Summer Blur

If you're anything like me, you look forward to Summer being a chance for some down-time and catching up on pleasure reading or movies/shows you've missed. But if you're anything like me, you find that Summer is busier than ever running from one great outing or get-together to another, not to mention throwing in medical or dental appointments which you left for a "less busy" time. Not only are my weeks filled up, but I am having trouble finding days that are not already jam-packed with something. Help!

For those of you who know us at myhandsful, you know that we really try to keep things simple, not plan more than one thing into each weekend or even one day, if we can help it. As a T1d parent, I know that emergencies, or at least surprises are going to show up along the way, and we don't want to be so max'd out that we don't have room in our schedule (or in our psyche) to handle them. So how did it get like this?

Well to be honest, having three kids is one factor. With two in high school, it's easy be pulled in many directions, as they have their own plans and NOT their own way of getting there. I have tried to consolidate and conserve, but we still make multiple trips shuttling people around. I know this is an old tale, the mom who feels more like a taxi driver, but even the driving doesn't get to me all that much. Still I feel so unnerved...

I am reminded of an old Sunday School object lesson: you have a mason jar and some whole walnuts and some rice. If you put the rice in first, then you find you don't have room enough for the walnuts. But if you put the walnuts in first, all the rice fills around them and you can fit them both in the jar. the point was to put the big things, the more important things in first, then you can rest, knowing the other things will fall into place.

It goes along with the message in Matthew 6:32-33 "For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" NIV

My Summer may be going by in a blur, but this is something I can do while it's here, I can purposefully place those walnuts - time in the word, prayer, service - into my day, onto my calendar, before all the other things, the rice. Do a reset and get it built in, so that when the next school-year begins and the seasons come charging along, I will be better equipped after the Summer than I was going into it. It is a discipline, and it may feel like just one more thing "to do" but it is one that brings relief to the running around that plagues so many of us.

Hello out There!

Well here it is, the first post in about 2 1/2 years. Why has it been so long, you ask? Well in a word, myhandsful.  You have known from the beginning that I am a care-giver for my 3 children with type 1 diabetes, but since August of 2013, I have been the care-giver also to my mom after she was widowed. Shortly after deciding to move her from San Diego to Orange County, she was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia called FTD (fronto-temporal-degeneration). She was living independently, and I would visit her weekly, when I was able to get away from my kids' homeschool and extra-curricular schedules. As an only child, I was the go-to person for her medical and household needs, but this too was becoming too full for my hands and we decided to move her closer to us and into assisted living.

Add to this our own sale of our home and a move back into Orange County for us to be nearer my husband's work and you can imagine the plates we have been spinning. Throughout, God has been so good. He has gone ahead of us in each new trial that confronted us as well as preparing the way for new opportunities. Paul writes in Philippians that he has not yet attained the goal which was set before him, and I feel I have not yet "settled in" to my new circumstances, but like Paul I press on. He says that there was a reason he was "laid hold of" by Christ, and that is what keeps him going onward. We know that in each change that has come over the past recent years God was moving and orchestrating 'to will and to work' His perfect plan. (Phil. 2:13, Phil. 3:12)

Dear Lord,
Thank you for these faithful who care enough to want to know what you are doing in the lives of your children. Thank you for the way you have provided and led throughout the myriad changes life has brought to all of us at myhandsful. Thank you that we can trust You to plan and complete your will in our lives. Amen