Career Planning

I belong to a private FB group for my 30th high school reunion which is coming up this fall.  I'm not very active there because I'm kinda busy here at home, but someone posted a clipping from an old school newspaper the other day that was very interesting.  It was a list of seniors with their response to the question:  What do you want to be when you grow up?

As I scrolled down the list, not knowing if my name would be on the incomplete list, I tried to remember what I might have said.  I fully expected it to say Lawyer since I remember discussing the same question in English class that year.  Evidently, I only wanted to marry a Lawyer since, when I found my name, it said, "A Mommy."

I was honestly floored that I said such a thing, not because it wasn't true, but because it seems like such a lame thing to say to another senior in high school where we are all trying desperately to be cool.  At least, I was! I certainly never thought that I meant it times 6, either.  I can only think that the reporter who asked me must have been a good friend that I wouldn't have felt judged by.

I've been a mom for over 23 years now, if you count the months of that first pregnancy---and I definitely do---and this career of mine has shaped me in more ways than I would have thought possible.  No, we don't have to go into the physical shaping, or reshaping, that has occurred.  Suffice it to say that I'm no longer the willowy 21 year-old that I was on my wedding day!

I have learned over and over to put my own needs last, until I crashed and saw that I needed to put my needs a little higher up on the list.  I've seen how much easier it becomes to do without the things I think I need or want when the children have more urgent needs. (Easier, not easy)  Or when the needs and goals of the family as a whole dictate what we do.

Most importantly, I've learned that I don't do any of this mothering on my own.  I've been lucky enough to have an awesome husband who comes from an awesome family and has had a pretty good handle on  how a family runs.  I've also discovered along the way that the Almighty and his Blessed Mother are pretty indispensable while parenting:  someone to tell all my troubles to, someone to ask beg help from, someone to emulate.

I'm going to be leaning on Them a lot more in the coming days (and years) as the first one leaves the nest this week, and we begin the first full week of our homeschool year.  How can it be that at one time I had 6 children at home, with the oldest in 8th grade and no end to it in sight, and now I have only 2 students, and 4 years left of my homeschooling career?

I can't help but wonder what career God has planned for me next!