In the country where I was raised, a wife shared with me that her secret was simple things done well.  Her home was modest, her life wealthy.  You see, she had learned the gift of contentment. She didn’t try to run all over town every day, she didn’t try to jam participation in six clubs or meeting outside of her daily routines at home on the farm. She set doable goals with time enough to do them. She chose joy in each part of her day. The modest table was neat and always clean, the plates set just so. Her meals were always in demand, though if you looked at them critically, they were simple meats with seasoned vegetables and a homemade roll. Nothing fancy, but simple foods prepared well.

As our friendship grew I so valued her opinion. She had a way of making a complex world seem very easy.  She regularly made my days look like I was lazy with the volume of what she could accomplish in a eight hour day. The days I would visit we would do everything from canning to milking cows, and nothing seemed to get her goat, well except the goat who would eat her flowers often.  She had time for beauty as well, a cutting garden, time to sew, time to set the table just so.  A mid thirties wife she was sought out by others on how to do this or that. Her secret?  She chose to live her life as the wife of a new farmer, which meant her engineering degree would not be used for fame or fortune, but as an accomplishment she was glad to bear, but she focused on what it took in partnership for her beloved husband.  There aren’t many accolades for engineers gone home, but I believe to this day, that her bonuses far outweighed her losses.

There is a joy in simple things done well, and the perspective of purpose that focuses one’s passion…and the profitability of living that simply puts profitability back in its rightful place, as just one of the values of a life well lived. Simple things, done well.

I challenge you to begin to notice your own definition of “enough.”  When are the moments in your life that you are perfectly content, satisfied with what you have? When are you thankful for all that you do have?  Les and I have found that as we shift our thinking from lack to thankfulness, we find more and more to be thankful for.

What makes “enough” in your life? Is it time with your family at home? Is it enough food to eat? Is it money in the bank $1 past bills each week? What is your definition of “enough” in its basic forms. Where is it you begin thankfulness?

We’re working on the latest project…she wanted a French Provincial dining set that would go from a 48 inch round to 96″ oval…it took her 5 years to find it, but she did it again…$10 for the chairs, $20 for the table and ALL the leaves…just waiting for me to restore them to her vision of perfect…

It’s kinda handy to have a wife think you’re amazing because you’re willing to paint…refinish…and after all, it saves money for the really important purchases, like hunting guns and bow making materials…right?

Making do is more than a money thing….it’s a shared vision of a life we believe in living out…one where giving and working for values we believe in matter more than high budget furniture that isn’t what she wanted in the first place.  I’ve come to understand that Sweetie takes the it is more blessed to give than receive concept to harvest…and I love seeing her smile…so just call me…willing….

to make do….

It’s all about the children’s needs….not the adult’s needs….too often we think money, power, control, necessity, are excuses to do or say things with children that have absolutely NOTHING to do with something a child needs to hear, know, or be a part of…. We cannot allow our own hurts, frustrations, or upsetness to steer the experience our children have with their other parent…no matter how much its tempting to do. After all, your child is 50% that person, so running them down, separating them from them is removing half of who they are…Your marriage may not have worked, but their relationship with their father/mother/stepmother/stepfather doesn’t have to reflect that.  Some things simply are not childhood conversations….even if they ask. A lady lately said but he asked me if his dad had had an affair…the child was 8.  Her reasoning was if he asked, she should answer, my thought is this:

An eight year old isn’t prepared to deal or understand why parents act out…a better response might be “Your dad and I had problems getting along,… it has nothing to do with you..and the truth is… Dad loves you, I love you, but we have to  know we can’t always control with things other folks do, despite our best effort…”

Today’s culture gives women and men permission NOT to parent. NOT to be responsible for the childhood’s of the children in their presence.  Whether its allowing someone else to rear your child, or sending them to some building to be taught values and religion, we’re outsourcing our childrens lives.  My step children have a mother…however she was 400 hundred miles from their daily life for many years…if I didn’t mother them, no one was there to….so they became my own in every way in our home….always with respect and inclusion as much as we could of their natural mom….

I won’t debate the work or not work theme….the truth is I’ve done both.  I am not naturally bent to order, schedules, and routines of home keeping, nor have I the funds that for many years meant that I came home. when  I did come home from working full time, it meant we would take 60% less and do more with it even with me doing a home business for “mad money’ or “mad socialization” or “mad at being broke when I wanted something for our family.”

however

the one thing that continues to keep me working odd h ours, rising before dawn to work and working late some nights so I can be present when the children are home or around is this:

1) My father, a doctor, whose mother went to work in the 1940′s when he was 7 and who has pushed me my entire life to be all I can be said this of me coming home after advanced degrees to figure out a different way to do it…

“My quality of life went down the day my mother went to work….we had less money, but when she was home I had more childhood”

2) My own children, who went from a middle class life in Dallas to a rural life with 1/4 the income and “stuffings” at the end of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th  years all agreed unanimously , both natural and step children, that they preferred me home. Unity in those days was impressive….unless it was against their step dad and I….but their voices were clear.

3) I taught in public schools for over a decade…the number one thing my youth whether in children’s programs at church, or youth programs at church, or in my grades Pk-12 where ever I taught…..all said specifically they wished their parent’s ‘got” them, wished their parents spent more time engaged with them, not just survived life together…..this was a continuing theme consistently even when parents worked, they recognized that family time was needed,

We do what we have to do….my own feelings are of little consequence….however I urge you to truly identify what and why you work and make sure that the time of your life you’re devoting to it is supportive of your core values for your life on your own or with your spouse and the lives of your children.

The roles of step mom and mom are important.  We do not have to be the same in any defining way….except one…

we are charged with creating the space for our children to love us both, without laying on guilt, shame, anger, or resentment for being children with two households….and its not our right to do anything that adds more stress to their already fractured life….

so I encourage you to put on your big girl pants and work on doing what creates peace for your children…even if that means learning to make peace with their other parents.

Sweetie

Sometimes it seems that everyone Else’s “just being me” is wildly more successful than my life, as I am.

This year God has so pressed upon my heart that I am to focus only on that which He puts before me. That I am not required to make His plans for me….that my planning, in fact, sometimes hinders me from living the life He has for me….the measure of my success?  Surrender, obedience, choosing joy for what He has for us.

Ouch.

Control is such an alluring thing. The entire concept implies that the more we take effort to control, the more efficient and successful our life would be….but God seems to be constantly a God of the interrupt…ask Noah, ask Abraham…they probably didn’t see their lives going the directions God took them either….and I’m sure it all felt crazy at the time…..

I answer the greeting “how are you?” with Crazy as usual…for this life that God has no doubts put Les and I together in…is not the path Les and I thought we’d be on….given our choice we’d prefer a much more sedate, quiet in the shadows kind of life…but this is the life that God has brought us to, and its anything but quiet….

Today I read a friend’s blog on what she will give her children  , she is someone three years ago I would have had no reason to know, yet I adore and appreciate all that she is today.  She is not of my league, she lives on a higher plane both socially and in her scope of influence…but I am thankful for her presence in my life.  The value that continues to keep me in awe is how God weaves such folks into our streams, how even when we end up in places we never thought we’d go…or when things don’t work out as we first thought, that God brings value to our experiences….and uses them for His purposes…my lessons seem continual, but I value all that God has aligned in my schooling.

It is a time of pruning again, of looking deeply into a time that Les and I both know is happening…of accepting the responsibility of focusing on a life we might not have chosen, yet know is ours to live…..this morning I am aware that the road is a different path….and that as lovely as others lives seem to be, and as well done as many of them are in their sharing of their lives….we are simply to be ourselves and that will be enough.

Part of our couple time is always the time alone back from taking a child to visitation.  It is time for us to discuss, reflect, and to enjoy that which is working in our lives. I love those talks.

We added a puppy to the mix this week.  Heaven help us we have six dogs at the moment.  Three labs and three fluffs.  Miss Bella is a Shih Tzu that was a granddog of my first Shih Tzu and the last litter of her mama….we couldn’t resist!

I am hoping that one of our labs goes to live in the country soon with friends of ours. Drake is not a happy city camper!

Deployment is going well for Les. He is currently at  Camp Kandahar, which is in Southern Afghanistan. The temperature was 120 there today…can you imagine?  I get to talk to him via Skype usually every two or three days. We can text or talk but its an expensive endeavor $8 a minute, so we do not choose to do that often!  Les has a mailing address now, if you’d like to know it please leave me a comment and I’ll email it to you!

God is growing us both this deployment…we have  a strong marriage, we have continually depended upon God and each other from its inception, but this deployment God is really working through some pruning processes…and I am seeing already the fruits of His labor.

The fun news….

He has been home almost every day for long periods of time despite it being summer.  Why? Because he’s enjoying time alone with Mom. We’ve cooked for his friends, we’ve had movie nights, we’ve had a water war or three in the backyard, we’ve taken our labs to the river to run…good times.

You see, it turns out that even a soon to be seventeen year old covets being with Mom…but of course child union rules prohibit that from being announced….but coming home from the second of two ten hour drives the other day after football camp….he broke the rules…”Mom, its been great spending time alone together….I’ve really enjoyed it”

I managed to not go off the road ….

Our children want us to be parents, want us to participate in their lives, want to know us

Are you making sure yours gets time with you?

We are especially thankful this day for extended families and for the children’s other parents. We have not always seen everything through the same lenses, but we all kept trying to, and despite really difficult times and the best of times, our lives are made better by our decisions to keep the children first….after our lives together failed.

I am married to the most incredible man.  A man who loves me and our children dearly…who tolerates more than i can imagine with a fly by the seat of her pants kinda wife who is thrilled every day when he comes through the door at home….

and I look so very forward to his return from Afghanistan to do just that….

Happy Anniversary Les Berry….I do so love you!

Les, Dh, is deployed in Afghanistan.  He is away for six months. Our youngest is doing visitation in Arkansas for these three weeks leaving son2 and I home alone.  What a special time this has been. At sixteen he and I often are akin to sandpaper with each other….he is fighting for independence, I am fighting to keep boundaries that help him stay safe. As we drove to football camp on a ten hour drive I remembered why it is so important to date each of our children. Those ten hours each way were so very healing to our relationship. With just us in the car, the range was quiet sharing of time to deep sharing of what has worked, is working, or we hope to change in our daily lives. Good stuff.

It was also amazing to have his natural dad show up with Madison at the camp’s close unexpectedly. Our roads are not always smooth, but we were able to all sit together, cheer on our favorite quarterback and then share a meal together before we drove ten hours home.  Those kind of experiences is just what their Dad and I hoped for when we parted ways so many years ago….a peaceful co parenting…a putting the children first kind of relationship…

It’s worth working through the hard times for….

Sweetie

As teenagers it seems that the tightrope gets higher. Youth camps, work, sports and friendships mean that often teens don’t want to go for six weeks at a time. I feel strongly that they need time with their dad as well, but costs are prohibitive to travel them cross country multiple times. This summer we staggered when our 13 and 16 year old go to another state.  Their summer options and trips meant that 3 weeks was much more to everyone’s needs being met including their other parents. To be there three weeks with a break of a week or more at home meant that everyone could recover and at the same time have long enough to relax between another three weeks later in the summer.  Many parents I know have found this to be helpful or to break it up in to two weeks and two weeks followed by two weeks with weeks at the residential parents in between.

When the children were smaller it felt like I was always the “give” on the schedules that conflicted.  I understood I had the children all the time, but I also had the school hours, sleep hours and weekends they were often with their dad.  It is important for each family to have the fun times, vacation times, and down times as well as the parenting times of homework, etc. It felt like my side was heavy on the responsibility, his side was heavy on the fun.

As mine are now reaching college, I hear them saying the fun things they did with Dad, but they are indeed remembering the closeness of Mom….My belief is that there is enough in our children’s hearts to allow all of us to love them….and they will only be benefitted when we allow them to love us all!