Porterville Night

Many of you who follow my family on Instagram and Facebook are well aware of Porterville Night.

I've had so many ask what is Porterville Night?!

Where is Porterville?!

And my favorite....

I want to come to Porterville !!

Well, I'm gonna fill you in on a secret...

Porterville is a teensy little town in mississippi that is so small if you blink you will miss it.

We are officially in the Boon Docks.

There is no theme park here or any form of entertainment that would attract the masses.

(unless your form of entertaining is hunting... that's another story)

So what's all the fuss of Porterville Night?

Well for my family it's more of a state of mind than it is a place on the map.

Porterville Night represents contentment. 

It represents the fact that we have resolved to carve out time for being together.

It represents the fact that we have committed to make our time together a celebration.

You see, in recent years our family has evolved.

We have always been tight knit.  We've always done everything together.

And we like it that way.

But life has happened and kids have grown up, gotten married and moved away.

We can no longer all be together for ALL things that take place.

As a momma, I could box with God on this issue and stay miserable..

pining away about how it used to be.

But by His grace He's done such a work in my heart.  

Learning how to love what you do have instead of whining about what you don't have is a  freeing thing.  FREEDOM y'all. Liberty.  

So instead of being sad that we can't hang out all the time, I've chosen to be estatic over when we do get to hang out.  And that's what our Porterville Night is all about.

Now this is the season I'm in...having grown kids branching out..learning to do "family" a new way.

But so many of y'all  are dealing with the same stuff....just a different season.

like...

• the momma who had to send off her little love to kindergarden and is learning to adjust to them being gone 6 hours a day, 5 days a week being shaped and molded by someone else when up to this point that sole person has been you.
• or the one who is having to deal with their kid who has hit the teenage years and you as a mom, who was once their best friend that they wanted to do everything with, suddenly gets put on the back burner to new friends and new activities.
• or the dear one whose older parents are now in poor health or have recently passed away and you are learning how to do life with the biggest void you've ever experienced.

When we find ourselves in these new seasons that honestly, we'd prefer the old way of doing things...

it's then we have a choice to make.

We have to choose to embrace the new way of doing things and discover the joy awaits.

We can waste precious time dreaming about what used to be or..

we can have ourselves a Porterville Night!

I hope you choose yourself a "Porterville Night"!

Here are some glimpses of the "crazy" that takes place  during our Porterville Nights..

 Dominos!

We get a little competitive.  Just a little.

We usually sing and dance...

We play with our food...

And we "make our own music"....

It's never fancy..

No make up..

No fixing of hair..

No getting dressed...

But we are making memories.

I couldn't ask  for anything more.

That old saying "Life is what you make of it" is truth.

Many that actually drive through Porterville, Mississippi will only see trees, cows and the houses of those who have lived here their entire lives...  

But for us, we see #funcity.

It's kinda like our Disneyland.  :)

Stephanie :)

ps. for the record, I do own other clothing besides the  green sweatshirt you see in all these pictures. But for some reason, it has unintentionally become my Porterville Night Outfit. 

 Classy.  

Go visit my dear friend Jami and soak up all the encourage you will find there.