Contentment for Christmas

I am sure that I am not the only one who struggles with contentment.  It seems that this time of year it is especially difficult.  We are bombarded with endless commercials that depict the perfect gifts and presentations (think "every kiss begins with Kay" and Lexus), as cheesy as they may be!  We read in Southern Living about beautiful houses that have been professionally decorated for Christmas while the perfect family pauses from their tree trimming and baking to have a casual "impromptu", I'm sure, photo.  I know that their lives cannot really be this way everyday, but that is the perception that I get.  Then, I look at my house that is seldom clean because I am seldom home.  Laundry is piled to the rafters, and nothing is perfect.  I am not thin and beautiful like the lady in Southern Living, and my kids are not little blonde cherubs with matching smocked outfits. Sigh.  Discontentment comes creeping in. 

My husband and children have a wonderful way of putting things in perspective for me.  My husband is a very wise man.  He is steady, and as solid as a rock in his beliefs.  He does things the right way, and he always sticks to his plan.  I am a little more impatient.  We decided after we had children that I would work part time so I could be home with the kids more.  This has been a blessing, although I have not always looked at it that way.  There have been times when I have thought that if I worked full time, we could have so much more "stuff".  The last couple of years, though, I have finally seen the wisdom in this plan, and I am so thankful that this is what we decided to do.  I have had the best of both worlds, and God has blessed me with some amazing part time jobs.  I am thankful for my husband's ability to sacrifice and be content and to lead us to do what is best for our family.

My daughter is also wise beyond her years.  This week, we dropped off something at a friend's new house.  Anna Caroline had never been there, and the house is very nice.  As we left, she said, "This is a really nice house.  I wish we could have a house like this."  Then, she said, "But, I'm just thankful that we have a house to live in."  I am thankful that she understands that not everyone is as blessed as she is.  This will certainly lead her to be content.

Yesterday we had a little cookie decorating party with a few friends.  We had a wonderful time of fellowship and food and cookie decorating.  Amazingly, Southern Living did not call to cover my party.  I was shocked!  My house was not perfectly or professionally decorated.  I made my favorite foods, and we had a noisy, messy time.  It was wonderful!  I can learn to be content in the fact that people enjoy imperfect experiences or, I can never entertain until I get the perfect house, tree, decorations, etc. 

Last Christmas, the thought came to me that God could have provided anywhere for Jesus to be born- a palace or a comfortable home.  He could have even skipped Mary and Joseph altogether and just sent Jesus down  from heaven.  (I am not a theologian, but :) I think that maybe He chose Mary and Joseph and the stable to teach us that while He always provides everything we need, it may not be everything we want.  He knows what we need and when.  He also uses our circumstances, good or bad,  to teach us or to lead others to Himself.  We have to be content to let Him make those decisions.  Look at how Mary and Joseph's ability to be content and to trust God has affected all of history! 

Merry Christmas!

Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage

The past few months have been a time of reflection for me. It all started when I had my 36th birthday in July. For some reason, it seemed like a big deal to be 36. I'm not sure if it is because now I am closer to 40 than 30 or what, but it really caused me to reflect on where I am in my life and where I want to go from here. I think another reason is that for the first time in almost 10 years, I don't have a baby. Of course, as I tell my kids, they will all always be my "baby". Elizabeth is potty trained, drinks from a big girl cup, and is very self sufficient (too much, really). So, technically, she is not a baby anymore. You can ask her, she will tell you herself! Also, I feel like I now have enough experience in my marriage, raising children, and my career that I am no longer a "rookie". I am all about embracing the wisdom that my expanse of gray hair obviously indicates that I have. The other thing is that Tremaine and I are about to celebrate 14 years of marriage on Tuesday. I really find that hard to believe! It has gone by so fast. I look back at our wedding pictures, and we are starting to look a lot older than the people in those pictures! We obviosuly weren't very wise, because we didn't have gray hair. I was still in college, as an undergraduate! What were my parents thinking letting me get married so young ;) It probably had a lot to do with the person who I was marrying. They put Tremaine through the fire when he came to ask for my hand in marriage. Thankfully, I did not know about it, or I would have been a nervous wreck. I pretend to be angry at them because they were not nearly as tough on Scott, my sister, Jamie's husband, and by the time they got to Drew, my sister, Courtney's husband, they practically begged him to marry her! Not really, but they all have to admit that Tremaine had it the hardest. My dad jokes that he expected Tremaine to pull out his bank statement as they talked. Now that I have children, I totally understand.

Fast forward 14 years, three kids, and several jobs later, and I love my sweet husband so much more than I could have ever imagined I would on the day that I married him. God truly picked him for me. He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me. Tremaine is first and foremost, the spiritual leader of our family. Even though I probably wasn't very wise at 22 when I got married, I prayed that God would give me a husband who would be the spiritual leader of our home. Tremaine has fulfilled this duty better than I could have ever imagined. I have never heard our children ask, "Are we going to church today?" on Sunday. It is understood that we are unless someone is sick, and if so, that person and a parent stays home, everyone else goes. He leads in so many other ways, too, helping the kids with devotions or saying prayers at night. He is a wonderful father. Whether it is playing Wii games, reading, or letting Elizabeth "fix" his hair (he gets bonus points for this one:), he always enjoys spending time with the kids. He serves on committees at church that benefit the children, as well as coaches their t-ball and basketball teams. I often wonder where he gets the energy after working a 40 plus hour week. He always puts our needs before his own, and does everything that is in our best interest.

There are so many more wonderful things that I could say, but most importantly, I am thankful to God for blessing me with my wonderful husband, my sweet children, a job that allows me to keep my skills sharp, continue with my career, and also be very flexible and available when my children need me, health, and happiness.

So, I will continue to reflect, with thankfulness, and hope that the next 36 years of my life will be as good as the first!

Getting Creative With Canning

Lately, I have felt the need to create. I have also been nostalgic, thinking back to the summers of my childhood in Walker Springs, Alabama (a suburb of the great metropolis of Jackson). We always had a huge garden. My parents grew tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, squash, zucchini, green beans, butterbeans, and peas. At the time, I could not fully appreciate the abundant bounty that our garden produced. It required much work, either planting, weeding, picking, shelling, snapping, cutting, or canning. My sisters will say that I always got the easy job of housework while they worked in the heat picking vegetables, but to them I say, "whatever".

We always loved it when we had peas or beans to snap or shell. We would come into the house, cooled by a single window unit. We would grab our pans and a bucket to put our ends in and watch TV. This was the only time we could "legally" watch TV. We often had sore, purple fingers.

We also helped our mom can and prepare the vegetables for freezing. I can't tell you how many pounds of squash and zucchini I have sliced in my time. We always seemed to have it coming out of our ears. We also made pickles from cucmbers and squash, and we canned tomatoes and green beans. I had never thought much about canning until the other day, when I thought that I may want to try it.

This morning I decided to take the kids blueberry picking. They have really missed out on the whole gardening thing. My parents and Tremaine's parents both have gardens, but they are about an eighth of what they once were (all of their workers are gone). We went to a cute U-Pick farm in Wilmer. It is called Betty's U-Pick Blueberry Farm. We picked two one gallon buckets full in about an hour. It was a fun, but hot experience, and Ms. Betty showed us her baby donkey, who had just been born on July 3rd.

After the berry picking, we went to Wal-Mart, and I got jars and all of my canning supplies. I had found a recipe for blueberry jam online which only contained blueberries and sugar. Simple enough. I came home, and Anna Caroline and I got busy making jam. We washed and sorted the blueberries. Anna Caroline was over quality control and stem patrol. She was also an excellent smasher. We added the sugar and cooked the jam. I followed the steps in my canning booklet that came with my "Canning Discovery Kit", and to my amazement, all of my jars sealed, and the jam looks beautiful. I did not save any for us to eat because I just knew that I would have at least one jar that did not seal.

I printed some cute labels for the jars online and decorated them with fabric and embroidery thread, and I am planning to give my first jar away tomorrow. I feel such a sense of accomplishment from doing this, and I hope that this will be a part of my childrens' memories someday. I think I may try salsa next!

Reflections on Motherhood

My first days of motherhood began quite differently than I expected. In my 26th week of a perfect pregnancy (after two miscarriages), I went into labor, only I didn't know it was labor. To make a long story short, I went in to my doctor's office to get things checked out at 9:30 in the morning, was already dilated 10 centimeters, and had a baby by emergency C-section at 3:24 that afternoon. Then, four days later, I had to go home from the hospital without my baby. Only someone who has had to do that can truly understand what it is like. I had not even gotten to hold him. In fact, it would be nine days after his birth before I got to hold him. Oh, but when I did... I remember the exact thought that I had the first time I held my tiny two pound six ounce baby boy: "I was born for this." Eleven weeks after he was born, we got to bring him home, and the journey began. Fast forward nine years and two sweet girls later, and I'm still on the journey. Some days it goes like I think it will and should go. Other days, I fly by the seat of my pants, do a lot praying, and trust God to get me through, hoping I'm "doing it right". Praise God for maternal instinct! I rely on it so much.

I know that this journey will never end, no matter how old my children are. I know how my mother still worries and prays for all of us daily. Where would we all be without our mother's prayers? I really don't want to know! My mother is such a prayer warrior. She began praying for my two sisters' and my husbands when we were little girls. She is now praying for her grandchildren's mates. I take such comfort in that. She prays without ceasing for people who I may have long ago given up on. She is faithful and believes that God hears her prayers and that He will answer them in His time. She is patient in waiting on Him and has a wonderful attitude about it.

My mother has given my sisters and me such a wonderful example of a godly woman, wife, mother. She loves with agape love. True, pure, unconditional. She finds some good quality in everyone she meets, even if she has to look really hard. She has the heart of a servant. She is a wonderful baker and cook, a love which I inherited from her. She has taught me to use it as she does, as a ministry. She regularly bakes cookies or cakes to take to several older people. She calls them her "little Alzheimers patients". If there is a death, birth, wedding, or shower of any sort, she is there with one of her culinary creations.

My grandmothers were both wonderful strong Christian women who, unlike most women of their time, worked outside the home for many years. This has always impressed me. They were pioneers! They were both so smart and fun. I love and miss them terribly, and I wish that my children could have known them. I try to keep their memories alive through stories and pictures that I share. I am so thankful for these two wonderful ladies and their influence in my life.

My mother-in-law, too is a godly woman. I am so thankful that she raised a wonderful husband for me and father for my children. Her influence in Tremaine's life is so evident.

Since the first moment that I held that tiny baby in my arms, uncertain of what the future held for us, I knew that whatever it was, I was ready to give my all to being the best mother that I could be. God has been faithful, and Trey is healthy, as are my two sweet, beautiful little girls. I am forever greatful for the precious mothers that God has put in my life. I have much to strive for!