Summertime, enter life as a stay at home wife...

These past couple of weeks have been wonderful. I've thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my parents, niece and nephews. My back continues to improve daily and I have no doubt that before the summer is over, I'll be fully repaired.

I returned to my doctor yesterday for my two-week recovery visit. He wrote out a prescription for me to begin physical therapy 2-3 times a week. I called today and made an appointment with one of the physical therapy businesses in my town.

I also called and set up a conference with a OB doctor in our town. Hopefully, we can get pregnant this summer and enlarge our family even more. Keep your fingers crossed for us on this account.

But let me tell you more about happenings up here in North GA. This week was the first week of summer vacation for the children. As a result, I offered to keep my niece during the day while my Momma finished up post-planning, & my sister, and Daddy worked.

We had so much fun, and as the week continued it only got better. Monday, Momma, Daddy and I vent out to a park for a family fun day. We met up with my nephew and his half sister and brother and parents. It was so much fun. I got icecream for the children and they had a blast playing, bouncing and getting balloon animals.

Tuesday, Annie and I met up with Jenni and her children at a park. Then Annie and I decided to follow their game plan for a while. In other words, we went to the library and then headed out the lake (beach) for a nice afternoon.

Later that afternoon, I decided it was time to head home and start supper. It just seemed right to me that since I've been feeling so much better that I should take on some of the responsibilities of the household as well. So from Tuesday onward, I cooked the meals, and helped to keep the household clean.

Wednesday night, this went a bit further and I helped my nephews get their bath and get ready to go to sleep. I tried my best to help them get to sleep, but unfortunately this was one of the evenings that they were determined not to do so. Even my parents had problems getting them to sleep...and that's unusual.

This morning, my family began making their final preparations to head out to Charleston for my cousin's wedding. Amazingly we got all of the children packed up and headed in the proper directions.

Yet, again I found myself feeling like a stay at home Mom. I helped the boys get dressed, brushed my niece's hair. Confirmed for my Mom that the clothes for each of the children looked acceptable, packed up snacks and games for the ride and kissed them each good bye.

The hardest part, of course, is that I won't be here when they get home. My husband is traveling up from South Georgia to take me home. Now, we'll stay here for a little bit...but nonetheless our departure time occurs before my parents, niece and nephews return.

So it will be different when I head back down to south Georgia, but I'm determined to fully embrace being a stay at home wife this summer. No there won't always be children to care for, but there will be fun things to do...and hopefully frugal ones since Josh and I are making plans to save money for various events that will be taking place in the fall.

Thus, far I've come up with a basic daily schedule and allocated time for free days each week. Plus, I've to find out when my family is traveling to Arkansas. I am going to tag along and spend some time with my Great-Aunt. I look forward to writing down family stories...so that these will be more easily able to be passed down through the generations.

And I'm looking forward to having my family visit with Josh and me during this summer. I want to take my niece and nephews to the parks (water and regular) around our town. Hopefully, each of the three will be able to spend some time with us. I just know that we'll all have a wonderful time when they visit.

Speaking of visits, I have to admit that one of my favorite parts about this trip has been spending time with my friend Jenni. Jen, is also a stay at home wife/mom. And you know, once I began being able to drive again (after the surgery) we've seen each other just about every day of my tenure up here. However, not only have Jenni and I had a wonderful time visiting, but Annie has even found a new friend in Jenni's little girl Lindsey. I can't count the number of times the two of them have asked about each other in the last few days. I think a true friendship has been formed there too, despite the five year age difference.

So even though I understand that my niece needs to be at our cousin's wedding, I can't help but wish that Annie was going to be around tomorrow to go to Lindsey's birthday party. But I can't in good conscience wish her away from her cousin Paige either. So regardless of where Annie is tomorrow I know she'll have a good time. And I know Josh and I will have fun tomorrow too. We are are going to the birthday party. Both of us can hardly wait. We just wish that we lived closer to Jenni and Danny. They are definitely some of our closest friends.

But moving on to a different subject, let me talk some more about the revelations that I've been having as I've been examining my life over these past few weeks, I've begun to realize that each of us in life has more than one calling. For instance, not only am I called to be teacher, but I also know that I'm called to be a wife and Mother. Needless to say, I am looking forward to being a stay at home wife this summer. It will be the first summer, I've not worked outside of the home since high school. And honestly, I can hardly wait for the day that I can be a full-time stay at home Mom. I know it may be several years before that is possible, and I know I won't stay at home for ever...because I'll feel called back into teaching, but I know I'll enjoy every moment that I'm simply the homemaker. And yes, I know that day will come...it's just a matter of time. But I also know that the day will come that it's time to head back into the workforce outside the home, and when that day arrives I'm certain I'll be ready for it too.

However, in the meantime, I'm going to embrace each and every day as the gift that it truly is. I'm going to write letters to friends. I'm going to host cookouts. Perhaps, I'll persuade my husband to go camping. And honestly, I'm going to my hardest to fulfill the role that I've accepted for the summer, the role of a stay at home wife.

This means my mind, making sure that our home is a peaceful, relaxing sanctuary for my husband when he returns from a hard day of work. And you know...I am already enjoying my first summer as a homemaker.

And I hope you'll tune in for more revelations as our summer progresses.