Grace

Things have been a little hectice here for the past month, to say the least. We have hopped from one thing to another with very little break in between. We have enjoyed the fellowship and fun for a week of Pandamania Vacation Bible School (which Connor LOVED and still talks about! PTL for filling my son's heart with the joy of Jesus.) Then we had a week home that was chalked full of cleaning, laundry and errands. All getting ready for one of our many annual trips to Walt Disney World. As always, Connor loved it and I had a ball watching him as he grew more and more excited about seeing characters and riding new rides or seeing things he recognizes from movies we let him watch. Another week home with cleaning, laundry and re-packing means we are leaving tomorrow morning for the Jersey Shore on another family vacation. This one should be the most mellow of all the summer week's we have had so far since we have zero plans but sitting on the beach, playing in the surf and soaking up the sun.

But as I look at the past 4-5 weeks of running, busting my rear-end and juggling everything on my plate, I realize I have been wiped out, bummed out, broken down. It's a ton of stuff constantly going on. Remembering snacks for Connor, all the needs of an infant, all the what if's and just-in-case clothes and medicines. I am not complaining, but reiterating where my mindset has been and why I have such a lack of energy, motivation or desire to do anything lately. I mean, let's face it, in the perfect world our husbands would do 50% of the work around the house because you mutually live there. They would shoulder 50% of everything that happened inside the home or with the family and in reality, that's just not the case. Now, Ben isn't useless...please don't let this come across that way. He is great about playing with the kids when he gets home so I can have some down time, he will put Connor to bed at night so I can get an uninterrupted shower, he takes care of the lawn and other things here and there but in all truth, I am the heart of the household and the majority of things fall upon me. I am better at remembering all the sippy cups, diapers, ear drops, calendars and schedules, Dakota's vitamin, you name it...the little "mundane" day-to-day operations of the house. But this is where the blog post comes in.....grace.

According to the Bible, grace is God's voluntary and loving favor given to those he saves. We can't earn salvation, nor do we deserve it. No religious, intellectual, or moral effort can gain it, because it comes only from God's mercy and love. Without God's grace, no person can be saved. To receive it, we cannot save ourselves, that only God can save us, and that our only way to receive this loving favor is through faith in Christ.

I love and am thankful and humbled by God's grace....so if he continually showers me with His grace and mercy, why do I not give myself a little grace?

Give yourself a little grace. Give yourself a little wiggle room to not beat yourself up when everything doesn't go according to plan. Let yourself breath a little and enjoy and savor the moment instead of rushing through the diaper change to get lunch on the table to shovel the kids off to naptime so you can clean the kitchen and blah blah blah blah blah......

Grace is compassion, gratitude, surrender, faith, forgiveness, good manners, reverence and the list goes on. It's something money can't buy and credentials rarely produce. Being the smartest, prettiest, the most talented, the richest, or even the poorest, can't help. Being a humble person can and being a helpful person can guide you through your days with grace and gratitude. Thank you Philosophy ;)

The Freezer Challenge

When we moved here, I finally convinced Ben to buy a freezer. We have zero room in our stacked fridge/freezer inside the house and so some more room was a definite must. Now that Alaina is getting ready to start solids and I am committed to making baby food at home, I had the idea of freezing some meals to help fill the shelves of this freezer. Let me tell you! Fill 'er up I did! We have no space now in any freezer.

I don't know about you, but some days I totally forget to pull out something to thaw for dinner until it is WAY too late or there are some days that I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off and have no desire to cook...this is where freezer meals come in. In the span of 4 hours this morning and a couple hours of prepping yesterday, I successfully froze sweet potatoes, pears and squash for Alaina, two meals of homemade pasta sauce with meatballs, 2 meals of shepherd's pie, 2 meals of meatloaf, cream cheese chicken, brown sugared short ribs, manicotti, almost lasagna, cola chicken, teriyaki chicken, taco pie, salisbury steak with gravy, candied chicken and cheesy ham with potatoes. An entire freezer stocked with food for my family for almost 3 weeks on a morning of time and less than $250! SWEET!

Now, let me tell you....I will NOT be depleting my frozen meals and repeating this process once every 2 weeks. Heck, no! Maybe once a month is more appropriate for my calendar/schedule/needs. The clean-up was monsterous and creatively packing the freezer was a little bit of a challenge but (hopefully) it will be well worth it in the end with the overall goal being saving money in the long run and not going out to eat on the spur of the moment anymore. I guess time will tell!