My life has undergone a few changes in the last few weeks. Our family has relocated and is in the beginning stages of establishing our own business. We are completely readjusting and starting over. It's a wonderful opportunity for all of us and we couldn't be more grateful. In fact, I spent the first several days feeling little else except gratitude and amazement at the innumerable blessings I have been given in my life. I know without a doubt that God prepared the way for my family to come to this new place in our lives and even though it won't be easy, I'm looking forward to the journey.
Gratitude is an incredible thing. There is something about counting your blessings that brings about a tremendous sense of love and humility. Since we moved we have 'graduated' from grad school and student life and come to a place where we need a more spacious home to maintain our business and family (and the minor detail that small towns don't exactly have easy to find, low price homes for rent). We have been SO blessed with a large home that exceeds our greatest hopes and is perfectly in our price range--literally, this house has everything we wanted/needed and more. I must add, we specifically prayed for months that God would "prepare a home" for us. I know that those specific words were necessary because we were dealing with a time factor, since smaller towns tend to have rental options go up at the last minute, not 6-12 months like a college area, which is what we've been used to for so long. Anyway, it worked out that connections from a friend and word of mouth brought us to this house, close to the last minute, instead of my many phone calls to realtors and searching on websites (no surprise huh?). Basically, my heart has been struggling to find ways to express gratitude to God for dealing out this amazing blessing to our family.
I feel that one way I can show gratitude is to work hard to manage the household in temporal and spiritual ways--by keeping it clean and orderly and working to maintain a happy environment where the spirit of God can thrive. This is not easy. The house is twice the size of anything I'm used to and most of the floors are hard surface, which means lots of cleaning. Nevertheless, I have again been the recipient of God's grace and mercy. After perusing Pinterest for some good chore/routine charts I found a few that the kids each liked for themselves, and through inspiration came up with my own very simple chart for a cleaning schedule and allowance list. Keep in mind that this inspiration was nothing flashy, but it was a simple idea that flowed into my mind and brought a tender warmth to my soul --that's how the Lord speaks to me more often than not. As of today, (our 3rd day with the charts) my children have each woken up and started working on their responsibilities all by themselves. My youngest comes to get me once she's ready to start (and literally pulls me out of bed at times...she's only 2 1/2) and the middle one (basically 4) tells me when he's mostly done and asks if he can watch a movie yet--he's a TV kid. In my mind, all of this is a tender mercy from God, no doubt. Again, I am filled with gratitude (and working up the courage to get up before the kids).
My post is titled "Endure the Excursion with Gratitude" and this is not by accident. After not attending the gym for over two weeks I decided last Monday to begin my workout routine at home. I was feeling stressed and impatient, but took the girls on a little walk/jog/trot down the gravel driveway to the mailbox. We barely made it 15 feet before my little one skipped in front of me and my trotting, 30 year old, mom-body stumbled over her, unable to stop, and completely ate the ground (almost literally). She was fine, but I twisted my ankle and took a nice slide into the uneven gravel. It was the worst pain I have felt in YEARS. The breath was knocked out of me and as I look down at my bloody knee I half-expected to find it on the wrong side of my leg, a leg that I could not even move, probably from the shock. The frustration of this situation and the fact that my first attempt at a workout was a complete FAILURE knocked me on my butt in so many ways. The one benefit was that it allowed me a very good cry, mostly from the pain and discomfort of gravel in open scrapes and road-rash on my arm...but it also made me accept that I have to slow down. I tried hard to take this as a sign that I need to slow down and allow myself and my family to adapt to our new circumstances. I had been on the move to get us organized and unpacked and settled into a routine far too quickly. (Thanks to my sister and mom we were actually already 80% unpacked and settled.) Once I accepted this and started to let my kids be kids and get adjusted in their own ways (i.e. not sleeping very well and waking up in the night, etc.) things started improving. My stress/anxiety level dropped significantly and the kids are doing much better.
Over all, an excursion isn't just something you do on a cruise that cost a good bit of money and results in fun photographs. The internet defines the word excursion with multiple definitions:
I really like this because it shows me that my life is really an excursion---it contains short leisurely journeys, but also moves downward along paths that are angled in various directions, meaning it's not always easy. I went on a cruise excursion once. My husband and I went to Cozumel (and a few other places) about 6 years ago and did a day trip into the jungle where we got to check out ancient ruins and climb up giant temples and see the Mayan calendar. It was incredible. My only regret is that I couldn't speak/understand Spanish so I wasn't able to join in on the conversations my adorable hubby was having with our tour guide about the local history and his life and family in Central America. The excursion itself was incredible but it was also tiring and hot, and for me, it was frustrating. There was so much knowledge that I wanted to have about the the history and the location but since I'm not a historian or an archeologist, nor do I speak Spanish, I was at a huge disadvantage. Anyway, we endured this awesome adventure and got back to our ship. As a side note, that night, I dreamed that I was telling my sister all about the trip through the jungle and it turned out that I was talking in my sleep (which I often do), and according to my husband, I was clearly repeating the tour guide's words to us word for word. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the medication I was taking at the time, but it's also really nice to know that my brain does retain knowledge even if I can't always consciously recall it.
To complete this post, I am still so full of gratitude when I look around me at my home and the beautiful green grass and trees and open pasture that surround us. I'm amazed at the opportunities that have been given to us and I look forward to enduring the ups and downs of the excursion that we call life.
Gratitude is an incredible thing. There is something about counting your blessings that brings about a tremendous sense of love and humility. Since we moved we have 'graduated' from grad school and student life and come to a place where we need a more spacious home to maintain our business and family (and the minor detail that small towns don't exactly have easy to find, low price homes for rent). We have been SO blessed with a large home that exceeds our greatest hopes and is perfectly in our price range--literally, this house has everything we wanted/needed and more. I must add, we specifically prayed for months that God would "prepare a home" for us. I know that those specific words were necessary because we were dealing with a time factor, since smaller towns tend to have rental options go up at the last minute, not 6-12 months like a college area, which is what we've been used to for so long. Anyway, it worked out that connections from a friend and word of mouth brought us to this house, close to the last minute, instead of my many phone calls to realtors and searching on websites (no surprise huh?). Basically, my heart has been struggling to find ways to express gratitude to God for dealing out this amazing blessing to our family.
I feel that one way I can show gratitude is to work hard to manage the household in temporal and spiritual ways--by keeping it clean and orderly and working to maintain a happy environment where the spirit of God can thrive. This is not easy. The house is twice the size of anything I'm used to and most of the floors are hard surface, which means lots of cleaning. Nevertheless, I have again been the recipient of God's grace and mercy. After perusing Pinterest for some good chore/routine charts I found a few that the kids each liked for themselves, and through inspiration came up with my own very simple chart for a cleaning schedule and allowance list. Keep in mind that this inspiration was nothing flashy, but it was a simple idea that flowed into my mind and brought a tender warmth to my soul --that's how the Lord speaks to me more often than not. As of today, (our 3rd day with the charts) my children have each woken up and started working on their responsibilities all by themselves. My youngest comes to get me once she's ready to start (and literally pulls me out of bed at times...she's only 2 1/2) and the middle one (basically 4) tells me when he's mostly done and asks if he can watch a movie yet--he's a TV kid. In my mind, all of this is a tender mercy from God, no doubt. Again, I am filled with gratitude (and working up the courage to get up before the kids).
My post is titled "Endure the Excursion with Gratitude" and this is not by accident. After not attending the gym for over two weeks I decided last Monday to begin my workout routine at home. I was feeling stressed and impatient, but took the girls on a little walk/jog/trot down the gravel driveway to the mailbox. We barely made it 15 feet before my little one skipped in front of me and my trotting, 30 year old, mom-body stumbled over her, unable to stop, and completely ate the ground (almost literally). She was fine, but I twisted my ankle and took a nice slide into the uneven gravel. It was the worst pain I have felt in YEARS. The breath was knocked out of me and as I look down at my bloody knee I half-expected to find it on the wrong side of my leg, a leg that I could not even move, probably from the shock. The frustration of this situation and the fact that my first attempt at a workout was a complete FAILURE knocked me on my butt in so many ways. The one benefit was that it allowed me a very good cry, mostly from the pain and discomfort of gravel in open scrapes and road-rash on my arm...but it also made me accept that I have to slow down. I tried hard to take this as a sign that I need to slow down and allow myself and my family to adapt to our new circumstances. I had been on the move to get us organized and unpacked and settled into a routine far too quickly. (Thanks to my sister and mom we were actually already 80% unpacked and settled.) Once I accepted this and started to let my kids be kids and get adjusted in their own ways (i.e. not sleeping very well and waking up in the night, etc.) things started improving. My stress/anxiety level dropped significantly and the kids are doing much better.
Over all, an excursion isn't just something you do on a cruise that cost a good bit of money and results in fun photographs. The internet defines the word excursion with multiple definitions:
NOUN
- an instance of the movement of something along a path or through an angle.
- a digression.
I really like this because it shows me that my life is really an excursion---it contains short leisurely journeys, but also moves downward along paths that are angled in various directions, meaning it's not always easy. I went on a cruise excursion once. My husband and I went to Cozumel (and a few other places) about 6 years ago and did a day trip into the jungle where we got to check out ancient ruins and climb up giant temples and see the Mayan calendar. It was incredible. My only regret is that I couldn't speak/understand Spanish so I wasn't able to join in on the conversations my adorable hubby was having with our tour guide about the local history and his life and family in Central America. The excursion itself was incredible but it was also tiring and hot, and for me, it was frustrating. There was so much knowledge that I wanted to have about the the history and the location but since I'm not a historian or an archeologist, nor do I speak Spanish, I was at a huge disadvantage. Anyway, we endured this awesome adventure and got back to our ship. As a side note, that night, I dreamed that I was telling my sister all about the trip through the jungle and it turned out that I was talking in my sleep (which I often do), and according to my husband, I was clearly repeating the tour guide's words to us word for word. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the medication I was taking at the time, but it's also really nice to know that my brain does retain knowledge even if I can't always consciously recall it.
To complete this post, I am still so full of gratitude when I look around me at my home and the beautiful green grass and trees and open pasture that surround us. I'm amazed at the opportunities that have been given to us and I look forward to enduring the ups and downs of the excursion that we call life.
Comments
Post a Comment