Photo of the Day 6/30/11
30 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Photo of the Day Tags: cooking, food, kitchenaid, Photo, photo blog
I posted three pictures today, and they were all of food. Just food. Not even of my baby eating food. I think I need to re-evaluate my priorities.
But, because I got mine on today: Get Your KitchenAid On. Oh yeah. And yes, mine is pink. <3
Waiting vs. Beginning
30 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in faith, family, life Tags: children, christ, christian, christian parenting, christianity, god, jesus, jesus christ, kids, motherhood, mothering, parenthood, parenting, religion
My whole life, I have been waiting. Waiting to grow up, waiting to get married, to own a home, to have children. Now, a stay-at-home mom to our little girl, all grown up, in my own home with my own husband, I find I am still waiting.
I am the mother of a toddler. She is my first, oldest, and (at the moment) my only child. She isn’t a baby anymore, so my day isn’t full of rocking and nursing and diapers… But she isn’t yet old enough for school – even home school – or structured discipleship. I sing to her about Jesus, we read from her children’s Bible, we pray together; but she’s not really paying attention to the message.
In short, it seems that the mother I want to be – the one who helps her children memorize Scripture and devotes hours to reading and discussing and teaching – has to wait for my daughter to grow up.
So what do I do in the meantime?
It is tempting to just let my toddler run around like the nut job that she is and put it off until next year. But I know I’m supposed to be doing something, right?
What I will do is this: begin. I will begin instructing her. I will begin doing with her. She has already learned a little about prayer this way. She already sings beautiful, joyful praises to Jesus that delight Him – whether she knows He is there or not. So we will keep doing those things, and I will keep talking to her about God and the things of God. I will teach her discipline in all areas of her life, which when she is older and understands more, I can show her is God’s design.
The truth is, we may be stuck at the beginning for a while. But it is, at least, a beginning, and doing it will make a difference. Sometimes, the day-in-day-out learning is the hardest for a mother to see, but it is always easy to see when it’s missing, isn’t it?
So, what are you waiting for?
Photo of the Day 6/29/11
29 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Photo of the Day Tags: bowling, children, kids, Photo, photo blog
Anna had an awesome and fun new experience today. She had such a great time with it, it had to be the photo of the day.
The Light of His Presence
29 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in church, faith Tags: christ, christian, christian devotional, christian devotionals, christianity, church, devotional, devotionals, fellowship, forgiveness, god, guilt, jesus, jesus christ, religion
“You have set our iniquities before you,
Our secret sins in the light of your presence.”
- Psalm 90:8 (NIV)
We had a fellowship service at our church this weekend. Our pastor preached an abbreviated sermon on what it means to fellowship, and then (shock) we actually fellowshipped some, getting to know those sitting near to us, praying for one another, and encouraging each other. It was a pretty awesome thing to do as a church body.
But during that abbreviated sermon, our pastor posed an interesting question to the congregation. We were asked to consider how many people in the room we would trust with a secret, a big secret, or our biggest secret. The point was to make us consider the closeness factor of our relationships with our church family; it accomplished something a little different for me.
It got me thinking about my secrets – my big secrets, and my biggest secret. And I realized something: I have a lot of secrets.
Before I came to know Jesus, I was convinced I was a pretty good person. No, I wasn’t perfect, but I was a lot better than my friends X, Y, and Z, so I couldn’t have been that bad. I didn’t have crises of conscience or feel overwhelmed by guilt. I just kind of coasted through life and enjoyed myself.
But there is so much that I am ashamed of now. I don’t know how I could have done those things without feeling their wrongness, and in front of people, and talked about them, and almost been proud. Memories of those actions now make me burn with shame and I can feel my cheeks get hot just thinking about them; I would never want to tell those secrets to anyone.
So when I read Psalm 90 this morning, verse 8 stuck out. It struck me. It made me uncomfortable. And then it freed me.
It would be beyond foolish for me to believe that I could hide my sins from God. He has seen every shameful thing I’ve ever done, brought them out, and shined His light upon them. He sees, and He can’t un-see. But He forgives.
I don’t have to hold onto or relive those shameful moments. I am not required to share those deep dark secrets with anyone, not even my closest friends, to prove true fellowship. God knows my sins, and He chooses to love me anyway. God forgives, and He remembers my sins no more.
But it is only when we bring those things out into His light and confess that we can receive the cleansing. And then we can enter into the best fellowship: fellowship with the Creator of the universe.
Photo of the Day 6/28/11
28 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Photo of the Day Tags: children, kids, Photo, photo blog
Hosanna and I had a pretty uneventful yet pleasant day together. How was your day?
Photo of the day: Sand Artist.
Five Steps to Getting the Most out of Family Time
28 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in family, home, life Tags: family, family time, marriage, organization, organizing, planning, time
I know I am not the only person in America who feels like she doesn’t have enough time with her family. My husband leaves the house at 8:30 every Monday through Friday and comes home around 6:00. On Saturdays and Sundays he is a worship pastor at our church, which meets in a school, so facilities have to be set up and torn down before and after every weekend. At least one of us has a meeting every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening.
It appears we have less than 24 waking hours together each week. Let me repeat that: less than one day!
And I know we are not alone.
It would be easy to sit and complain about all the things we are over-committed to. We could assign blame – he overbooked on that, I overstretched on this. We could even purge our lives and completely clear our calendars, rededicating to making family our top priority. The truth is, we have tried all of those things in the past, and yet, inevitably, we wind up right back where we started.
So instead, I’m going to focus on how to make the most of the time we do have together.
- I will do as much housework as I can while he is gone, keeping as my motivation the knowledge that when he comes home, neither of us will feel tethered to the dishes and the laundry.
- I will not ignore him when he’s sitting right next to me, but instead, I will turn off my phone, get off the computer, put down my book, and be present with him.
- I will plan fun in advance. Some people may need to make sure their schedules are empty so they can spend time together, but I find that when we do that, we fill that time up with silly things instead of each other.
- I will be pleasant to him, so that his desire is to spend time with me as well. Yes, here’s that memory verse applied again: I am more beautiful to my husband when I extend to him “a gentle and quiet spirit” instead of spending all his time at home nagging and belittling him.
- I will remember why we do the things we do and enjoy the things on my calendar, rather than resenting them and wishing I could be doing something else.
What do you do to maximize your time with your man?
Hoarding and Purging – A Conundrum
28 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in home, life Tags: children, hoarder, hoarders, hoarding, kids, motherhood, mothering, organization, organizing, parenthood, parenting, toys
As I set about trying to get my home in order, I am confronted with a few issues I’m not quite prepared to deal with. Actually, I use the term “confronted” rather loosely; they are actually issues that are merely bugging me, but are completely avoidable. I know they are avoidable because I have been successfully avoiding them for weeks.
You see, I am in danger of having a garage filled to the brim with baby and toddler toys.
Hosanna is, as yet, an only child, but we don’t want her to stay that way. So every time she outgrows her clothes, I pack them neatly in a jumbo diaper box, label them, and stick them in the garage in the hopes that one day soon, we’ll be able to take them out for her younger brother or sister. I suspect this is a fairly commonplace practice.
But now I’m finding that she has amassed more than just clothing over the past 20 months of her precious little life. In plain English: I have more stuffed animals than I know what to do with.
And it’s not just stuffed animals; we have blocks, and ball mazes, and puzzles, and costume jewelry, and toy fruits and vegetables, and musical instruments, and and and… The list goes on and on.
For a while I was able to keep her toys organized. She has a cute little stuffed animal hammock hanging in her bedroom where they all used to sit in neat little rows and smile pleasantly out at her – now they are balanced precariously atop one another and stacked nearly to the ceiling. We have a basket in the living room where she was able to help us clean up at playtime – until the basket got so full it now overflows when most of the toys that live there are still scattered about the room. And there is a toy box in her closet where I was going to store toys until she forgot about them and then bring them out like they were new again – except now I don’t even know what the heck is in there.
The point is, it’s quite plain it is time to purge some things. But I just can’t bring myself to decide what should stay available to her, what should be kept in the garage for future children, and what can just be tossed. It doesn’t help that I constantly hear my mother’s voice in the back of my head, reminding me that you can never throw away something that was given as a gift, or “she might want that later,” and other hoarding encouragements.
So moms: how do you decide? What stays, and what goes?
Photo of the Day 6/27/11
27 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Photo of the Day Tags: bedhead, children, cute, cute pictures, funny, funny picture, funny pictures, kids, Photo, photo blog, pictures
I only posted two pictures today, but this one was definitely one of the greatest ever. This is how Hosanna woke up from her nap today: Bedhead.
I love her face.
Get SOAPy!
27 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in faith, life Tags: at the well, bible, bible study, christ, christian, christianity, god, jesus, jesus christ, religion, scripture
I saw this post about the SOAP Bible Study method on At the Well this morning and thought I would share it with you. My husband has my Bible and journal this morning (I accidentally left them in the car after church yesterday), but even without my journal, I found this to be a fruitful exercise.
The Scripture God has been using to speak to me today is still this week’s memory verse, 1 Peter 3:4. I have found cultivating “a gentle and quiet spirit” to be quite the challenge for me today – but I know it is in God’s will for me to succeed. I am praying this verse back to Him today and asking Him to give me the strength to fulfill my calling.
What is He teaching you?
Menu Plan Monday 6/27/11
27 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in Menu Plan Monday Tags: blog meme, blog memes, meme, memes, menu plan, menu planning, organization, organizing, planning
I thought last week was going to be a tough week to menu plan because of having to make take-along recipes to VBS all week. Compared to this week, it was a cinch! Here we are at the end of the month again and my budget is tight, but this week is going to be a busy one so, again, I have had to be kind of creative and resourceful…
Thankfully, one thing that is making it a tiny bit easier is that my mother-in-law brought me a 5lb tub of potato salad leftover from last week’s family reunion. I already had some hot dogs in the fridge, so that will set me up for lunches a few times this week for sure. (Small issue: I am the only one in the house that will eat potato salad.)
Here goes nothin’!
Breakfasts:
- Me: Eggs, Cereal, Pancakes
- Hubbo: Cereal, Pancakes
- Hosanna: Eggs, Veggie Sausage, Pancakes
Lunches:
- Me: PB&J, Burritos, Hot Dogs
- Hubbo: Frozen meals
- Hosanna: Chicken, Peanut Butter, Hot Dogs
Snacks and Sides: Salads, fruit, yogurt, corn on the cob, potato salad
Dinners:
- Monday: Drive-thru (Hubbo and I both have meetings tonight, so it’s time to keep it simple)
- Tuesday: Chicken Sandwiches (Time to crock-pot a bunch of chicken to shred!)
- Wednesday: Handheld Beef & Bean Burritos from last week’s freezer batch (we’ll be out again, so this is a take-along meal)
- Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie
- Friday: Grilled Pesto Chicken & Roasted Bell Pepper Sandwiches (for company)
- Saturday: Cookout at Church
- Sunday: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Keeping it super-simple, but I am already exhausted just thinking about it. This reminds me of last week’s memory verse: “let us not lose heart… we will reap if we do not grow weary!”
