The good and the not-so-good

In thinking about the purposes of my blog (keeping family in the know, recording our family events in lieu of scrapbooking, journaling my thoughts), I decided I'd like to do a "life snapshot" post every once in a while, describing the great things and the difficult things I'm dealing with. That way, I can look back months or years from now and see how God has worked in our family.

The good

• Jon and I are consistently on the same wavelength, communicate well, and enjoy being around each other. I love my husband.
• Sleep. Our kids go to bed easily/on time and sleep well, with night wakings rare. Nate and Lucy are quiet in the mornings, and generally, I am woken up by my alarm clock, not them.
• I actually love not having TV. (Jon might disagree.) I like that we mostly watch pre-approved movies (Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, and Pete's Dragon are in the current rotation).
• Nate is behaving well at and liking school, and I really like his teacher. This might seem trivial, but when there have been some behavior issues in the past, good behavior is big.
• Our church. We love it and we love our friends there.
• AWANA, a kids ministry I help with, is so much easier for me personally this year. Nate loves Sparks, Lucy loves Cubbies, and Levi does well in the nursery, so I don't spend the whole evening worrying about the children.
• My one-day-per-week job. I enjoy it, and it brings in a little extra money.
  

The difficult

• Consistently, the most difficult times in our day are 7:30-8:00 a.m. (trying to get out of the house in time to get Nate to school), 12:00-1:00 p.m. (getting home from school when tired/hungry), and 5:30-6:30 p.m. (trying to cook dinner and keep hungry kids from fighting). Looking at this list, I know that I can eliminate almost all of the stress of these times if I would prepare better. Get up a bit earlier in the morning and/or prepare the children's clothes the night before. Prepare fun/interesting games for the post-school car ride (I already bring snacks, so the hunger really shouldn't have such an impact). Do dinner prep during nap/rest time in the afternoon.
• Nate and Lucy bicker a lot, and Levi is now putting himself into the mix. I feel like I am constantly instructing, constantly redirecting, constantly saying, "That was not a kind way to speak; try saying it this way instead." I suspect this is one of those seasons where I won't see the fruit from this particular training for a long time.
• I worry about our finances with property taxes due and Christmas coming.
• With busy schedules, I feel I rarely get to see my good friends outside of shared ministries. Again, I know this is probably just a season.

Maybe I should start with the difficult and end with the good; that way the post won't end on a depressing note!