Day One

Day One...

Or day two if you ask Bubba.  He said yesterday counted, since Daddy didn’t sleep here.  Either way, the count has begun.

This is never a place I thought I’d be – the wife of an Army man, deployed to somewhere, away from the family.  I married a high school coach.  But, as it turns out, I married a high school coach who missed his calling the first time around, so here we are – doing this military family thing.

I have been reading more about deployment, Army life, military family life, PTSD, and any other remotely related topic in the past months than I ever thought I could consume.  What I have learned is this…

• We are not the first family to go through this.  (Seriously!?  Shocking, I know!)
• It will be sad.  But, it will also be fun, emotional, exciting, prideful (you know, in the good way – like loving on The Man for all he’s doing for our family / country / free world), and filled with blessings IF (and only IF) we allow others to love on us and serve us in this season of our lives.
• We will be okay. 
• The boys will miss their daddy.  I will miss my husband.  The Man will miss us.  Lord willing, we will be hugging each others’ necks sooner than we realize.
• Routines will be important.
• Friends and family will care for us.
• Life moves on. 

It is my sincere prayer that the Lord will use this time to teach me one (or 20) of the 1,000s of things I have yet to learn and that in doing so, He allows me to bless-it-forward.  It is also my prayer that the Lord will wrap his arms around the hearts and spirits of my boys and remind them that this is the journey He has called *them* to walk.  Finally, it is the desire of my heart that the Lord will walk closer than He has ever walked with The Man and remind him on an hourly basis that he was created for this battle and that the Lord will continue to equip him.

You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within. ~Bob Nelson


do you have a mission? i do. mine changes - clarifies, really - the more i live in the intentional space of executing it. one thing that remains though is the belief that my place in my home & my community is to build up others: my husband, my children, my friends, my acquaintances. this quote is a great reminder WHY i am called to this - to aide them in their best efforts.

astronomy picture

NASA apparently posts a picture of the day everyday...  This one is amazing!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110221.html

home

I love the idea of HOME: the place where my family lives and loves and spends our time together.  

Since making a decision to stay at home with my kiddos while my husband pursues his career and service in the Army, I have been thinking a lot about home…

The truth is, I have not done what I need to do to create a home for my family in the past six years.  I have put my professional work before my house work.  I put my friends’ homes on pedestals where mine could never compare. I found a million and one things to do so that we didn’t have to be at our home and I didn’t have to look around and realize my failure in putting my family and their comfort on my priority list. 

What should my home become?  My house is pretty modest.  However, I have a dream of a home that is far from modest – humble, yes, but not modest.  I want a home that welcomes everyone.  I want a home that reflects our gratitude for the roof over our head and the furniture, toys, gadgets, appliances, etc that bless us each day.  I want a home that is a refuge for my family.  I believe this dream is from the Lord and is worthy of my time. 

But – I need to change my attitude about a few things.

1.  I am going to be a homemaker.  Not a woman who does household duties.  Duties (besides being a word that always seems to make my boys laugh out loud) is such a sterile and uninspiring word.  I want to make a home.  I don’t want to view the role I play in my family as only valuable to accomplish tasks.
2. I have to create moments of accomplishment.  In my professional life, I liked to make lists.  You know, to cross them off!  I love nothing more than the feeling of looking at a list of tasks with lines through them – the visual representation of ALL that I accomplished that day.  Well, this new gig – being a homemaker – has an eternally lengthy list attached to it.  If I listed “laundry” on my list ? Goodness, me! I would NEVER be able to cross that off.  So, I am in the process of creating moments of accomplishment by being very specific and realistic about what I can and should do each day to help make this house a home.
3.  I will be in my home more.  I cannot have a schedule that pulls us this way and that and expect to have a decluttered desk or a vacuumed floor or, for that matter, a family that enjoys being home. Now, you don’t need to worry that I am going to focus so much on the “perfect” home that I become a recluse or a hermit and bring my kids into my sickness with me.  Rather, I am holding myself accountable to be home more.  To not have something going on EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT.  We need to live in our home and learn to slow down.

Check in with me.  Feel free to hold me accountable.  I know this journey is a long one and that once I get a routine figured out, I'll have to adjust and find another.  However, this I know will not change: I have been blessed with the responsibility to steward the hearts of my sons and the opportunity to create a home for my family.

truth and work

click on the title above...  this is a great reminder of God's design for your life.  yeah, you!  He has a plan for you and that plan includes what you will do for a living.  Explore it!