December 18, 2008
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What does lack of sleep do to you? I get very grumpy and scatterbrained. My children have been sick with colds now for what seems like forever. That, of course, means long nights sometimes. Poor Jackson coughed so hard this morning he threw up. God…..please give us good health again. For some reason I get really “down” when my children get sick. I think maybe one reason is that I can’t do anything to make them feel better. Probably another reason is that I am selfish…they are very needy…always wiping snotty noses etc., takes time. It really takes a toll on my day when Jill is always hanging on my skirt and Jackson needs his nose wiped every other minute. Right now I am trying to do a million other things. Maybe God allowed this to happen for a reason. Maybe he wants me to slow down and take time for my children. Maybe this year it’s not important to do all the things that “I” want to do. Being a mother is really about laying down your life for your children. If that means no cute little plates of cookies and candy for our friends then I guess I will be OK with that. Christmas candy and cookies aren’t healthy anyways (absolutely not judging anyone)(I have eaten my fair share already). That brings up another subject. Poor children in Haiti have to eat dirt, why should I scramble around buying this and that and baking like there’s no tomorrow? This Holiday Season I have been having a real struggle in my mind about “stuff”. Do you ever look around your house and think about how “nice” we have it. Heat and hot water and a flush toilet are extravagant in most countries. These are just things we expect. Where do you think the balance is? How do we live a simple, modest life? I don’t think we have to be miserly. I love to buy gifts and give. I especially like to give things to my husband and children that I know will please them. The Yoder side of the family are not going to exchange gifts this year. My Dad’s idea was to give all of the money that we would have spent on gifts to some mission or family in need. When I first heard this idea I didn’t really like it because as I said before I really like to give gifts and in turn I really like when someone takes the time to pick out a gift for ME!
I do think it’s a good idea. My husband always reminds me that we need to store up treasures where neither moth nor dust doth corrupt.
This week I have really been having a hard time with city life again. I suppose it’s partly due to a loss of precious sleep. It also has to do with circumstances (which I know shouldn’t affect me the way they do). I have been trying to change my name from Yoder to Good for quite awhile now. I am a procrasinator to the max! Don’t ask me why I didn’t do it when it should have been done….namely 7 years ago right after we got married. We are flying to Guatamala in February so I am trying to update my passport with my new “Good” name and my drivers license.
I think I have my passport conquered but my license are another story. The other day I collected all of my CORRECT paperwork and headed to the license branch to become Mrs. Tonya Good on that little piece of paper. Well, the lady working the desk decided I wasn’t going to be Tonya Good that day or any other day until I have a proper marriage license. Mind you I had it in my hand as legal as legal can be. Talk about frustrating….I don’t know what lessons I am supposed to learn except my husband says I need to be more aggressive. I obviously was a little aggresive because she told me to calm down and calm my crying child down…..what nerve!
Anyway, this is turning into way more than I ever intended. In spite of everything I wrote on here I feel like God has given me the grace to “survive”. Although, I don’t think he wants us to just survive. I am grateful for his unfailing love. By the way, I hope I didn’t offend anyone and it wasn’t my intention to be judgemental at all! Just some things to think about.
Merry Christmas from the Goods!
Comments (11)
aw, that was both touching and funny!! THANKS for sharing, ton.i would love to talk to you again. i can identify with a lot of what you had to say especially about finding a good balance in simplicity. i have really been trying to practice thankfulness and gratefullness this year and that has brought me a lot of joy. i`m not sure if that`s part of it or not?
say, are we hitting the cabin this year? that would be a ton of fun.
wow, that was a heartfelt post and I connected with alot of it. thanks.
we are so blest & maybe don’t realize it,we take it that this is the way its gona be all the time ,but who knows what 2009 will hold?its in Gods hands,and we need not worry or fret,but we do tend to do just that.good post there mrs good!!!–see ya next week,drive safely!!!–auntie alm
Oh my. I can feel your pain. Hang in there. Most likely, in 10 years you will either have forgotten the trauma of the week, or you’ll look back and chuckle a little. I have to remind myself of that too. Yesterday wasn’t so good. Thankfully, Priya slept better last night, so I’m anticipating a better day for all of us.
Hey Ton, Loved hearing what is on your heart! As for your poor coughing child…..I don’t know if he has the same type of cold as my little boy (& me), but the option I found was a very small dose of Benadryl. He hasn’t had like a real bad nasty cold, excpet for uncontrollable coughing! At night especially he would cough till I’d wonder about him and then end up gagging till I thought he was going to throw up. I guess his throat was itchy and benadryl helped with that, so I’d give it to him at night and at least he and I could both sleep better. Seems like the more I coughed that worst my cold got and this helps to ward it off. So I hope you all will be feeling better soon and wish you a Merry Christmas filled with the things that REALLY count! :]
thanks for sharing this, sister! you know you are caught up in the wrong Christmas spirit when you ask your children what Christmas is really about and the one answers with “snowmen”. I have been feeling the same way this year with trying to find a good balance with all that goes on. I hope you kids are up and jumping soon! i can hardly wait until next week! fun times with the yoder family again!!!!
beautiful family!
Hey Tonya, your post cracked me up with the lil lady telling you to calm down, the season must be stressing everyone out, sears portrait studio threatened to call security one me! and I’m still Martin on somethings. Hoover on others and Martin Hoover on more! something with getting married, changing states, one thing has to be in order for the other one to be okayed – whatever! and I do Anitas trick with benedryl too, I always asume it’s from the erratic weather. Your family pic is gorgeous! Merry Christmas
as a side note, I’m on here blowing time, waiting for the washer to finish emmas sheets, she just threwup. hope your little ones are feeling better soon ~ Jan
So I’m not the only one who puts off stuff like changing drivers license? I still have a KY one from 5 yrs ago…. Kept putting off changing it because i somehow had this idea that changing my drivers license put a permanency on living in the North….I guess you dealing with city life is me dealing with cold Northern life away from family.. I’ve been thinking alot too about the balance of life…Thinking about it as i keep collecting more “stuff”. sigh.
Oh tell me all about the snotty noses right now!! I’m so tired of it. Hoping FL will be a good cure.