Wardrobe Change...or is it Life Change?

So something new has been occurring recently in our home with Laineybug. Shortly before she turned three a few days ago she began starting this thing where, A- she only wants to wear a dress (even though it's freezing here most days), and B- she want's to change dresses every two hours throughout the day! You can imagine what my laundry room has looked like lately. It sure made birthday shopping easy this year, dresses of course made up the majority of her gifts, one's with sweater's at that to try and prevent her from freezing her arms off!

I have to admit that it does get frustrating, and I have tried to get her to stop this annoying little habit. But, I know that this too will pass and I'll soon be looking back and missing these days. In the midst of helping her with her fourth wardrobe change of the day earlier this week, I started to think about something deeper. I thought about how easy it is for my daughter to drop everything and change in and instant, carefree, making sure that each day she wears every dress she wants to wear. It made me envious in a way, not about actually changing clothes over and over, because yes I could do that if I really wanted to, but changing to ensure you are the person you want to be. Or changing day to day to live the part of your life you want to live. 

I think we would all admit that we have things in life we would love to live out, but do not want to make the change to make it possible. Someone once told me "I think that everyone lives four or five different lives." I now have a deeper understanding of what they meant and my own thoughts on it as well. Is that we are just to afraid to change into the one person we want to be, so we live different lives around different people? Is it the fear we have of the way some will look at us if they know how we live one side of our life, so we only live another side of our life around them? Maybe it's that we are so wrapped in our self, that we fail to see that the ones closest to us are living separate lives without us, but yet do not want to make the change to fix it once we do realize it.

In any case, I will try to be more open to change. It's something that I have been struggling with lately, but that's a whole 'nother post! In the meantime, I will indulge my sweet daughter's obsession with changing dresses more times a day than I count. And I will also need to buy more laundry detergent to wash them all!

Change is Brewing

Wow, I haven't written a blog in awhile! I've REALLY missed Not Me Monday's the past few weeks (not that I have anything to confess or anything ;))! I feel like I have a ton of stuff swirling around in my head right now just waiting to spill out, so much so, that I'm afraid it won't even make any sense once I step back and look at it all laid out on paper, so bear with me on this one!

Change. Everyone faces change, big or small at some time. Change can be good or bad, depending on how you face it. I'm not really sure yet if people can change, I am sure that people can change their way of thinking, and their way's of believing. This year has thrown lots of change in my direction, and lots more to come. Some of it was very expected, some quite the opposite! Awhile back in a Not Me post, I wrote about being in denial about God answering a prayer I had been praying about for years, just because He wasn't answering it the way I was praying for it to be answered (as if I'm the one in control). Well, since things weren't going the way I thought they should be going, I was ready to write the WHOLE situation off, throw my hands up in the air, turn around and walk away, never to look back...funny how things work! Less than 24 hours later (I am not kidding!) the situation was literally dropped right back in my lap! I suppose walking away from this situation was not the change I need right now! And I have since tried to walk away once more, only to have it dropped right back in my lap once again! Apparently we are not as in control of the change that happens in our lives as we want to be (although, I already knew that).

I have recently made an unexpected change in one of my ways of thinking which was completely shocking to even myself! Not a huge change I suppose, but still, rather ground breaking you could say. I stepped outside of my comfort zone if you will for a moment to try something I had never tried before, and honestly never thought I would. ( NO it wasn't illegal, no, I'm not going to say here what it was). I guess the biggest thing I got out it was, don't judge a book but it's cover...cliche, I know!

The biggest change is yet to come later this year. It is a life changing change (no, I'm not having a baby, heaven help me if I was!), but until our entire family is made fully aware of what is, I'm not at liberty to post just yet what it is. But, we are expecting it, we are preparing for it, and we are excited about it! It's a change that I'm looking to with optimism, and hope!

When do you pray?

My husband has asked me on several occasions, "when do you pray?" My answer is always short and sweet, "everyday, all day!" You see, as a stay home mom of 4 children, and a home daycare owner with 3 children that I care for daily, I couldn't make it through each day without praying! My days start long before the sun even thinks about shining and end long after the moon has reclaimed it's spot in the night sky. So prayer is often what gives me the stamina to sustain my long days. Sadly, it's not often down on my knees praying that I know it should be, it's throwing out one or two line prayers to God every few hours...or sometimes every few minutes!

My first prayer of the day is usually as I'm rolling out of bed at 5:30 am, "please God, get me through this day!" The next is usually not too far behind when it's time to wake my kindergartner up, he's the one that on most mornings thinks the best way to start the day is with a little fit! He will whine and cry, telling me how boring school is, and how much he misses me, that's is so unfair he has to go, and on and on. I then find myself praying for God to give me patience with my son, as for some reason he fails to understand I still have about 40 more things to do before we leave the house! Throughout the course the my day my prayers continue for fairly common things, praying for discernment, more patience (that pretty much and all day prayer), energy, time management skills, for my family and things like that.

Lately though I have found that my recent daily prayer is for change. I've been asking God to change me, for I know He's the only one who can! To change me into the daughter He wants me to be too Him, to change me into the wife He wants me to be to my husband, into the mother He wants me to be, into the person He intends for me to be. This prayer is fairly new to me and I'm excited to see where it takes me, for I know with God in the lead, it will take me through some awesome changes!

So, yes, I really do pray all day, everyday! It's one of the things that sustain me and keeps me grounded...how about you, when do you pray?