I've been pretty busy lately. Not like "stay-at-home-mom" busy. Those days are always pretty full as they are...I'm just assuming you know that's a given at this point. Teaching. Disciplining. Directing. Encouraging. Repenting. Loving the sweet kids God has entrusted to us. Tiring days...but full of blessings too.
I have grown to love and appreciate my present life of being a mother and a wife. I have learned to trek through the week without seeing my husband a whole lot, while maintaining a fairly positive attitude. I often send him texts of what's for dinner and then save leftovers for him night after night b/c he is unable to eat dinner with us. Don't get me wrong, everyone has a breaking point, and I can definitely break. But in general, my goal is to make the most of the family time we DO get together, and to be diligent about not complaining when Greg is just not able to be home as much as I'd like. But there has been a gentle whisper to start using some of my non-mom abilities to bless those around me. It's easy to just focus on what's happening right here at home without looking beyond the walls of our little house. Not saying it's bad to focus on your family. We all need to be less busy in this world. I love being a stay-at-home mom, but I also have found that it's okay to not feel bad when I just want to get away from my kids for a while. And by "getting away", I mean finding time to do what I love outside of just being a mom. Finding time to use my creative outlets in a positive way. Know what I mean?
Nevertheless, decorating and party planning have always been passions of mine. And lately I've been feeling called to start blessing others with this ability. It took some time of experimenting at home and building my self-confidence before I thought, "Wow, okay, people kinda like what I do...maybe I should start sharing this gift, if it's something that can be used for God's glory".
So, last week I helped decorate for a Ladies Spring Conference we had at our church. (I'll do another post on that tomorrow). It was a little crazy leading up to the event. Okay, it was a LOT of crazy. Taking numerous trips to Hobby Lobby and Michael's with my kids, spending nearly every morning at church preparing the decorations and cutting out hundreds of tiny paper birds while my kids ran around like wild bandits getting into all kinds of trouble. I don't know the last time I put my heart and soul into something like that (maybe my wedding day?). I was so exhausted by the end of the week. But it's been so cool to see how God can give us a passion and run ourselves into the ground, only to do it all over again! I was so blessed to see so many of the other women who helped with the event come together with their different talents. Truly an example of what the church is designed for. God uses MANY different hands to get his work done.
Then last night, I hosted a "Wannabe Beach Party" at my house for some women in my life who I really respect and appreciate. All of them are women of faith who I admire for different reasons. Mostly they are just such "givers", constantly serving their families and those around them. I wanted to simply provide an evening where they didn't have do anything but relax and laugh and enjoy an evening of NOT serving someone or something for once in their lives. Again, I ran myself into the ground all week trying to get preparations done. But totally worth it. (I'll do a separate post on that too).
So yeah, I feel like I'm finally finding my stride. This is a wonderful season in my life right now, and I'm so incredibly thankful for it.
I have grown to love and appreciate my present life of being a mother and a wife. I have learned to trek through the week without seeing my husband a whole lot, while maintaining a fairly positive attitude. I often send him texts of what's for dinner and then save leftovers for him night after night b/c he is unable to eat dinner with us. Don't get me wrong, everyone has a breaking point, and I can definitely break. But in general, my goal is to make the most of the family time we DO get together, and to be diligent about not complaining when Greg is just not able to be home as much as I'd like. But there has been a gentle whisper to start using some of my non-mom abilities to bless those around me. It's easy to just focus on what's happening right here at home without looking beyond the walls of our little house. Not saying it's bad to focus on your family. We all need to be less busy in this world. I love being a stay-at-home mom, but I also have found that it's okay to not feel bad when I just want to get away from my kids for a while. And by "getting away", I mean finding time to do what I love outside of just being a mom. Finding time to use my creative outlets in a positive way. Know what I mean?
Nevertheless, decorating and party planning have always been passions of mine. And lately I've been feeling called to start blessing others with this ability. It took some time of experimenting at home and building my self-confidence before I thought, "Wow, okay, people kinda like what I do...maybe I should start sharing this gift, if it's something that can be used for God's glory".
So, last week I helped decorate for a Ladies Spring Conference we had at our church. (I'll do another post on that tomorrow). It was a little crazy leading up to the event. Okay, it was a LOT of crazy. Taking numerous trips to Hobby Lobby and Michael's with my kids, spending nearly every morning at church preparing the decorations and cutting out hundreds of tiny paper birds while my kids ran around like wild bandits getting into all kinds of trouble. I don't know the last time I put my heart and soul into something like that (maybe my wedding day?). I was so exhausted by the end of the week. But it's been so cool to see how God can give us a passion and run ourselves into the ground, only to do it all over again! I was so blessed to see so many of the other women who helped with the event come together with their different talents. Truly an example of what the church is designed for. God uses MANY different hands to get his work done.
Then last night, I hosted a "Wannabe Beach Party" at my house for some women in my life who I really respect and appreciate. All of them are women of faith who I admire for different reasons. Mostly they are just such "givers", constantly serving their families and those around them. I wanted to simply provide an evening where they didn't have do anything but relax and laugh and enjoy an evening of NOT serving someone or something for once in their lives. Again, I ran myself into the ground all week trying to get preparations done. But totally worth it. (I'll do a separate post on that too).
So yeah, I feel like I'm finally finding my stride. This is a wonderful season in my life right now, and I'm so incredibly thankful for it.
I'm working on my guilt of leaving Bailey and Chris to have some me time. I had a night out with some girlfriends the other night (my first real girls night out since having Bailey) and it was Amazing what it did to recharge me!
ReplyDeleteI would love to have a party planned by you! If only we lived closer!
I know the mommy-guilt cycle all too well. But it's SO good to make time for our lives outside of just being a wife and mom. So glad you were able to go out with friends! So refreshing isn't it?
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