Home Again

We have officially been home for a full week and boy does it feel good!! Don't get me wrong, I do miss the desert and all my friends there. But what a blessing to move back to a place where people are anxiously awaiting your arrival and welcome you home with open arms. I am just so over joyed that God has brought us out of the desert and back home. I am not the same person I was when we moved 18 months ago and I thank God immensely for that! I had a pretty hard, judgemental heart when I left. It was pretty ugly, really. But God is so faithful that He won't leave us that way if we just let Him in to do His work. How thankful I am that He never ever gives up on us and when we do turn to Him He graces us with His mercy instead of being angry at us. I really am just bubbling over with gratitude and joy.

Today was a nice day. I realized after dropping Josh off at school that I think I may enjoy being the proverbial "soccer mom." I mean, come on, I drive my kid to school in an SUV for crying out loud! I was so apprehensive about this new chapter in my life as a mom. I felt like I was leaving behind the joys of being a mom of babies and toddlers, but the joys just keep coming. They just come in different ways. I was so proud this morning when one of the little girls yelled, "Hi Josh!" as I walked him into school. And another boy said goodbye to Josh after school. Makes a mom so proud to see her kids make new friends! My heart just swells when I see him with his back pack (that has nothing in it) on. Today he recited a bible verse that he learned at school. Just about broke my heart!

Speaking of soccer moms, I joined the gym today. Gotta do some work on the soft parts of my body that aren't necessarily supposed to be as soft as they are. So now I get to show up at school in my fancy work out clothes and a hat like all the other moms do. I just keep getting deeper and deeper into the stereotype, so why stop now?! Next I'm going to join the PTA and drive a carpool full of kids. Somebody stop me...

A great part about Josh being in school is that Hannah and I get some alone time. Boy can that girl talk and sing when she is not being over shadowed by her talkative big brother. She is so sassy and precious all at the same time. I think we will spend the lull between dropping Josh off and my aerobics class eating breakfast together, just the two of us.

We are pretty much unpacked. All I really have left is to hang pictures and put out millions of nick-knacks. I had a long period of time where I was collecting Precious Moments figures. Let's just say I have a few and we got rid of the hutch that I had most of them in when we moved to the desert. So I'm thinking some of them will remain boxed for now. And, oh my, do we have a ton of pictures! I plan to lay them all out and weed through them. It's going to be hard because most of them are pictures of the kids, but I didn't realize how many I had! I have 6 decent sized boxes of just pictures. But I know I need to get a grip on this or we will have so many on the walls that we won't even get to enjoy the beautiful new wall color because we won't be able to see it! It's a work in progress for sure. Once it's all together I will take some pics and share them with you. Now I am going to go enjoy that the kids are tired from getting up early and try to stay awake long enough to watch grown up TV while they sleep. Problem is, I'm tired from getting up early too.

By the way, I think I am going to need to change my blog name as I am no longer a Mom in the Desert. I've got a few ideas, but I would love to hear some suggestions, if you have them. Post a comment, I'm listening...