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Showing posts from 2011

Are Your Ready?!

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Christmas is almost here, are you ready?  Not only am I not ready in the worldly sense (shopping, house clean, wrapping, food bought and prepared, favorite movies watched etc.), I am really not ready in the spiritual sense.  Almost every year I vow that this will be the year I really prepare during advent, for the coming of our savior.  Almost every year I start out with a bang and quickly go down hill.  This year I didn't even start with a pop, let alone a bang.  I am really not in the Christmas spirit and I'm feeling very uninspired. Of course I have guilt about my feelings for so many reasons, the biggest being that there are so many people in the world that are suffering, right now.  Me, I'm just cranky and uninspired.  I am truly blessed with a great family and wonderful friends.  I have a fairly, lovely, roof over my head, clothes to wear, and enough food for a three day Christmas feast.  So why do I feel so cranky and disconnected?!  I could say that part of it i

Grown-Up

When are we officially grown up?   When exactly does it happen?   After highs school?   After college?   After we get married?   After we buy a house and have a job?  What happens if you never accomplish any of those things?   What exactly is the definition of grown-up?   Dictionary.com says grown-up:   adjective 1.   having reached the age of maturity.   2.   characteristic of or suitable for adults: grown-up behavior; grown-up fiction.   Honestly, what does that mean?   What is the age of maturity and who decides when one has reached this age? Aren’t we continually growing up?   I think the day we die is the day we stop growing up.   If we are realistic about things aren’t we always growing, physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally?   Do we really stop learning new things, connecting with others, aging, or making a spiritual connection at a certain point in life?   Isn’t life about changing and growing?   But, when exactly are we considered by the rest of the world, grow

Grateful Heart Prayer

I found this wonderful prayer that I absolutely need to pray daily!  Maybe you need it to.  I started reading 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp awhile ago, this prayer reminds me that I truly need to get back to it, and back to my gratitude journal.   Gratitude for all of our blessings can change your attitude and perspective so much. Lord, thank you for this sink of dirty dishes; we have plenty of good food to eat. Thank you for this pile of dirty, stinky laundry; we have plenty of nice clothes to wear. And I would like to thank you, Lord, for those unmade beds; they were so warm and comfortable last night.   I know that many have no bed. My thanks to you, Lord, for this bathroom, complete with all the splattered mirrors, soggy, grimy towels and dirty lavatory; they are so convenient. Thank you for this finger-smudged refrigerator that needs cleaning.  It has served us faithfully for many years.   It is full of cold drinks and enough leftovers for two or three meals.

Prayer of Mothers

Life has been very crazy at our house lately.  We have had some challenges pop up and getting back in the swing of things with school has kept me very busy.  To be honest, I've been pretty tired at the end of the day and this has led to writers block.  While searching for something to post this evening, I came across a prayer I had saved.  I'm not sure where I got it from and a quick search of the internet, lists it on several sites, but no where is it sited who wrote it or where it came from originally.  I felt that it was the perfect prayer for me right now.  I wanted to share it with you, it is not my intent, to not give credit to the author, I just haven't found who the author is.  I hope it speaks to you that way it spoke to me. Prayer of Mothers Father in heaven; grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me.   Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege— to share in your creative miracle and bring

The one who dies with the most stuff, wins. NOT!

I was recently on a writing hiatus because I had two projects that I absolutely had to finish.   The first a garage sale, the second a video project I agreed to do. At the beginning of the year I talked the Director into taking Dave Ramsey’s’ Financial Peace University class.   We had taken a Crown Ministries class in the past.   In fact we took a couple and led a few.   So it’s not like we were completely clueless when it came to money.   But, I had heard great things about FPU ( Financial Peace University ) and felt we could always use a refresher when it comes to money.   He agreed. We have had very little debt since taking Crown Ministries, but recently we had been thrown a few curve balls and accumulated a small amount.   In class we learned about Gazelle intensity at paying off everything.   Dave suggests that you do everything from sell off your stuff in a garage sale, to getting another job, in order to live like no one else, so that later you CAN LIVE like no one else.

Friends among Women

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Growing up I was not in the “IN” crowd, nor was I popular.   The majority of my grade-school years were spent at a Catholic school.   I remember classmates as far back as first grade but a best friend or even good friends I had very few.   My first memory of a best friend was in fourth grade.   I had one for fourth, and fifth.   Then I had a couple of friends in sixth, and seventh but no best friend.   Actually I wasn’t really liked much at all, in sixth and seventh grade.   Thinking back on it, seventh was my hardest, I was what would be considered today, bullied.   Some of the girls put my school shoes in the toilet while I was at P. E.   I was made fun of, and a whole host of other things, I don’t care to remember, throughout all of seventh grade.   Eighth grade was a bit better, the two queen bees that led the girls the years before, had left the school and I bonded with someone.   We were like Laverne & Shirley  (we even had our own Lenny and Squiggy).   I remember thinking we

What to do when sickness strikes

Everyone in our house, except the Director is sick.   I don’t know what’s worse, everyone including mom, being sick at the same time or having one person at a time get sick.   I mean if we did the one person at a time thing, our household could potentially be sick for two months!   Then again having everyone sick at the same time is really hard too.   Especially when the little ones won’t succumb and just rest, and all of the older ones, me included just want to sleep. So what do we do when we’re all sick?   Well, I try to use natural remedies as well as conventional western medicine, but in the end sometimes it just takes time.   In the mean time I always make the following as part of our healing process. From my absolute favorite cookbook and one of my favorite authors, More Home Cooking, A writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin.   As Laurie states, “There is nothing like roast chicken.   It is helpful and agreeable, the perfect dish no matter what the circumstances.   Ele

Killer Organisms, Seriously!

When I wrote about the killer organisms, I was half joking.   Seriously, they totally gross me out and give me the willies when I think about them.   However, I never REALLY thought about them and what they can do to you! The other night I wasn’t feeling real great and when I lay down, I felt worse.   So, I decided to get up, not being in the mood to do much of anything, I turned on the TV.   All the stupid cable channels we have, and there was nothing of any value, worth watching, on!   As I was guide surfing, trying to find something, I came across the title Monsters Inside Me on the Animal Channel.   Now I’m thinking to myself “what in the world can this be about, especially on the animal channel!”   So I decide to check it out, in the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman “Big mistake. Big. Huge!” This show is about all the disgusting, nasty, critters that we can get!   Honestly!   The stories that were told and the pictures they showed were awful!   It made me not want to eat

F! Time for another re-test.

I have this reoccurring nightmare.   I’m at my current state in life (five kids, married etc.), but somewhere, some government bean counter, has determined that I didn’t meet my high school requirements.   Therefore, I have to go back to high school and complete one more year!   It doesn’t matter that I have this life; I have to go back in addition to living my current life.   It has all the typical, back in high school dream stuff, can’t find my locker, when I do, I can’t remember the combination, late to class, can’t find the class etc.   Where it becomes the nightmare is, it’s the last week of school and I have not done anything all year long!   I’m not prepared for the final exam and I have not completed the report, research paper, or whatever long term project that’s due!   So, I’m going to have to go back and do it over again! I had that dream again the other night.   I began to think about it and wonder why as an adult I’m having this dream.   It’s not like I’ve seen or talked

Is it Happy (HA HA!) Hour, I Need a Laugh!

I’m feeling overwhelmed and frustrated lately.   I have a lot on my plate, and I’m behind on several things.   Not feeling in the mood to write today, I thought, what I would really like to do is plop down in front of TV and watch I Love Lucy or something else that will make me laugh.   Why laughter?   Why not a drama or action/adventure movie?   And is this feeling of need for laughter a physiological need, or just typical feelings of being overwhelmed, not knowing where to start, so I’ll procrastinate a bit longer?   Fighting the urge, I press on; doing what I know needs to be done.   In the end, I know that I will feel really good once I’ve accomplished something and marked something off my list.   But, the nagging feeling for laughter won’t leave.   Maybe I need both.   And while I’m at it, I probably could use some exercise and some good fuel, instead of the junk I’ve been consuming lately. What is it about doing the things I should do and need to do that sends me running to bed

Oh! Those versatile O’s

I come from cereal eating people!   My brother lived for Fruity Pebbles.   My siblings would fight to the death for the last drop of milk and/or the last crumb of cereal in the box.   They are all still avid cereal eaters! I married a man that thinks cereal is a major food group.   He eats it in a big bowl, slurping every milk drenched bite, until it’s gone.   He also gulps it dry from a cup, for a snack.   In his younger years he would awaken in the middle of the night, decide he was hungry and go have a bowl of cereal.   (I can’t eat ANYTHING in the middle of the night, let alone cereal.) My kids love cereal!   I don’t allow sugar laden cereals in our home, and I don’t allow putting sugar on cereal, as I once did as a kid.   Still my kids eat bowls and bowls of cereal, dripping with milk.   Or, they eat it dry for a snack or they often beg me to make my homemade “Floor Sweepings” with it.   (Floor Sweepings – any form of trail mix – because it looks like something you swept off the

Keep Holy the Sabbath

Exodus 20: 9-11 Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you.    In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. I’m embarrassed to say that I do not keep holy the Sabbath.   My family and I are often guilty of working on Sunday.   My goal in writing this is to help myself be more accountable.   If I’m writing about something, I need to be living it.   So, if I write about keeping holy the Sabbath, I will be more inclined to do it myself. Eventually, I would like to have a Sunday tradition of having a nice family dinner every week.   I would also like to spend Sunday’s doing some fun, engaging activity with the kids.   Knowing myself, I jump in wi

Simple Saturdays

Do you know where the term Christmas in July came from?   A search of the internet shows many different answers.   The one that I prefer is from one of my favorite books, by one of my favorite authors,   Mrs. Sharps Traditions by Sarah Ban Breathnach .   In the book she explains that frugal Victorian families would make their Christmas presents.   They would start the list in mid-June and be finishing them by the end of the summer.   In addition, she also gives wonderful suggestions for gifts such as dried potpourri or dried-flower bouquets gathered from your summer garden (I currently don’t have a garden of any type, that’s one of those projects I would like to do!).    If you’re taking a vacation at the seashore she suggests making seashell picture frames.   Or, if you’d like to have fun in the kitchen with your kids, she suggests making things like spiced tea bags, nine-bean soup mixes or preserves.   She also suggests that celebrating Christmas in July, allows for plenty of time