Summer’s Here
Does anyone else dream of summertime through the winter months? Thinking…’things will slow down’…’I’ll relax by the pool’…’we’ll get to spend more days at home’…
Ope.
It almost never works that way. Here we are, closing down June, and still running at the speed of light. Never enough daylight hours to accomplish everything, which is ironic thinking back on evening chores with headlamps in January. It all boils down to:
Priorities
Self Discipline
Boundaries
Grit
I’m the first to admit that I have a hard time finding balance. Maybe we picked up too much and we can’t carry it all. Maybe eventually something has to give.
Sick animals can’t wait.
Running two businesses require us to be present, online, and giving our customers our best.
Homeschooling and raising our four amazing children is and always will be my number one - sorry everyone, but this season of life has a fast-moving timer and it’s going to run out.
Not to mention our responsibilities to our friends, church body and extracurricular activities like sports and 4H.
Here we are. We are building up excitement to celebrate the 4th of July, the heat and humidity are through the roof, the NE Kansas sky is a beautiful blue from early morning till late at night, every couple hours a pickup passes carrying a load of fresh cut bales, the birds are drifting in the sky and the frogs are singing in the creek bed, and I really don’t want to take any of that for granted.
There will always be times we have to keep getting up, working hard, and dealing with our responsibilities, but what about the rest of the time? What do we do during our free time to breath life into other areas? How do we spend our money? How are we managing our stress, home, and lifestyle? Friend, please don’t hurt yourself in the grind, or it’s not worth all your efforts in the end.
I’m intentionally slowing down this week. I’m finding moments in between 4H Fair and VBS prep to sit and give the kids eye contact…watching the chickens peck the ground…watching the piglets hop around, play and nap. I’m going to let myself BE STILL. Ever heard that term before? Oh yea, it’s Psalm 46:10a, “Be still and know that I am God”. Is that a command to sit down without my phone and just….BE? Not sitting down in my lawn chair, looking across the field and thinking I need to fix the fence over there, kill those thistles over there, top off that water trough, etc? Just be still, KNOWING God’s got this…even if I take a ten minute break?
Ok. Fine. If I have to….
xoxo
Katie Jo Rauch
