Mom's day at preschool

The delight of my day was a sweet time in my 5 year olds preschool class.  It was "Mom's day at preschool" and we were invited to come and spend the first half of the day helping our children make a Father's Day gift for their Daddys.  It was so hard for me to just let him make the gift without my perfectionist, symmetrical obsession, but I managed to back off and let him do it.  The second part of the day was having a sweet brunch/tea with the other Moms.  I had a wonderful time fellowshipping with the other Moms in our class. It is the last official get together of the year for the Mom's.  It was a little bitter sweet.

The best part of the day was having my son smile from ear to ear as we played games, and sang songs.  I think it meant a lot to have his Mommy in class for the morning.  What a joy that the Lord has given to me, being able to stay home and raise our boys.  Even though challenges are overwhelming at times, days like this rejuvenate me and give me the boost to keep moving on and enjoying the journey. 

As the school year is coming to a close, I am sad that this stage of our life is ending and we are embarking on new endeavors.  Moving out of the preschool years with my little one and into the elementary years and starting our "official" homeschooling journey.  I also have a soon to be teenager who is moving into a new phase of his life, and experiencing new challenges and changes in his life.  I am so glad that I don't have to do this alone!  I have my husband and the Lord walking on this path with me, and I am learning to enjoy each stage of their lives.

"Busy, Busy..."

It has been so long since I have posted to my blog.  Not because I haven't wanted to, but because I have been so "busy" and haven't had the quiet time to get my thoughts down.  As I was thinking about it the other day, the Veggietales song kept going through my mind.  Can you hear it now...

"I'm busy, busy, dreadfully busy
You've no idea what I have to do.
Busy, busy, shockingly busy
Much, much too busy for you.
We're busy, busy, dreadfully busy
You've no idea what we have to do.
Busy, busy, shockingly busy
Much, much too busy for you.


'Cause we're busy, busy, frightfully busy
More than a bumblebee, more than an ant.
Busy, busy, horribly busy
We'd love to help, but we can't!"

Life these days is more like a freeway than a country road.  Everything needs to be instant and fast, and more and more of us are becoming so impatient.  We are all so busy!   Being busy can rob us of being "still" and focusing on the important things in life, and it can sneak up on us so quickly. 

The things that keep us busy can be good things; serving God, bible study, homeschool conferences, taking our kids to their practices and games, helping a friend or family member, watching someone else's children so your friends can have an evening out, planning for our families meals, laundry, and so on and so on.  While all of these may be good and needful, they are not as good and life giving if we are not first with our Lord and Savior, building up our relationship with Him, confiding in Him about the things that burden us or we need help with, and spending time remembering all He has done for us and worshipping Him.

That is the desire in my heart, that I would take the time with Him and stop being so busy, dreadfully busy that I am to busy for Him.

How does your garden grow?

The word gardening can evoke different feelings for different people.  To me it was always a "bad" word, because I grew up having to pull weeds frequently in the yard and never learned how to grow a garden.  Another big one is that I abhor to get my hands dirty.  So when my husband expressed interest in getting a garden plot at the local "Community Garden" in our city, I didn't jump for joy.  However, things are beginning to change....

Earlier in the week, we went over to clear out the weeds that had grown in our plot and get it ready to plant some plants that a dear friend had given me several weeks ago.  That evening did not turn out to be such a great experience, but it was an opportunity for the Lord to work on my character once again.  I blew it, and did a lot of apologizing that evening for reactions to situations that occurred while we tended to the garden. However, it did help me to see areas in my life where I need to change.  It is always best if we can learn from our circumstances, take correction and change in order to line up with how our Creator desires us to live.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction"

Prov. 1:7

During this week, my husband tended to the garden each day, taking one of our sons over with him on occasion.  It was fun for our little guy to work with his Daddy.  At his tender age of 5, he is so curious and interested in anything new.  Gardening is a great opportunity for our son to grow and develop in an area that is really lost in our society today, where parents and kids are most often glued to electronic devises 24/7 rather than being out in nature or working hard to grow their own food.

So this morning was a wonderful time for us to go get some veggies to plant in our garden.  We all went to the nursery and picked out our favorite veggies and then went over to the garden to plant.  As we were planting, we had to work together and we all did our part.  I have to say my husband was so awesome at working with my 5 year old and allowing him to do the work too, my boys have one AWESOME Dad. 

When we came home, I had a much different perspective about "gardening".  Several thoughts came to me about what I found enjoyable:

• It was providing a chance for our family to be together.
• We are learning to work together with 4 different personalities, and desires.
• As a family, we are "learning" how to tend to a garden.
• Our sons are learning to do "work". 
• We are being given opportunity to meet other people in our community.
• We get to watch our plants grow and hopefully reap a harvest of yummy veggies.

Having a garden isn't as difficult as I had always thought it would be, but it takes TIME!  We have to make time to tend to our garden.  We need to pull ourselves away from the things that gobble away at our time; over scheduled lives, TV, Internet, etc...  How exciting to pull away from the crazy fast lane of life and slow down to enjoy something that can benefit us spiritually, emotionally,and physically. 

Hmmm...that sounds rather familiar.  This is also what we need to do to tend to our relationship with God.  We NEED to take time to nurture our relationship with the Lord, taking time away from what we feel are the pressures of this life, having that childlike curiosity we had as a baby christian and seek out the Lord and desire to learn and grow, and working on the one and only relationship that brings life...the fellowship with our Heavenly Father.

What an awesome lesson to learn this week, and I look forward to the harvest both in my garden and in my relationship with God.



Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is special to me, and is a time for me to remember the faithfulness of God!  I am so grateful to the Lord for giving me the desire of my heart, to be a Mom.  I didn't become a Mother in an easy or traditional way.  I waited, cried, doubted, prayed, waited and waited some more.  And after almost 10 years, the Lord fulfilled His promise to me and gave us a son.  I was now a Mom, what an amazing feeling! 

Our son was all that I had prayed for; a boy, a blood relative on the paternal side of my husbands family, and sensitive to the things of the Lord.  While the first two were obvious at the beginning, we have seen the last quality show itself at a young age and is continuing to grow. 

It is absolutely an amazing and overwhelming feeling to become a Mother, and such an awesome privilege.  He blessed us 6 1/2 years later with another boy who is also a true miracle of God. 

While being a Mother is challenging at times, it is such a blessing.  To have my little one smile from ear to ear and say "Happy Mother's Day" is such a sweet feeling, and a reminder that God is faithful to all His promises.

My first Mother's day was shortly after we brought our oldest son home.  This was the "Family Circus" cartoon in the newspaper on the morning of my first Mother's Day .

God is FAITHFUL!!! 

Psalm 37