Mobile Mama

All I ever wanted growing up was to be a wife and mother. I had career ambitions but being a wife and mother topped them. As a little girl I would daydream about getting older… Starting with high school and boyfriends then college and meeting my husband. I had my “happily ever after” all figured out. But then what? As a little girl, I never considered what was after I reached the end of those dreams. Then life actually started happening - no more time to play dress up and plan for the future - time to live it. 

A couple of years ago, I was pregnant with what I assumed was my last baby, Warner, and I started dreading turning 30. I had reached the pinnacle of life, I thought - had a great job where I was a respected leader, married the man of my dreams (literally), and mother of both a boy and a girl. 

I turned 30 a couple of weeks ago. What now?

It’s time to start dreaming again!

For me, I’ve taken a new position and finally settled down. I am dreaming new dreams for my family and for myself. No more Dorian Gray life of avoiding getting older. 

Don’t fall into the rut of so many others and do things you’ll regret later. Make wise decisions for your family.

I’m asking myself these questions more often: 

• Am I living for my kingdom or for God’s?
• Is what I’m living for worth Jesus dying for? 
• Where is my treasure? 
• Where is my trust? My security?  

We spent the past two weeks getting away to an area that Cleve is very passionate about - the Monongahlia National Forest and Pendleton County, WV, where Cleve’s father’s family is from. 

We got a great deal on vrbo.com on a cabin (two weeks for the price of one). It was a simple one bedroom/one bath with a loft for the kids to sleep in. Quaint. And all we needed. 

The family has an old house, but it’s not really in the right shape for three kids under five years old to stay in for two weeks (Or one 29-year-old woman, for that matter.)

This wasn’t a vacation. While we did have a lot of fun and spent a lot of quality time together as a family exploring the area, Cleve and I both worked. We have amazing flexibility in life right now to be able to work from anywhere. (Thank you, Chapel, and clients.)

Our Adventures

We spent time literally watching the clouds roll by. Nothing makes you slow down more than stopping to watch the clouds. I wish we had made more time for that on this trip. 

Lots of dirt roads, hiking, baking, telling jokes, gun-shooting, fishing, deer, bugs, homemade meals, waterfalls, more stars than I’ve seen in years, a train ride… We took the kids to their first drive-in movie. There would have been more bonfires if the snakes hadn’t spooked us. 

We spent time in solitude with God. What better way to spend some quiet time than in the middle of a national forest with rivers and mountain peaks and the most beautiful valleys!

I believe there were a few days when we had more interactions with the wildlife than we did with people. 

Different Perspective

Life in Pendleton County is different. It’s a different perspective of the world. On the surface, it seems a bit post-apocolyptic/Hunger Games-like with all the hundred-year-old abandon homes and no-redlight towns of a couple hundred people.

But when you take a closer look, a look that can only come from becoming part of the community and taking a few extra backroads, you start to see the people. People who are just like you and me. 

We all need community. We all have or need joy and a sense of humor. We all have layers and layers of history and heritage wether we know what it is or not. We all need to know the Gospel. 

A Valuable Lesson 

A mild winter equals more snakes and rodents in the summer. I’ll never forget this after our two rare run-ins with rattlesnakes.