how we roll - part 4: protecting our time

The next couple of posts in this series are going to touch on subjects that I’ve been asked to write about by some of you… I was needing suggestions, so thanks guys!



Also, I wanted to mention that I used Drew as an example several times in the Picky Eaters post and he knows full well that I tell people what a mess he was at 3 years of age. He laughs at his old self, and begs for me to tell him more stories about how he didn’t eat and threw huge tantrums for Jeremy and I when he was younger. He thinks it’s hilarious and crazy that he went over a whole day without eating because he was too stubborn. Twice. And thinks it’s so funny that he liked the food when he actually tried it after clamping his mouth shut at the meatloaf and mashed potatoes for 24+ hours.


Moving on…


Let’s head straight to Protecting our Time.

A friend of mine has asked me to write specifically on this subject.  Where do you draw the line when it comes to doing too many things?  Even too many good things?  'Round here, we make this pretty simple.  We live too far away from town to do much running around.  And I refuse to live in my minivan.  Even though it's of the sweet-action variety.  (That's a joke, maybe someone who graduated in the class of 2007 will get this - if any of you are reading my mom blog.)

I'm digressing, but I really do like my van.  :) 

When I think about our homeschooling days, I just can't see myself running around from place to place taking the kids to different kinds of lessons.  We do school Mon. - Thurs.  and right now I don't schedule anything other than school time and Bible Study morning into that week.  Our evenings are clear too.  We know what life can look like if we do fill those days/nights up, and we just don't want that.  The kids have ice skating lessons that will be happening every other Friday.  They've only had one so far, but we're excited about that prospect.  And there are numerous other activities the kids want to do, but we protect our time here at home as a family. 

Don't get me wrong, we love doing things at night and on the weekends with other families.  Jeremy and I are very social.  We love having "plans."  We love hosting families here at our home, and we love to visiting other family's homes.  Now if we could just figure out our dining room situation!  ...  we're dreaming of an addition so we can use our table how it was meant to be used, or build a new, much longer table to spread out on ... but stinkeroni - that doesn't come cheap! 

Speaking of money...  The other reason we are home a lot is that going out just isn't free.  Gas costs money.  Eating out costs money, and it's not growing on trees around our neighborhood, so we stay put most of the time. 

Keeping to the topic...

Now, having 3 grade schoolers, they're bound to have things they want to try.  But we also have 2 babies which makes it difficult to go, go, go all the time.  So we do what we can, making the most of our time at home.  And making the most of our time when we go out. 

There are many activities that we've love for our kids to be involved in like AWANA, American Heritage Girls, Boy Scouts, martial arts, ballet, gymnastics...  but those aren't for right now in this season of life.  We are committed to not fitting too much into a small week. Over the years, the kids have tried swimming, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, art class, etc....  but they've yet to find something that sticks, that is their thing.   So we hop around, try new things until they say, "That's what I want to be doing!" 

Another thing we attempt to do is have the kids in the same lessons.  The boys, for example have always had lessons together.  With the exception of one soccer season each when they were younger.  They're just 20 months apart in age, so it's been a natural fit for them to take classes together.  Imagine how thrilled I was when I heard they wanted to learn to ice skate with Morgan! 



Another reason we stay close to home, is that Jeremy leaves the house at 4:00am on his workdays and that makes for an exhausted Daddy.  He's just too tired generally on his weekdays to do anything but work, eat, hang out with us and then crash into bed. 



Last weekend we stayed home all day Friday and Saturday as a family.  That used to bother me.  I wanted to GO somewhere after being mostly home all week.  But now I'm content to work on things I couldn't do when Jeremy was gone - and enjoy the slowness of a weekend with my family.  Most weekends, I fit in one excursion to town by myself.  Taking one kid with me still falls into the category of "by myself" so usually I'll take Gabi or one of the older ones with me.  And sometimes I actually go by myself for reals.  It's amazing how easy it is to have just one kid!  I just never appreciated that in my younger years.  I guess it's all a matter of perspective. 

Last Saturday, I caught Drew and Morgan like this at the table.  And it just made me so happy that they were entertaining themselves in a quiet and peaceful way. It's not everyday that I take a picture of kids playing peacefully. 

There's one more area I'd like to touch on, and that's ministry.  God has given Jeremy and I opportunities to be involved in ministry both alone and as a couple over the years.  We were youth leaders together for nearly 9 years for church youth group.  God moved us on after our "kids" graduated a few years ago.  He gave me the ministry of Mothers of Preschoolers 6 years ago.  And I adored my time serving and growing alongside my friends there.  But it became very clear that it was time for me to move on.  And now, after a couple years of us wondering what's next for us???  God gave us our church's new Adoption/Foster Care/Orphan Care ministry.  It is just getting off the ground this fall, and we're so thankful and excited to be a part of leading this much needed ministry into the future.  This will eventually take more of our time, and we are game for that.  It is a blessing to be used by God.  We are honored. 

We're pretty laid back these days.  We're trying to step back and breath deeply during this time with our young kids.  We survived our childhoods and thrived not being shuttled from place to place in our families and we desire the same for our kids.  We're not concerned with keeping up with everyone else.  It would be impossible, and it's just not what we want. 

We're hoping that teaching them the Word of God, helping them know God, and loving the ever-loving daylights out of them will be the most important thing we'll do with them during their time here.  So that's what we're gonna do.