Stories and links that have inspired me lately

I feel like I must clarify from my post a few days ago. My husband is so good to us. He works harder than anyone I've ever known, all to provide an opportunity for me to stay home and raise our children. He works 7 days a week. He has three jobs (Walmart DC, PCR, and Coaching).

Basketball Season is hard on me. This is the last week, and I've kind of hit the wall. It starts in October and lasts until the first week in March. That's 4.5 months of him being gone...a lot. He has practice for at least 2 hours every day, and games at least 2 nights a week. On top of me working one night a week and us having Bible Study one night a week, that leave us maybe one night a week together. Then he works 12 hour shifts on the weekends.

So, I'm tired and worn out. I'm tired of "single parenting" it, and I'm tired of missing my spouse. It seems as though he's never home to go to events with us, and so I am stuck, trying to multi-task until I drive myself crazy. I'm trying to enjoy the event (whether it be a basketball game, birthday party, etc.), keep an eye on Hunter and Graysen, and keep a tight reign on Blake and Silas while I teach them proper American behavior. There are so many things that they just don't get yet. Not by any fault of their own, they have just been raised completely different than what's appropriate here. They tend to have a very difficult time being calm and quiet when in new situations because they want so badly to fit in and they get so overwhelmed that they end up being just completely out of control. That's stressful to me as a parent when I expect my children to be on their best behavior in public at all times!

God has blessed me a lot lately though, with encouragement from others...most of whom I've never met!

• Heidi said: "I have embraced the concept of life seasons. It is counterproductive for me to dream of days that belong in a season other than the one I’m in." I need to remember this! It takes enough energy and patience to get through my days that I can't go wasting it on dreaming of seasons of my life that I'm not currently in!!
• Donna wrote about an interesting concept. "The breathing of the day is an important thing to consider when I am scheduling lessons or activities. What is this in-breath and out- breath? It is alternating between an outward energy producing activity and a quieter inward one." I think I need to be more intentional about teaching my children this concept. With three boys I find that we are doing a lot more "outward breath" activities and not nearly enough "inward breath" ones.
• Megan has a great article about parenting children who are your opposites. I have at least one of those! This encouraged me to take a different view point on the challenge that he brings to my life.
• I have heard the story of the Feeding of the 5000 at least 4 times over the last two weeks. All from different sources. In fact, when it was being preached at church this past Sunday I turned to Lincoln and said "wasn't this the sermon last week?!" I know it's an important one because God put it in Matthew, Mark, Luke AND John. I know He wanted us to hear it and learn it...so I'm wondering...is there something I've been missing that He's trying to get me to understand? One thing that did hit home with me on Sunday was that Jesus was very intentional at meeting the physical needs of people so that he could then meet their spiritual needs. It's much harder to talk about Jesus when someone's stomach is growling...maybe I need to get better at this? Why the over abundance of this story in my life lately?
  
• This family has been an encouragement to me lately as well. I've been reading their blog for quite some time and have been anxiously awaiting their journey on the road. I have so enjoyed their daily updates and ideas of ways to give to others.
• This comment from a beautiful person like Rachael made me smile this week as well. It helped me to realize that I am more than a mom who stays home day in and day out with her four nutty kids (who are totally rubbing off on me!). I have connections with people outside of my home: "Ashley, Amanda, Sparrow, Jackie, Andrea -- you gals always make me feel special and have traveled this journey alongside me. I think of your kids/grandkids as part of T's big, extended ET family. I have pics of him with your kids before I had pics of him with mine. Thank you."
• Lovelyn always inspires me with her writing and her enthusiasm for helping others...but this post, on the Sixty Feet website really got me thinking...."they worship God for who He is, not what He has blessed them with. i have a lot to learn. we have a lot to learn."
• I just re-read this post about not wanting our children to be happy. It made me smile, and it re-affirmed my feelings and beliefs, not only on having a large family, but on the way that Lincoln and I have decided to raise our children and be stewards of the money God has given us.
• On a different note...I lost 3.2 pounds this week! Yea! I have been feeling very depressed about my weight loss this week, so this was definitely an encouragement to continue on! That means I'm down exactly 27 pounds from the day I started this journey. About 13 more pounds to go until I hit my goal...