Finding a Quiet Place

Right now, life is feeling out of control. Any day that is remotely not wet will find me outside trying to get my house painted before winter comes and we aren't able to paint anymore. This usually means that my older children are supervising themselves inside and the baby is hopefully sleeping (which she seems to have decided to do less and less of lately). Unfortunately doing this multiple times in quick succession makes the kids squirrelly.

Next, we have to add to that a temporary paper route that goes 3 times/week, and occasionally requires me to bring all 5 children with and get up really early on Saturdays to get the hour long route done by 9am.

We've also now started music lessons for the older 3 kids, on 2 separate days. I have been meaning to, for the past 3 - 4 years, do the lessons myself- but the reality of uninterrupted focused time to do that isn't happening right now. Like I said, things are chaotic right now and I feel like everything is being driven by the tyranny of the urgent instead of being directed with purpose.

Which brings me to finding a quiet place. I was thinking yesterday how scattered things feel right now. I finally managed to get last week's laundry folded today- but it's still not put away and I'm already starting on this week's laundry. But everything feels so busy, that I feel like I don't have time for anything- let alone reconnecting with the kids to help calm/smooth out our home.

We need some peace. Not that I want quiet solitude, although that is a long ago luxury that I wouldn't mind tasting for a bit, but rather I want a peaceful home. Where kids get along with/like each other. Where the laundry is not only done, but put away. Where everything is in its place so that you aren't stepping/tripping on toys and can't find anywhere that's clear to play. Where when you look around, you feel at peace with what you see- instead of feeling anxious because of the clutter/chaos.

But how to achieve that? With 7 people in our house, there is bound to be stuff laying around. I've purged at least 2 (if not 3) minivan loads of stuff from our home, but there is still so much left. And, it doesn't help that the 2 yr old just takes everything out & throws it around- even as we're trying to clean up.

So how to find the quiet place and bring peace back to our home? Well, the house needs to finish getting painted (which is a non-negotiable) and we've committed to the paper route, but both of those things will be done within the next month (unless we quit the route early- which might be a good idea, but I want to teach the kids several things through doing this, so we'll see). Music lessons are something that I want as a priority for our family- so they will stay (for now). But the rest of it all is going to stop so that it's just us, figuring out life as God wants it to be for us.

Life happens and things keep coming up, but maybe finding a quiet place means figuring out what's important to our family and pursuing that and letting everything else that doesn't line up with that go. Skipping good lessons to pursue the best lessons. Taking time to figure out the purpose of why God allowed each of us to wake up this morning- seeking His agenda and not my own.

That's an interesting thought: 'why did God let me wake up this morning- what event/circumstance that is going to happen today requires my participation?' and then spend the day working towards making the most of it...