Taking Advantage of Where I Am

Why is it that I have a tendency to not appreciate where I am in life?  I don't mean where I fit in socioeconomically or geographically.  I'm talking about appreciating where God has placed me at any given time. 

When I look back over the past decade, I'm grateful that I did take advantage of some of those years and chapters.  In college, for example, when I didn't go live-up the "normal" college experience, I stayed home and worked, served in church, went to Bible studies, volunteered with a youth group, taught piano, babysat families regularly, and spent my free time with my boyfriend (who is now Dear Husband).  I don't have those insane college memories of dorm life or Greek parties.  And I don't have tons of college friends with whom I keep up and Facebook (see I don't need FB!).  Instead, I have some close friendships that I developed during that period, some skills that I could have only obtained while working and serving during that period, and a spiritual life that grew exponentially during that time.  Best of all, I have no regrets.

That said, I can't say that about every year of my life during the past decade.  I have missed out on some huge opportunities where I should have asked God to use me.  I have missed out on developing friendships because I've been too busy.  And I just got too caught up with where I was going to realize that God had opportunities for me right then and there.  I feel like it's taken me so long to realize that I don't have to make some earth-shattering alterations to my life in order to serve others and share Jesus with them.  Practically speaking, I'm not really in a position where I can make earth-shattering changes anyway.  I'm a housewife who works from home and a Mom who has dedicated the next decade of my life to homeschooling.  I keep reminding myself that just like in college, I need to take advantage of "these years" of my life.

As a mom it can be hard to live in the here and now.  Don't get me wrong, we live in the here and now by all the things we do.  But we forget that in the context of the diapers and the cleaning, there are opportunities to be useful.  I may not get to be a part of the ladies Bible studies at church (childcare would be helpful people!), but I'm starting to see the things that I can do.  Things like make my home available for a small group meeting.  Why not me?  I'm  home and actually have the time to make my house presentable.  Or I can use the phone to call people at church who haven't been visible for a few weeks.  Using the phone is easy for someone who is already at home.  (Assuming that people on the other end don't mind hearing train sounds and X-box games in the background.)  Or I can drag my kids to music practice like everybody else does and be a part of the praise and worship at church each Sunday.  There are opportunities there.  I just have to make myself willing and aware.

I've been really impressed by a young couple at church who are taking full advantage of their current life situation in order to do something useful for God.  This recently-graduated-from-college and not-yet-engaged couple left last week to spend 3 months in Africa.  It's the kind of thing that is hard to do once you're married and have to fully support yourself.  And it's the almost impossible thing to do once you have kids.  But it's the perfect opportunity to go love on people when you're not so tied down to life.  I've been enjoying reading their stories from Kenya every morning.  Reading about their excitement and joy has been a huge encouragement and kick in the pants for me.  Ricky and Katie are truly taking advantage of this time in their lives.  I'm so happy for them and look forward to seeing what God has in store for their next few months.  To follow their story, click on this link http://ayearofsummer.com/ or follow them via the A Year of Summer from my blog list on the right of my blog. 

Up She Goes!

I decided to allow Baby G to have some freedom this morning while I cleaned the kitchen and went about my Mommy business.  I figured that if all the downstairs doors were closed then she was pretty much contained in the main dining/living/kitchen area of our house where I could see her.  But then I made a discovery.

At this point I figured that she was stuck.  She's NEVER climbed the stairs before, and I thought that surely she couldn't get past the huge curve in our staircase, right? Oh I was soooo wrong! Baby G is apparently a fearless and strong girl.  Because this is what happened next.

I promise that I didn't even touch her as she climbed all the way to the top.  Not a bad feat for a little girl who turns 10 months tomorrow!  And just for reference, she climbed this...

Guess it's time to think about doing some serious baby proofing.

School Days Are Here

It occurred to me last week that other than college, this might possibly be my one chance to witness my son heading out for his first day of school.  Somehow, I'm not sure the pictures of him sitting at our table homeschooling next fall will be quite as exciting or emotional as this picture posted above.  He insisted that he was smiling when I took this picture, but he looks like he's scared to death.

Last week was my son's first day of Museum School.  Technically it's classified (and licensed) as a preschool.  But since the classes only meet for 2 hours a week and since the curriculum has been created as a science and history enrichment program, calling this school a preschool doesn't really describe what goes on.  Hopefully, our little guy will be in for a treat this year as his class explores animals, outer space, Texas and Native American History, simple machines, and cowboys--yes, it's only natural that a class in Fort Worth will teach about cowboys during the Stock Show!   The goal of the program is to expose the preschool-age children to science and history in ways that they can't experience in a typical classroom.  So while it might technically be a preschool, Museum school seems more like a year-long science camp.

Museum school sounds like a homeschool parent's dream, right?  Absolutely!  Apparently it was so popular with homeschoolers that the Museum now has special Friday classes for k-12 homeschoolers.  Somehow I'm thinking that last week marked the beginning of a long-term relationship that my family will be having with the Museum.  (Oh, and next month the Curious George exhibit will be here--this seems like a sign!)

Anyway, I didn't cry last Thursday.  Instead I felt really old knowing that my oldest baby is old enough for school.  Thankfully, I realized that I was also really excited for our family to be taking our first step into the wonderful world of formal education!

The Kick-off to Fall

We officially kicked-off our fall "season" last week by attending our first SMU football game of the year.  I must confess that at 104 degrees it didn't really feel like fall, but since our season tickets go through December we're sure that the fall weather will show up sometime mid season.  After all, experiencing fall and football is about a lot more than just the temperature.  There's just something exciting about the half mile of tailgating (at SMU it's Boulevarding), the smell of hamburgers and hotdogs that drift through campus, everyone decked out in their seasonal white dresses and cowboy boots, the band playing the fight song after every first down, and the fireworks that go off after every touchdown. 

Something about the start of college football makes us feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner!  Gotta love this time of year.