Fresh Beginnings!

I have to say, I'm so excited to say Hello to September! August was a long, busy, stressed month for our family, so to get to leave it in the past and start fresh today makes me smile! Now I know, I know, it's just a day on a calendar, right? But there's just something SO refreshing about flipping over Destiny's "Frozen" calendar every month and seeing 30 something clean, empty squares just waiting to be filled in with our activities and appointments. That's a fresh start to me!

August was full of preparations, change, mini-crises, and time spent apart. I spent countless hours getting mine and the kids school stuff ready to go for this upcoming fall semester. Halfway through the month the brand new car we bought stranded us hours from home, only 2 weeks after buying it! We had both of our schedules lined out for my first week of college since the kids don't start their school until next week, only to find out Andy would be gone for that entire week. I tried to fit in last minute play dates, and over night visits to both sets of grandparents. We were hunkering down waiting for our new "normal" to begin.

My First Day of School

In the midst of everything that seemed like a big deal to me and in our life, I was slapped with reality day in and day out with how BLESSED we truly were as our home state got torn apart by Hurricane Harvey. There's nothing like a natural disaster to put your own "problems" into perspective for you! This past week as I single parented our kids, I was faced with friends who's husbands are deployed for months, how's that for perspective? It doesn't even seem right to complain about only a few days when they're doing it for months. We still don't have our car back, 2 weeks later. And although its a strain, an inconvenience, and just plain frustrating, it's all still about my perspective, we could be without ANY vehicle, and instead we're without our second vehicle, which is a blessing to even have in the first place!

Meet the Teacher!

All of the hours I'd spent preparing myself for going to school fulltime was put into full effect as I juggled being a stay at home mom and student for the first time. Which was all heightened by not having Andy home to even hang out with. Staying up late doing homework for the first time in over 10 years, and realizing that maybe I didn't quite know as much Algebra as I had hoped I did can all take a huge emotional toll on your mind. It took some serious prayer, worship music, and coffee and wine to make it through it. But you know what? I learned from it. I learned that I'm actually stronger than I give myself credit for, and that even when I feel like I'm down, God is right there to pull me back up.

So last night as I headed to Meet the Teacher at the kids Mother's Day Out program I prayed again. I prayed for a great new beginning to their new year. I prayed that once they got started that my school schedule wouldn't seem like such a big deal. I prayed that our life would be everything that God wanted it to be. And what I saw on my kid's faces was pure love and excitement for their teachers, for their friends, and for the whole program. They were ecstatic, and when I got in the car to come home, I bawled. Because I could feel His presence there with us, we were wrapped in His arms, and it was BEYOND obvious to me. He doesn't go anywhere, we just lose our connection. All we had to do was open our eyes to it.

This morning as we woke up on the first day of the month, I took the kids to go get their "Back to School" haircuts, and shopping to finish off their school supply lists. And during their haircuts a thought occurred to me. If you leave something the same for so long and you don't tend to it, or refresh it, it gets out of control, it becomes dull, and begins to just blend into your everyday life without you thinking about it. The same can be said about our relationships with God. If you don't tend to it, you can tend to lose sight of it. It blends in, and doesn't become something you place your focus on. But if you dust it off, and pay attention to it, and groom it, you realize how beautiful it really is! And sometimes all you truly need is a fresh take on things to make you realize what you've been missing!

New Haircuts

So you know what? We made it through our week, and we made it through August. And even though September is a fresh start, it holds a whole new chapter as next week the kids will start their school, I will go back to mine, and we'll figure out our new routine. But we will do it with a joyful heart and with our eyes opened to God and our hearts receiving of His love and ready to do His work as we go through our days! So I hope this September is one we make to remember, and I hope you do the same for yours!