Too Much to Do

I don't know how I'm going to cope with this new school year! This week we had 3 dental appointments, 2 church committee meetings, a flute lesson, 2 haircuts, a party and concert to attend and a baby shower to help host - starting Tuesday, after everyone got home late Monday evening from Plain View Farm. That sounds like a busy summer week, but add in a full week of schoolwork to do in 4 days, and use most of the first day to discuss organization and management of schoolwork, plus celebrate home education by eating at Perkins, and you've got - total chaos!

I'm realizing that my major areas of responsibility - home education, meals, keeping house, church music, supporting Pete and discipling the kids - are more than a full-time job for me. Then add in the minor areas of responsibility - relatives, friends, physical fitness and health, finances, 4-H and trips - and my list becomes truly overwhelming at times. The main ways I cope are leaving house things undone, and reading. I also don't do as much teaching or one-on-one discipling as I feel I should/could, which is guilt-producing.

Perhaps I can make quicker meals, but otherwise, I'm stuck with these areas of responsibility, so - Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Our Homesickness

A conversation yesterday reminded me of a Christmas when Michelle was little. With only 11 in the family, we celebrated at Pete's parents' home, and he found me in the bedroom, crying - sobbing, really. He hadn't seen that very often, so was distressed - "What's wrong?" I couldn't exactly explain. The Stadem family is one of the most welcoming I have ever known, and they were great to me - but at that moment, all that mattered was that they weren't MY family, and it was Christmas.

I had been a little scornful of my sister's crying when she was separated from our family one Christmas Eve a few years earlier by a blizzard; after all, she was with our uncle's family, what was the big deal? Now I understood.

Once in a while, I will get that same homesick feeling even when I'm in my home, or with my family (my family being husband and children by now). I think it's a homesickness for the kingdom of God. Even though this world is a great place, even though our families and friends are wonderful people, even though our lives are worthwhile and fulfilling and happy, we are made for something different. I cry on God's shoulder, and He whispers, "Soon you'll be home."