My doula business has been hopping, which has been really great! I used to be very concerned with spacing my clients apart and even used to just take only one client a month. Then I had some interesting experiences where twice (three times now), I had 3 women due within a week and was able to attend all three births and on the other hand had two clients due 27 days apart who both had their baby on the same day. I am now far less concerned with limiting the number of clients that I take that are due around the same time. Birth is one of those things we can never control or anticipate, so I trust God to work out my schedule. From mid-September to mid-October this year I had requests from 7 women to be their doula; I ended up turning two of them down because I knew that was just TOO much, but I did take on the other 5 women. I missed one birth because the baby was three weeks early and I was finishing up my summer holidays (note to doulas...pagers and cell phones do not work at Cyprus Lake), but the timing of the other births worked out beautifully; what a blessing!!
This fall we were struggling to figure out what to do for activities with the kids and finally decided on swimming lessons as well as clubs for the kids: Gems for Izzy, Cadets for Obi and Sparks for Lyric, they are loving their groups! Joel has joined the Oldtimers league here (laughable title considering he's only 34 years old ;) and he is loving that. I take NIA classes whenever I can while were at the Y for swimming. We haven't made it back to karate and are a little sad about that, but we also don't want to cram so much in that we have no down-time as a family.
Here are some pics of family dance time:
Joel and I couldn't stop laughing when we picked up the Loverboy hits album from our younger days at the library and put it on at home, the kids were rocking out and thought that the music rocked!! Hilarious :) They especially loved when we slow-danced to "Almost Paradise", totally mocking the way we would have danced at those high school dances (not with each other of course because we hadn't met yet)...fun times.We have been loving having church in our home and can't believe that our church turns THREE years old on November 4th already!! It's hard to believe. God has been so good and we have enjoyed growing as disciples together and also seeing new people joining as God has brought them to us. Such a beautiful thing :)
One of my regular scheduled meetings during the week are my trips to Bartliffs to meet with my coffee group (of which I am at least two decades younger than anyone else in the group). This wonderful group of ladies have been such a blessing to me and my whole family and I have appreciated being accepted into their group. I look forward to the mornings when I can make it out for coffee with the group. Lyric has been missing her "Mommy days" now that she is full time at school, but on their first PD day we took the whole family to Bartliffs so she could see all of her Bartliff Grammas and Grampas again and hand out her artwork to them all. So beautiful to see her (and the other two kids) embraced by the seniors groups there. For the first 5 years we lived in Clinton we never thought we'd feel accepted or at home here, but our Bartliffs family has been a big part of making us feel like welcome members in the community and we love them!
The other great blessing for us has been having another family from town that is our age join our church. So beautiful to have them sharing the mission with us in our own community; I prayed for this for years and years and God has been so good to answer.
Hope you are all doing well, I won't promise that I will blog more frequently (I've been having problems getting into my account since changing e-mails), but I will do my best.
Many blessings & happy Fall to everyone,
Mel
3 comments:
Awh, Mel don't worry about the teen years you guys will do a great job. I found that with each stage you are ready to take on the new challenges. You grow with your kids. I think it would be a different story if you went from baby to teenager.
I share the same sentiments as Jane, the teenage years are great, each stage gives you different challenhes but it's great to watch your kids grow into adults.
Mel, I loved reading this update on your life. I think of the commitment you guys made to stay in Clinton, believing that God wanted you to invest your lives there, and how He has blessed you all in so many ways since. I can't wait to see what happens in the next chapter as you pour out your lives so faithfully. Love you.
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