Thoughts to Encourage

'Just a gentle reminder for me to keep looking to God for my hope.

 

A Hard Week...

This week has been a hard week.
And nothing like I had planned out on Monday morning.  And the things I was going to share with you no longer seem important or worth talking about so I'll just keep them to myself for now.

Instead, I'll just share some pictures from last week when our dear friend was still alive and our hearts weren't as heavy and Nolan enjoyed another lazy morning with "friends" at the park.  I wish we could all just run and pretend we are Ninja Warriors every day and be oblivious to the hurts of so many around us.  Wouldn't that be grand?

He learned how to pump his legs last week too!

The poor unsuspecting seagulls.  

If only they knew what this little boy had planned for them!

Back to School From My Perspective

I dread the start of school every.single.year.  

Seriously, I love the carefree days of summer when the kids and I can wake up and spend our days together.  I just enjoy my kiddos.  They are truly fun peoples to hang with.  (I mean, I'm not trying to be their best friend or anything.  I'm still a mean mom on occasion when I need to be.)  But I love their personalities and watching them grow and change into young ladies (and an "older" little boy!)  LOL  I like going on road trips with them and staying up way too late watching 'American Ninja Warrior' and reading the same book series together.  Our summers are full and fun and my heart is full just thinking about it.

And then the calendar says that school is getting closer and closer and we began to count down the days with dread.  (I admit that this year was harder than the last two because my older two were going back to "traditional" school and will be gone all day.  There are so many things I will miss now).  As the days pass by I found  my heart feeling more and more anxious with each passing day and as they try to squeeze as many supplies into their bulging backpacks as they can, I try to squeeze as many memories into my heart as I possibly can.  My heart is sad just thinking about it.

But how can I stop it really?  When I really put my own feelings aside, I have peace about it.  I know that there are exciting opportunities waiting for them inside those school walls.  I know that they have great administrators and wonderful God-loving teachers standing watch over them during the day.  I even know that I will have fun here at home with just my little man and our days will be full of memory making all our own.  We will adjust.  We will anxiously await hearing school stories around our dinner tables at night.  Our evenings will be sweet and something we look forward to.  I also know that my heart misses them and some days I almost feel actual grief that they are away.  It's something that's been on my heart for a while but I can't really put it into words the way I want to.

A week ago I came across an article written from a Mom who had to drop her child off at college and is experiencing what's commonly called "Empty Nest".  I don't have any kids that age yet but I appreciated what she said about her feelings during this time of change.  I somehow felt like she was speaking to my heart and I was blessed.  Maybe you'll be blessed by her words as well.

Read that article here

While we are adjusting to this new change,  Nolan and I will spend our mornings running / biking the greenway down to the lake and spending our mornings together at the park.  He runs and jumps and makes friends easily and every now and then he yells "Look Mom.  See what I can do" with that gigantic smile on his face.

And thinking about that makes my heart full again.