How I do It

Last weekend my parents took the babies all day while the rest of us went to Disneyland, and when I came home that evening the EPIC amount of laundry that was spilling out of the laundry room had all been washed and folded. All of it. It was how I figured I'd be spending my Sunday, but instead I got to play in the pool with the kids and rest with the family.

A few days ago my mother-in-law spent the night at our house and watched the younger four kids the next day so that I could go on a field trip with Ben and his class at school. I had SUCH a great time with him at the Creation Institute, I was so thankful to be there! Again, when I came home all of the
laundry out of every room in the house had been washed and folded. All of it. I was gearing up to spend my afternoon and evening making trips to and from the laundry room, but it was done, and I was able to make dinner and rest with Mark that evening.

Mark, my favorite person in the whole world, works very hard doing jobs that he loves, and spoils me with a house cleaning service twice a month. He knows I do my best to pick up, but the nooks and crannies are difficult and he blesses me so with the encouragement to use help.

Megan, the sweetest, kindest, most humble, God fearing collage gal comes over once a week and watches the kids while I run all over town buying the weekly groceries and taking kids here and there for horse riding lessons and soccer and whatnot. That's right, I have a nanny. Mark, in his leadership and wisdom over our family, saw me floundering while I was pregnant with Norah and pretty much insisted I get help. We've been blessed with the greatest of sitters since then, and Megan is the best of the best. She loves on my kids, helps them with schoolwork, speaks truth into their lives, helps me unload groceries and organizes my pantry, and so much more- no you can not have her number. :) 

Friends offer to pick my kids up from school so I don't have to wake babies to make pick up time.

Friends call from Costco or Traders and ask if they can pick anything up for me.

Friends invite us over for dinner at a moment's notice and hardly allow us to bring a thing.

Friends text and pray, text and pray, text and pray.

This, my dear readers, is how I do it. 

I can do it because God knew waaaaaaaaaay before I did that we'd be a "big" family and I'd need help, so he surrounded us with family and friends that step up and step in. They don't move mountains for me - well mountains of laundry maybe-  but they give me footholds to cling too. 

But what if?

If all of it was taken away, if all the family and every one of the friends were not here, and they were not my footholds, I could still do it. It would be messy, and extremely lonely, but it could be done. Want to know how? Because I CAN do all thing through Christ, who strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)

Right now, he has given me an amazing support system, second to none. But I hold it loosely, or at least I try to. Because nothing in this life is guaranteed. My family is not promised tomorrow. My friends might move away, but the word of the Lord stands firm. (1Peter 1:25)  Having the Bible, and being able to read God's letters to me, his diary of the past, his promises of the future... it is like nothing else this world can offer.

One of my favorite things about Mark is his constant eternal perspective. Even when things get rough, and they have been rough, he sees the long term, the bird's eye view, the skydiver's perspective, and he is grounded. Always. Oh how thankful I am to be under the care of a man who sees not just today but a lifetime from now. And if everything was stripped away I am confident that the Lord, in all His sovereignty and mercy, would provide for every need. (Now, let it be known that I MUCH rather prefer this life with my amazingly hot husband and all of my family and all of my friends, but I think it needs to be known that though I am so graciously surrounded by many I only answer to ONE.) 

That is how I can do it. See, it really isn't just me. It's a team of me's, It's so many people that have rallied and sacrificed their time and energy. It is the God, the creator of the universe, who wrote my days so long ago in His book, who oversees every breath in my household. It is for no other reason, than for his glory and elevation, that I can do anything. So the next time you think, "How does she do it?" just remember that I don't do it, not on my own. It is the strength from the one true God and the hope of heaven. Do you know that God? Do you know that hope of heaven?

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:23-26

(I added this pic because I am insanely in love with this baby and I could post pictures of her all day if it weren't super weird of me to do that. AND because this pic represents an evening spent with a friend and her kids in a park with pizza, salad and watermelon for dinner. The Lord is too good to me.)