Gravel Road Musings

 Motherhood is Trust I lined them up on the porch steps to capture the classic first day of school picture. Amber beamed with the enthusiasm of a first grader and Logan stood reluctantly beside her unsure of what all this meant. (Trust me, the excitement was definitely more prominent than this less than stellar picture portrays) And I cheerfully snapped the picture and excitedly sent her off to her first day of school. And no, I am not the mom who escorts her child in to her classroom and gets her settled in. That had happened the evening before and quite honestly, my daughter is entirely too independent for that. She will go in by herself, thank you very much. But this first day of school is just one more area that moms are continually having to choose to trust. I have to trust that she is ready, I have to trust that we taught her enough to get by. I have to trust that she will make friends, not be bossy, play nicely with others, eat in a somewhat respectful manner, and a host of ...

  Set in the Appalachian Mountains, Cindy weaves a story together that leaves you turning the pages just wondering what is going to happen next. And she does leave you with a bit of a surprise ending. Generally, in books like this by the end of the first chapter, you know that this is going to have at least some for "and they lived happily ever after", and this book started that way, but it didn't end quite like I expected. Worie Dressar is left an orphan at 17 and over the next couple months, surprise after surprise waits for her. She is stubborn and hard-headed and a little selfish and so her job is to learn to let go and trust God. She has to learn to think a bit before she speaks. This isn't easy, but gradually she learns and makes changes. And, as it turns out, her heart is as big as her momma's was and she takes on her mother's legacy. One thing I can really learn from this book is generosity. I have seen this in other Appalachian stories as well. Worie...

  Trusting God Through my Greatest Heartbreak Mattie Jackson Selecman was just 28 years old when her worst nightmare came to pass. Widowed after less than a year of marriage, her world fell apart. In this book, she records her journey over the last 3 years and how she is learning and growing through her grief. Normally, reading a book doesn't really affect me and I can read and go straight to sleep, but I finished this book at bedtime and it took me a bit to fall asleep. I think it was mostly because my mind played the what-ifs game and I needed to commit my family to God. This book is raw, but also hopeful as well.  "We do all we can to not live in the fear of Friday or Saturday, but to hoard, herald and hold captive the joy of Sunday. Why wouldn't we? We long for Sunday just as we long for lemonade." "What I can tell you is that in the middle of my worst nightmare come true, even when I didn't know how to talk to God or trust God, God continued to show me h...

Motherhood is Repetitious I stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes AGAIN!! I paused a moment to holler out the now familiar triple command: "Flush the toilet. Close the lid. Wash your hands". And then I resumed washing the same dishes I had washed the day before and the day before that and the month before that and the year before that. The dishes have grown fewer over the years as more and more have succumbed to the hard tile kitchen floor and been reduced to shards that live on only in memory, but still I washed.  After washing dishes, there were the same counters to wipe AGAIN, the same clothes to fold, the same floor to sweep. There were the same commands to issue, "Come pick up your shoes and put them away." "Go put your socks where they belong" "No, that is not where they belong, go put them where they belong." I have found clothes in odd places because of the lack of desire to put them away right. (A month ago, when I was frantically cle...

  Five Keys to Helping Your Kids Connect Well With Others As I started reading the book, I wasn't immediately drawn in. It felt like a lot of time was taken writing about what they were gonna write about and where to go get more resources. But once they got into the five keys, I found it helpful and good to read about. In all honesty, a lot of the information shared would be things that I already work at every day. Did I need reminding? Yes, yes I did. I am not always the intentional mom I would like to be.  Attachment, resilience, wise decisions, etc comprise the five keys to relational intelligence. At this point, teaching resilience when told no is the biggest hurdle in this household and it's one I have been working on more intentionally since reading this book.  I think my biggest takeaway from this book would be to continue to be intentional with my children and to guard their use of technology. Make sure they know how to hold face-to-fact conversations and have lea...

  Written as a series of letters, Amy Lynn Green crafts an interesting story that has you rapidly turning the pages in a quest to find out what really happens. Enough information is shared in the letters and newspaper articles to get an idea of what is going on, but there is still enough left unsaid that has you reading between the lines and wondering what will happen in the end.  The book focuses on POW camps in the US with a side serving of Japanese internment camps. The letters are mostly between an American spitfire and a Japanese-American civilian who is teaching at a military school. Joanna, the American, is snarky and funny and has no idea about manners and etiquette. She says things like they are, which, as you can imagine, doesn't always endear her to the general public. Peter, the Japanese-American, tries to guide her correctly, but it also obvious he loves her despite her quirks.  "Sometimes showing grace breaks us before it heals us. Forgiveness can feel like ...

I stood at my kitchen sink washing dishes, again, and thought about my poor neglected blog. I've been wanting to write again, but words and timing haven't always aligned and it hasn't happened. But as I stood there washing dishes I thought about the words tumbling around in my head and wondered if I could do a series on motherhood. Each one would be title Motherhood Is followed by a one word descriptor of how I perceive motherhood. So there you have it, the inspiration for the following series.  MOTHERHOOD IS LAUGHTER I wanted to start off with something lighthearted that is motherhood to me. Sometimes being a mom can drag us down, but I think we all need laughter to lighten us up and remind us that these precious little humans we are raising are fun loving beings who need to see the fun in life too. And incidentally, the above picture was taken when I was 38 6/7 days pregnant and let's be honest, crying was the emotion of choice, not laughter. Definitely not laughter I...