It’s been a good week, but a tiring one.  Finishing up school and last-minute holiday preparations coupled with not sleeping well several nights in a row left me completely worn out last night when I went to bed.  I woke up this morning feeling more rested than I have in days, but still utterly exhausted and overwhelmed. A little after 6 am, I was dressed in layers and ready to go meet my running buddy. I had five minutes before I needed to leave. I sat down with my Bible and my beloved Streams. The Lord gave me this…

“The journey is too much for you.” I Kings 19:7

What did God do with Elijah, His tired servant?  He allowed him to sleep and then gave him something good to eat.  Elijah had done tremendous work…but the run had been too much for him and had sapped his physical strength, ultimately causing him to become depressed.  Just as others in this condition need sleep and want their ailments treated, Elijah’s physical requirements needed to be met.

There are many wonderful people who end up where Elijah did – “under a juniper tree” (I Kings 19:4)!  When this happens, the words of the Master are very soothing:  “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”  In other words, “I am going to refresh you.”

And then, without even thinking of today’s date, I felt led to read the Psalm for today.  Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

Oh what a beautiful gift to help me refocus, to remind me once again to slow.  What a delightful reminder that God is with me and knows my deepest needs and that He is eager to meet me there.  He is a good and gracious God, gentle and tender, and loving in spite of our weakness.

As we lean into the final pre-Christmas hours, I’m praying that you also have been able to slow and to focus. May your heart be set on Him as we draw closer to the celebration of His birth.

 

Wishing you a blessed, Christ-centered Christmas! Be sure to come back tomorrow when I’ll have a very special guest post for Christmas.

By His Grace ~

~ Sara

The past three weeks have been a veritable whirlwind of activity and for differing reasons, I have not been able to get my Week in Review posts up for three! Fridays now.  So I got up early this morning, before another wonderful days slips by, to stop and recall and reflect upon all that has been going on here since just before Thanksgiving.

*I have not used the camera much in the past three weeks.  Too busy living the moments to record them, I guess.  I am swiping a few off the camera this morning, but they are unedited, and since I have not been able to get my camera to cooperate with me lately, they are also blurry.  😦

Ellie had her birthday the day before Thanksgiving.  I was sad on Wednesday morning, when I realized that I had been so busy preparing things all day Tuesday, that I really didn’t take them time to soak in the fact that it was possibly my last day to ever have a four year old.  And I love four year olds.  They are so funny and will say such unexpected things.  I may have to start borrowing them from people in a few years.  😉  But Ellie delighted in her birthday and I am starting to think that, quite possibly, her love language is receiving gifts.  She thinks every gift is the best gift ever.

Wednesday night we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Matt’s family.  We are so thankful for this tradition, as it frees up our Thanksgiving day to relax and spend time together.  We enjoyed wonderful food and fellowship and celebrated birthdays with the “fourth quarter people”.

Thanksgiving Day we enjoyed a day at home eating non-traditional foods like sweet potato waffles prepared by Chef Matt and then veggie sushi for dinner.  We watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and went to the “double dollar theater” to see Despicable Me and just tried to take time to be relaxed together.

Friday morning we got up early and went out (all of us!) for a little Black Friday observing.  Matt thinks those kinds of things are fun and has gone out many times in years past.  I have always been afraid to, as agitated crowds tend to get me agitated.  But he assured me that, really, people were all in a pretty good mood.  Most of the girls also wanted to go, so we dragged them all out of bed at some horrific hour, promising pastries and hot chocolate and headed out to see the madness.  It was entertaining, to say the least.

Friday night (I promise, I won’t go into this much detail on all the weeks!) was dinner with my family and my mother shocked me by not serving baked corn.  I’m not sure I’ve fully recovered from that one yet.  😉

Saturday night Grace and Emma and I all ran in a 5k to benefit our local rescue mission.  Grace had decided early in the week that she wanted to, and she had done one once before, so I knew she was at least able to do it.  Emma decided at lunch that day that she would also like to run.  I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, because Emma is a lot like her mama and is prone to giving up when the going gets tough.  And since she had never run that far before, this sounded like a bad plan.  However, we let her go for it.  The first .8 mile she and her Uncle Ben were going strong, racing ahead of myself and Grace, whom I was trying to help pace.  And then those two started hitting a little wall.  I pushed/pulled/encouraged them to the halfway point where there would be water and a chance to walk.  I sent Grace and Ben on ahead and then stayed with Emma the rest of the way.  She was having side stitches and the distance seemed never-ending to her, but she never gave up.  I offered to leave her with Matt who was watching with the other two, and she insisted that No, she wanted to finish.  And she did.  I was so amazingly proud of her for pushing through all of that and I told her that about every five steps for the last mile.  These are the things I want her to learn now, that I didn’t learn until adulthood.  Things like perseverance and pushing yourself.  I am so proud of her.

Sunday the girls and my mom and I went and watched the girls’ ballet school perform the Nutcracker.  We sat out this year, as it was being held on Thanksgiving weekend and we were just still tired from the year before.  The performance was wonderful and we are going to need to pray about our plans for next year, in the event that it is held on Thanksgiving weekend again next year.  The girls enjoy doing it, and it’s so much fun once the performances actually  arrive.  Definitely good memories!

The next week was filled with trying to get the house ready for our neighborhood holiday open house.  Once a year, at Christmastime, neighbors and other community members are invited to tour the historic homes in our neighborhood.  It’s our fundraiser for neighborhood projects, such as park equipment and such.  I was cleaning like a crazy person and trying to do school with the girls at the same time.  In hindsight, we should have just taken the week off.  But it’s over and done now and the open house was delightful.  Living in a older home like ours can be frustrating and can sort of suck the life out of you, especially if you’re my husband who gets to do the majority of the upkeep and repairs.  It’s always good to get the house all spiffed up and let fresh eyes walk through it.  It helps us remember that we really are blessed with a wonderful home.

This week was a wonderful gift of life starting to slow down as we head into the holidays.  We resumed a normal school schedule, while fighting some stomach bugs (ok, those weren’t much of a gift). And reaped the benefits of all our hard work last week, by enjoying a clean house all this week!

Emma celebrated her 9th birthday on Tuesday.  I have noticed a marked change in Emma this week, and I’m hoping it is a sign of maturity and not a fluke related to a week of gifts.  😉  She has carried herself with a new grace and maturity and responsibility that I haven’t seen before.

 

Last night, we celebrated Ellie’s birthday with her first “friend” birthday party.  Seven girls, plus our four, flooded our home with squeals and silliness for two hours.  In what I think is a phenomenon fairly unique to home schooling, Ellie’s guest list was primarily girls her sisters’ ages.  One little girl younger than her was invited, but couldn’t make it.  Two her age were here, and everyone else was older, on up to 6th grade.  I’m especially thankful for those older girls coming, as Ellie simply adores them and it made her week.

She wanted a “puppy” party, so thanks to a much more creative friend and her wonderful list of ideas, Grace helped me throw a “paw-ty” for Ellie.  We made puppy ears out of foam visors, drew on noses and whiskers with eyebrow pencil, made a paper dog house, played hide and go seek and musical chairs, and decorated “pupcakes”.  Ellie had a great time, and hopefully the others did too!

 

Well, that’s the past few weeks.  Today is a day I have been looking forward to since about Thanksgiving.  For a couple that has a reputation of a weekly date night, it seems like it’s been forever since we went out, just the two of us.  So, this morning I am dropping all the girls off at my parents’ after Emma’s riding lessons.  Then, Matt and I are heading over to Kansas City for the afternoon to finish Christmas shopping and just enjoy being together.  I’m so excited!!!  And then tonight, we will celebrate God’s amazing goodness over the past year at our company Christmas party on the Plaza.  He is so good.

Enjoy your weekend, Friends!  Praying that you will give thanks to the Lord and pause to reflect on His great goodness!

~ Sara

It’s Friday night. I lay in my bed listening to the thunderstorm pass over us. Girls are tucked in tight. Beloved is celebrating with another soon-to-be brother-in-law. The week was good, but exhausting; fulfilling but sometimes overwhelming.

Friends from St. Louis visited over the Labor Day weekend. We laughed and ate and got food poisoning and laughed and took it easy on some of the eating. We went to our first Royals game of the season, and the first “real” baseball game for some of the children with us. It was a perfect day and a great time. First time I’ve been to a game they won! 🙂

Tuesday was back to real life and we met with tears and frustration over school. One downside of home education, I’ve decided, is that there’s no fear of public humiliation, so we just have tears whenever. I could do without that part.

Wednesday was my day to cry. We were leaving my sister-in-law’s house and turned out of her neighborhood, apparently into the middle of a school zone. I saw the school zone sign, hit my brakes, and then saw the officer with the radar gun. He pulled me over and I told him my sad story, but to no avail. He was nice enough about it, but he still gave me a ticket.  I’ve deserved every ticket I’ve ever gotten, and probably quite a few that I didn’t, but I honestly felt this one was unjust. It was an honest mistake on my part. But what do you do about it? I bawled like a baby all the way home. 😦

Thursday I was spoiled by family and friends as I celebrated my 33rd birthday. It was rainy but wonderful. I am so blessed.

Today we loaded up to check out the new American Girl store in Kansas City. It was a fun treat; an afternoon spent with friends and just enjoying all things girlie.

And tonight I did what I’ve been wanting to do all week. I ignored the mess that is certain parts of my house, sat down on the couch, and relaxed with my girls. It was good.

There were moments this week I wasn’t sure I’d make it through. And others I wish could go on and on. But isn’t that life? And you just have to push through the bad and savor every moment of the good.

Praying you have a weekend full of moments to savor!
~ Sara

It’s been a normal week, nothing extraordinary.  Sometimes the normal weeks are just what we need.  School rolled along quite nicely, except for Thursday, which we’ll chalk up to Mama not being able to tame her own attitude.  😉  The weather is fabulous, except for Thursday, which was too cloudy.  (Maybe that at least partly explains the crabby disposition???)

Tonight we went on a long over due family bike ride.  It was good soul therapy for all of us.  Between the heat of summer and Matt’s endless nights of painting, we needed some quality family time.  We stopped for a picnic dinner under the bell tower…

…and had a great night overall.

I want to let you know that posting may be a little sporadic for the next few weeks.  I need to organize my thoughts into words for a group of moms who want encouragement in how to balance their time and commitments and one of Matt’s sisters is getting married, both events within the next two weeks.  It will be a good kind of busy around here, but I may have to prioritize some other things.  I have made a personal challenge to myself to post five days a week.  It seems the writing comes easier if I do it daily.   But I have to practice what I’m going to preach and recognize the limits on my time.  I’ll definitely be here to count blessings and to do my weekly review.  Thank you for checking in often and being patient if I go off the radar for a short time.

May your weekend be filled with wonder and joy!

~ Sara