What's in a Name

This blog has been through a couple of name changes over the last few years as I've entered new seasons of life. It started as "Living as a Christian Woman in a Fallen World," then "My Life as a Christian Wife and Mom," and now "Looking Well."

I call my blog "Looking Well" not because I feel this is a strength of mine but because in this season of my life, my main focus (second to the Lord, of course) is learning to "look well" to the ways of my household, that is balancing two young children, a husband, and managing the household. It has definitely been a process of trial and error. I did not learn to manage a household as a child. I grew up in a home where academics and "not being dependent on a man" were emphasized. My mom was still responsible for 99% of the housework despite working a full-time job, while my father would generally come home and relax. After a hard day at school and doing homework (and being the bratty little thing that I was), I decided that if my dad got to relax, so did I. I pouted, stalled, and often overtly defied my parents' requests for help around the house and anything I did do was with an extremely poor attitude. Man, is that past sinfulness coming back to bite me now.

Learning to balance my roles as Christian, wife, mother, and home manager has honestly been more difficult than I ever imagined it would be. College and grad school PALE in comparison. I figured out a system for myself in a relatively short period of time and the system worked. Because I lived on my own and had nobody else to worry about, my natural Type A, perfectionistic bent (i.e. if I'm going to do anything, I'm going to make sure I do it "right") was actually an asset. Being a stay-at-home mom has so many other variables, that I frequently find myself overwhelmed because things RARELY go "as planned." When that happens I frequently end up eating several loaves of "the bread of idleness." If I can't do it right, then I will put it off until I can. This, of course leads to things piling up. Thankfully, the Lord has been working on me. I've made a home management binder (since no other planner I've tried to use has been just right :P) and it has definitely been helping keep me more on-track, but I'm still so far from where I want to be. I know I need to be patient and let the Lord work.

Oh well, I have a little girl here who is asking for her pre-bed snack, so I guess I had better wrap this up.

Mrs. P.

I'm linked up at Raising Homemakers  Serving Joyfully's Thriving Thursdays