The Glory of Ordinary

This morning as we served pancakes and pink smoothies to our 5 kiddos for Valentine’s Day my heart was full with the joy of the morning and the thought that this was my ordinary daily life.  5 extraordinary children sat around our hand-me-down table with a stool, a couple old chairs and some black folding chairs from walmart.  I placed the red table cloth on top and set the kids Valentine’s cards on their plates.  Hubby mixed up the pancakes with WAY more chocolate chips then I’d ever put in. . . this alone delighted the hearts of our children.

Have you ever had the thought that you’ve got to do more, be more, help more, simplify more, change more, live more, experience more?  I know I have.  It seems popular to glorify our lives these day with either the pursuit of social justice, simple living, global aid, life experiences and so on and so forth.  I’ve also noticed my own tendency to push against normal. . . a desire to be revolutionary.

An article by Kevin DeYoung (that’s his blog not the article) that I recently read in an old publication made me stop and think.  Here’s an excerpt:

“With all due respect, what’s harder: to be an idolized rock star who travels around the world touting good causes and chiding governments for their lack of foreign aid, or to be a line worker at GM with four kids and a mortgage, who tithes to his church, sings, in the choir every week, serves on the school board, and supports a Christian relief agency and a few missionaries from his disposable income?”

He later shares that what the world needs are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding along visionaries.  This is a heart journey that I’ve recently been on.  One of learning to be faithful with exactly what God places in my life today.  Its difficult because the world needs revolutionary people, ones who stand against child slavery and trafficking, people who take a stand against materialism and selfish gain, people who bring awareness to poverty and channel funding to those in need.  However my idea of what this looks like is changing.

There is glory in the ordinary. . . purpose in the daily plodding of a faithful life lived honorably and well.  Today, I’m seeking to hug my children a few more times, encourage my husband more intentionally, and live an ordinary day to the glory of God.

 

Reinvention. . .

I’m blogging again as an eccentric ordinary lady. . .  try not to be confused.  I’m making some changes to the site.  Keep coming back for updates and a new look.

A re-introduction

If you search the blogosphere you find EXTRAordinary women such as (some of my favorite blog sites):

Simple Mom, The Organic Sister, Those Passionate about Homemaking, Frugal Granola, The Happy Housewife, Crazy Adoption Mom, Crunchy Betty, and The Dating Divas. . .

And then you’ll find me.  An ordinary yet somewhat eccentric lady. We’re probably a lot alike. I try to live simply, I love the idea of organic and natural living, I am passionate about homemaking, I attempt to be frugal, I try to be a happy housewife, I’m crazy about adoption, and yeah people might call me a bit crunchy, and I attempt to date my husband with passion and flare! But I still on occasion let my kids eat hot dogs, once in a blue moon buy Lucky Charms, splurge for some non-essentials, and spend most of my days cleaning floors, wiping down bathrooms, doing laundry, and trying to convince myself that potty training my toddler is a deeply valuable contribution to society.

Nom de guerre aside, I will hit thirty-one this year, will celebrate nine years of marriage to Exemplary Husband, and become the mother of five children ages 2-14 all in the last 36 months. (its possible!) In my life I’ve called Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Texas, and Virginia home. I’ve had the privilege of traveling/visiting: Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, India, Romania, Croatia, Namibia, Ethiopia, South Africa, and London. I graduated high school but never finished college. The time I spent in college I studied Archeology, Anthropology, and then Sociology. In the 36 months I’ve had the honor of parenting I’ve home-schooled, un-schooled, and now public schooled my children, but will be pulling them out to home-school again soon. I promise I’m not crazy, there have been perfectly good reasons for each of these decisions.

Half my life ago I determined that I didn’t want the normal grown-up life; having 2 children, a 2000 sq foot home, 1 acre yard with picket fence, 9-5 job and comfy benefit packages. It seemed too ordinary. In my progressive teenage mind I resolved that I would be a “World Changer.” Perhaps an ambassador to a foreign nation, a humanitarian, a missionary, a chemist discovering cures. . . can you relate? But here I am, and even though I don’t have any of the aforementioned “grown-up life” call it what you want, my days seem ordinary and in my life’s journeys I’ve found that the world is a pretty big place to change.

So are we doomed to live ordinary mundane lives in a never ending-cycle? In a world set to hit the 7 billion population mark this year, do I matter? As one ordinary person to another, I believe all of us can do something extraordinary.  Stay tuned.

Summer in Maine. . . a catch up in the life of the Taylors

What an adventure life is sometimes.  And how packed full of unsaid meaning the word “adventure” can hold.  Some days I think, “Oh yes, please let my mundane life be more thrilling, exciting, adventurous!”  and others, “Oh Lord, please let this be an uneventful, peaceful, normal sorta day!”  Because as a mom, an adventure could be when your younger son goes head first off his bicycle in the morning biting through his tongue, and then in the evening gets pinned under a trailer, squished and contorted in a somewhat pretzel like shape and you wonder how he actually walks away alive. (true story).  But when life gets you in a rut, and you find yourself uncontent, incontent (why am I getting spell checked, aren’t those real words? Someone help me out) well that’s when you decide you might want to write a more interesting tale for your life.  Okay, I went back and found out the the correct word should actually be discontent. . . but doesn’t everyone say “uncontent.”

So, summer here in Maine has most unmistakably been a fantastic adventure.  Our family left Virginia the end of June and has experienced a summer full of T-ball and minor league rec games along with afternoon swimming lessons in an outdoor pool where certain days the water was only 62 degrees.  All of this an undertaking our older three have taken in stride.  For Joshua and I the adventure has been one of stretching our faith, testing our patience and endurance, challenging our communication, and seeking what wisdom is.

There’s just something about this season of doing what you can to line up things in life, oh for example – a place to live and jobs. . . and then waiting on what God has in store.  Joshua has done an admirable job leading our family through this transition, and its been astounding to watch as God has been at work in each of our lives.

Josh began a per diem job today working with special needs children in their homes.  This is a love of his, as he continues pursuing his degree in Psychology with an emphasis on crisis management and counseling.  This job will provide a base income for our family while he builds his own media production company – something he really enjoys doing.  If anyone needs an event filmed he now owns all “the professional stuff” you know the cameras, lights, mics, and things ones needs to do the job, but I’ll put a plug in for him that he’s REALLY good at the post production end of things too, in putting it all together for a promo video, event video, or conference.  So. . . just saying if you need any video work done, please let us know!  He will have his LLC license for the business shortly, and a website up soon.

So, the job is lined up, but the Taylors are still in limbo house wise.  We’re praying for a miracle – please pray for us too!  Honestly, I’m looking forward to seeing how God provides for us in this area.  We recently found out that while financially we have all our ducks in a row to buy a house, we’re ineligible for a loan for at least 2 years, since Joshua is mostly self-employed and we’ll need to show 2 years worth of tax returns for his new business.  We have looked and looked, and have yet to find something suitable for our family rental wise – there just is not much available within our price range.  Now we have watched God work some pretty amazing financial miracles the last 3 years as we’ve adopted 4 children, right down to landlords lowering rent, someone giving us a fantastic van, and being able to adopt debt free while I stayed home with our kids.  So now we pray, do what we can, and wait.  oh yes. . . that oh so horrible 4-letter word.

Thus, here we are relishing our summer in Maine, while anticipating its end.  The months ahead are assuredly going to be some of our best yet as we watch life unfold our tale here in Maine.  Pictures to come. . . .

Leaving Virginia

Today begins the one week countdown to leaving Virginia and moving our little family back to our roots in Maine.  As the humidity rose and the morning formed in beautiful colors I sat at Starbucks contemplating these past 5 years.  I wrote notes to dear friends and pondered all that has transpired in such a short time.  Now I sit at home in a glorious chaotic mess of randomness and boxes stacked ceiling high and prepare to tackle the remaining items not yet assigned to their proper box.

What will this next week hold, what will happen in the months ahead?  God knows, and we choose to walk in faith of what the future holds.  So here’s to happy packing!

Mortify

Do you remember ever being mortified by something your parents did when you were a teenager?  Or perhaps expressing, “Gah!  I’d be Sooooo mortified, if________.” (fill in the blank)  So what circumstances would you say you felt mortified in should they happen to you today?  What would cause you humiliation or shame?  Think about that for a minute.

This evening I went out to run an errand, it was a fun errand.  I was going to get some craft supplies to work on a project.  -A big thank you to my sister Melissa for inspiring me and showing me how to make these (pictures of “the project” to come).  I love walking through Michaels and could probably spend hundreds of dollars if I had it to spend!  Well that and if I had the free time to craft with the hundreds of dollars worth of stuff.  But alas I AM making time these next few weeks to put together a few treasures.

So there I was, I lingered through Michaels and spent my $33, but still had to make another stop on my way home at CVS.  I was enjoying my solitude and thoughts of fun crafting. . . absolutely NO thoughts were in my head of mortification coming my way.

Then I saw them.  Yes THEM.  As I left my car and walked in towards CVS I saw a dad with two teenage children in front of the store.  Now you might be jumping to a number of conclusions at this point. . . so what was so mortifying you ask?  A myriad of circumstances could be playing out for sure.

But this evening the circumstances involve the father holding a sign that said, “Lost my job and we have no money for food.  Please help us.”  As I walked in the daughter, most likely around the age of 15 said, “Please Mam, can you help us?”

I looked their way and walked in the store as I felt convicted in every cell of my body.  In the two minutes I was in the store I knew I had to empty my wallet on my way out.  I paid the cashier and pulled out the remaining money I had with me.  I turned to the family as I walked out and handed them the money and they thanked me.  It appeared the daughter was the only one who spoke much English.

As I walked to my car the normal “feel good” feelings didn’t come.  Only the word mortify.  I thought of the petty things that might humiliate me and then pondered how a 15 year old girl and her 13 year old brother must feel out in front of a CVS asking for money.  I wondered how many days I could go without food until I felt it necessary to beg.  I wondered what kind of desperation it might take to be in the humiliating place of asking strangers for money.

In that moment I was mortified – shamed and humbled as I contemplated my own greed, jealousy, and worldly desires.  I was reminded that as a Christian I am called “to mortify” or put to death worldly desires.  An entirely different view point on the word.  So often I dread the word mortify. . . now I’m realizing just how much I need to embrace it.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 

“‘There’s no use trying,’ Alice said.  ’One can’t believe impossible things.’”

“‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen.  ’When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day.  Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’”

So what appears impossible in this season of life for you?  Are you dreaming up “impossible” ventures?  I can’t say that I’ve dreamed up 6 today, but I’m working on a few.

Its exhilarating, passion inducing, and fun. . . I suggest you get some practice. =)

Life is Full – a Second part to Escapism

*This was written weeks ago, when I “meant” to do a series on Escapism. . . such is the life of a homeschooling mother of 4.  I’m still learning time management and organization. . . and how to do 17 loads of laundry each week. =)  I plan to be a bit more consistent and back on a normal posting schedule.  There is just too much life going on around here that I know my feeble mind will forget in the years ahead, and I want to have a record of the life we’re living. *

You know those days were you get up, the sun is out, the birds are singing, you make it through breakfast with no sour attitudes or spilled milk?  Today has been like that.  A fabulous day that I actually have no desire of escaping.  It’s Joshua’s birthday (April 4th) and I got up, made homemade donuts (sorry I forgot to take pictures), the kids helped pick-up and blow up some balloons and we had a nice meal together.  Well almost. . . I didn’t fry the donuts long enough and had the oil to hot so the outsides were done but they were doughy in the middle. . . yeah story of my life.  But anyways people were happy, 15 minutes in the oven took care of the donuts and we had a nice start to the day.  ;) Try not to laugh too hard. . . my next thought if the oven trick didn’t work was to run the the grocery store 3 minutes down the street for donuts.

Josh got off to work, the kids and I cleaned up, and we headed over to the garden center for flowers, potting soil, and some composted manure and mushroom soil.  We made it through the grocery store for a few items and home by 10:30AM.  I put the baby down, the kids got right started on their school, and I packed up a picnic lunch for the park.  We dropped off lunch to Joshua and I got a call from a neighbor and found out she had recently had surgery.  She wondered if I could watch her kids for a bit since it was a teacher in-service day and they were home, we swung by her home and packed her two in the van with my four and head to the park.

I brought an entire bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies to give out and soon had a swarm of children crowding round.  We enjoyed the gorgeous almost 80 degree weather and I got my first sun burn of the season.  It seemed as though every neighborhood child wanted to assist in the soil/compost mixing and planting in our garden, however when its one adult and 11 children somehow many hands didn’t make for quick work but it was wonderful and fulfilling all the same.  It was obvious a handful of those kids had never seen a garden.  A couple asked if we were going to actually eat stuff that grew out of the dirt.  Cute!  ;)

One of the first things I’m realizing about attempting to escape my here and now life is the circumstance factor.  Somethings I “like” to do- make donuts, play outside, work in the garden.  Others I dread- explaining the directions and reading questions 17 times to the same child who is just searching for an easy answer, putting away laundry.  So I’m grappling with how to make the ordinary desirable.  How do I enjoy the “have-to-dos?”  What is your way of finding joy in every season and day of life?