Time Management

Trying to find time to do all the "good" things in life is very difficult.  There are only so many hours in a day - the same for everyone - so no one has any advantage.  How we choose to spend our time is as varied as the number of people on the planet.
I am a wife, mother, home educator, home-maker and a host of other things.  The reality is that I simply can't do everything I'd like to do on any given day.  God sends His priorities for me and prayerfully I don't miss those for my own schedule or projects.  I'm working (and praying!) to be more aware of what He sets before me as well as my primary responsibilities that really must be ahead of any personal projects.
I am most blessed in that my husband never criticizes or pushes me about what I am doing or how I am spending my time each day.  He will even smile and laugh when I make a point to tell him some random and unseen thing I've accomplished - like cleaning and organizing underneath the bathroom sink or vacuuming the lint filter of the dryer.  No one ever knows when you've spent hours working on some seemingly ridiculous but necessary task, so I tell him... but only sometimes.  I don't think it matters, but maybe it does.
Maybe it shows my kids that the mundane and thankless jobs, the cleaning of things unseen and unappreciated, is important.  Service to others isn't always a showy thing.  Sometimes no one in your day-to-day life sees and comments when you just do what you should do.  That is okay.  None of us should need a pat on the back for being who we are and what we should be.
A pat on the back is nice.  A compliment is nice.  Kudos, gold stars and applause are nice.  However those are not the things that I want to spur my kids to do what they should do, what is right, what is honest, what is expected as part of a life lived for the Kingdom of God.  They are not why I do things each day.
God has given me gifts, talents, desires, responsibility and most importantly... opportunity.  He gives me a chance each day to CHOOSE how I will manage my gift of time to serve Him and others.  Bring glory to Him BY serving others - whether those others are my husband and children, the neighbor, someone at church or a stranger.
What an awesome thing.  I pray that I choose wisely today.

  Blessings on the journey~

Musing about life

I've been thinking a lot lately about life...specifically my life (and by extension my family's life).  I've also been doing a bit more reading than usual, even for me.  I have finished a few books in the last week or so, and am working through two different Bible study books right now.
I've also been spending some time poking around various blogs, some of the 'mommy' variety, a few homeschooling ones, the occasional sewing find, a bunch of 'frugal/money' type, and most importantly, several that are devoted to God's truth being shared for women specifically.
God is really speaking to me in a lot of areas right now and it feels a bit overwhelming and chaotic on the surface, but deep down in my heart I feel peaceful, loved and cared for ...like a small, beloved child being taught important things.
I have often felt that my life is sort of in a series of boxes.  Each related, but distinct and generally separated on some level from the rest.  I know this is not a truth per se, but just a general feeling of how things flow at various times and seasons for me.
I am first and foremost a follower of Christ.  Stumblingly, imperfectly, forgiven and starting again daily I seek to live in God's will for my life and bring Him glory.
This has not always been the case, even though I was saved (born again, redeemed, etc. choose your favorite term) as a child - I think I was about 8 or 10 years old - I have not always lived my faith.  This is not a fact I am proud of by any stretch, but it is a fact nonetheless.  By God's amazing grace and faithfulness, I found my way back about 9 or 10 years ago and have been blessed by a steady growth of my faith and strengthening of all I believe as I study the Bible and draw closer to my Savior.  I have also been blessed beyond measure to see 3 of our children and my husband come to faith in Christ during the last 9 years also.
Secondly I am a beloved wife to an awesome man and a (mostly) devoted mother to my terrific children.  These two roles are my highest calling and dearest ministry on the planet.
I also home educate our youngest two children, so I am a teacher.  I am a student in that I try to read/learn new things regularly.  I am a daughter.  I am a friend.  I am a quilter and seamstress.  I am an aspiring cook/baker.  I am the acting CFO of our family life.  I am generally the caretaker of the furry creatures that love us.  I am a less than stellar house-keeper (though I try to be better all the time).  I am passionately politically conservative and incorrect. I am a believer in absolute truth and see things very often in terms of right and wrong.  I am aspiring to become a better steward and more frugal in our finances and living.  I am a very slow and not very committed runner.
I am many things and yet I am just one.... me.
As random as all this may seem, it is all part of a process I am working through to attempt to un-compartmentalize (is that a word?) my life.  I don't like fragments generally.  I want to seamlessly live a life that is pleasing to God while fulfilling all the work He has set before me.   I don't want to miss His best for me because I am chasing loose ends flapping in the breeze of my life.
Much of my studies and reading lately have focused on truly trusting God...with everything.  I have a sense of being on the brink of something, yet have no idea what it may be.  Sort of like standing at a cross-road or at the edge of a staircase, but I can't see either road or step.  It's weird, exciting, terrifying, and yet I'm not scared.  I'm more anxiously excited to see what God is about to do.

I have learned a few things recently that struck me as profound.

• God has a perfect plan and it will not be thwarted by anything I do or do not do
• He can use me for His purposes if I am willing and obedient.
• His ways are not my ways and how He will accomplish something is probably not going to be the way I expect or would even choose.
• He can use something we see as dreadful to accomplish something wonderful.
• He sees what I will become and that is like Christ.  (How cool is THAT!?!)
• God loves me...completely... totally...unconditionally... now. (That one is really beyond amazing!)
• Jeremiah 29:11 is true even when I have no idea what is happening or will happen next.

 Blessings on the journey ~
  

Range of Emotion

I've been reading this site for a while ~ Holy Experience.  Ann makes me think, reflect, often cry.  God uses her words to strike deep chords that resonate.
Some people have such a gift with words.  There are so many words rushing about cyberspace and not all of them are worth the time to read, but Ann's words are worth the time and then some. 

Just Wednesday Rambling

Today is Wednesday.
Do you ever feel like Wednesday is this sort of no-man's land?  Stuck in the middle of the week, not usually a terribly exciting day, still feels like miles to go before the weekend and anything 'fun'.
I like Wednesday.  It feels like I'm making progress through the week to finally be half-done and hopefully things on the 'to do' list are being checked off.  Not always, but most weeks.
Today is a 'home day' for us.  The only outing may be a bike-ride to the library later.  Tonight is Steve's track work out and I have quilt group (if I'm feeling better), and that means a fairly easy supper of breakfast food - the kids favorite dinner usually.
I spent some time this morning thinking about Steve's birthday, which is tomorrow.  I am continually amazed by my husband.  He is so wonderful in my eyes and I never feel like I am quite conveying to him how important he is to me and our family.  It's tough to tell a modest man how marvelous he is.  He just doesn't seem to believe me.  It can be really frustrating at times... I want to really show him how much I love him, how much I appreciate him, how proud he makes me to be his wife.... and have no idea how to do so.   Maybe someday I'll have a brilliant stroke of inspiration.
The kids have begun some minor summer-schooling work.  J is taking an on-line writing course and so far it seems to be going well.  I am getting closer to having our next school year plan mapped out.  Only about a half-dozen more lesson plans to do.  Science is split this year so that means 2 plans for one subject (J & B).  Actually this year they have much more split subjects than ever before.  Having them grow is wonderful, but the planning is more involved.  I'm looking forward to a wonderful year for them both.  It seems like such an accomplishment to have them both in Middle School grades this year!  We have reached a milestone!  B is 6th grade now and J is 8th.  We'll see how excited I am about it when I'm mired in pre-algebra & astronomy lessons later in the year.
Off to continue my Wednesday by hanging some laundry on the line.  I love my life.

And a site for Moms of Boys too!

And since I have boys too... this is so cool!

A Giveaway!

Yesterday I posted about the awesome new site I found - via the lovely Sarah Mae from Like A Warm Cup of Coffee.  Today they are doing an awesome giveaway!  You have to check it out HERE.

I am also going to spend some time perusing the sponsor site at Franklin Springs.

Blessings on the journey everyone!

An awesome new site!

I just discovered an awesome new site!
http://raisinghomemakers.com/

As a mom who strives to be a Proverbs 31 woman/wife/mother... this is a site I am anxious to follow as I raise J.