Last week, as we were driving the long trip from PA back home to MO, one thing just hit me square-on in the face.  We were making this long trip, battling the stomach flu in both kids and Dan, and I wasn’t feeling so hot myself.  We had just spent the night in a puke-ridden motel room (we cleaned up for sure, but I still felt sorry for the maid just because of the smell), and all of a sudden, it just hit me.  We were sick, but my kids had just had the time of their lives with the grammies and pappies.  They had just spent countless hours riding four-wheelers, building forts in the woods, catching fish, riding the subway in NYC, etc.  They had made memories that they’ll never forget.  It hit me that, instead of being afraid to let my kids experience life, due to fear of what they might learn, what they might catch (illness-wise), what they might get themselves into, I need to let them be kids.  I remember what it was like to be a kid, and I don’t think I realized back then what a glorious thing it was to truly be a kid.  So….my motivation today is to let my kids be kids, let them live life, let them experience what life is all about, what God has in store for them.  Let them be the kids God created them to be.

For more Motivate Me Monday, visit Sarah at The Fifth Street Palace.

We had a personal situation come up last week with a medical bill that we’d been paying on for 5 years faithfully, until we hadn’t received a bill for 2 months, and in all the craziness, I lost track. Well, you can guess what happened. Yep, the lovely, rude I might add, collector called, saying we’d been sent (Bam!) to collections on this bill that we’d been paying $5 a month on for 5 years! Oh, I was hot….I mean, did they think $5 was going to break us? Could they not even give us a warning? Oh yeah….I was not nice. In fact, it brought me down, down, down. All I could think was that we’ve worked so hard, busted our rear ends the last couple of years to climb up that ladder of debt, only to be pushed down a couple of rungs….and really, that’s all it was. Just a couple of rungs. I say that because ultimately, that collector isn’t in charge; no, no, no, I have a bigger God than that ornery collector. In fact, through one of Jacob’s songs (Yes, it’s Hannah Montana; don’t give me any flak; kids’ songs in the car rock; they give me time to think, while the kids are quiet, listening….whether it’s Hannah Montana, Elmo, the Muppets, whatever).LOL  Anyway, on the way to tae kwon do that same evening, these are the words I heard, of all places, in a Hannah Montana song….

“Life’s What You Make It”

Don’t let no small frustration
Ever bring you down
No no no no
Just take a situation
And turn it all around

With a new attitude everything can change
Make it how you want it to be
Stayin’ mad, why do that?
Give yourself a break
Laugh about it and you’ll see

Life’s what you make it
So let’s make it rock
Life’s what you make it
So come on come on (everybody now)

Why be sad, broken hearted?
Theres so much to do
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Life is hard or
It’s a party
The choice is up to you

With a new attitude everything can change
Make it how you want it to be
Stayin’ sad, why do that?
Give yourself a break….

Lets celebrate it
Join in everyone
You decide
‘Cause life’s…what you make it….

I needed to hear those words….Don’t let no small frustration ever bring you down. Just take a situation and turn it all around. With a new attitude everything can change.  Yep, it’s up to me.  Am I going to let one little bill and one crazy collector ruin my day, ruin my perspective?  I think not!  It’s time to rise above, and it’s time to pull myself back up those couple of rungs and keep on climbing.  God’s in control, and He’s given me the ability to choose….do I let the little stuff push me down, or do I keep climbing, only to rise above?

For more Motivate Me Monday, visit Sarah at The Fifth Street Palace.

Shhhhh…..if you’re quiet, you can almost hear it.  You know….it’s the sound you hear when your kids are in bed, and the cares of the day have faded away…..it’s the sound that grips your heart and makes you stop dead in your tracks.  Shhhhh….can’t you hear it? It’s the sound that comes quickly upon realization of the fact….

It’s the sound of your kids growing.  They’re growing up before your very eyes.  You may not see it, you may not realize it, but every second, they are getting taller, and they aren’t going to stop.  Before you know it, they’ll be as tall or taller than you are.  The bad thing is….there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

I realized this tonight.  My kids are growing.  It seems like yesterday, I was holding Jaden in my arms, bringing him home from the hospital.  It seems like just yesterday that Jacob was a toddler, playing at the back door with his best friend, his dog, Smudge.  Now, they just keep growing, and there’s nothing I can do about it.  I have to some day let them go, and it may seem like a long time, but I know in my heart of hearts that it’s coming quicker than lightning.  Look at the past 8 years….gone!  My boys are growing, and yours are too.

I could ask why we have to let them go….why do they have to grow up, only to leave home at some point, venturing out on their own?  Why do I have to watch them grow up, growing more and more independent?  Why can’t my babies just be my babies forever?  But I won’t ask that question; oh, I feel the question burning inside; I’m not ready to let them go.  Thank the good Lord that the time is a ways away….but is it?

Love your kids today…watch them grow…be in the moment, and watch them grow; don’t realize that they’ve grown up when it’s already too late.  Enjoy this moment in time; relish your children.  You can never love your children too much….Shhhhh….can you hear it?

For more Motivate Me Monday, visit Sarah at The Fifth Street Palace.

Last week I wrote about some of my frustrations….don’t get me wrong.  I wouldn’t trade my job as a stay at home mommy for all the money in the world.  I LOVE being home with my boys….but like any job, there are going to be times when frustrations rise up, and I have to reevaluate the things we are doing to see if I can key it down just a bit.  With Jacob being sick this week, we’ve been home more (I love days when I can just be home and not go anywhere), and I’ve had a bit of time to think and reevaluate and reset some things.

It’s so easy to run the rat race every single day, just scraping through the maze of events, not really “getting it” because of all the clutter taking up our lives.

This week has afforded me some real bonding time with my boys, without the added stressors of having to be somewhere, having to get this, this, and this done for school, and honestly, I don’t want it to change.  Jacob and I have played many a rousing game of Battleship and Uno, and he’s getting to be quite the champion.  Jaden has had many a game of monster chase the baby games, giggling and laughing the whole way.  So, you ask, how am I going to keep the peace and the tranquility that this week, albeit a hard week for Jacob, has afforded us?  I’ve really taken a hard look at our schedule, and I took the advice of a friend.  I asked God how He wanted me to work out our homeschool schedule.  How does He want it to be?  Then I moved and shifted some things around…for example, by Friday, we are just dead to school, so I decided to make it a fun day with just an hour of core school and the rest fun stuff like art and music and board games for thinking skills.  Jacob loves board games, so he was thrilled with this idea.

Not only with my kids’ schedules, but with my own, I’m keeping my work hours to early, early mornings and naptime….possibly a little bit in the evenings, after they’re in bed; it depends on what Dan is doing.  I’m also decluttering my blog.  It doesn’t look like it now, I know, but I’m rebuilding my blog on Wordpress right now, making it, hopefully, a place of serenity.  It’ll still have all the same subject matter, but I do want to have more homemaking articles and things, and it’s going to have a very shabby chic appearance.

This decluttering in my life has been a necessary thing….it’s like when you clean out a closet, and you have a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment afterwards.  Once that closet is cleaned out, you can keep it clutter free because there’s a place for everything.  That’s like life….once you clear the clutter, you have a place for the important things in your life, for the things that God deems important.  What is stopping you today?  What kind of clutter is hindering you from having the joyous walk that is available to you as a wife and mommy?  Is it spiritual clutter?  Is it physical clutter?  Is it clutter that you’ve been unwilling to clean out up until now? What are you missing out on because of the clutter that is blocking your path?  Get rid of it!  Rework things, and clean out! A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away Ecclesiastes 3:6.

For more Motivate Me Monday, visit Sarah at The Fifth Street Palace.