A Quite Night for a Restless Heart

                                                            Quite! Be still!

Mark 4:39

image found: old screen shot on my found, sourced unknown.

I needed this verse tonight, and tonight at almost midnight, is the first time in a week that I really have felt still. Still, quite and ok. 

I feel at peace not because it's quite and everyone is in bed, but because I am sitting here in presence of the Lord soaking up His peace, while hyms play out loud over the bluetooth speaker. The praise music just dispels the darkness and makes way for the peace.

There are so many good things happening in the life of our family. Not just happy temporary little things, but life changing strides in our spiritual lives and how we worship as a family and major changes to our heath.  For the first time in a decade we have been going to church and searching for a church home. I have been apart of a woman's bible study, the kids are making many friendships. My husband's health is dramatically improving. 

People, myself included, tend to spend a lot of time waiting for change and transformation. Often when the good things that you pray for come, you are met with so much more than you anticipated. Especially if the good things have eternal and mulitgenerational ramifications. 

There has been so much uncommon strife here lately. And this is after a month of sickness that passed through our house for weeks. But oh the fighting! The frustration, the heartbreaking words from your children of "I feel like you don't like me" or the quarreling among them and me. I have gotten mad. Angry. I have sinned and fallen so so short on... all of it.

But you know what. I'm not giving in. I'm not going to allow myself to feel destructive and self inflicting thoughts of failure. I'm not going to let the devil turn this into a pity party where things start to slip more. I'm fighting for my peace. My family's peace. The peace of my household.

I'll keep praising God. keep on singing. I'll ask God to stand in the gap. I pray that God will fill my heart with peace where there is none. And I will "Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord." 2 Chron 20:17

The Battle is the Lord's, and the Lord is mine.

A New Start

Good morning world! I am not new to blogging, but this blog is new! Although I have gone through periods where I have changed and updated my blog, it was time for a new start entirely. I have included a link to my old blog, but I hope you all will follow me here!

Old Blog ------->   A Meg Moment

When I first started blogging, I was a young wife and mom with two baby girls living in a little apartment in Wisconsin. Fast forward almost 10 years and here I am now. Homeschool mom of 4, living somewhere between Houston and the gulf of Mexico.

I will be sharing our everyday life, beach trips and a little bit about my faith.
Aside from the journaling aspect of blogging, my favorite thing about blogs and bloggers are the sense of community. I hope you find one here on this blog as you follow along on our our journey. I look forward to getting to know and following you too!

Simplify

Another long day! But what day isn't long with a newborn? I'm on the verge of overdoing things again. I need to continue to fight this nature of mine to overwork! An overworked mom isn't good for anyone. Not my husband, my children my community or myself. Easier said than done! I sometimes feel like I just run in circles, cleaning the same messes, making the same mistakes, getting upset about the same things, ect...

 The word that keeps coming to mind is peace. My word of the year. Just simply: peace. Even the word "simple" stands out in my mind. The words "simple" and "peace" are two words that I continue to wrestle with. Living simple and creating a home atmosphere where peace abides sounds like such a deceivingly simple, easy thing.  But it's the opposite! Learning to find repose and rest in a world that screams more and that stays on 24/7 tales so much self control. Self control and planning. 

I could go on and on about this subject, but I think the two biggest things I will focus on is:

#1. Make time to be alone with God and hear His voice!

I'm in the weird, sleepless stage of surviving the newborn weeks while still taking care of my other young children. So I don't think necessarily God expects me to stay up in the mornings to read my bible and journal. ( Gotta catch that sleep when I where I can!) But being mindful of my time is a big deal. So these days although I may not being spending much time reading and studying the word, I can open my bible for a few minutes or simply find a much loved verse and copy it out and let my heart dwell on that; compared to tuning out totally and scrolling through facebook for the 15th time.

#2. Continue to Minimize.

I have been working towards the path of minimalism for years. Although I have come a long way from where I was, I still have much more to learn! 

There are no shortcuts to leading a life of less. Anyone can clean their house or get rid of things, but to truly minimize, truly be happy with less, takes time. Less clutter, less tv, less stress, less stuff. letting go. So far, I have realized the less we own and the less we choose to overburden ourselves with, the more we enjoy. I want to make more time to enjoy life, and less cleaning it! 

So there it is, my two things. Looking to the Lord and seeking His face and keep our home life simple and stress free. 

Welcome, 2017 ~

I have been wrestling a little bit with myself and the New Year. I'm a big goal and list person and pride myself on working hard. I have been itching for a new, big, year long goal to work towards over this coming year. Last year I felt God giving me the go ahead to start on the path to bigger financial goals ( not really seeing anything, but getting out of debt! ) and buying our first home. Both of which were big deals and took a lot of time and work! And this year so far has just felt... slow. And a little exhausting. 

During prayer and quite time I feel God asking me to spend more quite time with Him and becoming a better steward of my time in general. Not for any major "goal" per say. Just, investing in my children and worthwhile hobbies. It honestly makes me feel restless! But, after a few weeks of searching and clinging to my own ideas of goals, I have finally decided to jump wholeheartedly in the simple yet difficult task of simply slowing down and bringing more peace into our lives. That's my word this year: Peace.

Peace can mean so many different things. But for me, it means more time with God. Less TV. Less comparing myself with others and other people's view of me. More time playing with my children and less time watching tv or sending them off to play without me. Less internet and social media, more writing and reading. 

I want to do far less shopping and simplify our bills. Pay down debt and put money in savings. Nothing causes stress like financial stress, and I plan on being better at looking long term.

When I think of how much TV we watched this past year, it's embarrassing, even to me. We are doing better, but I still would love to see the TV on less and see what else we can fill our time with. I want to work on nature studies and notebook journaling. I want to fill our time learning crafts and hobbies and exposing the kids to all sorts of arts and letting them discover what they're passionate about. Investing more time cultivating friendships and a sense of community and showing Christlike love to others is also something I want our family to be passionate about!  

So here's to a year brimming with joy and peace ~

Also, only about 14 more weeks until baby#4 is here!!!! Eeek!!!

A Really Good Day

Today, when the alarm went off and I woke up, literally the first thought in my head was "I'm going to write a blog post today." Which is odd, because my first thought is normally something along the lines of: "Lord, please let that not be morning!" Or: "Tonight I'm going to bed so early..."

But instead of lamenting my sleep deprived self, I had this need to write! So here I am, recording today. Today has been a good day. A really good day, actually. Wonder Girl (age 7) Daisy Girl (age 6) and Bat Boy (age 3) have still been reeling in all sorts of emotions since moving to our new home.
This home, our first home, has been one of the most beautiful dreams come true for our family. Praise the Lord, He is so good to His children!

But despite all the new wonderfulness, for young children, adjusting to a new home is often a challenge. We have been in our home for 2 months now. In those 2 months my parents were with us from out of state for a weekend. Then my brother and sister in law were evacuated from their home due to major flooding so they stayed with us for just over a week. ( They stayed in the girl's room) Then our dog passed away. Then my grandma came with her dog and stayed a week. (Also using the girl's room)

So as it was with moving there have been changes, then add in the emotions of losing a family pet and the shuffling around bedrooms and overnight guests over a few weeks. ( We love hosting dear family and friends though, despite the crazy!) and well, you have one tired momma and three emotionally exhausted children. Needless to say, there's been lots of interrupted, sleepless nights and tantrums during the day.

My wellness goals lately have simply been: Make it through a day without crying, yelling or questioning my calling to motherhood. I am happy to announce, today. Has. Been.That. Day!

I actually stayed up this morning and didn't go back to bed after the hubs left. I had coffee, read my bible and was able to have some quite alone time to charge up my batteries for the day ahead.

We had a yummy breakfast, cleaned up the house together. We got done laundry and did dishes and general cleanup while listing to silly kid songs. We walked for the first time to the little park that is .3 miles from our home and played for a bit (despite the 107* feeling temps!)
There was yummy smoothies for lunch, then story time all together.
We played puzzles and dominoes. Made dinner. Laughed. Enjoyed just being together.

I know not everyday will probably be like this from here on out, but I'm thankful for a peaceful day. A day where everyone is at peace. A day that no one talks about how much they miss their old room.

                                        Today was good, and I am so thankful!

I have also had he diffuser going all day. It always just blows my mind the affect that my little diffuser has on the overall mood of our home. Today we have had Bergamont diffused all day. I actually didn't choose it for any specific reason, just that it smelled so fresh and yummy.
Bergamont is known to assist with joint problems and muscle aches. Emotionally it can effect poor sleeping issues and appetite loss. It's lesser known to help with stress.

Bergamont isn't normally what I grab for a feeling of overall peace in the home. But it's now going on the list!

Have a good day everyone and don't forget to savor moments of joy!