Comparison is a Thief.

"Comparison is the thief of JOY." ~Theodore Roosevelt

And yet, I do it. Every day. 

Even though I know it gets me nowhere. NO. WHERE. Well, it gets me somewhere. Just not where I want to be. 
And I don't just do it with material things. Like comparing my house with a bigger one. I compare my mothering with other mothers. My acts of service with others' acts of service. My child with another child. I compare my entire day with a snapshot I see of another mom's day on Instagram. It's never-ending. 
And it robs me of my Joy. My daily successes. My favorite bits of the day. The tiny moments of life meant just for me. It comes silently and rips them from my grip until all I see are my failures. My not so great bits of the day. And a cloud settles over me. It takes my joy and leaves me riddled with guilt and self-pity and "if I'd only." 
But. I have found that comparison sneaks in ONLY when I am seeking the approval of man rather than God. Galatians 1:10 says, "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." How can I serve Christ if I'm constantly comparing my life with someone else's? 
I can't. 
If I continue to compare myself with others, I'll never measure up. Because there's no end to comparison. It goes on and on and on until it completely sucks the joy right out of life. Until there is nothing left, but envy and anxiety and dissatisfaction and resentment.
So I have a choice. I can choose to compare (which is basically like telling God, "hey! This life you gave me? Yeah, it's not good enough so....") and continue to feel empty with each comparison I make. Or I can choose to seek the approval of God and focus on what He wants for me. 
I choose the latter and the happiness and contentment that comes with it. Is it gonna go perfectly? Nope. Probably not. But I'm sure gonna try. 
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Return of the Blog

How do you start a blog post after a 2 year hiatus? I've been wondering that for the past month after I decided it was time to return to blogging. And the only conclusion I've come to is to start off with what's gone on since I stopped blogging in 2013. Here are a few highlights from the past 2 years:

• Sweet P turned 4, then 5 and in two weeks she'll be 6. WHAT?!#^!@ How did this happen?
• Sprout turned 2, then 3 and provides constant comic relief for our family.
• Bud (our 2nd sweet baby boy) joined our family in July of 2014 and we are now a family of 5!
• We started homeschooling at the elementary level - Sweet P will finish our Kindergarten curriculum in a few weeks and she learned to read last fall!
• Sweet P has tried cheerleading, basketball, soccer, choir, art classes, dance classes, gymnastics and continues to love AWANA.
• Sprout started soccer two weeks ago and is now the coach of the green team (according to him).
• Bud army crawls, rolls over and sits up. He's super close to full blown crawling, but I'm not rushing him.
• TK & Uncle EZ moved to Iowa last summer! (yay!)
• Auntie Rosita didn't move to Iowa, but she did become an Ambassador for Noonday Collection & we are SO proud of all she has done with that company.
• Gammie, Nana & Papa Ray Ray still live in their respective areas, although we're slowly (and hopefully but surely) convincing Gammie to move to Iowa.

Much of our life continues to be the same or similar to what it was 2 years ago despite all the changes that have occurred! I'm not exactly sure what the blog will look like from here on out. Most likely a little bit of writing, a little bit of recipes and a little bit of crafty kid projects. I also plan to chronicle our homeschooling journey for the next year to share what we do with friends & family. 

For a long time I didn't miss blogging. It'd gotten to the point where I wasn't doing it for me and it wasn't fun for me anymore. It took too much time and felt very forced at times. My blog had moved from a space for me to write to something else and I'm not sure I liked that something else. So why did I return to blogging? Well, I told the Farmer a few weeks ago that I've felt like I've been in survival mode for the past 2 years and have put a lot of my own interests on the back burner to care for our home & our children. Now that we've gotten to a point where 2/3 of our children are a bit more self-sufficient, I've decided to return to a few hobbies and those include writing and crafting. So here I am. It's been a slow process of getting started again and while this feels awkward and silly, ya gotta start somewhere. So here we go.

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