Take That Box Of Hard Down And Deal With It.

I am an eternal optimist. Go ahead smack me. I cannot help myself. Many years ago while going through a very hard situation my dad actually challenged my disposition. It was hard. I could admit that. It was also my choice to not bow down to the hard, and not to camp in hard. Put that hard on the shelf, go enjoy the day, make another's day good. Then take that box of hard down and deal with it.

Well folks. My cheery optimism has been getting harder and harder. And this time it is not my hard. It is watching, reading, and talking to friends and family who have so much hard right now. I am a born "Empath"  Here is the definition.

Empaths are highly sensitive individuals, who have a keen ability to sense what people around them are thinking and feeling. Psychologists may use the term empath to describe a person that experiences a great deal of empathy, often to the point of taking on the pain of others at their own expense.

I have, over the years, learned how to NOT take on the pains of others. I learned how to ask questions and guard my heart because it's easy for me to become consumed with others in their hard stuff. I know at times I have come across as being disconnected, but I have learned to listen, ask questions, allow someone to have their outward process and protect my own empath heart. 

This past week, the stories are endless of the struggles are so many facing. I have cried many tears this week on behalf of others.  Those close to me, my neighbors, friends and the countless stories on social media. Today I asked God what I could do with my limited resources. Today I told Gordon if I had all the money in the world I would write cashier's checks to those in my community. He asked why I would not just Venmo them. I said, "Because I would not want anyone to know it was me. I would just want them to believe that someone was watching out for them."  Today it is writing five Easter cards to strangers. A sweet gal at our church connected with a Senior Home and was able to get first names. Then asked if we all might consider writing Easter Cards. I chose five names. 

I guess the title of this post may see a little harsh. "Take that box of hard down and deal with it."  How are you dealing with it? Today I am writing notes to people I will never meet in hopes that I may brighten their Easter. I am also planning great meals for my family and gathering around the table daily to serve them. Today I did not get mad when someone used the kitchen to bake cookies and did not clean up. I just cleaned up thinking that in this hard season what can I do to make this less hard for others?

Taking my box of hard down and dealing with it in ways that might make someone else's hard a bit easier. This is hard. This is very hard. And I will not minimize what we are all experiencing together. Guess what friends? Together is the word. We are all experiencing this together.   And together we can all take that box of hard down and deal with it together. Dealing with it one day at at time. One heartache at a time. Truly with love for each person who reads this if you have to many boxes of hard to deal with. Ask for help. 

Allow someone else to carry the burden. I love this passage. If there is anything, within my resources and power, that you need please reach out to me. I can help sort out that box of hard and help you deal with it. 

Galatians 6: 2"Carry one another's burden; in this you will fulfill the law."

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.

Okay I Will

 James 1:2

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. "

Consider it all joy....Okay I will.

You mean when my sleep is disturbed first  by my a snoring husband, and then a child finding his way between mommy and papa and then the dog low growling in the middle of the night? Okay I will.

You mean when I see cobwebs forming from around the plants and decorations behind the kitchen sink.  And layers of dust that trails each little trinket I think looks cute on that windowsill?  Okay I will.

You mean when I am misunderstood, and no one seems to understand me, my situation, or the condition of my heart? Okay I will.

You mean when I go to the doctor and he tells me I have a tumor in my head and it's serious enough to start treatment today?  Okay I will.

You mean when I am trying to park my car in my driveway and someone has blocked my driveway with their car, and it is pouring rain outside and I got paper instead of plastic from the grocery store?  Okay I will.

You mean when I inhale apple pie from laughing so hard in a pie eating contest and get really sick, sick like pneumonia and the best parts of summer have me consumed with being tired and sleepy and creeping crud in my lungs?  Okay I will.

You mean when I realize that I have not cleaned my house, nor has anyone else cleaned it now for about four weeks. Okay I will.

You mean when my plans do not turn out how I had planned, and I am really frustrated I am to be joyful?  Okay I will.

You mean when I step on the scale after weeks of exercise and eating so well, and the needle only moves one degree in the wrong direction? Okay I will.

You mean when my husband works later than I expected and the kids are over tired and cranky?  Okay I will.

You mean when I get the news that a friend is suffering, and the best I can do is maybe listen, ask questions or bring a meal.?  Okay I will.

You mean when I am sweeping the crumbs off the floor for the millionth time this year because little boys do not think about crumbs on a cherry wood floor?  Okay I will.

You mean when I go to eat that last portion of tuna fish, enough for one sandwhich, but someone else got to it before me?  Okay I will.

It is such short and easy word to understand, joy.  There is no heaviness to it, yet it's asked of us specifically.  And even more specific that those trials will be "many kinds."  I just listed the kinds in my life, that are most recent and I take a short inventory of the joy I am considering.

And here is my reality. I think God produces that joy in us.  I know this to be true in my own life.  A joy that is real when we truly seek to live in His will.  I got an email from a friend who changed her heart on a HUGE issue of hers.  In changing her heart, she shared in depth the joy that came upon her.  This was one of her many kinds of trials and she chose to love like Jesus loves and hearing the joy in her email had me thinking today about how God steps in, intervenes and produces that joy. Okay I will be obedient and take joy in those many kinds of trials that come along.