Waiting….

Waiting.

Why is it so hard to do?

In today's society, we've gotten used to instant gratification. Fast food and microwaves mean that we can eat right when we're hungry and no longer need to wait more than a couple of minutes for our food to be ready (even those couple of minutes seem too long to us now). Cell phones means we can call anyone anytime - no need to wait to get home, or wait your turn to use the phone that's connected to the wall of your home, or the cubby of a phone booth. iTunes means we don't have to wait for our favorite song to be played on the radio - we just download it right when we want to hear it. Netflix and OnDemand means we can watch what we want…when we want. ATM machines mean that we don't have to wait for a bank to be open to get our money - we can get access to it 24 hours a day. Shoot - spontaneous couples can even get married in a drive-thru chapel now-a-days.

So waiting isn't a part of our culture anymore.

That's why it's so hard to wait when something comes along that demands that we wait. When that something is out of our control. When there's no drive-thru or 24/7 call center available to get immediate answers.

Like a job interview. We can go in, do our part, say all the right things, and leave with a good feeling. But then when we don't hear anything back within the first 15 minutes, failure and doubt start to enter our minds. "Why haven't they called me yet? Did I say something wrong? Did they not like me? I thought it went well…."  Some things take time. We have to remember that.

What's a bit ironic is that "back in the day," before microwaves and cell phones and ATM machines, when people were accustomed to waiting, the result of a job interview was probably the one thing they didn't have to wait for. These were the times before online applications and "please submit your resume on our website and we'll review it and get it over to the right party for consideration" response when you call to see if a particular company is hiring. This was when you could walk in the front door and tell the manager that you're looking for a job and wanted to know if they were hiring. If the first impression was a good one,  you'd get an interview on the spot, and if things went well, you were likely offered a position before you left for the day.

So the one thing you DIDN'T have to wait long for "back then," can take quite a bit of time "today." There are so many legal and political issues involved in the hiring process now, so hearing back within a week of the interview is considered unusual.

Which is when the waiting comes in.

Patience is a trait with which many of us struggle. I know I do. So we have to go to the Lord and ask that He would help us with this certain fruit of the Spirit. For me, patience requires a lot of attention to my thoughts, focus on my outward attitude, and a ton of prayer.

So that's what we're doing…praying…and praying…and praying.

And waiting…

Acts 1:8

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; And you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

That verse gives us instruction for one of the most important roles as a Christian - to witness about Jesus Christ. But it can be so hard. What if it's the wrong time? What if they reject me? What if they laugh at me? What if….? What if….? What if….?

JD doesn't worry about the "What Ifs…." He just does it. He takes his Bible to school and reads verses to his friends at lunch. He reads his Bible during reading time in class. For his 8th birthday, he asked for a bible carrying case, tab dividers for the books of the Bible, and a set of highlighters (he saw mine and liked it so that's what he asked for). Now he uses the highlighters to highlight the verses that he's memorized, and the stories that he's read. I'm sure at some point, the entire Bible will be highlighted.

The last Sunday during church service, he not-so-quietly whispered to me "Do you know what's bad? That there are more kids in my class at school that don't know Jesus than kids that do." I know he's been talking to his friends about Jesus, so I responded with "but you're changing that, aren't you?" "Yes," he said "but I need Bibles."

So I ordered some kids Bibles for him to give to his friends.

Tonight we'll pray over them and ask for guidance - who should he share them with?

I'm so proud of JD and his missionary heart. Acts 1:8 is so difficult for most of us to follow through with, but if we all had the faith of a child and weren't afraid of the "What ifs…," I wonder how many people out there we could bring to Christ?

Go JD Go!!! Show the rest of us how simple it is!

Through the Eyes of Their Mama

I've had my dream job as a full-time stay-at-home mom/housewife for almost 6 months now. When I quit my high-income, high-stress job to stay home and focus on family, I thought I'd have so much time on my hands. I thought I'd fill my days with some housework and working out, but mostly playing with the kids, volunteering my time, scrapbooking, and doing a much better job of keeping up with this blog.

Wrong. I've been terrible at it.

I've done lots of housework and some of the other stuff, but this blog….well, it's been almost non-existent these last 6 months.

So much has happened since my last post -- JD and Ryan's soccer season (Ryan's 1st season, no less), Thanksgiving, Christmas, JD's 8th birthday, JD's 2nd season of basketball, the boys' baseball tryouts….not to mention their school Christmas pageant, school awards ceremonies, Awana club activities, deer hunting and hog hunting adventures.

There's also been a lot of shuttling to and from school and athletics, church, housecleaning, loads of laundry, grocery shopping trips (trying my hand at couponing), child disciplining, Bible Studies and quiet time, and a LITTLE BIT of scrapbooking. So amidst all that, I haven't found the time to update my blog.

For those who have said to me (or other stay-at-home moms) "Now that you have nothing to do since you're not working…." I'm here to tell you, as a new SAHM, there's ALWAYS something to do. And the work is NEVER done. It's great though, and I'm certainly not complaining. I LOVE my job - I LOVE every bit of the cleaning, cooking, shopping, shuttling, laundering, and my mornings spent studying my Bible and attending Bible studies. I LOVE it, even if I get very little time for the scrapbooking and blogging. The important thing is that my time is spent focused on God and my family - the two most important things in life.

BUT - it's my mission to do a better job of keeping up with this. Because one day, I want JD & Ryan to be able to read this blog and get a little insight into their lives as kids, through the eyes of their Mama.

Weekends are to be Enjoyed

I've come to the realization that weekends are to be enjoyed. I know that may sound weird, because it's one of those obvious things in life, but it was not always so obvious to me. When I was working, the weekends were hard to enjoy because those 48 hours were spent getting all the things done that I didn't have time to do during the week. They were filled with grocery shopping, house cleaning, errand running, and other nagging to-dos. Occasionally, if we let everything else fall behind, we'd make time for a family outing or a party. That left very little time (ok, no time) for relaxing and enjoying. And to be honest, I didn't enjoy the kids on the weekends because I was so consumed with all my chores. I know that sounds terrible, but it was my reality. People would tell me "The housework will be there. Just enjoy your kids." That's true - the housework was always there, and if I didn't do it, it was never going to get done. How long can you go without doing it?

Now that I don't have a (paying) job, my weekends are so different. I actually enjoy them. Because I've done all (or most) of what NEEDS to get done during the week, I get to spend my weekends doing fun stuff with my family. It's really nice actually, and it's made me realize what I really missed out on these last several years.

This weekend Bud had to work, so that kinda stunk, but me and the boys had some fun anyway. Friday was the exception - Ryan came home a little early from school with a tummyache, but that didn't last long. By that evening, he was feeling better, eating dinner, and was back to normal on Saturday. Their soccer games got cancelled due to weather, so we went down to Brooks and Case's and played for little while, then we headed to the movies with Kelli, Jason, Ashton and Timothy to watch Thor. We don't really know all the Avengers' stories, so I felt lost during about 95% of the movie, but we enjoyed it anyway.  The boys decided to stay the night with Kelli and I returned home to cook a belated birthday dinner for Bud. His favorite dinner - steak with peppercorn cream sauce, roasted potatoes and corn. Yum!! We followed dinner with a Redbox movie and it was a very nice evening with just the two of us.

Sunday morning, I picked up Brooks and headed to church where I met back up with my kiddos. After church and Sunday School, we came home for lunch and JD and I played a little game of basketball. He won, of course, 15-13. Then we headed back out - this time to the skating rink!!! The boys are learning how to skate, so we spent a couple of hours there. And let me tell you, when you're 36, it hurts a lot more to fall on that hard floor. I had one good spill while I was there (after running my skate over poor little Ryan's fingers) and felt it in my neck and back for the rest of the evening. Skating is not for old people!!! LOL!

After skating, we went back to church for Awana. Bud got off a little early and met us for dinner afterwards.

So we didn't do anything really spectacular, but it was just a really nice weekend with my family. I didn't do any house cleaning (saved all that for today), and it was fun hanging out and doing things together. It's amazing to learn how much I truly missed by spending so much time and energy working at the office. I thank God everyday for the opportunity to truly enjoy the gifts He's given me.

3 Blind Mice in a Scavenger Hunt

Last weekend, Stacie, Rosanne and I participated in the City Solve Urban Race in downtown San Antonio. It's a scavenger hunt where teams of 2-4 are given a set of 10 clues they have to solve in order to find each checkpoint. At each checkpoint, we had to take a photo of the checkpoint and we all had to be in the photo as well.

Costumes are optional. And we went all out.

It was well worth it though, because we won the costume contest. The prize isn't worth bragging about (a Jammy Pack which is a fanny pack with speakers in it), but winning is. We were pretty proud of our 3 Blind Mice costume. We got tons of compliments everywhere we went, and people stopped us all day long to take our picture. Haha. It was so much fun.

They started the race by giving us a clue and based on our answer, we had to go to a certain intersection. Luckily, we could use our smart phones for this race, otherwise, it would have been a HUGE guessing game. And I'm usually really terrible at guessing.

Once at that intersection (with about 400 other people), we got our list of 10 clues. So we sat down right where we were at and worked on solving those 10 clues. The answers to our clues told us where the checkpoint was. Once we had that, we started making our rounds to each checkpoint at which we had to take a photo with the logo/signage and the 3 of us. That was the challenging part - trying to hold the phone at such an angle that we could get the sign and the 3 of us with our big ol' ears in the picture. We had lots of laughs trying to do that. At some of the checkpoints, we also had to do a challenge or activity.

At this checkpoint, one of us (lucky Stacie) had to ride a bike to the Tower of Americas to pick up a button and come back. This was our last checkpoint of the day, so Stacie was a little tired when she started and even more tired when she got back. But lucky for me and Rosanne, we got to sit down and rest for a few minutes while we waited on her. (Ever seen a mouse riding a bike? It's pretty cute actually.)

The race started and ended at the Friendly Spot Restaurant. That was such a neat little place. We ended up coming in ahead of only 5 other teams (LOL!) but that's ok because we had so much fun. And it was our first race so we were just trying to figure things out too. Next year, it's on!! Although, we've got to think about how we're going to top our costumes. We've got a reputation to uphold.

A Lesson in Money Management

So I've decided to start teaching the boys some important life lessons -- one of them being money management. Since money is such an important part of life, I feel like it's time for them to start earning some of their own and understanding some basic principles of good management.

Each morning they are responsible for a few tasks to help us get up and moving, and to school on time: get up and dressed, eat breakfast and put away dishes, feed and water the cat, and brush teeth and hair. All of it must be done without arguing (with me or each other), and JD is also responsible for completing his reading log. He prefers to do his reading before bed at night, then complete the reading log in the morning.

If they complete all of these tasks by 7:10am, they get a sticker for the day. They earn $.50 per day but if they get stickers on all 5 days, they'll earn an extra $.50 and get $3 for the week. Last week, they earned $2 each (no sticker on Friday for arguing). So this morning, I paid them their $2, and attempted to explain some basic money management principles: give the first part to God, you must save some of the money, then you can spend the rest. 

It's really hard to explain 10%, so I just told them $.25 would be about right. Then JD said "It's more important to give to God than to save or spend the money, so I want to give $1.00." A couple minutes later, he changed it to $.50. I explained that once he gives money to God, he can't take it away from God, but since it was his first time and just learning, we'd make an exception this time. Fifty cents is still really awesome --  that's 25% of his money, which is a whole lot more than what the rest of us give. Following big brother's lead, Ryan also gave $.50 to God.

  

I'm very proud of JD and Ryan, and I really hope that these lessons in time management, personal responsibility, and money management are the beginning of some great life principles for them. Too much of today's society is about greed, self-indulgence and materialism. I can't change the world, but hopefully I can influence two little people who will someday impact their small part of this big world.

Week Two - Lovely Week Two

And so I start Week Two of the rest of my new life. And I'm loving today. The kids got off to school, and I sat down with my coffee, toast, box of tissues (can't stop sneezing), Bible and Sunday School book. My desire is to spend more time with God each morning to grow our relationship, and to start my day off on the right foot. And it felt really good to do that today. I'm expanding on yesterday's Sunday School lesson about "The Pressure of Retaliation." I'm really bad about that. I think it's part of being a Libra (and also part of being human) -- the anger I feel from injustice. I always want to get even. I like the feeling of knowing "what goes around comes around." But even though that feels good at first, it doesn't feel good in the long run. And what I learned about (and I guess I already knew) is that ultimately, the only person that attitude really hurts is ME. So while I'm in the "out with the old and in with the new" stage of life, I want this to be one of those things too. Out with that negative frame of mind, and in with a new peaceful, understanding, patient, positive-thinking frame of mind. Thank you to my Sunday School teacher for talking about this yesterday and giving me something for which to really strive.

So my Week Two is off to a great start. I'm still not feeling very good (allergies/sinus) but it feels good to look at my list of "to dos" and know that I have the whole week to do them. I don't need to rush around like a crazy person everyday, trying to fit in one more thing before it becomes too late. I also want to take the pressure off myself a little bit. I am allowed to sit down during the day and focus on myself. I don't have to always be moving, working, cleaning, etc. It's ok to do a little for myself too. A good friend reminded me this weekend that I've earned it. I worked very hard for many years, and I should allow myself to enjoy this stage of my life. Thank you for that Kim.

And so here's to "enjoying" this stage. Let Week Two begin.....