Steady Mom

the hard work of making your dreams come true

"You're so lucky!" more than one person has told me when I described our recent Little House on the Prairie site tour and road trip in the midwest. 

And I am, we are--abundantly blessed and fortunate to be able to have the resources and time to pull off such a trip.

Yet it didn't drop into our laps either.

First came the dream. That was the fun part.

Then came the effort. The planning and logistics. How would we get there? Where would we stay each night? Where would we go each day? How long could we drive at a time without needing to stop? How would we finance this trip? 

After answering each question above, we needed to make reservations and arrangements for each leg of the journey.

On top of that, we've been preparing for months in our homeschool for the trip--rereading each of the Little House books, studying and tracking the sites, finding out what we would see along the way. Trying to make this an inspirational time for our kids and family.

Most of this counted as "happy work," but work it definitely was.

I told Steve from the beginning that this wasn't a "vacation" but a homeschooling adventure tour, and we were the tour guides. That helped me remember from the get-go that I would be "working" throughout. And after nine days of nonstop work, you expect to return exhausted.

I did.

I came back remembering that our dreams matter so much when it comes to where we head in our lives, but dreaming alone will never get us there.

Eventually we have to put action behind our visions of having children, adopting, writing a book, moving cross-country, starting a new job, traveling as a family, fill-in-the-blank here with your particular dream.

And that's where the effort begins.

A dream--of land, of freedom, of a better life for their children--drove the Ingalls family and countless scores of other pioneers westward. Something compelled them to move further on, to explore the unknown, to face head-on life-threatening challenges that most of us can't even begin to imagine. 

What a privilege to spend a week honoring and tracing their footsteps, their roads, their hard-won losses and victories.

Look for more photo posts of our trip coming soon! So many moments to share...

"No one has ever achieved anything from the smallest to the greatest
unless the dream was dreamed first."
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

postcards from hawaii

Dear incredible reader,

Some things defy expression: sunrise over the Pacific, giggling children in turquoise waves, pineapple bushes and coconut trees, sand in toes and clothes and every. single. place. you step (inside & out!), and vacations that line up so perfectly you look at your spouse several times each day to say "Can you believe all this?"

And the only appropriate response when given such a gift--whether a newborn baby, or a home, or a trip like this one--is to fully live it. To unwrap and receive gratefully--without trying to figure it out, without thinking we don't really deserve it, without saying "Oh, you shouldn't have."

There should be only one response to a lavish gift--whether it's a full moon by the shore or the hand of someone you love in yours.

The appropriate response to a lavish gift is lavish thanks.

Unbelievably grateful,

Jamie

"Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"
~ Matthew 7: 9-11

when your dreams come knocking...

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that dreams don't often show up at convenient times.

There's never an ideal, ducks-in-a-row moment to get married.

Or the perfect, uncomplicated season to add another child to the family.

There's never a convenient time to begin homeschooling, or take that trip around the world, or move to the fixer-upper that's been in your thoughts for a decade.

There are always a million reasons why today isn't the right moment to start--a million excuses about why you shouldn't write that book, or adopt a child, or birth a home business.

And yet sometimes we feel a tug in our spirits--angels whispering in our ears, circumstances lining up in extraordinary ways on our behalf.

Will we take the plunge, dive in, deal with the messes as they come, and live life whole? Or will we push away the opportunity because of excuses, lack, or fear.

Read the rest of this post at Simple Homeschool.