Introducing Tea Chats: A Weekly Newsletter ~ Revisiting Priorities

Dear Friends,

As you all know, blogging is not an exact science. It is a hobby--a really fun one—in fact almost too fun! For me it’s more than fun though, it’s a way to bless not only you, sweet bloggy friends, who comment so regularly but the many unseen readers who follow Comin’ Home. Each of us has built quite a community...and each of us has our little ‘group’ that we share our regular ups and downs with. How I treasure your friendship!

 So few people live life deliberately…

Revisiting Priorities

As much as I love writing this homemaking blog, and it is DEAR to my heart, this month I’ve had to re-evaluate my priorities. I don’t like coasting--I can’t afford to!  I get easily sidetracked, so I am always having to check and see if I’ve gotten off track from the true priorities in my life. Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing for this season of life or not?

For all of us SAHM’s or SAHW’s or working wives and mothers, the danger of blogging is that…

… It’s so easy to choose the GOOD or BETTER over the BEST.

There is no question that blogging inspires me to do better at my every day responsibilities than I might otherwise do. It encourages me to have friends  who drop by and comment and it’s good for me to encourage others too. Giving to total strangers and helping homemakers everywhere to do their best..is even better. I don’t doubt that at all.  

Jacob Goes to Boot Camp..Gone for SIX MONTHS!

But what is ‘the best’ for me—for my family? Well..it’s giving them my whole–hearted service as a mom in the season of life I’m in. This week, the fact that Jacob is leaving for boot camp right after graduation is looming in my mind. He’s graduating in less than six weeks! We will be so busy..taking graduation photos, sending out announcements, planning his parties, making sure he’s ready to leave, setting up a ‘boot camp blog’..

Yes, I’ll be running a blog about Jacob’s adventures in boot camp for his friends and our family and church friends. He won’t be at your normal boot camp and then come home. He’s going straight into training for his military job—that’s a total of six months of being away from home. When I say goodbye in May..it will be good-bye to my 19 yr.old until Christmas. Looming is just not the right word for it!

 

These next few weeks will be precious times… I want him to head off knowing I gave him my very best as his mom. He will leave home a boy..and come home..a Man. I know it all too well!  Jacob and I will be having some sweet ‘tea times’ ourselves..or should I call that the ‘coffee hour’. LoL!

Introducing a Weekly Newsletter called ‘Tea Chats’

Dear Hubby and I both agree, that for this season in life.., I need to blog less and ‘mother’ more.

by christian 

So I’ve decided to start a weekly newsletter called Tea Chats. 

Every Monday..sometime on Monday..I will post a weekly ‘Tea Chat’ that will have excerpts from last week’s adventures..cooking, sewing, homemaking, crafting, and a wee chat from the heart. I’ll always include a linky party for you to join in with your cups of tea of course! 

Like Needled Mom, I’ll write my super duper post for the week and then visit everyone..(That’ll be a lot of visits!) and then that will be it for the week.  I’ll continue to post photos and little quips about the day’s adventures on Comin’ Home’s facebook page and visit and comment of course! But my blog post will only be weekly.  (I’m working on a newsletter format. Hope it works!)

The Rest of the Week..

This way the rest of the week, the family will get my undivided attention. My youngest is needing a lot more help with school as we are preparing to get him into dual credit for some of his classes next year and he really is ADHD even at 16. With all of his siblings gone or gone most of the day, I decided that we need to get involved socially away from home at least once a week.  I may join a home school co-op for Christian’s sake next year. I’ve got to be careful to ‘finish well’ with my homeschooling journey. The last child shouldn’t get the ‘leftovers’ if you know what I mean. 

Dear Hubby and I didn’t want to just have me quit blogging altogether. If a weekly post can get us through this busy season of life and still allow me to do all that I need to, then that will be a good solution. Hubby is even helping me work on a new format..we're trying to 'tweak' the html to allow for multiple 'jump breaks' in one post. Until then, I may have to manually edit some things to make my newsletter look the way I want it to. :o) Thanks hubby!

I hope you enjoy my ‘newsletter’ each Monday. I hope to get to visit more of you this way too. It may be that by the end of the summer, I will be able to go back to more regular posting. There’s lots to do, but I don’t want to miss out on our fellowship altogether. :o)

Have a lovely weekend..and I hope you too are living life ‘deliberately’. Do you have trouble balancing life and blogging at times? It seems to be a rather delicate balance if you ask me!  

by Christian

We all lead such busy lives and face so many demands on our schedules. 

Let’s be careful not to let the good or the better…bump ‘the best’.