Seasons Change

This post is by Tami Rodriguez.

Seasons come and seasons go so they say. 

As a wife and mother, I’m not sure I ever thought much about seasons. Life often felt like one unending day. I’d make a meal, serve a meal, clean up a meal…repeat repeat repeat. I’d do laundry and do laundry and do laundry. Nothing felt very significant or noteworthy. Yes, I was raising kids to be “Kingdom builders” and trying to equip them to have an impact on this world—but often that felt like little bits of time in the midst of mundane monotony. I do remember looking back at times and thinking, “Oh we’re officially done with sippy cups” or “Wow! I don’t have to bring a diaper bag with me anymore!” When I had those realizations, THEN I would become aware that a season had come and gone without warning…but it was not without stress! Those days of lost gross sippy cups (you know it’s happened to us all!) or getting somewhere and realizing I hadn’t restocked wipes added stress to my days. But it’s a stress that does not last, and I’m realizing that’s true in most parenting and life in general!

Being unaware that the stress we’re feeling won’t last forever can be very discouraging. In a world I’m constantly told to “practice being present,” one way I’m trying to do that better is by being aware of seasons. For example, if you would’ve talked to me a year ago, I was frazzled and overwhelmed. My son was diagnosed with Epilepsy at 17 and what we didn’t know was it would take until he was 20 to get it fully under control. That meant I spent a lot of my days driving him to work, activities and appointments that any “normal” high school graduate would do themselves while still keeping up with my younger kids' activities as well.  I never slowed down long enough to think about the fact that this was not going to be forever. It felt like forever, just like sleepless nights or potty training seems like it will never end—but it does.

I want to be more conscious of the difficulties I am facing and start asking myself some simple questions. Questions like, how long is this likely to last? Is it necessary? Is there anything I can do to make it easier in the meantime?  Going back to the diaper bag example—how long will it last? Until my youngest is about 3, maybe 4. Is it necessary? Yup! What can I do in the meantime to make it easier? I can have a certain day of the week I check and restock my bag. I can also have an emergency box in my car that has a change of clothes, wipes etc to cover me just in case. 

During our new Epilepsy challenges, I wish I would’ve asked these same questions because even though I didn’t know how long it would last, looking back I can see there were some things I could have done to make it easier on myself. I’m also recognizing that sometimes you just have to ride out seasons and difficulties. If you choose to stay home with your kids, finances are most likely going to be an issue that may not have a full solution until kids are grown or you go back to work. For us, with growing kids we are running out of space, but we know in a few short years they’ll be moving out and we’ll have more space than we know what to do with. This is not a problem worth “solving” by moving right now, we can simply ride out this season of life.  

As you walk through your own difficult days, try asking yourself some questions. Slow down and put into perspective what you are going through and see if you can find some ways to be less overwhelmed in both thought and practice until this season passes. Simply being aware that this is not forever can bring a lot of peace to your current situation. 

Tami Rodriguez has been married to her high school sweetheart for 30 years and has 5 children plus a lovely daughter in law! She has homeschooled for 20 years and still has 5 more to go...send coffee! Tami is a lifelong learner who loves to study God’s Word and share with others whenever given the opportunity.  You can find her living life as “just a mom who likes to write” over on instagram @rodfamily007.

Photo by reihane haririzade on Unsplash