The Crawdad Chronicles: A Beautiful Mess

Well it's finally happening... I am about to try to start blogging again. And though I am going to date all of these catch up entries based on when they occurred I wanted to write this blog to remind myself years from now how crazy life has been. I will be the first to admit that I am not one of those moms who has it together. As I type this right now I have laundry in the dryer that has been waiting to be folded for who knows how many days, thank you notes that are written but not mailed, my house is a mess and I haven't slept for more than 3 hours in a REALLY long time. But... ten years from now my to-do list will still be long and life will still be crazy, but I know I will never regret taking time to write down the memories while I can. And as I constantly remind myself, I didn't become a stay at home mom so I could have a clean house!

I'm going to do the unthinkable for my type A personality and blog out of order and I apologize to anyone who receives my blog via email because you may be getting a lot of random entries. The crazy thing is that when I was a teacher I felt like I had my life pretty together and was super organized. My lesson plans were done in advance and I left as soon as the bell rang 95% of the time with everything ready for the next day. Somehow having kids has thrown all of my organization out the window! To say it has been humbling is an understatement.

I stole the title of this entry from the current MOPS theme (which I'm not even doing, lol) for the year which is "A Beautiful Mess". I feel that this perfectly sums up this stage of our life. Our life is a mess. Ryan is working crazy hours. He is currently in the beginning of a brutal 28 day stretch where he works every day and is on call every night. We have added another baby to the family who happens to be somewhat high maintenance, still continues to get up every 2-3 hours at night, and as yet to take a nap on his own during the day. James is in a hilarious, destructive, yet irresistible stage and is definitely keeping us on our toes. I told Ryan recently that most days I feel like we are just trying to stay afloat and not drown and he agreed. Yes, life is a mess. However life is also beautiful. In the midst of chaos we have grown as a family in both size and love. Seeing James become a big brother, experiencing simple every day moments as a family, little firsts with Harrison, and beginning a seasons of lasts during our final year in Shreveport, our time together these past few months has been a period of growth for all of us. Life is beautiful when life is a mess. Because the best thing about a messy life is that it forces you into total dependence on the Lord. Because you can't stay afloat without Him. And it's during the messy times that He often brings you something beautiful: a closer relationship with Him. And though I will be the first to admit that I would love to be one of those moms whose house is always perfect and her hair is never thrown into a ponytail because once again she didn't have time to dry it, that's just not the mom that I am. I'm just a mom whose life is a beautiful mess, and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Here is just a snapshot of some of our beautiful messy moments over the past few months. :)