Lesson #2: I am lucky to have the family I do

Today I spent an enormous amout of time with family.

The dictionary definition of family is: A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.  However, the synonyms of family are kin - house - household - stock - clan - race - tribe.

The definition of a tribe is: A social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.

The definition of a clan is: A group of close-knit and interrelated families.

I like different pieces of each definition.  The definition of family is very narrow alone.  My definition would look more like: a group of people with a common link who are close-knit and who have a special kind of love for each other.

The reason I am clarifying is because when I say that I spent time with my family today, I mean I spent time with a church family I hadn't met before, time with Matthew's parents and grandparents, time with my mom's side of the family, my great uncle's extended family, friends from Lebanon, KY, and my housemates.  We are all related in different ways but I consider each and every one of them my family.

Why am I lucky to have the family I do?

My family makes a point to come together, fellowship together, ask each other about each other's lives, prepare food for everyone to share, and to love on each other.  I watched my Grandma sit on the porch swing and have a conversation with her husband's sister's husband's mom because they are old friends.  I watched my 2nd cousins bubble over with excitement when Matthew, my fiance, walked in the house.  I watched so many different people from so many different sides of the family sit under the shade of the trees and talk for hours.  There aren't many families who have that kind of connection.

My immediate family makes a point to sit down to have dinner every night.  Whether we are yapping about our days, rushing to make it to a game, or arguing about who took who's shoes, we made a point to sit down every night and eat dinner.  Granit, it didn't ALWAYS happen.  The effort was there though.  I have been in many households who don't do this, and there is an obvious difference in the dynamic of the house.  Now that I am moved out, I have made up my mind that my husband and I will eat dinner together every night so that I can keep the tradition alive.  There are many statistics that show it is healthy for your family, you should try it if you don't!

I could go on for a long time... But I think that will do for now!  I am trying my hardest not to overdo my posts... I don't want to find them exhausting or feel like a chore.

2 more things:
-Lebanon is the most beautiful town in Kentucky.

-Lebanon is THE definition of a small town.
    -I went to church with Matthew's family at Stewards Creek.  I usually attend Muldraugh Hill when I am in Lebanon on Sundays.  When I got to my cousin's house, 5 hours after leaving the church, my uncle greeted me with, "I heard you were at Stewards Creek this morning for church!"  O Lord, how the news flies!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekends!  Don't get too hot!

Lesson #1: Married life = lots of change.

I am still very new at this and figuring out what/when to blog.  I have put a lot of thought into my blog the past few days.  Two main thoughts have occured:

-I forgot to mention that I am 100% inspired by one of my best friends, Amy.  Her blog is the only one I have consistanly followed.  You should check it out!  It's called Raising Tomatoes and it's my fav!

-I cannot have a blog and simply sit down everyday and write every single thing I did that day and expect for me to stay interested, let alone others.  So I need a focus.  The focus was already there, I just needed to see it.  I am going to post by lessons.  (Hints the title!)  I feel like everyone learns lessons everyday, but right now I feel like I am learning a significant amount.  Yeah, we'll try this out.  (:

Anyway, lesson 1:  Married life = lots of change.

I could type on this lesson, and will probably have many posts on this particular lesson, but today is the first of many changes.  Let's narrow it down!

Lesson 1: Married life = lots of changing relationships.

Today I went to a cookout with a group of friends from highschool.  I am very lucky to have such wonderful friends who have stayed so close, even post graduation.  They are so fun and they definitely keep life entertaining!

As I was sitting there listening to their conversations I felt lost and out of place.  Our lives are getting ready to be completely different and it has been hitting me lately, but it really hit me tonight.  I have heard many people tell me that I will lose a lot of friends over the next year, and now I may believe them.

In psychology I learned that relationships are caused by many different things.  Two of those being proximity and similarity.  We have defeated the proximity part, but now the similarity part is changing too.  Our priorities are different, our homes look different, our important people are very different, and our lifestyles are different.  Despite all of this, I hope that I can stay close with them.  It is going to take understanding and flexibility from both ends, but we did overcome one obstacle.  Who says we can't overcome two?

This all sounds really sad, but I am not sad.  Just learning.  I am realizing what obstacles lie ahead and growing up!  (Which isn't that bad, despite what media says...)

Well, I think that is all for now.  I am sure this lesson will repeat itself and others similiar to it will come up.  We will save all of that for other posts!  We don't want anyone to get overwhelmed!  (Me.)

Have a wonderful day learning your own life lessons.

Post #1 - Hello!

Well, hello blog world!  I have been contemplating whether I should join or not for months and alas, here I am!  I am not sure if this will last or if it will be a phase or if I will be writing on this years from now.  Who knows?

Why did I join the blogging world?  Well, I will soon delete my facebook, July 22 to be exact.  The reason I am keeping it now is because of the convenience it gives me to communicate with my Haiti team.  (My Haiti trip that I will take in July will be a big topic of conversation in my posts, along with many other life changing events.)  Anyway, I will soon delete my facebook.  The one thing that keeps me from going through with it is the lack of communication I will have with relatives and friends that are not in my town.  My Aunt B once told me she loved me having a facebook because she could keep up with me despite the 90 minute distance.

The other reason, I figured out that typing out my day is very theraputic.  I realized this when I was typing an email to my soulmate and cousin, Tracy.  I got lost in the email and looked up and had written a novel.  But, it felt so good.  So, even if not a soul reads this blog, I will feel better just by writing.  So, no pressure to keep up or to check in daily.  The reason for my blogging is 70% selfish.

To begin my blog and end this post I think I should give a run down of my life at the moment:
-Just finished my 2nd year of college.
-Officially moved in to my new home with two of my best friends, a married couple from my church.  Matthew will soon follow.
-Getting married to my highschool sweetheart June 16 of this year, that's in 22 days.
-Leading a mission trip to Haiti in July.
-Work at Kohls.
-Babysit two wonderful children whom I love dearly.
-I love lists.

All of this to say, I feel that I have something to say with my life, "Something to write home about."