Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Full Time Ministry Mom

So I’ve been obsessed with this blog lately called Money Saving Mom. She has great deals, and ways to save money. She loves Jesus and she’s making it work. Something that I’ve been noticing out in the blogosphere is that moms tend to fall into one of the following categories:

Stay-at-home Mom: She stays at home with her kids. Maybe she home schools, and she definitely keeps the house in order. Her role is primarily to be with her kids, nurture their development and keep the family fed, clean, and loved, in the most efficient manner possible.

Work-at-home Mom: This mom looks a lot like the stay at home mom, but she also throws some money making work in the mix. She maybe sets aside time to blog, or bill, or whatever she does for income during naps, or after the kids head to bed.

Work-outside-the-home Mom: This mom works a 9-5 job outside of the home. She is juggling the regular mom duties (cooking, cleaning, and loving) along with getting the kids to and from daycare or school so she can work. Evenings are pretty routine since work ends at 5 or 6pm so a meal plan and weekly schedule work for her.

I don’t seem to find myself in any of these categories. I work full time, in Youth Ministry, for a non-denominational organization called Young Life. I work strange hours. I work a 12-14 hour day on Mondays. Thursdays start with a bible study I lead at 7am and I’m done usually around 5pm. Fridays I usually spend a good amount of time hanging out with B (our 2 year old) and running errands. Saturdays I teach a leadership class for high school kids from 8-10am. Then every Sunday night we have either a team meeting or an area wide leadership meeting so that takes up every Sunday. Once soccer season starts in a few weeks (I coach the JV Girls Soccer team at the school I work with) add practice 3 days a week and 2 games a week.
I am out with high school kids at least 3 nights a week. My husband works a job that has him out about 8 evenings a month. I find that I am craving a schedule and some organization in our lives. But I have yet to figure that out. Being out every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday night and having meetings every Sunday night is proving to leave little time for family, and being a good home-maker.

I’m working it out…but would love to hear what you all think about trying to balance family and work with an odd hours job.

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad you are blogging. It will help me to keep up with your busy, busy life too. From your post, I'm craving structure for you also! Lots of love!

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  2. Beth, I've enjoyed reading your three posts so far. I find your writing interesting and REAL! I especially appreciate the fact that you're openly and unashamedly writing about your faith and quoting scripture throughout - how encouraging to me, as a fellow believer in Christ.

    Great work! I look forward to keeping in touch.

    Ashlie (Jeff's wife)

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  3. Thanks Kate! Ashlie thanks for your feedback too...it's been fun to have a place to think "out loud" about my faith.

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