As a mother, I seem to be doing the plate balancing act that you see Asian acrobats do…all those plates spinning on top of sticks…they run around keeping each plate spinning fast enough that it doesn’t fall off the stick, but if they let up for just one minute, the plates come crashing down all around them….
It doesn’t take much to get distracted, an illness, a vacation, rainy weather, sunny weather…and before I know it, all my plates are crashing around me and life just plain gets messy.
Today, I’m picking up my plates and getting them spinning again…Lord Willing! Over the past couple of months, our family has had a bad cold run through ALL the kids, I got two colds almost back to back, plus Esther ended up with pneumonia…add to that springtime projects and a camping trip, you get burn out…that’s just where I’ve been this week, but today I woke up refreshed at 5 am, and ready to start fresh!
But where to start…there’s so many things screaming for my attention….priorities…that’s where..so what are my priorities?
1 – Nurturing my relationship with my loving Heavenly Father, this means getting up early enough to spend time with him every morning!
2 – Nurturing my relationship to my dear husband…this means getting up with him in the morning to have some one on one time and help him get his meals together.
3 – Guarding my health (and my family’s health)…this means getting up early to exercise, and trying to make healthy choices in my eating/meal planning. I remind try to remind myself that I want to be an awesome grandma, and that means investing in my health today…
4 – Nurturing my children – this means getting up early so I can wake them up and help them meet their responsibilities in the morning, and staying involved throughout the day
5 – Making my home an oasis for my family…this means delegating where ever possible, so we all share the load, but also putting my organizational skills to work regularly to keep my home running smoothly and looking nice.
6 – Nurturing family relationships and good friendships…this means keeping my “to do” list short enough that I actually have time for friends, and being the one to make the calls to connect…
7 – Making memories…this one I have learned through the losses in my life (my niece Leah, and my nephew James), that when all is said and done, it’s not the everyday things that stick in your memory, or even the holidays (they seem to all blend into each other), but it’s the special times that make lasting memories (camping, picnics, hikes, projects). This is so hard when the day to day of life makes it seem like you can never get away from the everyday routine…but it’s so rewarding when you do!
There are so many other things that fit into those priorities, and there are so many other “good” things I would love to do, but so often I have to choose to not do those “good” things so that the “better” and “best” things get done…
So, how do you know what choices to make each day to make the most of the time given?
“Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation; For you I wait all the day” Psalm 25:4-5
I need to put God first, and prayerfully start each day, asking for wisdom to listen to that “small quiet voice” of the Holy Spirit, and the strength to do what He leads me to do.
And lastly, be flexible…it seems all my plans and to do lists get off track at times, but that isn’t always bad…I need to hold them loosely and keep an eye out for the blessings along the way that are little surprises from God, not in my planning book, but His.
Posts Tagged ‘Big Family’
Picking Up the Plates
Thursday, July 8th, 2010It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
Saturday, December 12th, 2009Things are coming along nicely around here – we finally got to put up the lights I bought for the house last year – and they are sooo pretty!
Our House In Lights!
I also got to finally decorate our stair banister!
Decorated Staircase (with our birthday girl in the shot for good measure!)
And here’s some pictures of our Adventures in the Christmas Tree Hunt of 1009:
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- Decorated Staircase (with our birthday girl in the shot for good measure!)
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- Our House In Lights!
I hope you enjoy our photos! We sure enjoyed doing it this year! And don’t forget, that “Unto Us A Child Is Born” – and little baby laid in a manger made from a tree – “A Savior Which Is Christ The Lord” – a perfect man who gave up his life to pay our penalty for sin, by being nail to a cross made from a tree! Make the most of your Christmas celebrationg by remembering that whenever you see a Christmas Tree!
Sorry I’ve been away!
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009As you may remember, I don’t blog much when Jeremy is home…hence my absence!
Here’s a few random photos of the last few weeks:
We had a great time with Jeremy home! We bowled a lot, did pizza more often than usual, watched some great movies, played some great card games, played the Wii a lot, and just enjoyed seeing him at our dinner table!
What I can’t get over, is that he has only been gone for just over a week, and he’ll be back for Christmas in just over 2 weeks! We will be so spoiled!
We have all our Christmas lights up, but no photos yet…soon, I promise.
I’ve had so much fun decorating our new home for Christmas…we never got to last year as we spent almost all of December in the hospital with Esther! So even though we’ve been in our new home nearly two years (can you believe it??), this will be our first Christmas in our new house! I just loved decorating the stair banister! But the icicle lights on the house as just sooo cool!!!
6 Weeks of Family News – part 2
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009So, last time we ended with photos of when Jeremy was home (by the way he was home for just 8 days, and left for California on March 7, and left for Iraq the week of March 20. It took him several days to arrive there and we’ve gotten to talk with him on the phone 3 times now).
Here are some random photos of events during March:
Dayton Up Close and Personal
Fun with the Riding Mower - no lawn to mow, but that doesn
Esther
Multiplication Tables - back to basics around here this spring to prep for annual testing!
Next the kids went to the Youth Fair – sponsored by 4H and happens every year at the North West Washington Fair Grounds. The cost is minimal and the fun is maximum! Your child selects a class to take, and spends all day Friday/Saturday learning – everything from cows (Jessica did beef cows this year), to gardening, to clowning, to chess and more! This year Reuben did chess, Rachel did knitting, and Rebekah did gardening/country crafts. Here’s some photos that were the outcome of this:
Rebekah's birdhouse!
Chess Game - guess who's playing against Reuben?
It's Dayton - he learned all the moves (but the strategy is a little beyond him at just 5 years old)
Girls Can play Chess - I even played a few games and won!
A Perspective on Chess
By the way – I didn’t take any of the last 6 photos – it’s the old “leave the camera out and you get lots of bonus photos” – I am so thankful for digital photography as it free the kids up to be creative with the camera and all I have to do is delete the bad ones and benefit from all the photos I didn’t take the time to take!
Elizabeth - when she sleeps, she really is laid back!
Hmmm...I wonder where I saw this before!
Esther with Andrea, her physical therapist. Andrea got a new job working with inpatient at St Joes, so this was her last time with Andrea - we will miss her and she was so sweet with Esther and Esther just loved her and so did I! Thanks Andrea!!
When Esther first came to Andrea at the end of January, she couldn’t even hold up her own head, and now Esther can roll from front to back, back to front, holds her head up while on her tummy, holds herself errect when you hold her and is almost sitting up by herself now! All that in just over 3 months – amazing for a cardiac baby, let alone for one with Downs!
That bring you up to the Middle of March – now I’ve got two events that need their own posts!
6 weeks of family news – part 1
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009I have been sooo busy! It all started back when Jeremy was coming home. It took so much work to get things ready for him, prepare for the open house while he was here, get our family portraits, and get in as much family time as possible – and all that was back in the beginning of March! And here we are in May already!
So here’s some photos of thei highlights of all the happening around here during Jeremy’s visit until now.
Jeremy Bowling
Jeremy and Jessica and Bowling
Daryl Bowling
The Men Bowling
Jessica and Esther - Esther is wearing Jessica's old outfit - one Auntie Lisa gave her - you know you are getting old when... the kids hand-me-downs are nearly antiques! LOL!
Family time!
Daddy and Esther Time - Great Smile eh?
Boy and their Tunes
Trying to Burn the Stump - hot dog roast and marshmellow roast too!
We spent around 5 days burning a “huge” hole in this enormous stump in our back yard – the hole we burned was around 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. As it turned out, it didn’t even make a dent. The base of the stump was around 8 feet across with around 4 roots that were at least 2 feet thick coming off. After breaking off most of the roots (each of which took around 10 – 15 minutes with a HUGE dozer ) the stump and root bases were around 12 feet across when it finally gave up and was lifted out of the ground leaving a huge hole behind to say the least!
Jessica dis-assembling the old chicken run
This used to hold chickens – it was mobile and we had meat chickens in it – you would move it every day and the chickens would eat the grass and fertilize you yard! Great idea, worked well, but I am so done with butchering chickens – last time I ended the butchering day by sinking around 2 inches of the butchering knife into my arm and puncturing an artery – not good! Jessica is removing a gazillion staples so we can re-use the treated wood to make a new grape trellis – photos of that coming soon!
Well it’s bedtime, so I’ll just give a quick up-to-date report. Jeremy is in Iraq and doing well. They are in a camp that is really basic – all tents and not even a real bathroom. They are on a base that has never been attacked since the Marines came there, that sounded great to me! He’s a little bored and we’ve sent him magazines and book.
Esther is sick – she was very healthy for a little over a month and gained weight like crazy! Last weekend she came down with a bad cold, we thought, but on Wednesday I decided she wasn’t herself at all and took her in (after several very-little-sleep nights with her coughing) to see the doctor and she has an ear infection, and some “noise” in her chest. She was put on some beefed up antibiotics which gave her diarhea – it burned her backside already, but we are keeping her slathered with A and D ointment now. She’s still really congested so I might have to bring her back in as the doctor said to call if she wasn’t feeling better after the weekend (I think that’s what she said).
Esther now weighs over 15 1/2 pounds, rolls from front to back, and back to front and is almost sitting lone now!
I hope to find some time to put up some more photos from March and April tomorrow, as well as some before, during, and after photos of our driveway and front yard.
The girls and I had done some really neat flower beds in front of the house, and I’ve got a little over half the new front yard seeded for grass and the first portion is starting to have a green haze to it. We are planning out vegetable gardens right now and hope to start planting as soon as the rain stops (first rain in weeks – it’s been like summer around here for a while and we’ve gotten spoiled, but we need this rain too as it will help make that grass grow!).
I’ve got to go to bed – long day/week and I’m bushed – just have one more sleeping body to move upstairs and then I can rest!