Giving what ya got.

I am the mother of three children ages 5, 3, and 7 months. I get to be a stay at home mom a living. It is what I have always wanted to do and it is the most exhausting thing I've ever done in my life. I spend my days teaching children to be kind, loving, respectful, productive adults. It's exhausting. I'm not even good at being those things, yet it is my job to teach my children. Some days I have more energy than others. Some days I have energy and motivation to not only keep my house clean, but also do wonderfully fun activities with my children. Some days, I say the same thing to my children 1000 times (and I'm not kidding) and they still don't obey. Some days, I really just want to stay in my bed and sleep.

Today is one of those days. I want to rest. I am tired. My two oldest have fought a million times already today. It is noon. I have had to walk them through healthy conversations in how to communicate with each other for most of the morning. They keep waking up their youngest sibling because they keep stomping down the hallway after I have asked them to stay in their room and play. I send them back again and again and again. I don't know that they'll get it today. It certainly feels like they won't. I feel guilty for my frustration towards them and vow to be nicer. Two minutes later that vow is broken. I don't have it all together. I'm okay with that. Sometimes I have a lot to give and other times I don't. But I can give my children what I have-- the best of what I have on a bad day. I can do thoughtful things for them even in the midst of a day when I am counting down the hours until my bedtime. I am thankful for my children, even on hard days. I hope that when my kids look back, that they can remember that even though I didn't have it all together, I gave them what I had. I recognize that my strength can't come from within myself but from Someone greater than me who gives me the strength to be the things that my children need to be the people that God has called for them to be (whew, that's a lot).

So I leave you with this to remember on those hard days:

1 Timothy 6:11-19


¹¹ But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, ¹⁴ to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone has immortality, who dwells inunapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

¹⁷ As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,¹⁹ thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Why this blog?

I'm not having to claim any answers to any age old problem. The state of women's relationships has just been on my heart as of late. I don't have answers. I have thoughts. I have a heavy burden for wanting women to have deep, true, real & safe relationships, because I've experienced them. After all, we were made for relationship. We long for it. We need it. 

Besides my relationship with my husband, I have found that my relationships with women who long to do life with me create in me a sense of purpose, camaraderie, and joy. I have several women in my life that I "do life with"- meaning I share my struggles, my joys, my hopes, my everyday life with and they with me. We get each other. We are the same; and, yet, we are very different. We have different struggles and we have different talents, but that is what makes "doing life with" friends so great- we get to experience a fullness that we wouldn't see if we did it alone. 

This is my reason for this blog. My thoughts on friendship. My thoughts on life. My thoughts on doing it together.