Saturday, September 15, 2012

Just a Saturday

Sitting here in the house while you guys are all out doing your things...Kyle and Hope at the park with friends and the dogs (Lord, have mercy...really).  Vinny's mowing the lawn (and hopefully that's all you are mowing, bud :)  and Nick's hanging out with the girlfriend.  Really?  Did I just type that?  Who said you could grow up, my son?  Hang on while I come downstairs and bug you..er, I mean check up on you :)  Just in the past month you have turned 15, gotten your permit, and your first girlfriend (well, you know, besides those "drinking fountain buddies" as you guys call them).  It has been an amazing summer watching each of you grow and change.

It is at once delightful and terrifying.

I'm not sure if you have noticed, but I am trying my best to simplify things in our lives so that we can enjoy each other more.  Less clutter of stuff and things to do, less time on the computer and in front of the tv.  I'm learning that the house doesn't have to look perfect and the work all done in order for us to have fun and for me to enjoy our home and our time together.  It is precious to me, as are each of you.

Vince will be home tonight from his week-long trip to San Diego...yippee and praise the Lord!  You have been SO very missed, my love.

I am loving the sounds of our home today...the breeze through the windows,  the chatter and laughter of you running in and out with your friends, puppies panting, and the song playing on the stereo right now:

"You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of us".

Yes, Lord.  You most certainly do, in ways that only You can.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A declaration of sorts...

Ok, it's time for a change.  A change on the blog, which will hopefully be reflective of the changes going on in me.

I have been struggling for sometime about whether or not I should even have a blog anymore (gasp!).  I like it, and at times I love it (goodness knows I love me a good ramble), but to be honest it can be a time sucker. A priority mixer-upper.  And an easy way to enjoy focusing on myself...me...what I think, what I feel, what I want.  I can get lost writing, and also reading lots of other people's blogs about what they think, what they feel, what they want.  Blah blah blah.  And before I know it I have spent an hour or three of what could have been special time with someone, staring at a screen.

God has been teaching me tons about my priorities, not just having them right (which I believe I do) but if I truly value something as a priority in my life, then what I do with my time needs to reflect that.  It just doesn't make sense for me to be crying out to God for more time with my children and my husband (which I have been doing since before Nick was born), and then wasting some of the time I do have with them on insignificant things.  I don't mean to say that doing things like writing or reading or anything else that we enjoy is insignificant..it's a necessary part of a healthy, balanced life.  But what I am learning is that I need to be "on purpose" about how I choose to spend my time.

So.

I am reading this book "52 Things Kids Need From a Mom", and in it one of the suggestions the author gives is to write a family blog.  A place for a mom to write her heart to her family.  Yep.  That's something I can do on purpose!  Since I already have a blog, rather than creating a new one I can transform this one into a "living scrapbook" of sorts, a book of letters that they can read anytime, anywhere, forever.  Things that I want them to know and remember, and even comment on if they want to.  So, thus the reason for the blog change.  I will be writing more often, and alot of my writing will be to my kids rather than to an audience, or even to myself.  I don't mind at all if my bloggy friends read and comment and share what you think right along with our family (in fact, I love that!) And I of course couldn't stop rambling and occasionally ranting if my life depended on it.

So, if I am going to continue do this blog thing, it's going to mean something.  It's going to be something that I can give to my family, not something that takes away from them.  

Hey kids, let's go!  Let's see where this new adventure in staying connected and sharing our lives takes us :)