A Plan

Yesterday was our planning meeting for the semester. Scott and I sat over our lunch (Tuptim Thai) and talked about things we wanted to work on in our little family. It has been on my heart lately to consider the gravity of the task given to me in mothering my children. It is a tremendous blessing to be able to train these ones in a godly manner, yet an overwhelming responsibility at times, especially those in which I feel that I am falling far too short of the goal! I already feel like the time I have is slipping away... it is just over 4 years until my oldest graduates high school. 4 years is going to fly by! I want to make the most of the opportunity the Lord has granted me in this amazing boy's life! And his sister is only 2 years behind that...

I've read in books before that the majority of the training you do in a child's life happens in the first 6 years. While I do see that the things we instilled in them during those early years have shaped them in many ways, there seems to me to be tremendous opportunities of a different nature now. In many ways we were training their behavior in those beginning stages of parenthood... now I feel like we are teaching them how to think through situations, make personal decisions of deeper significance; and wow, it is challenging! Parenting is a whole new ballgame now! (And here I will hold back all of my clever baseball analogies that are running through my mind.)

So, we sat and we talked over our crab fried rice and money bags (yum!). We discussed what we want to be teaching our children from scripture these next few months. In case you are curious, we are going to be studying from Christ Loved the Church in the coming weeks. We are also going to continue to help them through their talk thru the Bible they are working on in Sunday School, and our reading schedule for the morning. We also wouldn't dream of leaving behind our time in One Day at a Time, since it has been a family favorite, and such a challenge!

I asked Scott what he would like to me work on specifically in the areas of 'loving my husband, loving my children, and keeping my home'. I couldn't believe it when he wasn't sure what to say about loving my husband. Trust me, when you ask your husband, "What is one thing you want me to work on to make you feel more loved as a husband," and he's not sure... that feels great. For sure there were times when there were obvious things I needed to work on. Of course, after discussion, we came up with tangible things for me to work on, but I feel like I've gotten somewhere at least in these last 15 years! Specifically, one things that is so important to Scott is that there is peace in the home... I am glad that for the most part that he feels like our home is peaceful, we are just going to continue to work on keeping it that way!

Loving the children - I am going to work on closer supervision with our one child who is getting a bit sloppy with schoolwork. Working on doing chores without complaints and consistency in keeping up with the basics. I immediately came home and put a simple system in place that helps me not have to remind them of things each day, which in itself makes for more peace and less frustration!

Keeping the home - I am working specifically on healthier meal planning and organization. I am really excited about the new format I am using this year to try and help keep me on track. This is so important with the busy lifestyle I lead. There are times I fall behind, but a good plan helps me not feel overwhelmed and gets me back on track in no time!

I have so many thoughts I would like to share. (I'm not sure you want to hear them all, but I have found that writing things down can be therapeutic for me.) I am going to try to be better about blogging some of these things, and hoping that, in itself, will help me with these goals. So, you can look for my ideas coming up... on peace, and how I plan to work on keeping a peaceful feeling in my home; on organization, and how I plan to keep up with the daily grind, as well as try and weed out some of the 'extras' in our home; and I'm hoping as well to share some of the projects I'll be working on to get to 'a place for everything, and everything in it's place.'

I hope that you enjoy taking this journey with me!