Our Crazy Life Lately...Seasons

Wow...it's been quite a crazy couple of months.  It's just the way life goes, I suppose, for all of us in one way or another!  Take a look at this list of happenings in the Dallas house just in the past 2 months:  (smack dab in the middle of dad's football season, which is the Dallas' family's super busy time anyway....major understatement!)  Ok, here goes...

-Jake's been healing from Seiver's issues with his heel he's been dealing with since the spring and have been running back and forth to the physical therapist weekly for a while, in and out of a boot and night splint, and a couple of visits to the orthopaedic doctor.
-Caleb broke his wrist at football practice, and as you mamas know, that type of thing requires not only the trip to the urgent care that day out of the blue, but xrays,a lot of pain at times, next day orthopaedic visit, and follow up care a month or more later.
-The EXACT same day, within literally 30 minutes of Caleb breaking his wrist, David (one of our 9 year olds) got a concussion playing football in his room with Joshua. (obviously, no pads, no helmets, but full tackling--not good) He still has no memory of the actual incident, and dealt with quite a few symptoms from it on and off for a few days.  Needless to say, that night was quite a busy one between the broken wrist and the concussion!
-2 weeks later, David returned to the football field to play and got another concussion in the first quarter of the game, ofcourse, finishing him off for the season, and causing quite a scare to all of us.  The next week required 3 separate appointments with pediatrician, CT scan, and the neurologist.
-In the meantime, we develop some awful cold symptoms in the house and though the sickness only lasted about 2-3 days of fever, headache, coughing, etc, it takes about 2 full weeks to make its way through a house of 8 of us!  Ofcourse, it didn't help this time that I was one of the worst, with fever and chills, etc. lasting 4 days (which you know is never good...when Mama gets sick there are no such thing as "call in sick" days, are there?!)
-Then Jake's symptoms from all of that turn into pneumonia...He ran 102-103 for 8 days straight, even one night in there having fever at 105.  Missing that much school once you hit middle school isn't an easy thing either, and so there are dozens of details with keeping up with makeup work, emailing teachers, tests, etc.
-Then yesterday Elly had to take a trip to the ER with 2 episodes within an hour of fainting, turning blue, and irregular heart rhythms and excessively slow heartrate...the second event, the paramedic said was, in her words, "very, very, very serious" and the scarier thing is there is still no explanation for it (That's quite a brief summary, but it was an extremely dangerous situation, and we will see the cardiologist next week to try to begin figuring out what caused all of this)

In the meantime, there are other crazy things in life that pop up out of the blue that are unexpected, and often emotional, as well, just from all directions. Again, as you mamas know, daily life with kids brings dozens of unknowns in smaller ways, too, that still can fill up your days and add to the stress of your day if you're not careful...examples?  Bickerings among kids would rank high up there somewhere, little people accidently wetting the bed in the middle of the night, needing full bedding and clothing changed, the need to call the plumber for an ongoing, unknown leak making your water bill sky high, regular household work, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, laundry, laundry, bills needing to get paid on time... I could go on and on, I suppose, but you get the idea, right?! Anyway, somehow we blinked and it's November!  Friday night is first round of the playoffs (woo-hoo, Landmark!!!), and we finished the regular season 8-2.  School is going great for all the big kids, and the little guys and I are enjoying our time together, as well.  We've had rec league football with the twins, middle school football with the older boys, and, ofcourse, varsity football with dad.  Lots of practices, lots of directions, not to mention homework (still my LEAST favorite part of  regular school, other than not having as many chore helpers at home during the day!) Kenny is teaching a Sunday morning class at Dogwood, and we've attempted to be a part of a Financial Peace group on Wed nights at church, which has been a little tricky being in the middle of the season, but we knew it would be.  All of this to say, life happens, and before we know it day after day has slipped right past us, becoming weeks and months, and if we aren't careful we can miss recognizing that each day is a gift... that every day is one day closer to our last, and we must live to the fullest in the middle of all the craziness this life brings!  We can't just wait for those "perfect" days, because life is mostly made up of the ordinary days that can disguise themselves as the mondane, non-important stuff.  I am also so incredibly aware, that as busy as our life is, and even with some of the hard or bad things that have mixed themselves into our days, we are so, so blessed.  There are so many people who would give anything to be in my shoes, with this life.  I can never, ever take that for granted.

I used to talk a lot to my highschool Bible study girls I taught a few years back about seasons. What season are you living in right now?  Seasons come and go right before our eyes, and if we're not careful, we will find ourselves wishing away our days, our months, our years, and missing the "life that is truly life."  Remember when you were a kid? (and I have to write from the female perspective here, ofcourse) I would watch older girls and just LONG to be that age!  Oh, if I were just in highschool....then you get to highschool, and what is it everyone can't wait for?  College!  Oh, if I were just in college...to be out there on my own, grow up a little bit.  Then we accomplish the great goal of getting to college, but if we're not careful, we find ourselves wishing we were graduated, married, in a job/career...THEN life would be just perfect.  We get married, but then long for children...we have children, and then long for them to get a little older so they can take care of themselves a little more ( I remember one mom saying, after several kids, she was just SO excited when everyone could buckle themselves in the car!)...well, what happens after our kids are grown and gone??!  You get the idea!  If we aren't careful we will wish away our entire life...every season, just waiting for the next one that's going to be "ideal", when really and truly, no one ever said life was going to be perfect!  The challenge I regularly give to myself (and I mean that!) is this simple question:  "Am I living to the fullest in the season I am in?"  Right now, wherever God has placed me, for whatever reasons, good or bad, am I making the most of every opportunity, as God's word says?  Am I savoring every moment for what it's worth?  Or am I rushing through just to make it barely holding on to the next thing that lies ahead, deceived to think it won't have trials of its own?  We're all guilty of it to some degree, but I know it is a good reminder for me to stop and think that way often.  It really keeps life in perspective for me.

My challenge to anyone else reading this post today is to ask yourself the exact same question.  Are you living to the fullest in the season you're in right now?  Whether you are reading this as a teenager who's eager to move on with your life, a college student, a single adult or young married person without children yet, a mama with a newborn who is lacking sleep today, or an adult in a job that's not exactly what you want to be doing.  We could keep listing various scenarios, but you get the idea.  Every season of our lives comes and goes.  As my husband puts it, time always seems forever away when it's in the future (like waiting for Christmas, graduation, a wedding, a new baby)...like it will never come, but somehow it seems so extraordinarily quick when we look back...so true, isn't it? We say things like, "Seems like yesterday he was just a little baby!" or "Can't believe it's been so many years since graduation!" 

Time is ticking.  Our countdown clocks are ticking whether we're aware of it or not.  I encourage you, if you have not already, to watch one of the sermons of Kenny I have posted from Dogwood earlier this year where he talks about beginning with the end in mind, living to the fullest, and  talks about how short life really is, whether we recognize it or not.  The countdown timer example still blows my mind the way he describes it. (see post from June entitled "The Urgent Life:  Kenny speaking at Dogwood") 

So whatever challenges come your way today, and no matter how busy or unbearable life seems, don't forget this season will be gone soon, and we can never get it back.  No matter what. Begin with the end in mind.  If it matters on your last day, as you lie on your deathbed, it matters on THIS day. Not too many things are going to matter on that last day.  Remember, live to the fullest in the season God has placed you in right now...the next season will come before we know it, and with all the wonderful things it may bring, it will have it's own trials, as well.  No regrets.  Savor every moment.  There is no such thing as an ordinary day.