Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Keepin' Up with the Jones' in Suburbia

So here it is.  Let's get really open and honest.

I live in a nice neighborhood.  Certainly not starter homes but not mansions either.  We have a nice school down the street.  We have community pools and several other nice amenities.  A typical nice suburbia neighborhood.

When I changed schools to be in the district in which I live and for my boys to attend the neighborhood school I envisioned something along the lines of an updated version of Ward and June Cleaver.  Normal families with normal jobs.  Normal kids with normal evening activities.  Go to church on Sundays.

Some of that is true for every family and maybe even all of it for others.

Here is what I have learned in roughly 6 weeks of attending various activities in my daily life.


  1. My pastor is right.  It is harder to be a Christian in Suburbia than in a far off deserted place with minimal resources.  The temptations to find things to fill your soul are endless.  When you have nothing but God you tend to spend a lot more time with him as opposed to random activities that give the allusion that your family "has it all".  I find it more of a struggle to come to HIM now in a better financial and living situation than when I was a single mom living on frozen chicken nuggets.  We try to manage everything.  Especially the things out of our control.
  2. School parent meetings.  When you are a teacher but attending as a parent you are in a very sticky situation.  You are there to be an involved and concerned mother.  Prepared to host parties, cut out laminated posters, and collect box tops.  As a teacher you watch the blood bath that is crazy parents and you have to fight every urge to not come across the table and choke the other mother who does nothing more than live on her elliptical machine that faces the front window.  It is the real Desperate Housewives.  If you enjoy that kind of brain candy go volunteer at your kids' school, you will be in diabetic coma by the end of it.
  3. Problems.  Every one has them.  What goes on behind the door of a two story stone faced brick home is no different then the government apartments down the street.  Families are in turmoil and struggling.  Food, finances, time at work, time at home, raising children, and activities are being juggled behind every closed door to some degree or another with varying severity.
  4. Teaching is hard.  No matter where you are.  The emails don't stop.  The meetings are regular and irregular all at the same time.  Kids are learning.  Documents are piling up.  There are challenges everywhere.  The grass is not necessarily greener on either side.  It is just a different kind of grass.  Every yard has its issues and a beautiful shaded part.
  5. Change will grow and break you.  For some reason I feel like this year has been a bit of an upheaval in our lives.  My new job and the boys starting a new school.  I feel completely right in the decision to change both of those last year.  Sometimes waiting to see God's plan is frustrating.  The waiting game has never been anything I am good at.  I am by nature a very impatient person.  Most of the time in my life when bigger changes were made I felt broken during the process.  Struggling and drowning.  Waiting to understand the journey but in the end He always reveals to me exactly my purpose.  Often times waiting for that moment takes every ounce of my being, but my hope is in Him and His plan.
  6. I am imperfect.  Not just a little imperfect but completely flawed.  I think we all are.  But my intense desire to keep up with the Jones' at work, at home, at my children's school, in my craft room, etc....  The list goes on.  I need to stop trying to kill myself to attain perfection but be very judicious with the time and talents I have and reach out to others with varying time and talents to supplement my own short comings.  I hate asking for help.  I think because of the years I was pulling myself up by the boot straps I try to be very independent.  Maybe I should work on that.  Along with an ever growing laundry list.
  7. My fat girl habits are coming back.  I eat and drink way too much coffee when I am stressed.  For that very reason I will be enjoying a liquid diet next week to remind my brain and body that we all need to be on the same team fighting for the same cause.
So that is all for this evening.  My postings have been sporadic at best.  Life has caught up with me but the cathartic-ness of blogging is ever so sweet when it happens.  To all my other go-getters and peeps trying to #GetOnMyLevel, keep at it your life and the ones around you are worthy of your efforts.