Little did I know that when I chose the word "consistency" to be my word for 2014 it would mean that I would be consistently shown areas in my life that I needed to change!! I should have picked an easier word like, "sleep" or "serenity".
Last week my dear husband had back surgery, which went very well, but requires a quite lengthy recovery period, 30 days to be exact. This is 30 days of him not being able to pick up anyting over 5 lbs, 30 days of him not being able to do anything but basically walking. I have been dreading this time. I have been complaining about this time, I have beein acting like a 2 year old in my brain about this time.
Until yesterday. Yesterday was a bad day, he was grumpy and in pain, the kids were wild and feeling the effects of two stressed out parents and I in a less than stellar mood. I started counting the hours till bedtime at about 8am. NOT GOOD. Last night after the kids were in bed I realized that in a way I enjoy playing the martyr.
In an odd way I like having something to complain about. I like taking all the burden on myself and showing how much I can do. On top of the regular things sometimes I add added burdens, things that I don't have to add, but that I think "look" good to others. I hope I am not the only mother out there who struggles with this. As moms we have alot to do, whether we are stay at home moms, or work outside the home, whether we have one child, or mulitiple little ones there is always something else to do. And we never get all the help we would like, even if we married our Prince Charming, he never steps in and helps as much as we would like. It comes down to the attitude we have as we go through our never ending "to do" list, and I have to admit that lately mine has not been steller.
I forget that I am not doing what I do each day for the approval of my friends on Facebook, no one on Pinterest is keeping track of how many crafts I do with my kids, or how many imaginative lunches I pack them. Better Homes and Gardens isn't lurking outside my house waiting for a chance to photograph my artfully arranged knick knacks. I do what I do each day for my kids, for my husband, for my Heavenly Father who blessed me with my family. Keeping my priorites straight in that way keeps the martyr complex away.
I love the first verse from Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Do Everything"
Your picking up toys on the living room floor for the fifteenth time today
Matching up socks
Sweeping up lost cheerios that got away
You put a baby on your hip
Color on your lips and head out the door
While I may not know you,
I bet I know you
Wonder sometimes, does it matter at all?
Well let me remind you, it all matters just as long
As you do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you,
Cause he made you,
To do
Every little thing that you do
To bring a smile to His face
Tell the story of grace
With every move that you make
And every little thing you do
Friday, January 31, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Its All About The Love!
Don't you love it when everything you read, from all different sources all has to do with the same thing? Do you ever feel a bit "ganged up" on?
If you read my previous post, you know that this year I wanted to focus on being more consitant in my habits. One of my habits is getting up at 5:15am to have my quiet time before the rest of the household gets up. The days go much better if I can get myself prepared mentally and spiritually before the rest of the household wakes up!
I am reading through Beth Moore's book, "The Beloved Disciple", following the apostle John. So much about John's life, and the epistle's he wrote after Christ's return to heaven were about love, love it happy, love is mushy feelings, what could be convicting about love....right????
Well, here is the thing, being loved is mushy and gushy and wonderful, but sometimes being the one who is loving isn't easy. We are called to love as Christ loved, and guess what, He loved EVERYONE, even the people that weren't the easiest to love.
That is how my morning started out, and as I was reading and processing that and thinking over my list of people that I really need to work on loving, and if we are honest we all have that "list" of people, you know the ones, the ones where we kinda cringe when we know we have to interact with them. The ones that are hard for us to love. Then I get hit with another aspect of love, not judging.
OUCH. I log onto facebook and see an article. The article was all about how as mothers we need to stop judging other mothers over their parenting style (if you are on facebook, check out the original post on my page or on Mom and Pop Culture's page. I know as a mother most of the time I am just guessing when it comes to parenting, now they are usually educated guesses, but guesses still the same. However, if someone dares to "question" me, my immediate reaction is defensive. Or if someone has a "weird" approach to parenting I immediately get a holier than thou attitude. The article points out that we are all in this together. It isn't a contest, no one should be keeping score.
If I am judging I am not loving. If I am being defensive, I am not keeping myself open to receive love. Now I have another aspect in my life that I need to work on being consistent on!
Who knew love could be such a tough subject?
If you read my previous post, you know that this year I wanted to focus on being more consitant in my habits. One of my habits is getting up at 5:15am to have my quiet time before the rest of the household gets up. The days go much better if I can get myself prepared mentally and spiritually before the rest of the household wakes up!
I am reading through Beth Moore's book, "The Beloved Disciple", following the apostle John. So much about John's life, and the epistle's he wrote after Christ's return to heaven were about love, love it happy, love is mushy feelings, what could be convicting about love....right????
Well, here is the thing, being loved is mushy and gushy and wonderful, but sometimes being the one who is loving isn't easy. We are called to love as Christ loved, and guess what, He loved EVERYONE, even the people that weren't the easiest to love.
That is how my morning started out, and as I was reading and processing that and thinking over my list of people that I really need to work on loving, and if we are honest we all have that "list" of people, you know the ones, the ones where we kinda cringe when we know we have to interact with them. The ones that are hard for us to love. Then I get hit with another aspect of love, not judging.
OUCH. I log onto facebook and see an article. The article was all about how as mothers we need to stop judging other mothers over their parenting style (if you are on facebook, check out the original post on my page or on Mom and Pop Culture's page. I know as a mother most of the time I am just guessing when it comes to parenting, now they are usually educated guesses, but guesses still the same. However, if someone dares to "question" me, my immediate reaction is defensive. Or if someone has a "weird" approach to parenting I immediately get a holier than thou attitude. The article points out that we are all in this together. It isn't a contest, no one should be keeping score.
If I am judging I am not loving. If I am being defensive, I am not keeping myself open to receive love. Now I have another aspect in my life that I need to work on being consistent on!
Who knew love could be such a tough subject?
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Happy 2014
2013 kind of sped by for me. Historians will say that it happened and that there were individul events, but it just kinda all mushed together for me.
So onto 2014!
Two of my friends posted the same article of facebook that challenged the reader that instead of coming up with a list of New Years Resolutions, to come up with a word that they would like to have dominate their year. After much thinking, I decided that I want my word to be CONSISTENCY. (for my fellow "Modern Family" friends picture me clapping and saying "yay" every time I type the word)
I love to start things. I start things well. However, the follow through is a little rough. I have quite the list of excuses, everything from, "it wasn't the right system for me", to "the organizer wasn't pretty enough to make me want to use it". Now that my kids are older consistency (yay) is getting to be very important. Not only do I want to show a good example to them, I also want them to know that I am someone they can depend on, in both the promises I make to them and the disciplinary aspect of parenting.
I am taking the month of January to "overload" myself on information so I can weed through things and start establishing routines. I read Gretchen Rubin's "Happier at Home", and have been challened to go through my home room by room this month and get rid of things and make my home more peaceful. She suggests in her book making a lists of tasks that you really don't want to do and work on them 15 minutes a day. I really like that idea and am working on my list. I tend to jump into the "yucky" tasks and get tired out a quarter of the way through and get left with a bigger mess than when a started. Plus, doing it this way will help me practice consistency!
One of the things that she mentioned in her book that I am really looking forward to doing is creating "shrines". Now if you are like me, I orginally cringed at the word "shrine" because to me that invoked an idea of creating a place of worship, but that wasn't her meaning at all. Her idea is to group your possessions to highlight their meaning for you. For example..... I have a set of three shelves above our "coffee bar" right next to our dining room table. It is the perfect place to display knick-knacks. I have had the shelves there for over a year and they have been a revolving door of things. My dear hubby and I have different tastes when it comes to things displayed so the shelves have also been a source of shall we say, some lively "discussions".
Yesterday I decided that the shelves were a good place to start. They are in a very central place in our living area, so I decided to make them a "shrine" to our family.
The middle shelve houses special family heirlooms that came from my grandparents houses.
I think it is important that our children grow up with a strong sense of family. I want them to understand where they came from. It was a fun project yesterday, I can't wait to finish it when I get pictures developed and put up there!
So if you had to pick a word for 2014 what would it be?
So onto 2014!
Two of my friends posted the same article of facebook that challenged the reader that instead of coming up with a list of New Years Resolutions, to come up with a word that they would like to have dominate their year. After much thinking, I decided that I want my word to be CONSISTENCY. (for my fellow "Modern Family" friends picture me clapping and saying "yay" every time I type the word)
I love to start things. I start things well. However, the follow through is a little rough. I have quite the list of excuses, everything from, "it wasn't the right system for me", to "the organizer wasn't pretty enough to make me want to use it". Now that my kids are older consistency (yay) is getting to be very important. Not only do I want to show a good example to them, I also want them to know that I am someone they can depend on, in both the promises I make to them and the disciplinary aspect of parenting.
I am taking the month of January to "overload" myself on information so I can weed through things and start establishing routines. I read Gretchen Rubin's "Happier at Home", and have been challened to go through my home room by room this month and get rid of things and make my home more peaceful. She suggests in her book making a lists of tasks that you really don't want to do and work on them 15 minutes a day. I really like that idea and am working on my list. I tend to jump into the "yucky" tasks and get tired out a quarter of the way through and get left with a bigger mess than when a started. Plus, doing it this way will help me practice consistency!
One of the things that she mentioned in her book that I am really looking forward to doing is creating "shrines". Now if you are like me, I orginally cringed at the word "shrine" because to me that invoked an idea of creating a place of worship, but that wasn't her meaning at all. Her idea is to group your possessions to highlight their meaning for you. For example..... I have a set of three shelves above our "coffee bar" right next to our dining room table. It is the perfect place to display knick-knacks. I have had the shelves there for over a year and they have been a revolving door of things. My dear hubby and I have different tastes when it comes to things displayed so the shelves have also been a source of shall we say, some lively "discussions".
Yesterday I decided that the shelves were a good place to start. They are in a very central place in our living area, so I decided to make them a "shrine" to our family.
The middle shelve houses special family heirlooms that came from my grandparents houses.
I think it is important that our children grow up with a strong sense of family. I want them to understand where they came from. It was a fun project yesterday, I can't wait to finish it when I get pictures developed and put up there!
So if you had to pick a word for 2014 what would it be?
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