Yeah, I know, we're already halfway thru January...
but this week felt like the launching of the new year.
Monday was our first day back into all the busyness of home school lessons, cottage school, youth group, extracurricular classes.
Early mornings tend to be just a teeny bit cranky around here, especially for certain teenagers who spent the last two weeks enjoying late nights watching 'Lord of The Rings' and sleeping-in till 10am. Hiking to the high school for 1st & 2nd period part-time classes at 7:15am, uphill-both-ways-in-the-snow (you think I'm kidding??) is, ummm...welllll, let's just say the toddlers in the house aren't the only ones with a whining issue.
Oh - you thought I was talking about the teenagers? Well, maybe them too - but seriously, Kevin & I are the ones whining. So much pleading & persuasion for a ride to class. So much driving. So much busyness. The hurried rush to get breakfast, make sack-lunches, prepare backpacks, get some out the door, then turn around and face home school lessons with others. The days feel so crowded; I can't see my way. Where is the peace we used to enjoy with home schooling? This straddling-the-fence, half-cross-ways between home schooling and cottage school and part-time classes and extracurricular activities...is just. not. working.
(okay, be honest, aren't ya rolling your eyes at all my whining???)
So - we're recalibrating. The pace of last semester was NOT sustainable. Over the last few months, Kevin & I have learned a valuable lesson:
If it's not sustainable, it's not gonna work.
Even more harsh, and true?
If it's not sustainable, it leads to sin.
Trying to sustain a pace of pleasing all seven of my children, my friends, family, husband...adhering to cultural expectations at every-other turn...and striving for 'perfect'...is not sustainable. And - duh! - you know as well as I do -
all that self-reliant striving & perfectionism & people-pleasing leads to the worst kind of looks-good, deliciously-insidious sin.
pride
impatience
judgement
frustration
criticism
discontent
anger
just to name a few...
That is a stinking, rotten-on-the-vine kinda way to live.
Not exactly the fruit I wanna cultivate in my life, and in my home.
So here we go, launching the new for this year.
With new hopes;
new plans,
new relinquishing,
new intentions,
new deferring,
new dreams,
new peace,
just to name a few...
We're dropping some of the cottage school classes, rearranging the pick-up schedules. Taking an afternoon for some 'Come Away With Me' time, to read, write, pray, think. Adding a worship dance class, just for my soul.
Rejoicing in the promise:
Even as I struggle in my people-pleasing,
He gives more grace.
Yeah, I've had a bit of a slow start...
And now I'm ready to launch.
So what are you launching this year? Anything you need to let go of?
