Enjoy Your Ride!

Sit back. Make sure your seat belts are securely fastened. Keep your hands and feet inside the car (and hang on tightly for dear life) until the ride comes to a complete stop. Thank you coming to visit. Enjoy your ride! Next stop? Ummm, it looks like October.

Ahhhhhh, yes. August brings school, and school brings crazy schedules to the Hodges Household. With me going back to work, two in junior high, and athletics, and one starting, gasp and wait for it here...Big Girl Kindergarten, plus all of the church responsibilities, a husband who is a football chaplain for our local public school, dentist and orthodontist appointments, let's just say it's about to go from a wonderful, laid back 0 mph to life in the fast lane in split seconds.

I am the only one, okay, my little prince joins me from time to time, but usually only when he is totally exhausted, that does not throw my hands in the air and scream with joy around every bend and dip and dive. Give me a float on a lazy river kind of life any day over a grit your teeth, turn your head to the side, hang on until it's over roller coaster kind of life.

I like to enjoy life, and those in it with me, not remember it all as a blur of colors and actives flying by at Mach speeds. But, as I said, I am out numbered, so here we gooooooo!

Seriously, I know that this is just a season of life, and that it will pass, and the children will grow, and things will slow down again. I will enjoy this time. But I want to find the time to help everyone slow down and relax when the frenzy of the next few months has us all frazzled to our breaking points. I will look for opportunities to stop in the midst of the craziness, and "ground" us.

I don't want us to get so busy, that we are like ants, whose ant hill has been stirred by a boy with a stick. I don't like the "everyone running everywhere but going nowhere bumping into each other sometimes even climbing over each other madness." And believe me, it sometimes resembles exactly that around here.

So, first and foremost, we (my husband and I) renew our commitment to stay in God's Word each and every day. Because we know that we had better be led by the Holy Spirit through the next couple of months, or a few words said in haste, and frustration could turn into something that could drive a wedge between us, and allow Satan to have a foothold into our home, and family.

We also want to make sure that out children keep up with their own personal quiet times with the Lord. They feel pressure, and get stressed out just like we do, and they too, need the leading of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

We need to try as hard as possible to eat as healthy as we can (a tough one for us) so that we can all keep our health and strength up. This, my friends, is a work in progress in our home.

We need to make the most of our family time, by unplugging, and plugging in. I'm talking about when we are in the car, or eating a rare dinner together, or just enjoying a evening at home, and the television is on, and cell phones are going off, and computers are open, and earphones are in. We may be talking at one another, but we aren't talking to one another. I want to reclaim those times, and talk, really talk to each other, and invest in one another's lives. Play a board game, or put a puzzle together, or take a walk together. The lazy river side of me needs these times, as much as the roller coaster side of the others needs the sports and activities.

I recently read a book in which a family stopped all athletics for a whole year, and just focused on slowing down, and spending time with God, and each other. That sounds like a dream come true to me, but realistically, I know that is not something we would ever do. Yet I do not want the business of our lives to control us, and to define who we are. I refuse to wear my business as a badge. I claim the precious moments we spend with God, and the times we spend deepening and strengthening our family bonds as WAY more important than ANY event we attend or in which we participate. If my children do well in sports, I am thrilled, but if they learn a spiritual truth, or how to solve conflicts and get along better with one another, THAT trumps everything.

So, we all are buckled in and ready to go...but believe me, we know where the kill switch is, and are ready to throw it at any time that we see one of our three passengers in danger. And don't think for a moment that we won't!

What about you? Are you happier on the lazy river of life? Or are you a roller coaster kind of person? What are some ways you keep your family "grounded" during the busy times of life?