Great ideas!

http://sixblessings.blogspot.com/2007/06/whats-for-dinner.html

Fabulous idea for dinner or even chore chart!

What a blessing...God's beautiful fishies!

I love to wake up and look at this beautiful scene. Our fish tank is right beside our bed. The light is on a timer and it wakes me gently each morning. We have two perc clown fish (the orange), two clark clowns (the yellow), a yellow tang, a sailfin tang (striped), a blue dory, a blennie and a goby (sp?), multiple anemones, a red starfish, a choc chip starfish, 3 shrimp and numerous crabs and snails, including 2 emerald crabs.

More encouragement on the web...

http://www.lainesletters.com/letters/private.html

Not just encouraging in my heartbreak of only having 3 kids, but encouragement to keep my "loose lips" shut.

There is a lot going on in my church and I find myself wanting to say something to stop what I see as wrong direction. My husband councils me to keep out of church politics. I am trying. I had hoped that what was true would be evident to everyone, but I worry that people are easily deceived.

When it comes to attacks on me, I pray and if I haven't wronged the person, I stay silent. I figure that people talking about me only reflects poorly on them and I don't have to defend myself when I haven't done anything wrong. But I feel that I have to say something when others are wrongly attacked- I feel I should at least give the attackee a heads up as to what is being said so that they can correct or defend themselves as they see fit. It is just wrong when this behavior takes place in a church. Of course it is wrong anywhere, but it is especially disheartening to see bad behavior by those who profess to love Jesus.

Marriage Pop Quiz from A Mom Just Like You

"1. Do you make some time each day to focus on your husband alone, talking to him about his day, his needs, his joys and frustrations?

2. Do you focus on your role as helpmeet, rather than thinking of your husband as someone to help you?

3. Do you communicate to him admiration and respect, and verbally praise and encourage him?

4. Do you try to learn more about the things that interest him, so you can fully be a part of his world?

5. Do you encourage him in his role as leader of the family, and are you willing to follow him when he does lead?

6. Do the two of you go out by yourselves sometimes, even if it is just to a fast food restaurant for coffee?

7. Do you do your part to keep your sex life healthy, strong and exciting?"

I definitely need this reminder this week. I have fallen short in many areas. Thankfully he loves me despite my shortcomings.

"A Mom Just Like You"

I am reading this book by Vickie Farris and her daughter, Jayme Farris Metzgar. I found encouragement in the second chapter by these words,

"I can think of few things more difficult for a mother than doing something she believes is not God's best for her children. If you are in this situation, be comforted that God rewards those who obey Him. I believe that home education has been successful for this very reason - it is God's way, and God's ways work. However, for mothers whose husbands have forbidden them to home school, God's way is to submit to your husband. Just as we homeschooling mothers need to obey God and trust Him with the results, so you, in obeying God by obeying your husband, can trust Him to take care of your children."

It helps to hear that God will take care of my children as they enter public school this year. I feel like I need to cry out, "Lord, help me with my unbelief." I can't put God in a box and say that the evils of public school are mightier than He is. I have such fears about what school will introduce my daughters to, based on what I was exposed to as a young woman. I blame the poor choices of my young adulthood on my parent's not sheltering me better, but I am sure there is more to it than just their decision to put me in public school.

My parents made many mistakes with me as I am sure I will make many with my own children. I just hate to make the same mistakes as were made with me. For example, I will never ever leave my husband. The legacy of divorce is on my head through no fault of my own (or my mother's). My parents didn't divorce, but they did separate several times. It rocked my young world to discover that you could count on someone for everything and they might just one day leave because they didn't "love" you anymore. This has devastated my ability to form healthy relationships, which I believe God in now in the process of healing. My relationship with my husband has been saved by my own salvation.

My mom took the girls and I shopping for school clothes today. Just the process of shopping for school clothes brought up so many fears in me. I wish my husband was a believer and understood the importance of sheltering. I will still do my best to provide a firm foundation to stand on. I know it is possible to grow into a Godly woman even going through public school. So many of the women I admire now did just that. It is just a challenge that has to be faced. I will pray both for their spiritual/emotional/physical safety and for my husband's mind to change. I will drive them to school and pick them up, no matter how convenient the bus would be. I will have lunch with them once a week at least and volunteer at the school as much as possible to be a witness to what they face. I will seek out Godly mothers with similar convictions, so that my children can find friends with similar upbringings. I will hope and trust in my Lord, and pray, "Lord, help me with my unbelief!" May He teach me that I can have faith in Him and that His will shall be done!

Something to encourage...

Bek's Blog: Joshua24v15

I found this post and thought it was encouraging. I remember when the twins were born, I literally cried every single day for the first six months. I remember being paranoid the neighbors could hear me through the baby monitor since I sometimes picked up their calls. Then it occurred to me that if they could hear me losing it every single day and never came over to help, they were not worth worrying about. That is how I knew it got easier. By the second six months, I was only crying every other day. By the 3rd six months, I was only crying once a week and after 18 months, I was maybe crying once a month (of course, by then, I was being treated for ppd). It helps to know that someone else has had it worse, so it will be ok.

Making Your Home a Haven Monday with Biblical Womanhood

1. Refresh Your Spirit
Today I am finishing Ruth and reading Proverbs 14 (I try to read the Proverbs chapter that corresponds with the date each day). I was struck by one verse in Proverbs 14, v.23: All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. It is easy to blog about my life, but much harder to live it. I am sure Ruth didn't find her duties easy or pleasurable, but she did them. I need to do the same in my life. I find that I allow my physical maladies to excuse me from my duties on a regular basis. That is neither Godly nor wise.

2. Morning Routine
This currently consists of:
Making the bed...done
Doing the dishes...done
Doing the laundry...done
Tidying...done
Wiping the kitchen and bathroom...done
Taking out the trash...done
Prepping dinner (usually defrosting meat)...done

3. Take Time to Plan
To Do Today
Meet Elizabeth at park to let her take girls for a playday...done
Babysit nephews all day long...doing
Get some paperwork done for church preschool...saving this for after babysitting
Clean bathrooms...saving this for after babysitting

4. What's on the Menu for Dinner
It was tacos, but I suggested switching Friday night's dinner to tonight and hubby agreed, so it is Breakfast! Yummy (the best part is he likes to cook breakfast so all I do is the prep work and the dishes!)!

5. Project for the Day
My main area and kitchen stay tidy as per daddies orders, but I will try to post before and after of the bathrooms when I get finished. Plus I have to vacuum since big bro is out of town (bathrooms and vacuuming are his chores normally for summer months)

4th of July tops finished!

Just in time too! I was finishing the second and making star barrettes for their hair while we did the time share seminar and someone mentioned that it was the 4th. I was totally freaked out. But I got it done and they wore it to dinner and to watch fireworks that night on the bay. This is my very first time actually finishing a wearable in time for them to wear it. Hubby liked them and that made me feel really happy. I think my crochet can annoy him when he never sees any finished products.

I am now working on fish themed tops as well as a blanket for my bed. WIP pics to come soon.

Blog Mission Tour at Becoming Me!

Becoming Me is hosting a bloggy tour where we are to post our own mission statement. I hardly feel qualified to have a mission statement since no one reads my blog, but I do have a purpose to why I blog, so I will post that:

My purpose in blogging is to examine my life from a spiritual perspective privately here in public (my tongue in cheek reference to the fact that no one reads my blog), to express my heartfelt desire to become a woman who pleases God, to encourage those who might happen by who struggle feeling they are the only imperfect moms/wives/women out there, and to document my day to day attempts to improve myself for God’s glory. I do promise to be more consistent in my posting, put my family’s needs (including my husband’s need for the house to be tidy) first before reading or posting, not post negative things about others except in an abstract non-specific sense, and to attempt to glorify God in all that I say or show.

Can I vent privately here in public?

I am so tired of people wanting things from me. I am one person. I do not have time for endless meetings and appointments and playdates and assignments. Ugh. Please do not ask anything of me anymore. This excludes my husband and children. This is for the rest of the world pick pick picking away at my soul...