It's A Challenge

Living on the edge of stay home mommy to building a  new business, guess what it's a challenge.  What does that look like for me?  To be honest it's a challenge.  Why is it a challenge?  My learning curve in doing business today is very different than even five years ago. That is a challenge.  I love research. I love reading. I love learning new things.  Turn off the computer, leave your office and be a mom.  Yes, some may balk over the fact that I have to mentality turn it all off, but I do.  I have never not loved working. I love working. I love challenges, and when I turn off the work challenge I jump right into the mommy challenges of Nerf wars, swinging a foamy sword with boys who require this mama to be present.  Then I face the challenge of preparing a meal that will keep the four men in this house filled through to the next day. Working through homework, teaching kindness and still loving and smiling.

I love this picture of my family.  It was taken last month as we celebrated a family birthday.  I am a mom first!  About 22 years ago I started my first business. I talked to God about it every single day, long before the business started. Asking God, "How can I work and still maintain a stay home mommy status to my kids."  God gave me this drive, this creative imagination and I felt idle in not using the gifts HE gave me. Was it even possible to use my gifts in this world and still be that present mom?  My story is simply a YES to the desires of my heart.  A firm YES as God has not only blessed me in the business directions I have taken, but I have the blessing of knocking off when little faces show up.  Was it a challenge? Yes.

Just this past week, I had two people tell me that "you, make life look so easy with all the things you juggle".  I smiled at first. Then I got kind of mad. Not mad at the people telling me this, but mad that it all "looks" so easy.  As the week clipped along, my lovely daughter and I chatted about joy in our lives and the reality of how God plays a huge part in all we say and do. That relationship with God, that connection with Him does allow for real live joy.   I don't make it look easy.  God's provisions, God's interventions into my life, God's presence in the everyday things, God and Him alone gives that joy and peace that give me a steady balance in my life.  Guess what it is not always easy, but choosing to face those challenges through God's scope can make it look easy, and it does become easier.

I had to squeeze a shelf in my already tight office to try to organize the designs that are being worked on. This is a huge challenge for me. I could grumble over not having a work room. I can whine that it's too crowded.  My mind can not begin to bask in those kinds of thoughts.  IT IS A CHALLENGE!  However, when I wake up, get the boys off to school and sit with my coffee, my Bible, my journal and begin to reflect on God and His workings in my life. I can only be thankful. Thankful that I am "juggling" family and working at what I truly love. That heart of thanks turns towards joy. Joy that even in cramped conditions I still have my own corner of the world. Several weeks ago I shared a blog about what my office looks like. You can read here to get what life really looks like in the midst of all of this.  My husband is awesome!   The pictures all spill into our master bedroom. I love that he gets the big picture too.   

 read more here:

 http://hungouttobuy.com/2012/03/27/our-story-continues/

Why am I showing a picture of an iron and a sewing machine.  These two things challenge me every single day. I want to go run and hide and cry my eyes out.  I started over 20 years ago sewing all the bedding to open my first store.  In those days I only had two children.  I had the youthful energy after kids went to bed. That youthful energy with three busy younger boys is sucked out by 7:00pm each day.   As my business, 20 some years ago, began to grow I had the blessing to hire out all the custom sewing that needed to be done. I would scratch out designs and measurements on paper, hand them over to a sewer and away she went.  My precious sewer died about a month ago.  She was healthy and excited to start back sewing all my projects. I had budgeted her fee and time for these projects.  As I started the planning she was diagnosed with cancer. I had to shift my plans, and take up sewing.  IT IS A CHALLENGE!!!  My heart aching for my precious friend, who died with each stitch.  And me trying to find my sewing groove.  God steps in.  God reminds me of a few things.  He reminds me that He gives me gifts, like the gift to sew. I have to ask for patience and I have those precious times of driving along the highway of quiet seams and lots of thinking.

Right now the machine looks a little lonely.  I am have been putting off finishing some of my sewing projects and looking forward to finishing them up this weekend. I realize that life is going to be full of all sorts of challenges. How we choose to view that challenge will produce many things in our life. I am choosing to embrace the challenges and choose to seek God in all things.  Because of that choice to follow Him, and include Him in all things I guess you can say, " I make life look so easy with all the things you juggle". 

May the God of the universe, the God who designed each one of us, be present in all you do, that you may have real joy in all the challenges of your life. 

Take a moment and comment on how God has helped you overcome all that you juggle in the challenges of life.