The past few weeks have been filled with many wonderful memories and opportunities.

The month kicked off with any fall activities that hadn’t started yet, starting.  We began writing classes, ballet, and choir, in addition to our existing volleyball, soccer, and art schedule.  Those who think home schoolers aren’t socialized need to spend a week in the life of a home school mom.  The biggest challenge is being HOME to do the SCHOOL, especially in the years before you have a driving-age teen.  So, for now, we do this….

{This is where you’ll have to imagine a picture of Grace doing school in the back of my SUV.  That photo is currently sitting on my waterlogged iPhone, unable to be retrieved.  😦 }

We celebrated my birthday in early September by doing school, going to volleyball practice and a soccer scrimmage, and then enjoying Subway and brownies at home.  Since our oldest is thirteen and this is the first birthday that’s been spent doing kid activities, I figure we’ve done pretty well.  Matt and I did celebrate a couple of weeks later by going to one of our favorite places in Lawrence and discussing our budget and (more) kid’s activities.  Clearly, we’ve lost our touch when it comes to celebrating birthdays.  🙂

All kidding aside, I never fail to be blessed by my generous kiddos and husband who do sacrifice and go out of their way to make every birthday special – not only mine, but each other’s too.  We’ve got a pretty fantastic crew running around over here.

The first two weeks of September were defined by helping with a local obstacle race benefiting Amania’s orphanage.  This was our second year being part of that event, and while it’s a lot of work, it’s something everyone enjoys being part of and lots of great memories were made.

We were blessed to have friends from Minnesota drive down to do the race and stay with us.  What a great time we had – all fifteen of us(!) – that weekend.

On Friday this past week, I had a mini-Mama-meltdown.  In spite of oils and supplements and whatever I tried, I could not get my stress and anxiety under control.  Too many balls in the air and never enough time to deal with them all was making me crazy.  And as I ranted to my mama that afternoon, she flat out told me what I needed to hear – I expect too much of myself.  With five kids and their schedules and home schooling and the house and a husband who works more than average and all the feeding and errands and laundry and life, it’s no wonder I sometimes feel like it’s a matter of just keeping everyone fed and some semblance of order going in our home day after day after day.  And while I didn’t want to hear what she said, and while the never getting ahead gets old, she was right.  As I give grace to others when life throws them a curve ball and they can’t meet some expectation, I must also give grace to myself – because this life God has blessed me with is still a giant curve ball compared to what I envisioned and the process of becoming who He is making me into is always stretching, always growing, always being refined.  But the person I am now compared to the person I once was is worth the sacrifice.  And I know that by His grace, He will continue to make me more like Jesus through all of this every day crazy.

So that about sums up our September.  More words are in the works as I continue to find my voice again.

For His Glory ~