A Beautiful Mess

We had a wonderful family vacation last week.  I planned to post a bunch of pictures and tell you what we did but I left my camera in another state.  Boo!  So I'll have to keep you in suspense until my camera is returned this weekend.


Today has been a good day.  It's the first day of our new schedule.  As of this moment I'm on track, I've gotten all that I meant to accomplished and I was able to spend the morning with friends.  Like I said, it's the first day.  I'm always energized on day one.  This year will be a study in diligence for me.  Failing to persevere though the mundane and do the dutiful stuff that doesn't excite me has been one of my main character flaws.  I want to work on that this year and with God's help and the necessity of surviving our first year of home educating, I expect to make good progress.  I could use your prayers right about Thursday when getting up at 5am to start my day with exercise and working away until the evening is just not fun anymore.

One way I combat the mundane is to plan things in the week to look forward to.  I am always attempting to find the balance between too much activity and too much down time to keep me going.  This week there are a lot of extras in addition to the normal days with the girls... a new schedule, MOPS meeting - my first year as a table leader which has a few responsibilities, delivering 2 meals for families in our church who recently had babies, taking over lessons for two of Mark's piano students, choir rehearsals which also means resuming some voice practice, tackling some house projects, getting ready for Nora's birthday party on Saturday and the general loss of Mark (and a car) on most days as he is back to his full time work responsibilities.

Looking forward to things can easily turn into being overwhelmed.

And we haven't even started homeschooling yet. (September 9th is D-Day)

Today at our MOPS prayer meeting, my friend Jess prayed for me.  She prayed for just the thing that has been a great struggle in my life.  She asked God to help me to do what He has planned for me to do - ONLY what he has planned for me to do.  She knows me.  She knows I get excited about things and take on too much and quit. I need to ask each day what it is that I need to be doing and then to be diligent to see it through.

The theme of our meetings this year is- "A Beautiful Mess" and the verse for the year is Ephesians 2:10-
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

My friend, Katie, emailed this great article today about the struggle to be everything as a Mom.  We look around and see the great things others are doing and we can't help but notice our shortcomings. Moms seems to be particularly prone to this.  I often walk a thin line between being inspired by the success of others and covetous or depressed because of it.  Blogs are big contributors to this problem.  (Please, please don't let this blog do that to you!)  I read blogs and my pintrest page gets loaded up with great ideas of all of the things I think I should be doing as a mom/wife/homemaker/christian. After a while of browsing, I start to get discouraged that I won't find the time to do those things that would suddenly make me an amazing person and then I am too down and overwhelmed to get to the responsibilities that DO belong to me.

The truth I need to remember is that Jesus has already made me all that I need to be.  At every stage from my creation to my resurrection, I am his work and he will guide me to those things that are mine to take on. He will continue to equip me in a unique way for the specific things he has called me to and the specific people and circumstances he has placed me with.  Remembering that excites me and keeps me going.