Girls it’s been a great week getting to know you better! I love community! The more time you spend with others the more you know and grow yourself too. I hope this is achieved for each of us in this space we call “Love Is..”

My name is Tammy, it is a privilege to be included as part of this co-op mom blog with 3 wonderful friends who support and challenge me in this journey called life! I am mom to 2 beautiful girls (I like to refer to them by their middle names online) Grace who turned 2 in October, and Joy who was born in November. I am wife to my high school sweetie, Harley (yes like the motorcycle, he’s not a biker himself but his dad was). The 3 of them are my greatest life teachers.

Where do I start?! Maybe a little about my life before kids. I was a busy girl. A very busy girl always going. My vocation before kids was as a youth worker in a church, perfect job for someone with lots of energy. I LOVED my life’s work. I really enjoyed my time. But when I look back on that time I realize how busy I was. Always going. Always pursuing something. I read an article about adrenaline junkies and that was me! Not in the sky diving sense, but in  living life from one high to the next.

My husband and I desired to live a slower paced life but we didn’t know how to do that. Then the biggest lesson of all came to us when I got pregnant. When I held my little one in my arms time stood still. I was now on a journey to slow down, and learn to linger. Ever since then my little ones keep me grounded. They don’t do things all that quickly and love to just be near mommy. That is where they are happiest, I am learning too that just ‘being’ in the presense of my Father is a very restful place! Just ‘being’ in general, with my girls, husband, friends, is a joy, and it is here that I feel fullest in my life’s calling.

A little about my parenting journey. When I got pregnant I didn’t give much thought to what my actual parenting ‘style’ might be. I guessed it was supposed to come naturally. Which it did.

Then the BIG day arrived. Most of my labour was done at home with my doula and husband by my side.  It did take a great deal of work, but I was made to do this job. When I got to the hospital baby came quickly.

That night it was terribly hard to see my husband leave us in a hospital room with 3 other moms and their newborns. Grace was so small and I was so inexperienced. I was tired. I was also instructed to leave my baby in the basinette while I slept as this was the safest place for her. So I gently placed Grace in the basinette. I returned to bed and watched her. It did not feel right. I didn’t feel right not having her next to my body. I picked her up and held her all night long, trying to stay awake myself as to not break the hospital rules and sleep in the same bed as my baby. The next day I told this to my midwife who said it was perfectly natural to sleep with my baby. She explained why the hospital had such rules. She validated my natural instincts. From that moment on I was an instinctive parent. I did what felt natural and necessary for my daughter at that time. From there I read about Attachment Parenting and Gentle Parenting which helped me get through those bumpy times, and times my natural instincts were clearly wrong due to my own faults and bad patterns (that’s another post for another day). I am grateful for this type of parenting to rather ‘fall’ into my lap. Baby #2 was born in our home. It was a great experience, and afterwards I rested in my own bed, inbetween my new baby and my loving husband. What a beautiful memory for me.

My life as a child of God is so entangled in my story as a mom. I enjoy seeing the parallels and writing about experiencing God through my new role. My faith has taken a whole new turn in my new life’s work. God is so amazing that way, always shaping us, forming us. I am sitting in anticipation now, eager to see the journey God has before me unfold…but patient, because I love lingering here. This whole blog theme really fit my journey. As I look back, I was more concerned about how to love God, now he’s stretching me to focus on loving others and seeing that ‘God is love’ and just how vast (great image Meg) that love is.

As I learn to linger I am also finding joy in creating a simple life for me and my girls. I don’t want them to rush through life. I want them to know the satisfaction of growing a garden and then tasting of their work, or living with less  and being able to give more, and creating healthy meals and maybe one day crafts (I’m not so crafty either). This part of my journey is just beginning. Our recent move allows us to be closer to family and for my husband to be in a job of his passion which happens to also allow for much time with his family.  We moved to a small home in the country. We are enjoying God’s nature  and the blissful silence which surrounds us. However, we are also being reinspired to live in community with new friends from our church, old friends from grade school, and our families whom we haven’t lived near in 10 years!

I am passionate about “God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” and what that means for how I live each day, in my relationships, my time, my purchases, my overall decisions. I want all people to live life to the fullest. I know this is done gently – ah I love that word – gentle. I am trying to be gentler as a person. In my relationships, in my environmental footprint, and on myself.

I feel I touched on quite a few areas of my life and journey but without much depth. I guess you’ll have to stay tuned! Relationships and community take time. Time is a gift. Thanks for giving of your time to linger with me as I share some of my story.

May Jesus’ gentleness, love, compassion and restorative graces restore you to new life  today…and always!

familypic2