Summer had just begun and I was asking my friend how it was having her two oldest kids back home from school for the season. As we pushed our kids on the swings, she responded, “You just get into a new rhythm”. This “new rhythm” she was describing was her transition to having her kids home from school for the summer. The school year rhythm wasn’t necessarily better or worse than the summertime rhythm; it was just a change.
Change is something I can relate to. Spring brought the end of my first year of homeschooling a year of preschool with my daughter. It also marked the beginning of becoming a family of six as we welcomed our fourth child.
Spring to Summer
School, along with the sunshine, was out. Our summer mornings began leisurely, our afternoons spent outside, and the pace of my life blissfully slowed down as I held my newborn. I savored this quality time with my family as my husband was on paternity leave. We learned to be spontaneous, but also to sit still.
Some of the moments I cherished most were resting with my newborn daughter and just gazing at her. While not a cakewalk, the postpartum period can be a gift because slowing down really does become a mother’s job. Letting go of the normal busy pace of our family’s life provided me more space to be patient, as well as to be present—something I am not so good at when I’m trying to keep all the balls in the air.
Yes, during summer, I embraced a slower pace, kept our calendar less scheduled, and lived more moment to moment as a newborn baby doesn’t quite have a routine yet. I wouldn’t mind if our new normal continued on for quite some time.
But change was soon to be upon us once again.
From Sitting Still to Speeding Up
As midsummer arrived, and “normal” life started to pick up again, my husband went back to work, the ever-so-helpful meal train was completed, and I was home all day with the kids.
There is, of course, the constant change of a newborn month to month, but come fall, our daughter will also start her first year of being in school five days a week as a full-day kindergartener.
Yes, change is upon us once again.
Thinking about this massive change to our family’s schedule makes my heart start to beat more quickly. How is she going to do having to get ready for school so early in the morning? How are my kids going to handle the hour of commute time we will be doing each afternoon? How am I going to handle the hour of commute time I will be doing each afternoon? The list goes on.
Necessarily, the tempo of our life is going to accelerate. But rather than fear the future, I want to lean into the fall with the disposition of my friend: “You just get into a new rhythm.”
Freshly Sharpened Pencils
As a kid, every summer I participated in a summer reading program at my local library. The prize for reporting on five books was picking out two brand new, unsharpened pencils from the dozens and dozens of options they had in their super-sized pencil compartment. Every single week I imagined what pencil I might pick out next, and I saved them all together to be used for the next school year. Then, when the lead of my pencil was sharpened to a fine point, it seemed the possibilities were endless. The perfect, unmarked pages of my school notebooks marked a new beginning, and it was invigorating to get started.
Over the years, my childlike wonder for the world has become slightly tainted with my fears. But what if instead of just reflecting on the nostalgia of the younger me, imagining those feelings as preserved only for the past, what if I could catch hold of that awe once again?
Structure and Flexibility
My perfect morning is a picture of me getting out of bed early, feeling refreshed and ready to pray. Prayer time would be followed by a workout, which would conveniently conclude with the waking of my children. Breakfast would be prepped the night before, and a peaceful meal together would ensue. If I could build the structure, this would be the foundation. That would be the itinerary my freshly sharpened pencil would start to write.
Yet this fall, God is inviting me to hit the reset button once again. He’s not telling me that my hopes are not worth pursuing, but that I need to loosen my grip on how everything gets done.
- Maybe my prayer time stays the same, but my workout happens after bedtime.
- Maybe my kids wake up earlier than expected, but God pours out the grace to pivot with patience.
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Maybe I have to make weekly meal planning and grocery shopping a greater priority so I’m not scrambling for what to cook each day.
I don’t have the answers for what the picture of fall will look like, but right now, I don’t think I’m supposed to. I’m just supposed to lean into the newness of it all, and take each day as it comes. The Lord wants me to trust in Him and look forward with hope.
As Lamentations 3:21-23 reminds us, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Whatever you have in mind for your fall reset, know that even when your day doesn’t go as planned, great is His faithfulness and His love never ceases. He is with you all the ti
Susanna Parent is a regular contributor to the BIS blog, speaker and a freelance writer. While a Wisconsin native, she now begins her mornings brewing French press coffee in the home she shares with her husband and children in the Twin Cities. When the sun sets, you’ll find her with friends enjoying a glass of red wine, preferably outside underneath twinkly lights. When not exploring all that the Twin Cities has to offer, she is indulging her wanderlust spirit by brainstorming their family's next new adventure. You can find out more about her here. Read all of Susanna's posts here.
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