Kick off to Summer 2016

If you are like our family, this time of year is a very exciting time! The weather keeps getting warms, kids are out of school and it's time for relaxation and more time together! With my husband and I both working out of the home, spending time together as an entire family is tragically difficult. There have been entire seasons and even years of my children's lives where my duties outside of the home have resulted in leaving the house before they are out of bed in the morning and coming back after they have gone to bed. For anyone who has ever been in a similar situation, I am praying for you for strength and courage, because I have never known a more trying situation. Having the opportunity for everyone to have a bit more flexibility in their schedules was something we were so excited about, and we decided we needed to celebrate with a 'Kick Off to Summer' family getaway weekend. Our oldest (my step-son Sebastian) was with his mom for the weekend, so we had to find an activity that would be close enough to drive to easily, would not be extremely expensive and would entertain a six and three year old.. while not making a fourteen your old broken-hearted after missing the weekend. After researching several places, we decided on the Legoland Activity Center located in Schaumburg, IL! For anyone who has been to this location before, they can tell you this place has a lot to offer for a weekend away- close to Chicago, tons of hotels, shops, restaurants, and attractions and reasonably priced. Plus there is IKEA!! Always fun as well.

The kids LOVED Legoland and this was an excellent way for us to spend the day together, laughing, building, exploring and playing together. I am not being compensated in any way for this review- I just genuinely think it was a great place! Very creative and clean but also something we felt we completely explored within 4 hours, which is not too exhausting for parents and/or little ones. This also allowed for time shopping together and spending some much needed relaxation time in the hotel, playing games together and swimming. One of my favorite memories growing up were the trips our family would take to hotels with no other real agenda then to spend time at the pool and hanging out playing games in the hotel room. Always felt like such an adventure growing up and it was just a wonderful warm and glowing feeling being able to pass on that tradition with my little ones this weekend. What a wonderful and fun time we had!

'Adulting': Building a Legacy

One of the areas in my life that have been the most intimidating over the years has been facing the fact that I no longer have the ability to lean on my parents for support. While I have always been an independent spirit and often liked to tell myself that I did not really 'need' my parents, I undoubtedly used their proximity and resources to get myself out of many a pickle in my young adulthood. Somehow labeling this dependence as something else in order to not face the fact that I was not fully taking responsibility for myself, I managed to abuse their assistance without much internal conflict or feelings of guilt. In fact, I was very entitled to my ability to reach out in the darkness for my parents' hands and find them ever-willing and able to take hold and fix my mistakes- or at least make the asphalt a bit more gentle as I smacked down on to the reality of life's consequences.

It wasn't until I became a parent - actually not for several years after becoming a step-parent- that I fully stopped hiding from the relentless call of responsibility that is sometimes affectionately referred to as 'adulting'. I remember being a mouthy and bratty adolescent sitting in the back of my father's Buick Lesabre on one of the hundreds of marathon Sundays spent going from church service to church service and then waiting for what seemed like eternity in the back seat with my sister, bored to tears as my father socialized with many of his church members- and for some reason on this particular day, I felt especially entitled to my father's time and resources. I remember brazenly lecturing my father that once he had children, things stopped being about 'him' and became about his children before everything else. Somehow, my parents did not murder me, but my prophetic words wrapped around my mind like the tingling sensation in your legs after they've fallen asleep and are coming back to life-- 'it isn't about 'you' anymore Lisa.. not even a little bit. You have three children. Get over it and get to work. It's time to be a big kid now.'.

So, forever a social worker first, once resigned that there were no more 'forebearances' I could take on stepping up to the plate full-time on handling this adulthood thing, I decided to 'reframe' the process from something that was conceived of negatively towards a positive opportunity. My optimistic reframing for the task of handling things as an adult (alone with my husband and without reaching out for anyone else to shield or postpone the duty) is that I am accepting the opportunity to develop a wonderful legacy for my children and for generations that may follow in the future. A legacy of responsibility, caution, bravery, promptness, preparedness, sober rationale used to make the best decision possible in situations- a legacy of strength. With any luck, I might be able to create this legacy without sacrificing so many other principles that I also value and also want to be part of the legacy I create. That balance is something I have not mastered yet, but I feel like I'm beginning to understand more each year. So, here's to facing my stuff, with my chin stuck out and with determination in my heart!

Principles Worth Protecting

Thanks for stopping by! My name is Lisa and this blog is my effort to explore the areas of this life that I find mean the most. After spending the first decade of my adulthood jumping from cause to cause, feeling often confused about what I stood for and what this life is actually about, I realized there were some principles and values that remained consistently vital and precious in my life. Faith, the institution of marriage, parenting, the sanctuary of the home, politics, social justice and the need for humility and kindness became evident to be principles that must be protected in my life in order to realize the purpose I believe my creator has for me on this planet.

In many ways, understanding my personal values clearly has been a source of relief as these values serve as a sort of 'litmus test' when making otherwise difficult decisions. In other ways, being committed to specific values has also brought some loss in to my life as I have learned how today's world often seems to welcome passivity and avoidance over passion and honesty. Often I have encountered people or institutions that I have respected and trusted to stand idly by as injustices have taken place, under the guise of 'political correctness'. These observances initially confused me, leaving me to feel baffled and pained as I attempted to resolve the conflict within my mind between my initial perception and the eventual reality of these people and institutions. What did it mean about my on-going involvement with them? How did my belief in the importance of self-determination and the ability to speak and think freely in this world impact my belief in advocacy for social justice or the family? When was it time to step in and when was it really none of my business? I am sure that such conflicts of conscious are not new and have likely troubled many others throughout all of human history, and I take comfort in knowing that I am not alone in feeling unclear, knowing that others have faced the same situation and somehow navigated those murky waters. I also have realized that acknowledging the fact that things are not simple and that there truly are some subjects that cannot be swept under the rug, feels much closer to personal honesty and integrity than any of the years I spent avoiding my role in protecting and preserving certain principles in this world.

Ultimately, this internal journey towards personal understanding and growth has lead me to thirst for more information and insight from others who may be able to guide me further- whether clarifying what is best to do- or not to do- in the future. I have become increasingly dedicated to exploring the insight of others through reading blogs, personal observation, questioning, researching areas I have previously been ignorant about to better understand the world around me and so on. It occurred to me that I ought to pursue a discipline of blogging about this process myself- a practice that could invite feedback and potential insight from others while also allowing me a medium to review my progress and perceptions over time. And thus, this blog was born and I am sitting here today writing this, both excited and skeptical about what may come from clicking 'publish' today. I shall click and see..