Motherhood Uncovered

Most mornings you will find me cuddled on the couch with a cup of coffee and my bible. I find it important to begin my day with a bit of peace before the chaos, spending time in the word and talking with God. As I mentioned in my previous post, we homeschool, so every school year I choose a verse to resonate on. This year was Philippians 2:14-16, “Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word.” This verse in particular spoke to me because it explains that if we choose to complain rather than see our daily life as a blessing, we are just as bad as the “crooked generation”. For they do not know what they do as unbelievers, but it is our job to show how to live like Jesus. If we choose gratefulness, thankfulness, and we remind ourselves of what we do have, we will live a life with an abundance of joy and peace.

The hardest part of motherhood is checking all of the boxes while still making time for ourselves in the mix. We get burnt out easily if we allow the daily struggle to run our life rather than us running it. I used to be very out of sorts. I worked 40-60 hour weeks managing employees, answering calls at home, my laundry in heaps, dishes piling, the list goes on but you can see the picture. Many of us struggle to find a good balance of everyday life and most importantly setting boundaries!! A scary word sometimes. I never fixed the boundary problem with work so no advice there, my husband and I came up with a different solution. I quit my job and he became the only monetary provider for our family of 4. Also scary. The guilt was extreme between wanting to leave my company and the time spent apart from my children, but the greater priority outweighed the Fortune 500 any day. God was pulling me in a different direction than I had ever dreamed.

Something that came along with being a stay at home mom was finding new ways to save. We are a foodie family and love trying different cuisines, we also enjoy doing exciting activities for the kids that typically is going to cost something. My solution to the food problem was to start learning how to cook our favorite meals from our favorite restaurants. I have to brag, my fried rice is YUM! Other ways to save was geocaching, it’s been an exciting time for us to discover new places while also learning and spending time together. It also quite addicting. We recently took a huge leap in life and moved from Pennsylvania to Florida, so we are frequently at the beach. Before moving we spent our spring, summer, and fall by the creek and running around the farmhouse we were renting at the time. We had access to 100+ acres of land so the boys and I were always finding a new “Beauty Spot” as they called it. The picture above is the view from the porch of that house. The memories made there are unmatched. Now we live in a tight community with about 30 other houses on our street. It was assumed that we would face challenges adjusting to this lifestyle and we have, but we have also blossomed in ways that we not expected. Going back to the verse I shared, our life is not always ideal in our own mind but God knows the plan and if we focus daily on him, he will allow clarity into a life you never even knew you needed. Until next time. <3