Mom-Vibes

 

I received a text this week from a woman from a local agency who works with those who are in need. She said they had a client who was looking for a church connection and could use some mentoring. She wanted to know if this was something I would be interested in.

Of course, I said, "Yes!" and to be honest, was thinking that it was neat that she thought I would be a good mentor to this young lady. But then she said something that made me laugh out loud. She said, "She really could use a mother figure in her life." So my so-called mentoring skills were really more about me having a mom-vibe! 😀

I admit it. I do exude "mom" probably to all I meet. In fact, my sister-in-law said I'm like Kanga in Winnie the Pooh. I know I'm happy when I'm caring for others. In fact, I recently did a personality/work assessment that said one of my natural gifts is coming alongside others and helping them accomplish what they need to get done. 

Anyway, I've decided to just go with how I'm wired. This week I let off a lot of mom-vibes in the care of my own family and home.

Back in June I purchased tickets for a pre-season NFL game for Dan to see one of his favorite teams. The tickets were much cheaper than the regular season so I bought tickets so he, the boys and our son-in-law could go. The game was this past Saturday.

I hung out with my daughter for the day and had so much fun. We went to lunch, shopped at a couple fun little stores, went to a blueberry farm and walked some trails. 

My father-in-law takes up some of my time as I try to get out there to visit at least once a week. It's an hour drive there and an hour back and he always wants us to stay for a long time so I do try and stay at least 2 hours. This morning I'm taking him to the bank and then out to lunch. I've been so happy to see him settling in to the assisted-living place and adjusting to not having my mother-in-law around anymore. 

They have a wonderful activities director who does some really neat things with the residents. She has planned a Hawaiian luau, taken them to the zoo and a baseball game, and does all kinds of fun activities. She has planted a garden with them. This photo came up on their Facebook page the other day. She did a slip and slide and just had the attendants pull the tube down the slide. It looked like such a fun activity for residents who are not always mobile. 

Look at this look on my father-in-law's face. Love it!

It's canning season and while it takes up so much of my time, I want to preserve some of the goodness of the summer and a well-stocked pantry feeds my family throughout the winter. 

This weekend was dealing with two bushels of corn. I truly overestimated how much corn I would need so I've been sharing some of it with people in our church. I shucked it all yesterday and blanched one bushel, as well as cutting it off the cob. However, I had enough after a few hours of that so it's in my refrigerator and waiting for me to deal with it all today. 

Next up on my list when I'm done with this is moving on to tomatoes. 

My daughter texted me yesterday to show me a picture of some dumplings she made. She'll ask me baking or cooking questions periodically. And all my kids will ask me relationship advice or just chat about their stressors or their day. I'm thankful that they feel like they can do that.

Yesterday wasn't the best of days and I blew it big time with one of my family members. But I'm thankful we were able to talk about and resolve the issue, despite my initial bad reaction. 

I think that is what family is about. We don't always see eye to eye. We sometimes disagree in a big way, but we talk it out and forgive one another. We don't let it fester and grow. We ask for forgiveness and we forgive. We acknowledge where we've messed up and some of the deep-seated struggles we have. Then we move forward together.

Some of my reason for trying to dial back some of my ministry activity is that I know I want to do a better job of finding balance in my life so I actually have time for family or not getting snappy because I'm stressed. I can get so hyper-focused on work to the exclusion of all else. And because I have that natural mom-vibe, I tend to want to help everyone with everything. I'll take on more and more to help others and end up feeling stretched way too thin and then get resentful.

I want to have a calm and peaceful mom-vibe and not be a STRESSED-OUT mom! 😏 I'm learning it's okay to do what I can and learning it's okay to say, "No." to some activities. When I have balance it goes a long way to making me feel like I'm letting off good vibes.