What is Normal Anyway?

I catch myself talking about "normal" a lot, as if normal actually exists for a family with a baby.  Normal is changing for us more rapidly than it ever has before become normal changes rapidly for our now 2.5 month old.  His daily routine, how long he sleeps at night, how often he eats, what he does during wake time, what he likes and dislikes- these things have all changed multiple times since birth.  

I'm not sure how many days it takes before I constitute something as normal for us but it can't be very many (he hasn't really existed outside of the womb for too many days), but I keep finding myself craving normal.  

The past few weeks I've been waiting and watching for things to get back to "normal", and as I thought about the concept of normal with a baby I just had to laugh!  Our past fourish weeks have looked like this:

-Levi started a developmental growth spurt (also know as a wonder week) and was fussy and clingy and had trouble napping on his own or eating very well 

-in the middle of said wonder week Levi and I both got sick with a head cold throwing off eating and napping even further 

-wonder week 8 persisted through the cold and lasted a few more days

-I went back to work

-Levi had a physical growth spurt that lasted almost two weeks in which he wanted to nurse every 1.5-2 hours

-we had 1 day of "normal" before Levi hit another wonder week and started sleeping poorly and wanting to cling to me often and totally throwing off our bedtime routine 

     (^^^Just a random cute baby picture 

     for your viewing pleasure)

So for the past few weeks our normal has been, well, not so normal, and my expectation is that much of the next year will feel that way.  So here's to embracing the adventure of life with kids and allowing God to continue molding me in each stage of life!

On Being Busy: "The Joy of Getting Unstuck" by Brandon Smith

I read a really good article today about busyness, which completely speaks to me at this point in my life and was a great reminder of my purpose.  As I posted a couple of weeks ago, life has been busy.  This really helped me gain perspective.  A few take-aways from the article:

"Like you, I’ve got a hundred things going on between family and church and work and all the in between. Let me be the first to say that all of these things are absolute gifts from God. He has been amazingly kind to me and I’m genuinely thankful."

"Remember, though we’re all busy, busyness by itself is neither godly nor sinful. Busyness doesn’t make you a super Christian and it doesn’t make you a wretch. It only reveals sin or temptation bubbling beneath the surface."

 

"Christ has freed me from self-reliance and bound me to his grace. I’m not doing God a favor; he’s giving me a mission. My life, my family, my work — it’s all from him and for him. I can rest in this. And I don’t have to be perfect; I can be obedient to my calling with the expectation that God’s glory will overcome my failures."

"In the end, my struggles had more to do with my outlook than with my busyness. Instead of looking for a closet to hide in, I should’ve been looking to the only one who can give me rest. And when I cried out to him in despair and fatigue, he reminded me that he’s given me responsibilities for a reason. His glory and my good are always his aim. I had forgotten that. He graciously answered my prayer for rest not with affirmation, but with correction. Rest wasn’t release from responsibilities; rest was release from self-gratification. There is great joy in this."

Sometimes I wonder if life will ever slow down.  Sometimes I long for it to slow down, to have a moment of rest; other times I look at the tasks I've been given with joy.  A wise woman once told me that she looks at her schedule as choices she's made, and that keeps her from complaining about being busy.  I think there is a balance for certain, and learning to say no to things is a huge challenge for me, but I want to look at life and all of the busyness that comes with it with the right heart, rather than being overwhelmed and bogged down by all of the good things that fill my calendar and allowing them to start to feel like one more thing on the to-do list, I want to look at them with a heart of gratitude- thankfulness that God has put so many wonderful people in my life, thankful that we have jobs and family, thankful for the home I get to take care of, thankful for the many dinners and lunches and coffees I get to share with people in my community, thankful that God has trusted me to take care of some of His children and has sent people to take care of me.  Not complaining, but thankful.