Safe bubble busters

I find myself really missing my very, very quiet 2 acres today. Living in this camper has been a learning experience, and you know: it's really not that bad! I don't really love my stove/oven and lack of counter space...but living in a camper is quite doable. Living in a camp ground with folks from all walks of life: much, much harder than living in a camper!

A constant battle since moving in has been being bombarded by kids all the time. Back home it was easy to have quiet time and have the kids have quiet time, because there were no kids within walking distance. But here, there are kids everywhere! Some get kicked out at breakfast and don't go home until dusk, some have no real parental input and run hog wild, some have sailor mouths and demeanors to match...most seem to lack the love and nurture that come with a stable home life. And the influence on my kids is tremendous!

It is a constant battle here! I have to constantly balance how much time they spend with the kids, constantly be on guard, there is need for intervention of fighting and wrestling and other mischief: because lets face it, bored kids can be quite ingenuitive. Since it's a campground, there seems to be plenty of bottles and stuff laying around that the boys find, bring to the playground and then bust up against the rocks...

Like most moms, I don't want my kids to embarass me, I don't want them to mouth off at me and I don't want them to beat kids up, I don't want them to use foul words. But more than that, I want to teach my kids why I think it's important not to do those things, I want to teach them to be obedient and respect authority, so that when God grabs a hold of them He can focus on teaching them about faith, instead of having to start with obedience. I want my kids to love others and to shine their lights, so that people will notice Christs love in them and not to blend in with the crowd.

On Saturday night there was quite a wild party. The music was so loud and bass turned up so high that my camper was thumping. Hannah got sick that evening, so between the fever and the coughing and the thumping, we had quite an exciting evening. The kids kept waking up and I couldn't fall asleep...

We got 2 new neighbors on the same day, one on either side and both have dogs. Now my yard (if you can call it a yard), our little lot has lots of smelly, dirty land mines. I don't even have a dog, but I get to clean up poop and try to keep the kids out of it...and yes, I am too chicken to just go and talk to the neighbors and ask them to take their dogs elsewhere.

I didn't mean for this to turn into a complain session. I don't think of myself as being a complainer, but it does seem to be getting harder and harder to maintain my good attitude lately.

I am sure that there is a need for light here. I am sure that I can love on these kids. But man is it messy. Such a different life than I am used to. I often think of how often Jesus was interrupted in what he was doing and try to apply that to my life...that it's ok for my agenda to be interrupted or derailed completely. But as an introvert, I really struggle with the complete lack of quiet. Even the vehicles are loud, seems like 90% of the population drive huge trucks with loud exhausts :)

So, I find myself missing my quiet 2 acre haven. I don't miss living in East TN, I just miss having a refuge. But, God is our Refuge and so I am reminded that in His Sovereignty, this 'predicament' does not escape Him, and as my Provider and Shield, He will provide a way for me to rest. Am curious which of my flaws He is refining in this scenario :) There is a big part of me that wants to run and find a quieter camp ground, or see if there's some land we could rent where it would be quieter...then there's the other part that wants to be obedient and ask, what's next Abba. While running sounds easier and quieter, pretty sure that Jonah would say it's easier to be in His will than to run outside of it...(not just Jonah, there are many examples of runners in the Bible, but figure that most of us remember Jonah and the great big fish).