We are parents...
of three boys...
three long awaited, dreamed of, prayed for, and worked for boys.
How did we get here?!?!? It seems like yesterday I was jumping up and down at the thought of Kenny wanting to be in a relationship with me. I was still living with my parents and had many years of school ahead of me.
Each and every year with Kenny has been amazing, even with the ups and downs of marriage, work, infertility, and life in general.
2015 was difficult with my pregnancy and birth of Anchor, who has been somewhat of a high-maintenance baby. In the first few months he cried often, spit up his body weight in milk, and nursing was a huge challenge. I've recently switched to raw goat's milk and I think we are making progress!
I'm always grateful for another year. I see it as a chance to refocus and new opportunities and adventures are waiting to be found. What I'm looking forward to in 2016:
- learning how to be a homeschooling mom of 3, while maintaining my role as wife
- homeschooling Joshua
- new friendships
- family vacations
- training for my second sprint triathlon (in October)
My goal this year is to learn how to juggle all the demands of life: spending time with Jesus (my Maker and Savior), being a wife, being a mom, homeschooling, keeping our house a welcoming home, and developing deeper/more meaningful friendships. It's important to me to keep my priorities in line and not lose sight of my calling as a stay-at-home mom. It may not be the most glorious and highly-sought-after profession, but it's been my desire for as long as I can remember. It's where God has purposefully placed me, and because of that, it's where I can honor Him most. In the monotony of my daily life - the laundry, discipline, cleaning, and fight to spend time with God, my husband, and each child - I want to glorify Him, to point back to Him, to be His light and His hands wherever I go and whatever I do. I'm so grateful I have the Holy Spirit to help me do my job well, because this will be no easy task.
So our family verse for this year comes from Joshua:
"This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:8-9The battles Joshua and his armies fought are not so different from ours. They wanted to claim the land God had given them. But first they needed to get the enemy out. So much of our culture and society looks down on children and motherhood and places value on materialistic things. But my boys, my arrows, are eternal. And there is no greater war than the one for their souls. And many of those battles are fought on my knees, and in my time spent with them, teaching them about the Lord and how much He loves us. Oh how I long for them to see me spend time with our Maker, delighting in Him and hiding His Word in my heart.
Knowing what last year's verse has come to mean for me and our family, I'm eager to see what the Lord does in my heart this year.
My *more specific* goals for this year are:
- spend time in the Word daily
- be up before kids (around 6:30) especially on weekdays
- keep house clean and welcoming (worship music and candles!)
- homeschool Joshua
- spend time with each child individually every day
- establish bedtime routine
- make four homemade meals each week
- exercise three times per week (at first, gradually increase to five)
- blog two to three times per week
- extremely limit Facebook - on Saturday only!
I hope to blog periodically about how I'm doing with these goals. I don't want to call them New Year's Resolutions because I'd be a complete failure at all of them already.
To Him be the glory!
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