Housewife

There is a large community of housewives around our small town.  I have always secretly admired these amazing women, in addition to being jealous of them.  Being in our cozy home with the company of my children is something that I have always enjoyed.  Sure, I wanted to be educated (something to fall back on) but my heart is always at home.  Again, I will say I love being at home...but I love going to work too. 

How do housewives do it?  Many of them home school their children, keep house, and cook many meals from scratch.  The attempts that I make to do these tasks always seem so futile.  Yesterday I cleaned our home but today it is a mess.  Granted I try to clean up messes when they happen, keep up on laundry, and stay ahead on meal planning but it is so frustrating to constantly go through this never ending cycle.  Never being able to finish a single task without being interrupted by eternal brotherly battles or the needs of my husband or the beep of the dishwasher or the ding of the dryer or the ring of the phone...   Some days I would love to shout, "Can no one pick up after themselves!?"  Do they think that their laundry and dishes and vacuuming are done by the magical cleaning fairies?

In a sense, I feel like we are all some degree of a house wife.  Now-a-days, moms are expected to cook, clean, raise children, work... we are expected to wear a thousand hats.  Our children and our home (and everything that encompasses) are on the top of my priority list...except for God of course. I enjoy working, helping people and being with adults in a professional setting.  But, secretly I would like to be a stay-at-home mom.  Cooking and cleaning, working around our schedule instead of working around a rotating shifts work schedule.  No more missing Christmas programs and family get togethers...only worrying about the seemingly important things.  On the other hand, there are many days that I cannot wait to leave my children with our wonderful, capable babysitter and escape to work.

A day I could not wait to go to work.

After spending many weeks at home tending to the needs of my husband and caring for our children, two dogs, and a cat, I find myself missing work.  The crazy girls that I work with, caring for people who need us, and using my nursing skills that I went to many years of school to earn...I miss it all.

A fellow co-worker

So now that the stress of returning to work is looming in the near future, I find myself being over-whelmed and needing to focus on counting my blessings:

21.  Having a job to return to and a co-workers that have held our family up in our time of need.
22.  The boys having grandparents who help out anyway that they can with any need.
23.  A husband whose healing has defied the odds, the doctors expectations, and any book.
24.  A new church community who has treated us better than our own church where we have a "membership"
25.  My husbands job that will cater to his needs, no matter what.  His customers who continually call his cell phone and patiently wait for Aaron to return to work.
26.  Two friends, a blonde and a brunette, who are amazing women
27.  Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, and medication (even insurance...it is a pain in the butt) who help with the health of Abram and Aaron ---I would say Noah too, but he is not sick very often.
28.  Hair dye and hair stylists who make us look and feel better
29.  Aaron being able to pee on his own---catheters are beginning to be a thing of the past.
30.  Prayers that are answered.

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.---Isaiah 41:10