Challenging Times

I realized that most of my post, even though I try to be very real about our lives, seem to all be good or happy & upbeat. Not that, that is a bad thing, but you have to know that in this home of DeLoach's changing our lives upside down and having 3 children under 7 not all times are happy.
It has been a challenge for me to get lesson plans including the fun activities like crafts & field trips planned all while trying to move into a new house and un-box all our stuff and that is all on top of making sure all clothes are clean, sheets are on the beds, dishes are unloaded from the dishwasher, and there is food in the fridge so there can be food on the table. Let's just say that so far I have only had one really bad break down. As the tears were flowing I called Ben at work. I ask him to take off the next day to just stay home with us and we get some things finished, but being the sweet and awesome husband that he is, he surprised me and was home within the hour.
We were able to get some things accomplished around the house and unfortunately for now I have to had to put off the fun parts of school like the crafts, which the kids don't really mind, they just have more time to free play. I have an awesome friend who has planned field trips for the year and she invited us to join in on all of theirs so I have not had to worry with any of that at all. It really works out great b/c there are 5 or 6 other home school moms going on these also so it's more fun for the kids anyway. Having her do this and include me has truly been a huge blessing!
I have mentioned all these things that I feel have just piled on top of me and not once did you hear me mention ministry. The whole reason we said we were moving to this area. See there is yet another break down for this wife/mom. I want to have things all together (or at least sorta) before I start adding to, but as I mentioned before I don't feel like I have it together yet. I start to feel guilty when Ben walks in the door and says that he's been home for about an hour, but across the street talking to a neighbor. Where have I been all day? At home, but inside doing all that was listed above. Ben keeps reminding me that this is a SLOW process. We believe there was a reason our house sold quickly, but it has taken us 5 months to get into this house after selling our other one. It was slow getting here and we don't need to rush into anything. We are not here to immediately start 3, 4, or even 5 Bible studies in our home with our neighbors or to head over to their house with our Bible trying to tell them how we think they should live their lives. No, we are here to be their neighbors, become their friends and in that share the gospel, study the Bible and grow those relationships all with God being in the center. That will not happen over night and I will meet all my neighbors in time. Just so you know I have met & talked to some of my neighbors so I'm not totally being a snot nose. I also know that I'm not going anywhere and if I don't go and introduce myself today because I'm trying to find our dishes that I know are in some box around here, that we can meet next week (Lord willing).
So there are some of the challenging times that I have been dealing with lately. I just keep telling myself slow, it's going to be a slow process and that is ok.