Change

So I have written about some of these things before, but I was just thinking today about where my life is and where I want it to be. Heidi's message for my YTR class this month is about "Change" and specifically that change is good---that we should embrace it and not be afraid of it, but rather to learn the lessons that we are meant to learn from the change. There has been a lot of change in my life over the last year and a half. I became a mother, became a stay at home mother, became a blogger and a scrapbooker and an aspiring photgrapher, we also lost our beloved dog and lost my beloved brother...there have been countless other changes along the way, but these are the big ones....these are the ones that have molded and shaped in large part who I am today. I want to make sure that I take time to really think about what these changes have taught me...what they have brought to my life and why I was meant to learn those lessons......
So I was thinking today about the ongoing struggle that sometimes seems to be going on inside me....the struggle to find balance between being a good mother and wife and also finding time for just me, the balance between being completely happy with the life I have today and also stretching and growing and changing the things I need to change, the balance of finding time for friends and family and entertaining and taking walks and being in nature and cooking and baking and doing the laundry and dishes and finding the balance bewteen buying things that will make our home more comfortable and useful and simply buying "stuff" that will only serve to clutter and overwhelm my family. I know for sure that I am still learning how to be a wife and a mother----part of that is that my husband and I were only married for one year before we had Sienna....that is the way we planned it, but I also realize that it didn't leave a lot of time for me to get used to being a wife...to get into the groove of homekeeping and entertaining, etc.....so now I am just learning as I go...trying to learn the lessons I am meant to learn (the first time) and to put them to good use in our home and in our lives.
The "theme" that keeps replaying in my head over the past few months is "Simplicity"...for some reason, I continue to have thoughts of an uncluttered home, simply furninshed with flowers from our "garden," black and white photos, everything in its place and organized, simple home-cooked meals (more vegetables, less pizza), more time spent with God, meditating, praying, being in the Word, more time spent as a family away from the TV, more time spent reading and learning new things, more time spent outdoors, more time connecting with others, finding out what I can do to be a blessing in someone else's life and less time worrying about what someone can do for me.
We are so very blessed...I have been thinking about this a lot lately...about trying to NEVER take things for granted and to realize how much we have been blessed with as a family...from bring able to get a soy chi tea latte at Starbucks almost every morning to the fact that my family is healthy and happy. My goal and my prayer is that I will just continue to be present....to stay in prayer and to notice the blessings in whatever form they may come.....