My feet

And the path I’ve been on

Hi friends. 3 months ago I stepped away from Instagram and it was the best decision. I do not miss it one bit. Crazy as that is to say. It had become my identity. All I thought about was what to post , what to share, how to encourage. Constantly I thought “oh that would be a good picture to share.” I wasn’t truly living my life. I was posting about it. But not genuinely living it. And now I am. And what a difference it has made.

I go about my days now wondering how in the world I had the time to not only post but also to scroll and see what everyone else was doing. There simply is not the time to do so now. I don’t know how there ever was. In all honesty though, there wasn’t ever the time to do so. But I prioritized it and thus everything else in my life suffered. My marriage , motherhood, homemaking, my health, friendships, real in person relationships all were greatly affected by my time spent on social media. And not for the good. Not all was bad, indeed not. But I lacked the self discipline to keep my time on social media at an honorable limit. And when I was not on it physically, my mind was. It ruled me. Thus I had to cut it out. And everything is the better for it.

What a joy the last 3 months have been. What a hardship too. I could not share with you here during that time. I needed to take time to be still and ponder. To repent. To seek the God of grace and goodness and beauty. To submit to His design for me as a woman. To figure out how to get my home in order again. To figure out how to do all that was required of me and do it well. Do it excellently in fact. You see, I don’t believe the Lord intended for me to just survive this season of marriage and motherhood. No. I believe He intends me to thrive in each season of life, no matter how difficult. He intends me to thrive in the calling and mandate He has given me. And I was not prior to July 23rd. Am I now? Am I thriving? Yes. I would say I am. Is it easy all of a sudden? Absolutely not. Am I tired still ? Absolutely yes. But the joy abounds. Because I am where He intended me to be. I’m all in.

In fact, I wrote a journal entry in June. I read it a couple months later and thought wow, I was in despair. You could feel the dread of the mundane homemaking tasks in the words on the page. You could feel the overwhelm and exhaustion. It was quite depressing and hopeless. I just didn’t know how to do it all. It was all such a burden. When I read it 2 months later all that dread and despair was gone. The burden lifted. All my tasks had remained the same. Nothing changed as far as what needed to be done. But my attitude was completely different. I looked at my tasks each day with excitement and motivation instead of dread and overwhelm. Ready to take on the challenge of the day for the glory of God. How did this happen? Why? I asked Buck what had changed since that June entry? What had I done differently? The only thing we came up with was social media. I had given it up for good.

I no longer cleaned or organized for the gram to see. I no longer did anything for anyone to see actually. Just simply for my family and for the Lord. I’m not sharing this to boast. Or to say look what I did. No. I’m sharing to say, look what happens when we walk in obedience to Christ. What a blessing and joy my roles and tasks have become. Building my home has been my greatest blessing and biggest reward. It is still hard and I still struggle here and there with tiredness and laziness. But what once was a burden is now a joy.

I am reading books from older wiser women. I am asking questions from older wiser women. I am growing in wisdom and knowledge in how to keep house and home. How to balance marriage, motherhood, homeschooling, homesteading. I’m learning how to order my affections according to Gods Word. I am learning how to cling to Jesus and seek Him wholeheartedly, because I quickly realized I am nothing without Him and I can’t do this a part from Him. I am learning how to be an excellent wife and prioritize my husband above my children. Not easy for me. But needed. I am learning how to train my children to help me with all my daily duties so things get done as a team. I am learning how to order my home so there is more peace instead of chaos. Organizing and getting rid of clutter.

Again, I have not mastered any of it. I’m learning and growing. Which comes with great sacrifice and difficulty but great joy and reward. And I’m learning it all without all the distraction I was accustomed to. Or without any pressure to perform. I have no one to compare myself to which is freeing. I simply do what ought to be done with God’s strength as unto Him and for my family. No one to impress or be like except the women in the Bible or good books that inspire me. And I will still send pictures to a couple of my dear friends who encourage me and inspire me. In fact, I will share about that in a newsletter coming up, the importance of accountability and friendship. But I just can not share enough about the blessing that has come with this big change in my life. I truly love being a woman. I love being Bucks wife. I love being a mother to my 4 children. I love homeschooling. I love homemaking. It’s all such a priceless gift.

Speaking of 4 children. 😉 I am 30 weeks pregnant and I getting rather large 🤣. This picture was taken 10 weeks ago. I love this miracle baby and so far everything looks good praise be to God. We will not find out if it’s a boy or girl. We will be having another home birth Lord willing. I can’t wait to meet this miracle. What a gift to carry life in my womb again, especially after my appendix disaster.

We have been preparing for winter on our homestead and have been having fires in our wood burning stove each morning. We are trying to heat our home as much as possible with just wood. Nothing really flourished in our garden this year at all. So we are gathering and harvesting from others locally. The Lord is providing. He is good. Bread is still being made, apples are being turned into applesauce, and it’s just such a beautiful time of year!!! I think my favorite time is when a new season approaches. All the summer things tucked away and all the winter things brought out. It’s my favorite. I didn’t get to spring clean due to my appendix so deep cleaning has begun in preparation for winter. Which I really love actually. Getting things decluttered, organized, deep cleaned, and stocked up for a season of hunkering down and slowness. Ahhhh. Is there anything better? 😉

The family is doing well and I am just in love with all of them. Buck and I are learning so much in our marriage and it’s been so beautiful. We celebrated 17 years in September. I keep saying man, I wish I would have known this 15 years ago 🤣. The older we get, the longer we are married, the more we realize we don’t know. But it’s good. It’s humbling. We see our desperate need for our Father each day. The kids are growing so fast. Time sure is fleeting. These truly are the good days.

We are loving our sweet little church and the community we are building there. It feels like family. We are so thankful. I took this picture of our church a few Sundays ago. ❤️ We are getting more involved there and love it.

Well, that’s where my feet have been. I think that is good enough update for now. All glory to God alone.

God bless you my friends. I pray you can enjoy this beautiful new season as you seek Him and walk in obedience to Him.

Love, Tay

“Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

James 1:17

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 6:1