You know those 'day in the life of' type articles or tv shows?  Have you ever dreamed of creating your own perfect 'day in the life of you' scenario?  A few blogs back, I had a dream about being put on Wife Swap so I had to fill in our 'household manual'.  As I said then, my day was completely 'do able'.  Then of course, the busyness of life and then illness got in the way of my eagerness to make my dream a reality.

Normally, this would mean that I simply didn't do it.  I'd just skip the idea and trudge through our average days doing average things and missing out on what could be extraordinary.  Typical.  Very typical.  But I'm tired of being typical.  I want to thoroughly enjoy this life!

On one of the eBay boards, a woman was talking about how she's separating from her husband and how it hurt her to do it but she wasn't going to live 'like this' anymore.  While she did get a few people who encouraged her to make sure she did everything in her power to make it work, to ask for counseling, to try to see if she could try a bit more... she got a lot of predictable advice.

"Life is too short to be miserable.  You're doing the right thing."

"You shouldn't have to live the only life you get unhappy and unsettled."

"You deserve a fresh start before your life runs away from you."

This isn't about whether divorce is right or wrong.  Those who know me know exactly what I would have said to this woman if she'd ASKED for advice about whether or not she should do this.  But those comments apply to ALL of us in a certain sense.  (and on the other hand, are so irrelevant.  Who cares about the few fleeting years here when we have eternity with a loving Father to look forward to!)

Life is too short for me to live with mediocrity.  I need to live with excellence!  I need to succeed in more ways than one.  I am a wife.  Am I a good one?  Does my husband's heart 'safely trust in me'?  I don't think he's worried that I'll send him to debtors prison or that we'll not eat next week because I gambled away his paycheck but have I made being married the best decision that he ever made?  Have I made him, by my actions, attitudes, and appreciation, love being married... to ME?

I am a mother.  What will my children remember about their mother?  That she liked to read?  That she liked to write?  That she liked to sew?  That she spent hours on the internet?  Probably.  In and of themselves, this won't be bad... but will they know how much I enjoyed having them around?  Will they remember me as the one who taught them to read, and who explained the wonders of creation to them?  Will they remember pig tails and pretty dresses on crisp fall mornings or watermelon and lemonade on lazy hot summer evenings?  Will they remember chores and bedtimes or will they remember games and silly songs, and last minute dashes to the store for root beer float fixings too?

I am a Christian.  Can people tell?  Does the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells me show in my thoughts, actions, and attitudes? Is my life infused with the Word so thoroughly that it drips from every pore?  I want that kind of immersion into the Word.  I need it.

I am a children's clothing designer and seamstress.  I LOVE what I do.  I enjoy it.  It gives me that feeling of accomplishment that I can't get as a wife/mother/homemaker/homeschooler.  Most of what I do in the home is undone quite quickly.  Dishes are used and then cleaned, only to be used again.  Hair is brushed, fixed, played in and then a mess again.  Toilets can be scrubbed but one more use means that it is no longer clean!  I can make a marvelous dinner but 20 minutes later, surprise surprise, we no longer have a dinner.  IT's gone.  And tomorrow, another one will be required.  I can make new little wardrobes for my little misses... and guess what?  They'll get stained, worn out, torn, and grown out of before my very eyes!  But when I make an ensemble for eBay, design a line for Cherry Tree, or even make a simple jumper for a beloved customer, I only see it in its perfect state.  It leaves my home clean, pressed, accented, and without the flaws that constantly pop up in our daily clothing. 

If I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this life... all of the past blogs are going to have to be more than scribblings of the thoughts that flit through my brain.  They're going to have to be put into action.  I'm going to have to LIVE them.  I'm going to have to put life into them by being a 'doer' rather than a 'writer only'.  (please forgive the 'twist' of scripture there!)  I can talk about it all day.  I can write about it for weeks on end.  Will I put shoes on my words and get them moving? 

Well, I learned from a book by Lawanna Blackwell once that trying to change my life in one day (my 'natural' response) is not possible OR wise.  But, I can change today.  TODAY I can make a difference.  Today I can live how I want every day to be lived.  Today I can be the person I want to be.  Today I can be the person I've always dreamed of being.  I can be ME... but still make the decisions and have the attitudes that will be the first step toward that dream life that I keep envisioning.

I don't have to make a 180 degree turn.  This isn't actual repentance.  I don't need to be the perfect wife, mother, Christian, and the next Coco Chanel TODAY... but baby steps.  I can do one thing to make my husband see how important he is to me.  I can do 9 little things for each of my children that can be deposited into their memory savings banks.  I can read a portion of the Word that I haven't read in a long time and I can get these samples finished to ship to the first trunk show.

Adios.