what was going on and decided excitedly to join me. We rearranged their beds, swept everything, made a hammock for their stuffed animals, and rehung Z's apartment pictures. He loves having his own space filled with pictures of family and friends, posters, shelves, and other random tidbits 10 year old's enjoy.
They had no complaints about what we threw away or put in the pile to sell which was so nice and confirmed my thoughts of, "Most of this stuff is useless to them!"
Z even said to me, "Mom, I don't always like to clean but when I do I like to clean it all." Sounded like a meme to me!
So the boys' room is feeling great and no money was involved. Just a freshening up of what was already there. Now have you, we do still need a dresser and maybe one more shelf and I would love to paint it this summer. But that is miniscule compared to what we have done on this house so far and what still needs to be done to the rest of the house.
I moved to the small school area we have and got that organized and cleaned up.
I moved on further to the front entryway. Now when you walk into our house, you aren't bombarded with an array of things to trip you up.
Then I looked around at the rest of the house, which had quietly exploded when I wasn't watching! Yikes!
I slumped. I hunched over and sighed deeply. Then I picked myself up and remembered that I can't do it all. I can't keep up the laundry, the schooling, the dinners, the relationships, the schedules, all of it, at the same time. But that's okay.
There are weeks like this when a lot of cleaning is on the list. Or seasons where we eat simply, and get a great amount of school and reading in. There are other times when we are out and about in our community playing and connecting with our people.
And in life it balances out. We have a fairly clean house. We eat decently. We do school consistently four days and randomly throw another day in there for good measure. We hang out with friends and family regularly.
It's a blessed life. It's a busy life. A get to life. And I am grateful.
I write this to remind myself of the balance and the effort. It's not always balanced, but I try. The effort really does count.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)