Where I Come From

Where to begin?  Right now I come from a place bordering on exhaustion.  But never the less, I have been wanting and meaning to write this first post for several days now, so I am taking the time to do it.  I suppose I can thank my husband (partly) for this idea.  Because I don’t already have enough to do, he jokingly suggested a few weeks ago as we were watching TV one night that maybe I needed a “pet project”.  My quick response was “I already have 4 pet projects right now”.  He looked puzzled and again with the quick-wit “Maya, Riley, Teagan….and BILL”.  I went to bed that night exhausted as usual, but his comment got me thinking.  Maybe he was (a little) right.  My weekdays pretty much run like clock-work, our schedule down to a science.  Multi-tasking at its finest.  Busy with the girls, the house, errands, and working part-time in the office to keep our business and rental investments running smoothly.  Evenings and weekends we fit in time as a family, with friends, church, projects around the house.  There is little time for us as a couple…and even less time for me as an individual.  Every day since July 15, 2006 I have been a wife….and every second of every day for the last 3 years, 6 months, and 30 days I have been a mom.   I used to hit the gym 5 days a week, to take an entire day every month to scrapbook with friends, travel on business, to eat fancy dinners out on a moment’s notice, take romantic trips with my husband, I used to sleep in past 6:30 a.m.  So then about a week after my husband made the “pet project” comment, a very dear friend said I should try my hand at blogging.  Like I have the time for that, I said.  And later I thought, maybe she’s (a little) right.  If I couldn’t spend 9 hours scrapbooking anymore, or an hour at the gym, why couldn’t I take 15 minutes a day to just get my thoughts out, clear my head, brag about my kids, rant about things with my boss (whom I happened to be married to)….or about nothing at all. 

All of this crazy, silly business keeps be from getting board.  I come from a place where my friends understand that we have to carve out time from our busy schedules to spend time together, but it means so much when we can share a day of lunch and shopping and talk like we haven’t spent a moment apart.  I come from a place where family, friends and faith are more important than the size of your house, the car you drive, the toys that you have or the amount of money in your bank.

This past Sunday was Palm Sunday.  Bill and I loaded the girls up and made the hour and 15 min drive to the small country church where I grew up.  We had to park in the grass and although it wasn’t standing room only, it was pretty full!  I love that the passing of the peace takes nearly 10 minutes until you get to everyone and then get back to your seat.  I had to laugh to myself a little bit thinking about some of those larger churches that have “cry rooms” for families with young children so they can sit in there and not disturb the rest of the congregation during the service.  Well, the entire left half of our sanctuary would need to be blocked off if that were the case!!  So many old friends that I grew up with are now married and have children of their own.  And I am sure all of them feel the same way I do on most days being crazed, tired, and missing adult time.  And you know what, not a single person in that church minds when kids run into the aisles or shouts out in the middle of a hymn.  Or like Teagan did during Advent, assisted the Pastor in the middle of his sermon when he was commenting “Ready, Set”….and she yells “GO”.  It’s days like that can only make you laugh, and smile and be glad that one of the reasons I am so exhausted sat right there in the pew next to me.    And I’ll take that any day!