... to get everything done that you really should get done, especially when you're a mom. Now, at the time I'm writing this I've gotten up, made our bed, cleaned our room, made breakfast and had my quiet time.
Today my guy has off of work, and its those days that I find that its hard for me to get everything done that must be done. Like folding laundry. Washing dishes. Vacuuming. Dusting. Stuff like that, you know? Because since tomorrow CC goes on an overnight run, I'll be missing him and that's the time I'll have to get everything done.
But as I look at the pile of clean clothes sitting on the couch waiting to be folded and put away, (is it just me, or does laundry NEVER really get done?!?), or at the couch cushions thrown all over the floor from Micah having a pillow fight with his Daddy, I realize that you know, I'm doing this stuff FOR my guy. For my family. CC appreciates when I clean up, and he sees, (tho he may not always say it) and knows that I do work hard. But I think that when he actually SEES me doing all of the things that all together make for a clean home, he understands "ah.. so THIS is what goes into keeping this place clean." He sees, tho he still doesn't like it, why, when we're rushing to go somewhere and I'm grabbing a cloth to clean up a few water drips on the counter, or picking up the couch blanket and repositioning it on the chair, or putting those annoying few dishes in the sink while he's waiting at the door for me to hurry up and get out, that its the small things that all together make up the reason why the house keeps its look of being, well, fairly clean.
I've also learned to prioritize things in my life. You know the saying, "Jesus first, Others next, Yourself last"? I've tried that. It does work.
See, the thing is that my quiet time is giving myself to Jesus. He is first, first thing in the morning. Then comes house work. But I'm not doing it just for myself, I'm doing this for my family, so they can have a HOME to love to be in. A HOME that my guy WANTS to come back to at the end of every day. One where my kids love to be, and they would rather be here than anywhere else. Micah is that way.. he's becoming a homebody, and I love that. And then, when its all said and done, I sit back, and I realize that because I put my God and family first, I get the greatest satisfaction over watching them love to be with each other, love to be home, love to be with me. I think its weird how, when you do stuff for other ppl, you get blessed yourself. Now that's the opposite that the world will tell you. But I don't care. I like doing things this way, even tho it may not always be easy.
No, its not always easy to get everything done, and NO, I'm not always in a good mood and willing and eager to get the house clean and windows sparkling and dishes washed and put away. But I think the overall feeling of good that comes from getting some things done on your "to-do" list is SO much better than the feeling of sitting around all day on the computer or reading a book and then towards the end of the afternoon frantically hurrying around to try to get just ONE thing done, and that may even just be dinner on the table on time. Ugh. I remember those days. I can't believe I would do that. Thank you Jesus for convicting me of that! Glad I'm not like that anymore.
God is good. All the time. And because I serve such a good God, He blesses me with the ability to do the things that need to be done in taking care of my family, and in doing all that, I am not only being a good wife and mother, I am serving in a most honored position. I love how, even tho I work and serve and feel tired, I am the queen of my home. Queen of my guy's heart. Much Loved mommy to my boy.
I love it.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Can a mother be overwhelmed at 10:30 in the morning?
Well, I think so. And there's not much going on in my schedule today, other than the usual things.
I'm sitting in my rocking chair that my mom and dad so generously bought for me when our son was born, looking around our fairly clean house.
Well, other than the blanket that's laying at my feet that really should be picked up, folded and put away.
O, and the plastic cups that have been mysteriously showing up, tucked away in dark corners of different rooms; the same cups that I now recall allowing my 3 year-old son to use to play bowling with an oversized plastic softball... He'd line the cups up in my kitchen and then, from across the other side of the room, he'd fling the ball, rolling it down the length of the kitchen and gleefully watch it crash into the stacked cups, every once in a while it would miss the cups completely and hit the newly painted wall, or end up bouncing its way into a bedroom. Or it would sail unreasonably high in the air and end up getting into my dishwater, or knocking over a full cup of water sitting on the table.
Then I see crumbs on the kitchen floor. Yes, those must be swept up. Can't have ants finding them and then having the whole troop of them excitedly scurrying into my house to carry off the bits of food. So the offending crumbs must be taken care of, by all means.
O dear, I see that pile of clean clothes on my rumpled bed. Well, I comfort myself in the fact that they ARE clean, and only need to be folded, arranged in the correct piles, must be walked ALL the way around the house in order to be put in the right rooms, the right shelves or drawers and then put away accordingly.
Which reminds me, I still need to wash the towels that are also sitting in a pile on my bathroom floor. Yes, yes.. must be done today.
O wow, I see that in the midst of happiness being expressed at Daddy coming home or company driving up the lane, hand and face prints were left by small and large hands on the windows and sliding glass doors. That MUST be given attention today.
Hmmm... I see that there are dishes sitting on my counter. Hasty note to self; those have to be washed before I go to work this afternoon..
O, my coffee got cold; I should go reheat it before I lose interest in drinking it at all...
I just vacuumed the living room floor yesterday.. does it really need it again? *sees a piece of popcorn threatening to hide itself under the edge of the couch* sigh.. yes, I suppose that I should vacuum again..
My adorable son just came up to me and asked for a sandwich.. I'll get up and make him one.. he's growing so fast I can't keep him in clothes for long before he grows out of them.. not to mention the fact that I can't keep him fed for long before he's hungry yet again.. I'm pregnant.. he eats more often than me! hahaha...
Well, all that said, I guess I'm not really overwhelmed, I'm just thinking out loud... Now I'm glad that I got up early to have my quiet time. At this rate, I can see how things can get so busy during the day that if one misses having time to themselves and God in the morning, its doubtful that it will happen at all.
And don't think I'm discontent. I love my life.
I just enjoy thinking out loud. Writing out my thoughts. :)
I'm sitting in my rocking chair that my mom and dad so generously bought for me when our son was born, looking around our fairly clean house.
Well, other than the blanket that's laying at my feet that really should be picked up, folded and put away.
O, and the plastic cups that have been mysteriously showing up, tucked away in dark corners of different rooms; the same cups that I now recall allowing my 3 year-old son to use to play bowling with an oversized plastic softball... He'd line the cups up in my kitchen and then, from across the other side of the room, he'd fling the ball, rolling it down the length of the kitchen and gleefully watch it crash into the stacked cups, every once in a while it would miss the cups completely and hit the newly painted wall, or end up bouncing its way into a bedroom. Or it would sail unreasonably high in the air and end up getting into my dishwater, or knocking over a full cup of water sitting on the table.
Then I see crumbs on the kitchen floor. Yes, those must be swept up. Can't have ants finding them and then having the whole troop of them excitedly scurrying into my house to carry off the bits of food. So the offending crumbs must be taken care of, by all means.
O dear, I see that pile of clean clothes on my rumpled bed. Well, I comfort myself in the fact that they ARE clean, and only need to be folded, arranged in the correct piles, must be walked ALL the way around the house in order to be put in the right rooms, the right shelves or drawers and then put away accordingly.
Which reminds me, I still need to wash the towels that are also sitting in a pile on my bathroom floor. Yes, yes.. must be done today.
O wow, I see that in the midst of happiness being expressed at Daddy coming home or company driving up the lane, hand and face prints were left by small and large hands on the windows and sliding glass doors. That MUST be given attention today.
Hmmm... I see that there are dishes sitting on my counter. Hasty note to self; those have to be washed before I go to work this afternoon..
O, my coffee got cold; I should go reheat it before I lose interest in drinking it at all...
I just vacuumed the living room floor yesterday.. does it really need it again? *sees a piece of popcorn threatening to hide itself under the edge of the couch* sigh.. yes, I suppose that I should vacuum again..
My adorable son just came up to me and asked for a sandwich.. I'll get up and make him one.. he's growing so fast I can't keep him in clothes for long before he grows out of them.. not to mention the fact that I can't keep him fed for long before he's hungry yet again.. I'm pregnant.. he eats more often than me! hahaha...
Well, all that said, I guess I'm not really overwhelmed, I'm just thinking out loud... Now I'm glad that I got up early to have my quiet time. At this rate, I can see how things can get so busy during the day that if one misses having time to themselves and God in the morning, its doubtful that it will happen at all.
And don't think I'm discontent. I love my life.
I just enjoy thinking out loud. Writing out my thoughts. :)
Monday, April 19, 2010
What is trust, without faith?
For real, tho..
how you gonna tell someone that you trust them to get something done for you, without having the faith in them that they will get it done? This includes when you you talkin about your friends, like when you share things in confidence to them, and then you ask them to not tell anyone else for the time being; you have FAITH in them that they will keep the things you enTRUSTed to them, and not betray you.
We have a lot of times when our faith is "betrayed", tho many times we don't recognize it as such when it happens, I think. When you ask your family member to do something for you, you trust them that they will get it done and you leave, having faith that it will happen. But when you get back and its not done yet, and they reassure you that they are on their way to do it right this second, was your faith betrayed? Or was it just delayed?
At a young age, I think children learn trust. When you tell your little boy, as you put him to bed in a darkened room with a small night light, "I'll be right in the next room; you are fine. Your mommy won't leave you alone here", he TRUSTs you, and his small heart beats with that trust, and every time that you tell him that, every night, his faith in you is established and that trust is founded on the faith that you will NEVER LEAVE HIM ALONE.
As one gets older and moves into their teens, they learn, thru trials, errors and sometimes heartbreak, to give, receive and earn trust. Its so important that they KNOW of a surety that there is ONE who will NEVER betray trust, and that ONE you can always have faith in, no matter where you are in life, who you are, or where you've been.
I think in marriage that trust and faith gets used every day, every moment, and it doesn't stop when you go to sleep or start when you wake up. That trust and faith is a standing one; you don't leave it at work and pick it up the next day. It doesn't stop once you completed a task that your companion asked you to do, that simply deepens that standing trust. Somehow I think that this part of trust and faith is so precious. The trust that your better half has in you that you will never betray him, never do anything to hurt him or you or both of you is, I think, HOLY and that God is just as JEALOUS over that trust as your companion is. When that trust has been injured or cut, not only do you and your husband/wife hurt, I think that God bleeds right along with us as well. After all, He IS the third part of that precious cord that binds you together.
So...
what is faith without trust?
and what is trust without faith?
I think one cannot exist without the other. And I think, perhaps, that there is a hidden beauty in this that we miss a lot.
I'm learning it now.
how you gonna tell someone that you trust them to get something done for you, without having the faith in them that they will get it done? This includes when you you talkin about your friends, like when you share things in confidence to them, and then you ask them to not tell anyone else for the time being; you have FAITH in them that they will keep the things you enTRUSTed to them, and not betray you.
We have a lot of times when our faith is "betrayed", tho many times we don't recognize it as such when it happens, I think. When you ask your family member to do something for you, you trust them that they will get it done and you leave, having faith that it will happen. But when you get back and its not done yet, and they reassure you that they are on their way to do it right this second, was your faith betrayed? Or was it just delayed?
At a young age, I think children learn trust. When you tell your little boy, as you put him to bed in a darkened room with a small night light, "I'll be right in the next room; you are fine. Your mommy won't leave you alone here", he TRUSTs you, and his small heart beats with that trust, and every time that you tell him that, every night, his faith in you is established and that trust is founded on the faith that you will NEVER LEAVE HIM ALONE.
As one gets older and moves into their teens, they learn, thru trials, errors and sometimes heartbreak, to give, receive and earn trust. Its so important that they KNOW of a surety that there is ONE who will NEVER betray trust, and that ONE you can always have faith in, no matter where you are in life, who you are, or where you've been.
I think in marriage that trust and faith gets used every day, every moment, and it doesn't stop when you go to sleep or start when you wake up. That trust and faith is a standing one; you don't leave it at work and pick it up the next day. It doesn't stop once you completed a task that your companion asked you to do, that simply deepens that standing trust. Somehow I think that this part of trust and faith is so precious. The trust that your better half has in you that you will never betray him, never do anything to hurt him or you or both of you is, I think, HOLY and that God is just as JEALOUS over that trust as your companion is. When that trust has been injured or cut, not only do you and your husband/wife hurt, I think that God bleeds right along with us as well. After all, He IS the third part of that precious cord that binds you together.
So...
what is faith without trust?
and what is trust without faith?
I think one cannot exist without the other. And I think, perhaps, that there is a hidden beauty in this that we miss a lot.
I'm learning it now.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Whoa..
Wow, I haven't been on this thing in months! I really can't even remember the last time! I'm pretty sure that it's been since I was back from Samoa, because I have some Samoan pics on here.. but yeah, so much has been happening since then!
One thing is that we're expecting a small girl to join us around the end of August! I'm 20 weeks along now, and I can feel her kicking up a storm already.. I just adore her! We're pretty excited.. I can't wait to see CC with a little girl cradled in his arm.. I'm gonna take lots of pictures of that!
Hmm.. Today we spent as a family, taking Micah to the barber to get his hair cut.. I was so shocked when she measured his hair and told us it was a little over 4 inches long! Ok, so.. we're not gonna let his hair go for so long again.. that was a little too much. hahah! After the haircut we took him out for ice cream at our favorite little place called Rita's Ice.. man, they got the hookups for italian ice!!! Best tasting I've ever had there! (even tho I get frozen chocolate custard there, not italian ice.) We also grabbed a cinnamon pretzel from next door, actually 2, since they were $1 each and you get one, you get another one for free! That was delic!
After the drive home, we went to Choice Books to load up CC's van, visit with the Boss and clean out the van, then on home for an hour before we load up again to go to Dan Shmuckers for dinner! So a very full family day, but lots of fun spending time together.
I love our little family.
So, I shall write more later. Right now, I think its time I updated my playlist on this thing.. I hardly listen to it, but even I'm getting tired of the songs just thinking how long they've been on there! So peace out, everyone.. until later!
One thing is that we're expecting a small girl to join us around the end of August! I'm 20 weeks along now, and I can feel her kicking up a storm already.. I just adore her! We're pretty excited.. I can't wait to see CC with a little girl cradled in his arm.. I'm gonna take lots of pictures of that!
Hmm.. Today we spent as a family, taking Micah to the barber to get his hair cut.. I was so shocked when she measured his hair and told us it was a little over 4 inches long! Ok, so.. we're not gonna let his hair go for so long again.. that was a little too much. hahah! After the haircut we took him out for ice cream at our favorite little place called Rita's Ice.. man, they got the hookups for italian ice!!! Best tasting I've ever had there! (even tho I get frozen chocolate custard there, not italian ice.) We also grabbed a cinnamon pretzel from next door, actually 2, since they were $1 each and you get one, you get another one for free! That was delic!
After the drive home, we went to Choice Books to load up CC's van, visit with the Boss and clean out the van, then on home for an hour before we load up again to go to Dan Shmuckers for dinner! So a very full family day, but lots of fun spending time together.
I love our little family.
So, I shall write more later. Right now, I think its time I updated my playlist on this thing.. I hardly listen to it, but even I'm getting tired of the songs just thinking how long they've been on there! So peace out, everyone.. until later!
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