The Journey of Motherhood

I am so thankful for all of the women in my life that are on this journey of motherhood with me. Some of them are further along than others. They have children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren. I have friends with 1 or 2 children, and up to 8 children. We are all in various stages of our journeys, but we have one thing in common. Motherhood.

Motherhood, although extremely gratifying, can be exhausting at times. Day in and day out there are certain tasks that have to be performed over and over. Take meals for example. I plan a meal (if I'm on the ball), make a meal, serve a meal, clean up a meal. Then I do it again at lunch, and again at dinner. The next day I get up and well, you get the idea. I start all over! This is only a small part of my daily routine as a wife, mother, and homemaker.

On most days, I do these things with joy. Do I always feel like making a meal? No. Do I do it out of love to serve my family? Yes. I can't manage my household and love my family by serving them only when I FEEL like it.

What I am learning more and more about motherhood is that I need to lean on the strength of God and the women that He has brought into my life as mentors and friends. I am not alone in this. I'm not the only mother who grows weary at times. I see it all around me. In friends, family, and women at church. I notice the weary expressions on their faces and I listen to the stories that seem to say "I feel so discouraged."

When I look at my "to-do" list every day I realize that even if I get everything marked off on Monday, there will be a new list waiting for me on Tuesday. Who wouldn't feel discouraged by that? I have read countless books on homemaking, organizing, and parenting. Many of them have been helpful. I have adopted several techniques and incorporated lots of different ideas into my routine and lifestyle over the years.

No matter what though, I keep coming back to one book. God's Word. It is filled with promises of hope, strength, and rest. When I read it, I feel comforted and encouraged. It provides everything I need to keep pressing on in my journey of motherhood.

That's reason enough for me to wake up every morning and serve my family wholeheartedly. Not only that, but I will encourage those around me to do the same. I offer them the same encouraging Words that God whispers in my ear every day. Listen closely. Can you hear Him?

"I am with you my daughter...don't give up."
"There is a harvest waiting for you, so don't give up."

I still have hard days. The important thing is, I look to Him to be my strength. God has blessed me with so many women in my life that I can't help but be energized by them. Just one look around me and I know that I am not alone. And I will do my best to make sure that every mother that crosses my path in this lifetime knows that as well.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up." - Galatians 6:9

Birthday Fun

July is the month of birthdays in this family. We have 3 of them really close together, just in our immediate family. JS turned 6 on the 13th of this month. RL turned 7 on the 18th. Then my DH turns ??? (we'll keep that a secret for his sake!) tomorrow. Plus my DH's brother's birthday is on the 17th, and his grandmother's birthday is also the 18th. I wouldn't dream of forgetting our best friend's sweet little girl, who turned 3 on the 6th. We end the month with a grand celebration of our 14th anniversary! Yes, I would say that July is a month of celebrating for us.

With lots of birthdays comes lots of...you guessed it, cake! I already posted a picture of the "mud" we had in Walla Walla to celebrate the myriad of birthdays while we were there. We have a tradition of celebrating birthdays with our best friends together, so we had cupcakes for KK's birthday. For JS's birthday we had ice cream cake from DQ.

For RL's birthday we had a princess crown cake that was a joint effort between me and my husband. I made the cake and cut/baked the cookies, and he decorated them! It was fun to work together to make her day a special one. Who knew he could decorate cakes??? I was pretty proud of the outcome but I have to say, that was one of the sweetest cakes I have ever tasted, with all that frosting and sugar!

Then of course, with birthdays, come presents! JS was happy to receive some TransFormers so that he could finally play them with his buddy Ty.




RL, waiting here so patiently to open her gifts, got some new books, (great to read to her dad at bedtime!) amongst other fun gifts.

Yes, July is packed full of fun at our house. I think I'm all caked out for a while! Maybe we'll just stick to ice cream for DH's birthday. Or perhaps his favorite - rootbeer blends.

The Early Years

A couple of days ago I struck up a conversation with one of my blogger friends about how to cope in the early years. I have to confess that every once in a while I feel a bit overwhelmed when I think about the responsibilities that come with this blessing called motherhood. Day in and day out, I am responsible for the well fare of these five small children. There is a long list of things that I must do to care for them, not to mention the lessons in life that I must teach them. That's why I enlisted the help of my friend over at http://raisingfive.blogspot.com/ . I must say that the response has been incredible! I have been very encouraged!

Katherine said: (Her comments in bold, followed by my own thoughts.)
1. Get up on time.
I am so bad at this. I get up when I hear the first footsteps hit the floor in the morning. I have to admit that I am NOT a morning person! I am only up early because I am forced to be. One thing that I will be working on (and will ask friends to hold me accountable to) is to get up earlier than my children so that I can have a few quiet minutes to myself to prepare for the day. That means time to pray, read a devotion, and of course, have a cup of coffee!
2. Shower, dress, and put on makeup before the kids wake up.
This might have to be done while the kids are distracted with breakfast. I have a hard time showering before they get up because when I do, it wakes them up. But if I can get in a routine where their breakfast is waiting for them at the table, then it might work out.
3. Have a plan.
I am the queen of lists. The problem is, when my list gets too long, I get overwhelmed. But I'm working on that! I do a load of laundry a day, and I tend to the "basics" (dishes, meals, cleaning) done out of routine. One thing I really need to work on is how I react to interruptions. I don't do well with interruptions in my routine. When I get in the "zone", it's hard for me to put down everything and turn my attention to kids.
4. Structure for little ones.
Yep. I believe in it. It's just hard to stick to it. My kids go along with it for a while, but then one day they just wake up and it isn't what they want/need anymore. They just grow! And when they grow, sometimes you have to change things up a bit. The problem is, where one has outgrown a particular routine, I have one smaller that hasn't. It's hard to have 3 or 4 different routines going.

I am so thankful for all of the advise and feedback that I've been getting from this conversation. It has really given me my motivation back. It has also helped me to remember who I am doing this for. As someone over at Raising Five said, I am going to "make the commitment to give the area of motherhood over to God as a sacrifice of worship to Him." I know that He will honor that and when I feel overwhelmed, He brings me women like all of you who have been through it or are in it now to encourage me to keep pressing on in faith!

Isaiah 40:11 "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young."

This is it, I promise!

Swinging...
Fun and games... LOTS of eating...
Just plain silly!
Can't wait to do it again next year! : )

The Grand "Tent City" Finale

This will be my last post about "Tent City." There were over 200 pictures taken between four cameras, then combined on a CD for everyone. It would take me forever to share all of those photos so I'll just post a few more of my favorites and then be done. I may have to divide it into two posts because I don't know how many I can post at once.

My pictures didn't really turn out from our fireworks show on the fourth, but here we are in the driveway the next day watching a mini-show with some of the smaller fireworks that were left over. We were outside of city limits, so we had more room to play and have fun. Actually, the neighbor's show on Saturday night was quite impressive.

Also on Saturday, we celebrated the many birthdays that fall in July by having mud cake! Yum, yum! Everyone lined up for a big slice of that. Even CD got in on it with a little help from his dad! : )This one's BC hanging out in the treehouse that his PAPA built for the grandkids.Here's CD chillin' with his dad and uncle. : )

Keeping Cool in the Sun

Today I decided to post some pictures of the gang swimming. It was right around 100 degrees the day we arrived, so of course, the first thing we did after unloading the van was invade the neighbor's pool. That pool was a life saver over the weekend. Not only did it keep us cool, but it also tired the kids out! It was a lot of fun.


All of my kids love swimming. This year they were brave enough to try the diving board. Hopefully next year we can start swimming lessons with the older kids.



Their Aunt had fun swimming around the pool with them "train style."

One of the cousins made a card that everyone signed and then all the kids took it over to the neighbors to say thank you for the use of the pool.

Haircuts

While we were in Walla Walla, I decided to get my girls' haircuts in at a friend of my MIL's.


RL has been wanting to cut hers again to give to Locks for Love, so she ended up cutting off about nine inches! Her hair is so cute in a short bob though. I'm so proud of her for wanting to contribute to a good cause.

LR just got a trim. Her very first one, actually! She has very thin hair that grows pretty slow. It was a little sad to see her baby curls go bye bye, but her shoulder length hair is very cute too. Just right for headbands. : )

It was a fun outing with my two princesses. I love mommy daughter time!

Well, that's all for now. I need to get back to work.

Tent City

We're back from vacation. Tent city is what we called it. This year for the 4th of July weekend, a total of 10 adults, 8 children and 6 dogs gathered together in Walla Walla to camp in my MIL's back yard. They have a soccer sized field on their property and plenty of room to set up camp and romp around playing games and having fun. We also had use of the next door neighbor's pool, which was wonderful in the scorching heat. What a fun way to gather siblings, spouses, and children together for one big family reunion. Thanks mom and Doug, for hosting it! : )

We returned home a little tired, but have recovered from all of the excitement and are trying to get back on routine. I have a lot of news and photos to share so for this post, I'll stick to the group photo. More to come later, since I have limited time to spend on the computer.