SISTER WISDOM

{from 14 April 2009} Last night we had a date night at the Park Board meeting… and took Zeke along, just for good measure. The ladies did the grandmotherly ooh-aah, the men cleared their throats, and we got down to business. Park business.

I did some work with Mara and Robbie yesterday, trying to deal with the whining and slow obedience. My mom’s voice rings in my ears: “Late obedience is disobedience.” Times like these… I wish I could call her and do my own whining, though I know she would tell me, in her own gentle Mom way, to get off my duffer and get to work so my children know how to obey. (I’ve never used the term duffer before and I bet it doesn’t mean what I just used it to mean.) And she would be right; that’s what I need to do. Mara is already responding better, less of the whining, more of the quick obedience. She catches on and knows when she can push me and when she can’t. It’s my fault there’s anytime that she feels like it’s okay to push Mommy.

Robbie takes more repetition, partially because he is younger and partially because he is just kind of hard-headed like me. He understands, he knows the lines, he just decides that it’s worth it to cross them. Eventually he will change his mind when he sees that I’m serious and that the line – whatever it is – is not moving to accomodate him. But he will test it out for a while first.

Today is Joe’s day off and Zeke’s one-week-old mark. I love Joe’s day off.

I love being a Mom. I love these children so much, I love the challenge and joy of raising them. I love their faces and personalities and snuggles.

I love being a wife. I can’t imagine life without Joe. I can barely remember life before Joe. I love laughing, learning, sharing, overcoming, dreaming with him. I love how we push each other on, inspire each other to be better, depend on each other, help and respect and cherish and adore each other. I love being his queen.

I love being the manager of this household. I love being a modern homemaker. I love the creativity required, the planning and organization, how it all calls upon me to use my resources well, to think and create and envision and do. I love the tangible results of the smallest efforts, the shine of clean windows, the stack of folded laundry, the smell of a minty clean house.

I love being a writer. I love observing myself and others, identifying problems, analyzing the cause, and finding solutions. I love telling stories. I love helping people, young moms and wives like me, succeed in their work as wife, mom, homemaker, entrepreneur, etc. I love teaching and sharing what I’ve learned and what has helped me succeed. I even love the feeling that I don’t know enough to share or write, because it keeps me learning and fresh and hopeful through the inadequacy. I love finding freedom for myself through truth and then offering that up to others, challenging people to move past the old, helping them see what is possible.

All things are possible.

Image courtesy of aWee.