Changing seasons of this journey called life.....

Wow!! Listen! Do you hear that beautiful sound of silence?! :) What is this new season of life I just stepped into?! For the very first time (I think EVER in 19 yrs), I just sent ALL the kids (that are still school age) off to school, the hubbie off to work, & other than the dog, I have this entire house to myself!! In my near 40 yrs existence on planet Earth, I have either been a student, an employee, self-employed, a homeschooling mom, or a stay at home mom w/at least one child (if not ALL 4 children) home with me full time, with the exception of the years I worked out of the home full time, in which case, the whole career/family balancing act was a huge challenge for me. In fact, if I think back over the last few years, this would have described a typical day in my life...dialing the number of one of the dear women in my life who have mentored me along in this journey called motherhood (Debbie, Jill, Shelly, Allison, Lisa - to name just a few); Ring, ring..."Hello?" Background noise - baby screaming, dog barking, kids fighting, doorbell ringing...(and if I go back just 2 years ago and really wanted to be transparent - police at the door w/a rebelling 18 yr old)...Me: "Hello  _____, (any of the above mentioned poor souls), I can't take it anymore! I have let this baby cry it out like you said for 45 minutes and she is NOT giving up, I've just finished teaching the 7th grader's Algebra lesson, simultaneously ALL WHILE nursing a baby on one side and pumping on the other, and after 21 problems wrong, we are BOTH in tears! Oh, and while I was teaching Algebra the last 2 HOURS of my life, the baby that won't stop screaming that you told me to let cry it out, has ripped ALL of the next chapter's pages out of our History book, which is likely the trigger that threw the 7th grader into a complete tailspin, hence likely the precise reason my neighbor just left after stopping by to check on us after hearing blood curdling screams of the spawned off temper tantrum from not only finding her History book otherwise vandalized, but you know the old excuse of the dog ate my homework? Well, ours actually just did and do you know where the nearest emergency vet is because I don't think it's digesting very well, just a guess, based on the projectile vomitting from BOTH the homework eating dog and the acid reflux, colic, screaming baby!! Oh, and speaking of this acid reflux, colic baby who has very literally screamed non-stop for 9 straight weeks, the "white noise" of rocking her next to a running vacuum cleaner or setting her bouncy seat next to the washing machine doesn't seem to be producing the desired effect!! And speaking of electronics, do you know what would take the red SHARPIE MARKER off of the letters on my computer keyboard and monitor that my 4 yr old just used as a canvas for her artistic imagination?! And while I'm thinking about the artistic 4 yr old, who by the way is NOT picking up on this whole learning to read thing and insists that the letter D says, d-d-d-PIZZA, the bath she is soaking in doesn't seem to be removing the ENTIRE TUBE OF DESITIN she painted her ENTIRE body with right before she walked in saying, "Booooo, Mommy....I am a ghost!" And speaking of ghosts, I think we may possibly be housing a few, because my house looks like we've been robbed and ransacked and NONE of my children seem to know who is responsible!! Hold on, the police are at the door AGAIN!! I wonder what my 18 yr old did THIS TIME!!! Then again, maybe they're not here on his account! Maybe this has something to do with the fact that someone at Michael's turned me in as unstable as a result of not knowing what the YEAR was to include on the check I wrote yesterday for baskets to organize all this homeschooling stuff that is overtaking my household!! Oh, and did I mention that this baby will NOT stop screaming???!!!!

Oh, it sure is funny to reflect but I am not even kidding when I say that in those moments, you honestly feel like you will be nursing that colic, screaming baby for the rest of your days on earth. I can also tell you that out of all of the Homeschooling Conferences and Parenting Workshops I've attended and all of the books I've read, research I've done, etc., no advice has been as meaningful to me as this...."This too shall pass! You will not be nursing that colic baby through high school, that mischievous toddler will one day learn more appropriate things to color, that 7th grader may not end up a math scholar, but she will in fact one day graduate, and this strongwilled 18 yr old may have to learn some hard lessons from his own mistakes, but God is in control! Second to those nuggets of wisdom from other moms who were just a little ahead, a little behind, and some right exactly in the thick of the same exact season as me, was just knowing that I wasn't alone. God sent just the right people at just the right seasons to come alongside me and mentor, support, encourage, and love me through the victories and the heartaches!

That is my heart, passion, and vision for this next season of this journey called life. To be that Titus 2 model, to mentor, train up, support, encourage, and love on every person God Sovereignly places in my path, and pass it on so that each of them can do the same! I shutter to think about where I would be without those people in my life; where my marriage would be, where my children would be, where my spiritual journey would be, how selfish I would be, how I would have otherwise succumb to trial, etc. I certainly don't have it all figured out! That's the great news though. We don't need to have it all figured out. We need each other. No matter what season of life we are in, we can't do it alone.

We experience the things in life that we experience not only for our own personal development and growth, but to use those experiences to relate and help others do the same. My vision for the child, to the teen, to the single adult, to the newly married, new parents, empty nesters, widowers, etc., is that we not just exist and get by as we pass through the changing seasons in this journey called life, but that we live the abundant life intended for us and walk through each and every season, embracing every success and every challenge victoriously!

So now what? It's almost a little too quiet around here! I never thought I would say that!! :) Well, for the immediate future, I'm going to finish an entire cup of coffee while it's still hot, take a full shower without having to tend to someone or something in a towel still suds up, spend the next week or 2 unpacking all of these boxes, decorating and making our new house our home. I may just spend the next couple of months milking it for every single thing it's worth!! :) Doesn't this sound wonderful? Finishing a cup of coffee, actually taking a shower, getting dressed and putting on a little make-up every single day, keeping a pristine home, no more ransacked effect here, laundry that is caught up rather than overflowing, a trip to the grocery store without bribes, threats, and temper tantrums over the type of cereal everyone wants, being able to cook along with my favorite Food Network celebs and decorate with my favorite HGTV peeps, heck I think I'll even plant my own herb garden and finally take my Ninja out of the box! Did you hear that?! Adult TV stations?! Food Network, HGTV, Days?! No more Nick Jr.!! OMGoodness, I might actually even be able to get back to my Zumba, Pilates, and Kickboxing classes, attend some morning ladies bible studies, meet up with a friend for lunch, and even stroll around Target just because I can!!! :)

Then I guess after the 1st of the new year of this new season, I'll gradually stop milking it and here's a little snapshot of what's to come....finishing up my Life Coach Certification Classes and finally after all these years, launching my vision and dream!! Having a career that allows me to be a full time wife and mother, using everything I've learned from all of those years of being a wife, mother, homeschooler, full time paralegal attempting to balance career and family, owning my own businesses, etc., I've tried it all, to mentor others on how to do the same. Here's what to look forward to: (or maybe dread, idk...)!! :) A new website where you can access way more than a blog! Personal house calls to walk alongside you in everything from marriage to parenting to career to home and time management, budgeting, couponing, meal planning and preparation, home decorating, home organization, teen challenges, fitness, fashion, beauty, etc. Walking in Victory Life Groups and Life Shops, A Walking in Victory Walking Club. For all of you that do not live in the immediate area, don't worry, I'm planning to have phone and email consults and ways that you can participate online!

Stay tuned and in the meantime, remember you are not alone, this too shall pass, and life is a journey with different chapters and seasons along the way. God is not finished with you yet. Embrace today with all of it's joys and challenges. For the teen - enjoy these years. They will pass quickly! Enjoy all of the opportunities that this season holds to learn, grow, mature, build friendships, develop into who you were  placed on this earth to be. Don't waste precious years getting caught up in things that will hinder you from becoming all you were created to be and don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon! You were created for greatness! For the young mother - rock that baby. Slow down and enjoy this season. They won't be small enough to hold on your lap for very long. For those waiting for a report from the doctor or waiting up for a wandering child, what will one hour of worry add to your life? Trust God. For the grieving heart - you will never forget but it will get easier with time. Take care of yourself, take each day as it comes, don't look too far behind or too far ahead. Take each moment with the grace available for that moment. There isn't grace available right now to worry about what you will do 5 minutes from now, but His grace is sufficient for you and is available to you for this very moment. For the man who just lost his job, struggling to provide - do all that you can do to provide and then let go and let Him do the rest. If He takes care of the birds in the air, will he not take care of you?! Fill in the blank with your name and your circumstances and declare to yourself that this is a short season in a big journey called life. This too shall pass, you are not alone, you are not defeated, you were not designed to just get by but to live life abundantly, to it's fullest! Your steps are ordered by the Lord - walk them victoriously!!

To "do" Halloween, or not to "do" Halloween? THAT is the question!

Belle's teacher asked me if I would spearhead the class Halloween Party and I agreed and in researching for ideas and planning the party out today, I thought it would be nice to share a few ideas for upcoming Fall Festivities with my Walking in Victory Readers! But before I post some fun craft and game activities you can do at home, do as part of your Mommy and Me get togethers, or for your class parties, I thought I'd share my thoughts on this controversial matter, because, well this is MY blog :) (and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry-ee-ii if I want to - oops, sorry for the diversion, got carried away - you're laughing, you KNOW you are, and now you have that song stuck in your head too! He he he!!!)! Anyhoo, back to ME, I mean MY blog, JK :) allow me to share with you MY family's way of handling this topic. That and because as I pursue my certification to become YOUR personal Certified Life Coach (which is just a fancy way of saying, I'm pursuing something on paper to do what I'm doing now, only as a profession, walking alongside, mentoring, and training up others to Walk In Victory in this journey called life, I just know I'll get this question from a reader, client, parent, etc., in the future. So if like us, you've been torn about this "holiday" and how to handle it, this is what we have done....

For us, we don't necessarily celebrate the meaning behind Halloween, celebrating the dark, underworld of witchcraft and sorcery. But we never want to be the parents that make our kids go sit in the office during the class Halloween party. Anyone who knows our family closely knows that we aren't really much into "religion," and formalities or lack thereof. Our perspective is that God doesn't care about all that! It's about a relationship with Him through a personal, saving relationship with His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, that was given up for us as a ransom so that we could be free from sin and the eternal penalty of our sin. He cares about our hearts. It's the attitude and posture of our hearts that He is jealous for, not what "religious" activities we participate in. Of course with that, if our hearts are truly in line with His, then we naturally will have convictions about activities we participate in or don't and will desire to do what is pleasing to the Lord, knowing that that is where our very own protection and blessing lie.

We will never win souls for Christ so long as we are causing others to view Christians as judgemental and snicketty people (is snicketty even a word?! I don't know, it's just what came to me!)!! :) You know what I'm trying to say...you KNOW you do! Anyway, for US, we live in a very diverse area and we'll never win souls to Christ without taking genuine interest in the same people their very Creator is very interested in! We have to be open to genuine relationship with them. Not just shoving Christianity down their throats. It's when the kids and I have developed GENUINE relationships with our Hindu neighbors for example, allowing them to invite us into their culture, cooking and eating foods together with them from their culture, that we get to know them and they get to know us as well. And they eventually ask questions and become curious about the joy we seem to have and the fruit in our lives, because it becomes desireable. Trust me, not that we have it all together (refer to my Walking In Victory Over Keeping Your Pants Pulled Up post if you would like further illustration of that fact)! :) We don't. But to a hurting world, what very little fruit they see in our lives, is HUGE to them.

Anyway, that's my sermon for the day. We are not to conform to the world by any means. We are a true testament to that stance. We just gave up our very livlihood (and may I add, swallowing our pride and being humbled DAILY - some day when this season is over, I'll share more when I'm sure it will be funny by then) because we would NOT conform to standards that put our core values, convictions, marriage, and family in jeopardy. I'm just saying, let your kids celebrate the new season Fall, a season of Harvest, (heck, use that concept and tie it into the gospel)! :) I'm just saying, don't be snicketty (there's that word again, well, ok, so I don't know if it was, but NOW snicketty is officially a word, so walk in victory using it - and if someone looks at you strange when you tell them they are being snicketty and therefore NOT walking in victory, just tell them, "MY soon to be Certified Life Coach said it's a word and I'm saying it and you can cry if you want to, cry if you want to, cry-ee-ii if you want to - make sure you put a whole lot of attitude into the cry-EE-II part!")

Get involved. Spearhead the class party and have a say in what types of activities the class chooses. Surprisingly, you'll find that the teacher and other parents will be on board and even agree! :) And never teach your kids to be snicketty! :) Or worse yet, allow them to think that YOU are! Be released of all that stuff! Walk In Victory and go decorate a pumpkin with your kids!! :) It's totally ok. In fact, plan a trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend! A ride in the back of a hay wagon in the middle of nowhere with a cup of hot cider is down right chicken soup for the soul!!