When doing the right thing is the hard thing

Seems like I have had to do this a lot lately.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm just in a confrontational period of my life right now, but most of the time I know that what I'm doing is the thing that God wants me to do.  I hope the latter is correct.  Probably like most people, I feel justified in my belief that something is right or wrong.  I just pray that I am listening closely enough to what God wants from me in these situations.

The initial choice is usually the easy part for me.  Or at least it has been lately.  It's the AFTER.  The wondering, "was that right?  Did I come off as selfish or controlling or was I able to speak the truth in love?  Did God really say to do that or was that just my imagination, which is obviously controlled by my own motives?"

Tonight I had to do it again.  I felt in my gut that something wasn't right.  I prayed about it, asked for direction, felt like God's leading was obvious, and took action.  As usual, the other party wasn't happy.  But the title of this post is not "When doing the right thing is the AWESOME thing that everyone will adore you for."  This is hard.  It stinks.

I know that my choice was the best one for my child, but I still feel crappy about it.  I'm going to ride out this season of hard conversations and disappointed and angry people.  I'm going to hang on and try to see what God is teaching me through all this.  Diplomacy?  Obedience to him even when it sucks?  How to gracefully do the not-so-fun side of parenting and leadership?

One foot in front of the other.  Moving on.

Man, it's been a long time!

I don't know what to say other than LIFE IS CRAZY right now!!  It seems like any free moment I get, I do not want to spend trying to write a coherent blog post that looks like it was written by someone who knows the English language.  So I sit and cruise pointless TV like "The Bachelorette" or "Teen Mom."  (Confession:  I love drama.  Other people's drama.  Drama that causes me to be thankful for the lack of drama in my own life.)  (How many times can I say drama in this post?)

So let me briefly recap the events of the past 3ish months.

late March to mid-April:  Officially accepted into the nursing program.  Busy looking for a new home.  Found one and signed the lease on April 13 with move-in date set for June 1st.  Registered Natalie for school and had my fingers crossed that we would end up at Barkstall.
April to mid-May: Finish my spring semester and kids' school year came to a close.  Become determined to get a head start on packing.
late May: still have not packed. Randomly decided to make a call about Natalie's school placement since I hadn't heard anything yet.  Found out later that day that she was PLACED AT BARKSTALL!!  Enrollment needed to be completed the following day!  Thank you, GOD for prompting me to call!!!
May 30th: packing like a crazy woman.
June 1st-June 3rd: Entertaining kids while packing (haha) while Kevin paints and cleans the house.
June 4th: MOVING DAY!  Loaded up the kids and took them to Lyila's!  Thanks again, Lyila!  We spent a very long day getting everything done.  But oh what sweet relief to be all the way into our new house.
June 6th to June 11th: Kevin was completely immobilized due to all the lifting and painting and other amazing things he did to get us in our home.
June 11th: I started my summer insanity class.  Life got immediately more nutso since it was my self-appointed job to wear the kids out before I go to class so they'll be napping for the majority of the time I'm gone in the afternoon.  Hello, parks and playgrounds and walks and busyness!
July 3rd to 8th: Embark on our first-ever family vacation to Pensacola, Florida.  We had an amazing time.  The kids did surprisingly well minus a few interstate-induced meltdowns.  So well, in fact, that we're going to make this trip an annual one.  We visited with some of Kevin's friends from his football days at the University of Tennessee on the way back.  They were some of the sweetest people you can imagine.  Can't wait until we see them again in September!  
Today, July 12th: I finished my 5th week of anatomy and physiology today.  Only 3 weeks left.  I can't wait until it's done!!
Up next: Natalie is going to be busy over the next three weeks.  She's at her dad's visiting with her grandparents now through Sunday.  Then next Thursday they'll take her on another trip.  She'll return Monday the 23rd.  We'll have a meeting with her kindergarten teacher on the 24th, and then she starts school either the 25th or 26th!
After that: I officially start NURSING classes (!!!) on August 20th, and Nathan begins HeadStart after Labor Day.  

In between all of these activities, I, along with my dear friend Christine, have been working hard on organizing the mom's ministry at church with a bunch of amazing women.  We have about three to four meetings a month plus phone calls every day or at least every other day.  God is all over this ministry, and we are so so so excited to see the impact of all this hard work in the coming year. 

At the end of last year when I was envisioning how this summer would look, I never pictured any of this.  It's amazing what happens when God lights a passion in my heart for Him and His work, for school, for the vision Kevin and I have for our family, for my future career, for all of it. 

And I'll leave you with some pictures!


Grrrrr....well, I would leave a sampling of pictures over the last few months, but my phone and computer are refusing to cooperate.  I'll get back to this later.  I'm in no mood for finicky technology at the moment! :)

Haircut for Nathan

Grandpa Apfelstadt would be proud

Mmmmmmm....cantaloupe. It was delicious!! But I didn't look nearly as cute eating it as Nola did!

Glasses for Natalie

 

My sweet, grown-up looking girl got glasses on Tuesday.  She is farsighted with an astigmatism, and the optometrist looked at me like I was crazy for not having her in there sooner to get a prescription.  After a few days of sore eyes and a tired and cranky girl, she told me yesterday, "I don't even notice I have glasses on, Mom!"  So glad that the adjustment to glasses was so easy! 

Shaving cream

Good, clean fun.  They had a blast, my table got cleaned, and they had a bath afterwards which left them smelling lovely all day long.

Picnic lunch

They helped make their sandwiches and went out to enjoy a nice picnic together....or at least until the "he touched me!!" stuff started. Sigh.

But hey, at least the picture is sweet.