Being Home

I think I can say with confidence now that I love being a stay at home mom. I have found a gentle rhythm in our daily routines, and it gives me immense satisfaction to cook and clean and care for my family. There is still not enough time in a day to get everything done, but I'm able to get enough done, and I'm learning to be satisfied with that.

I love all the time I have to spend in the kitchen. I'm working hard on our grocery budget right now with lots of meal planning. I'm also slowly working towards more healthy eating with more fruits and veggies and more food made from scratch. I'm even making sandwich bread, and it is delicious! I had a freezer cooking session a few nights ago (it was quite an emotional saga), and now my freezer is full of meals for the next few weeks. Of course, I also love to bake, so there have been plenty of goodies coming out of the kitchen, too. Moderation, right?

My biggest challenge (as I predicted) are the mornings.  I know that if I could get up before the kids, even by just 10 or 20 minutes, and have some time to myself to get going before the kids start tugging at me, then my day would almost surely start 100% better. But it's really hard to believe that when the alarm goes off in the morning, and I try to squeeze in every last minute of sleep until the kids drag me out of bed. It would help if I went to bed earlier, but there is always something to do after the kids go to bed: catch up on cleaning, auditing charts (I do about 10 a day), or homeschool planning. It would also help if I didn't let Elijah come to bed with us around 5 every morning (but it's really hard to get him back to sleep on his own at that time, and he is so warm and cozy!). I'm working hard to conquer this before we "officially" start school next week.

I won't talk about the homeschooling yet. That will be its own post sometime next week. For now, I'll just tell you that things are starting to come together, and I'm looking forward to our first day of school!

For my quiet time, I've been reading a chapter of Proverbs every morning. This morning, I finally landed on Proverbs 31.  I know it's cliché, but I truly want to be that Proverbs 31 woman. This is a woman of strength and passion; she works hard for her family.  Verse 27 is on my daily planner: "She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." And then there's verse 15: "She gets up while it is still dark"...yeah, that is one part I definitely need to work on.  But what struck me most in reading this passage today is the way the husband sees this wife.  He is proud of her; she does nothing but uplift and bring him honor.  He relies on her; he praises her.  God designed woman to be man's helper, and this Proverbs 31 woman has mastered that, and her husband is happy because of that and appreciates her.  She contributes to her family through physical work, financial profit, and wise counsel.  She does not fear for the future of her family because she works hard to provide for them, but also because she fears the Lord. There is the crux of what I'm striving for: a woman who clearly displays her trust in the Lord as she works everyday and is the main support for her husband.

I think it's time to pause in my quiet times, and dwell on these passages for a few days.  There is so much to pull from here, and so much to think on.  As life falls into place, and we are really getting settled here in Texas, this is our great chance to re-define the flow of our family.  I know I play an important role in that in how I treat my husband and my kids, and how I order my day. Even with less on my plate, life is still rolling by so fast, it's easy to lose track of the center of everything.

I love being home everyday, and I desperately need God to be the center of our home.

Lord, be with me in the mundane day to day.  Be my center, and keep my eyes focused on You.