When the Kids Are Away....

Our kids went to Bible camp this past Sunday afternoon. They will be gone until Saturday morning. 

It's been wonderful to have a break from the normal bustle that I'm use to.

It's been quiet. 

At times it's been a bit boring.

I've cleaned a few neglected areas of the house and tackled a few projects I have been putting off. 

Josh and I have taken this opportunity to reconnect and just enjoy each others' company. 

We've gone to Cedar Key and fished until 2am. 

Once I slept 14 hours straight.

I ate breakfast when I wanted and ate lunch when I wanted. One night my husband ate Cheet-o's for dinner. 

Our kids are in the next town over, and we've seen them twice. (The youth pastor does have a responsibility of checking in on the kids a few times) They are having a blast and don't seem to miss us *too* much. 

This week has been like a little marriage retreat at home, and I highly recommend sending the kids to camp once during the summer.

I'll leave you with a parting shot of the shark Josh caught while we were at Cedar Key. It was just right for dinner for two the next night!

~Jen

remember ladies: it's easy to follow the wide path, but it takes courage to walk the narrow way.

remember ladies: it's easy to follow the wide path, but it take courage to walk the narrow way. - See more at: http://narrowwaywifeblog.blogspot.com/#sthash.rs2nyun5.dpuf

remember ladies: it's easy to follow the wide path, but it take courage to walk the narrow way. - See more at: http://narrowwaywifeblog.blogspot.com/#sthash.rs2nyun5.dpuf

remember ladies: it's easy to follow the wide path, but it take courage to walk the narrow way. - See more at: http://narrowwaywifeblog.blogspot.com/#sthash.rs2nyun5.dpuf

Generations of Housekeeping

Recently I've had many conversations with women about housekeeping. It seems that with stay at homes and working moms alike, there is a trend of letting our houses go. It now is looked upon as having OCD if you continually keep a clean home, if you just can't relate to the messes and chaos that accompanies this new mentality.

Now let's rewind time about 50 years. 

 
Back to my granny. She was primarily a stay at home mother. There were times when she would work part time at a store, but for the most part she was at home, caring for her husband and 4 children. I didn't know her back then of course, I was not even a possibility yet, with my dad being about 10 at this time. My granny was what one would call a neat freak. She scrubbed all her floors by hand, upheld a rigorous schedule of waxing those spotless floors, dusting the many nicknacks she owned and never leaving dishes sit in the sink more than a few hours. By the time I came along, she was still as neat and dedicated to keeping her home. 

And now let's go back 25 years from now. 

I'm 7 years old. My mother, like my granny, has 4 children running around. Along with a menagerie of pets; rabbits, dogs, cats, birds. Never could a mess be found in her home. Always tidy. Always clean. The difference between her and my granny? A full time job. My mother almost always worked outside the home. And yet, she still found time to keep up with house. 

My own housekeeping journey has been a long and winding road. I did not get the clean gene that my ancestors seem to have been born with, it must skip 5 generations. Instead I got a lazy gene. Struggling to keep up with even the smallest of household chores. My own transformation in the "OCD" neat freak that I am now has been a recent transformation. As in the last 4 years it has slowly unfolded. And it's still coming out. I have so many areas to improve.

So what then, has 25 years done to women? Where did the pride that a clean home once garner go to? Did it go the way of hosting afternoon teas and weeknight Canasta? I think it DID go that way. Because we don't host as many people in our homes, we are more tempted to let things go. We don't keep up a state of "company ready" because we know it's not as likely that we will get company on such a regular basis. 

Think about it. What do you do when you get a call that your mother in law is coming over in an hour? Make a mad dash, tossing dirty clothes under the cabinets and shoving all the dishes out of site in the dishwasher? Yelling at kids to quickly pick up their clothes and toys? Frantically running the vacuum?  

Come on ladies. Stay at home and working alike. Get your priorities straight. Work first, then play. Let's take pride in our homes. May they always be company ready, no matter how far and in between we get company.

~Jen

remember ladies: it's easy to follow the wide path, but it take courage to walk the narrow way.

Oh the Difference a Year Makes

When I left off, we were working towards heading to the Philippines to be full time missionaries. Fast forward one year and things have changed a bit! So for those of you who have been here since "before"...let me get you a bit up to speed.

Last August our pastor went out of town for the weekend (now mind you, the Pastor is Josh's dad, and his immediate family, our family and a few extended family made up the congregation, so when preacher goes on vacation, so does everyone else!) 

At the very last minute, we decided to visit a Baptist church down the road from where we lived. We walked in on Sunday morning and lo and behold Josh spots his cousin up in the choir! Seeing the small world of North Central Florida that we live in, and the relative size of Josh's family, this really isn't a surprise. We thoroughly enjoy the service, get our cup filled with great preaching and wonderful fellowship. The following Sunday is the church's homecoming so we get invited to the service and dinner afterward. We give our regrets on the service, our own pastor will back and we are dedicated to our church home. We did however, upon insistence of the pastor of the new church, go and share in the fellowship meal following the homecoming service. Oh how Baptists love a good meal!

The following week, Josh's dad announces that the church will be closing it's doors and strongly encouraged us to continue going to church we visited. And so we did. 

The new church was actively searching for a Youth Pastor/Director and it was brought up several times that this might be something for Josh to pursue. We were actively preparing to go on the mission field though, recently signing with a missions service agency and all. We weren't sure how this position would fit into our plans. Note: I said OUR plans. 

In the next few weeks we officially joined the church and took a few turns leading the Sunday night youth service. With the support of our pastor, Josh formally applied for the job. We went through 2 interviews and continued working with the youth along side the other parents in the church. We prayed continually that God's will be done and in the end, it was. Josh was welcomed as the new Youth Pastor, which unbeknownst to us at first, was a paid position with the church. This would be the first "official" ministry job on Josh's resume. (although we both have been informally ministering to children for years now)

So what about missions you ask? Well, it folded up neatly and easily, as we hadn't made any unbreakable ties. We had always wondered why it seemed to take us so long to get financial support, and this proved to be it. GOD's PLAN was different than our own! 

We live in a different place now than we did a year ago, we rent a home on a sod farm. I have my chickens again, and my garden. 

I'm still a stay at home mom, Josh still has his day job working in biotechnology. We still home school our children, and we still love our Lord! 

~Jen

remember ladies: it's easy to follow the wide path, but it take courage to walk the narrow way.

Welcome Back to the new Narrow Way Wife

It's been a while!

You won't find any of the old content here. I've started fresh. New layout, new posts. New perspective.

Where did I go?

I went home.

God spoke to me about the amount of time I was spending online. (this seems to be a constant struggle for me) So after a year of growing the blog and pouring out my heart to my readers, I closed the door and walked back home.

Home to my husband, who always supported my writing, and so graciously overlooked the state of the house when I was blogging (about been a good housewife!).

Home to my children, who didn't mind that mama wasn't as attentive to their schooling. Hey, it gave them more time to watch TV and play. After all, mama was busy blogging (about being a good mother!)

Most importantly I went back home to my Jesus! I spent less time writing about Him and more time reading about Him.

So, why am I back? Because I feel ready. Ready to balance my life a bit better. Ready to walk away from the computer when I am needed elsewhere. Because I no longer care about stats. If I get one follower or one thousand, I will write what's on my heart and pray that it's a blessing to someone.

So with that said, I hope to be an encouragement. Because let's face it...it's easy to follow the wide path, but it take courage to walk the narrow way.