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Let’s have a little pep talk, shall we? I need it - perhaps you do, too? Life at our house is often a blur, but the last couple of weeks have been frenetic. Our biggest ministry event of the year, followed immediately with a sudden three day road trip. Then, still several hours from home, we received a call from Job and Family Services - we brought home our newest foster baby, another newborn baby boy, the next morning. And just to make it more exciting, baby-arrival day was also our five year old’s birthday, I had a speaking engagement on Saturday, and our kids were participating in our church’s Christmas concert. Homeschool was shelved for the week. Doctor appointments, errands, laundry, paperwork, and all manner of other little details came crashing in. And oh yeah - we have a newborn in the house. And it’s Christmas. What’s a girl to do when life gets a little cra-cra? Here’s a pep talk I’m giving to myself for the upcoming week, some pointers I need to remember....

The weather outside has been unseasonably warm. Inside, not so warm. Our kids have had short tempers and sharp words with one another in the past couple of days. Several months ago I had introduced them to the old J-O-Y acronym – Jesus first, then others, you last! They had locked onto that and bring it up from time to time. Today, when having a little family meeting to apologize and repair broken relationships after a rough morning, LB said the way they had been acting was like “YOJ.” Putting themselves first. As it is December first, we came up with a quick advent project: JOY missions. {It’s not a pinterest-worthy label and it’s crookedly scotch-taped on, but it does involve scented markers and a mason jar we found floating in a lake while canoeing this summer. Does that count?}  ;) We wrote out some secret missions: Let someone else go first. Clean someone else’s room. Make someone’s bed. Choose a toy to give away. Write an encouraging note. S...