Early Mornings - A love hate relationship

I love a beautiful, peaceful, summer morning. Sipping coffee in a quiet house just as the sun is rising but before the children do. My ideal morning consists of a 6 am get up, a 30 min. exercise routine, my first cup of joe while having quiet time with my Bible, seeing my hubby off to work, and not hearing a peep from the upstairs bedrooms until at least 7:30.

Sigh...some days idealism is so far from realism. With six kids asleep in the house and 4 of them sharing a room, my mornings never quite go as planned. Often times, just the mere sound of footsteps from the room above is enough to start that adrenaline pumping and those teeth gritting. "Don't those kids know that this is my time with the Lord? Darnit, when will they learn that mom needs her morning silence!" (note to self: tomorrow morning study the Fruits of the Spirit).

The tone of the rest of my day is often determined by whether or not my morning routine goes just as planned. It's a struggle, I readily admit.

How ironic that just this morning, during a very rushed quiet time with the Lord, I discovered that Jesus himself suffered from quiet-time interruptitis.

Mark 1:35-39

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house
and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went
to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for
you!" Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else-- to the nearby villages-- so I
can preach there also. That is why I have come." So he traveled throughout Galilee,
preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Not that I'm comparing myself to Christ - I'm sure he got up much earlier and more consistently than I do. But, just like me, he too got interrupted by his children. "Everyone is looking for you". Boy, does that ever sound familiar. (Do you ever notice that kids are always looking for you when you're on the phone or in the bathroom? Ok - I digress.)

I find Jesus' response so amazing. No irritation, no words said in anger, no sighing or rolling of eyes. Just a pure and humble acceptance of the task at hand - go somewhere else to preach the word - that is why he came.

So tomorrow will be my test. When I hear that first child's voice calling me, even if it's before I've finished reading my Bible passage or offering up prayer requests, I will accept my task at hand. That is why I'm here.

So why this blog name?

After giving it some thought, I've settled on a blog name: Justabout Us. On the surface it sounds mundane and uninspired. But this title actually has a significant double meaning.

The name of the road where my hardworking husband built our home is named Justabout Rd. You can imagine how many times I've been asked to clarify that address to customer service reps. The name itself has a history to it, the details of which I'm not certain, but I do know it has something to do with race horses.

But it is a name that we, as a family, and I, as a mom, are living up to. Consider the many times a day that I say the words "justabout". "Is dinner ready yet, mom?" "Justabout". "Are you ready to take me to soccer?" "Justabout." "Are we almost there?" "Justabout". "Can I be done with my dinner now. You know I hate these red things." "You're justabout done". And of course there's the house that's always justabout (but never completely) clean.

Although grammatically speaking, just about are two seperate words. But for as often as I repeat them, they've morphed into one, sort of like "y'know" or "don'tcha". Those are words, right?

So here I am, with a nine year old daughter who's justabout 10 (going on 15) , a seven year old boy who's justabout the sweetest little boy you can imagine, a six year old boy who's justabout reading, a 4 year old red-head daughter who's justabout the most affectionate and passionate 4 year old there is, a 2 year old daughter who's justabout 3, and a 4 month old baby who's justabout sleeping through the night. And of couse my husband and I, who living with all the ordered chaos, are justabout to be institutionalized.

Thankfully we serve a loving God who despite our flaws and mess ups promises to mercifully mold us into his likeness. And he's justabout finished...

Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

There's always something of interest going on in our house...stay tuned.

First Blog Entry

My sweet hubby set it all up for me...so here I am.  Ready to record in writing all the musings of my crazy everyday blessings raising six children under 10, homeschooling 3 of them, and of course loving on my faaaabulous husband.  Hopefully I'll have more success blogging than I did scrapbooking (so sorry Creative Memories).