Mornin'

Good Morning!

I'm sitting here, sipping a cup of lukewarm coffee that I have reheated at least 6 times now and it has cooled yet again before I am finally getting to it.  In sitting down, I am pretending that there are not muffin crumbs covering my kitchen table and a load of laundry sitting on the chair to fold (another in the dryer), remnants of the 7 loads of laundry I washed yesterday.

This morning, shortly after Josh left for work, I felt a strong urge to pray for my children.  This is something that Josh and I usually do every night, and I do periodically throughout the day, but for whatever reason (still unknown to me) this urge was different.  I have been slowly working through a book on praying for my kids and with that has begun to arrive a new intuition when things are "off" in my house. It doesn't mean that I recognize it all the time, but this morning I did and decided to take the time while I was nursing Declan to talk with God about the little minions in my household.  I've also found that praying for my kids puts me into a different mindset when I face confrontation with them.  I'm so glad I listened to that urge and prayed. As soon as I stepped out of the room, I stepped into an hour long tantrum with one child for reasons unknown and a tearfully emotional other child, both of whom are just having one of "those" kind of days.  Starting my morning by praying for them helped me to walk through these hours with a grace that only God gives.  Patience is not in my nature, so anytime I see that attribute in my life, I know God is working!  I am so thankful that I do not walk along in this journey of motherhood. My God walks with me, and He has given me a wonderful hubby by my side as we raise our tribe of dynamic forces of nature.

One of the trials in living out where we do is the idea of a playdate, or any type of getting together with friends. We live over 80 miles from the nearest city (that would be 80 miles each way, and that is also the distance to the nearest grocery store).  Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time texting with various friends, setting up social activities and playdates for the next few weeks. I seem to go through spurts of this, times where I am better about setting up time for my kids to play with others, and other times that I prefer to be a hermit. Actually, being a hermit would be very appealing to me and probably my natural state of life. I remember telling my dad that one time, though, to which he responded that while he felt similar, God didn't call us to be hermits. He calls us to be His hands and feet!  So, here's to not being a hermit.  

Hope your morning is blessed.

~Jess & Family