Simplicity- At Peace

Better to be patient than powerful;
better to have self-control than to conquer a city. Proverbs 16:32

The Lord is fighting for my peace all I need to do is hold on to it. Do I seek peace though? Do I hold on to it when I get it? Am I laughing without fear of the future? Or am I ever so quick to pick up the heavy mantle of worry and what-if?

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole. Isaiah 53:5 (AMP)

Daybook II

This a tweaking of the Daybook format journal post from the other day.

Outside: Snowflakes are lazily floating to the ground. There is a good 6-8″ of white stuff blanketing everything in sight and to think a few days ago it was close to 50 degrees outside. The temp is 23 degrees today. The sky is overcast marbled in golden white and bluish grey.

Hearing: The cat and dog chasing each other around the house.

Wearing: Long sleeve brown thermal, brown cable knit hooded sweater and silver brand jeans that a good friend generously bestowed upon me.

Thinking: My next blog post. And the absolutely ludicrous expectation placed on little girls and women by the Miss America pageant and how they (the producers) excessively excused the pageantry and exhibitionism by pushing a feminist career agenda as though being a Doctor or Lawyer or Scientist is somehow the ultimate goal for girls and women. I am a mom and there is NOTHING more fulfilling and important. I have a job out of necessity and I enjoy it very much and would love to continue my education. My job is EASY in comparison to keeping my home and parenting my children. I hope that moms never forget that  though they could very easily be a career woman and do some culturally beneficial work in the world, the imprint of there motherhood however good or bad will shape the future and there is no higher achievement than striving to be the best mom to your children. The real Miss America’s are those moms that have the poise to handle there children’s messes and multitask a million different things and create a loving home for their husband and children and who honor there husband even when it is difficult and all the other umpteen beautiful, frustrating, thankless, fulfilling aspects of motherhood.

Reading: Learn to Crochet- I know how, I just need to familiarize myself with the different stitches and how to read patterns.

Food: {Brunch} Cottage Cheese, eggs and toast, coffee {Supper} hamburgers

Learning: Crochet stitches

Devotion: Streams in the Desert

Meditation: Proverbs 34:14

Inspiration: Pinterest

Creating: Just finished my third washcloth, blue raspberry and bright pink

Grateful: Warmth, coffee, my children, family, friends, feedback and followers on my blog, the talent God has given me to write, motivation that I pray for every day, my vitamins esp. B, herbs, snow, joy, playing, being okay with imperfections and inadequacy.

Accomplished: 90% of my kids rooms cleaned, addresses collected for my 6 year olds Flat Stanley first grade project, lots and lots of laundry, groceries bought and put away,

Plans: need  to finish my children’s bedrooms, get the kids stuff ready for school tomorrow, run a few errands, get together with some friends on Friday, free class on Saturday

Favorite: TV show right now Once Upon a Time on ABC, I love the spiritual connections I am able to communicate to my children through this show, as in, “magic always comes with a price” and how this relates to the pleasure of sin in the moment but how it makes you pay a heavier price down the road.

Children: Having fun with the Granparents

Struggle: Maintaining (or even implementing on some days) routines and scheduling for my days.

Avoiding: Shoveling the snow off the walk

Fitness: Haven’t done it today… yet

Zone: Outside work, er, like shoveling the walk

Quote: “Mommy you have a big butt” -complements of my 4 year old

Praying: For a very special and loved person to come home miraculously healed.

So there it is my tweak of my mundane daily to do…

Daybook

Outside my window: Gorgeous snow everywhere and to think that each and every snowflake is different than the other… God is so in the details, I think I love this scientific fact more that the sands on the seashore or that He named every star, even though you can hardly choose between such amazing facts.

I am hearing: the tumble of clothes in my dryer, John Denver on my ipod playlist

I am wearing: Fleece jammie pants and purple shirt and thick black cardigan sweater

I am thinking about: The hilarious 2012 No Pants Subway Ride I just saw on You Tube via Pinterest, laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. The looks these people got… LOL (ahem, this would definitely be rated beyond PG-13- just warning you)

Food today: {Breakfast}- 2 cups coffee, cereal {Lunch}- Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup with goldfish swimming in it {Supper}- whatever I think of

Learning: My daughter brought home a game from school about sequencing that was pretty fun.

My Meditation: Proverbs 16:32 NLT

Crafting: Just finished 2 crocheted washcloths that I loved making.

Inspirations: DIY magazine organizers, prairie cloth doll, felt doll

Some of what I am planning this week: Need to clean my kids rooms since I avoided all last week… and the week before that… and the one before that…

Some of what I have gotten done this past week: Cleaned the top of my fridge off, Lots of never ending laundry, 7 kids to AWANA, Crocheted 2 washcloths, Cleaned my bedroom, 7 Blog posts

I am Thankful for: My children, God’s provision and mercy and guidance, Salvation, my family, people who follow my blog and leave comments on my posts, Vitamins, herbs, raw milk, the beauty of God’s Creation, the ministry of God’s creatures especially the pets he has blessed our family with: Dixie our red dobe, and Ginger our muted calico cat.

One of my favorite things: Vintage Pyrex, I adore it

My children are: Hangin’ with Daddy

Got my idea for this post at Pondered in My Heart a darling blog I found today via (what else?) Pinterest

My Diet Goals for the New Year

This is a list of easy and (real) healthy snack/ small meals that I have come up with for myself (and my mom who asked me to make this up for her). I have a basic formula that includes one of each- Grain, Protein, Fruit/ Veggie. So basically put together one from each category and you have your snack/ meal. Try to remember to keep food as close to it original state as possible and organic is always the best for you. Obviously though do what is best and works for you, I personally am trying to eat as organic and unprocessed as possible, but I still have my hot dog and mac n’ cheese meals, too. I have chosen not to guilt trip myself about it though. Try to buy things locally if possible as close to free range that you can find and organic as well.

My favorite grains:

• Ezekial Bread,
• Sprouted or fermented grain breads
• Whole grain bagels
• Steel cut oats or rolled oats
• Melba toast
• Popcorn (not microwave)
• Barilla Plus Pasta (or homemade if you are so inclined, I would love to try doing it myself someday)

Remember that high fiber foods slow down glucose metabolism.

Proteins:

• Meat (obviously, however you choose to get it, grassfed organic is best)
• Eggs (hard boiled in advance saves a lot of time)
• Yogurt (homemade and self sweetened)
• Nut butters
• Cream cheese
• Cheese sticks, wedges or slices
• Hummus
• Nuts
• Cottage cheese
• Tuna

My fave fruits and veggies:

• Apples (gala)
• Clementine oranges
• Banana (especially in smoothies)
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Grapes
• Avocado (also a good option for smoothies I just found out)
• Spinach or kale
• Celery
• Raisins and other dried fruit
• Green pepper
• And so on

Another goal this year that I want to try are more smoothies, I have seen some fantastic looking recipes in my online wanderings and at Pinterest(my latest addiction).

I want to try and perfect a good Orange Cranberry smoothie similar to one I had at Panera this summer, but I would like to juice my own cranberry’s if at all possible… But I am not above just using regular old juice either. Another good one I have had is a Strawberry Lemonade smoothie, I thought it was a touch tart but oh so refreshing so I would like to play with that a bit and see what I can come up with. My primary smoothie that I make most is either Blueberry, Strawberry or Mixed Berries, a banana, some yogurt, milk, oatmeal, flax seed and occasionally some peanut butter (make it taste like a PB & J). I also found on my beloved Pinterest a couple great ideas for prepacked baggies for smoothies… which makes for more time saving when your super busy; you can read up on these ideas here and here. I think they are great for individual smoothies, I usually make enough for me and my kids because they won’t give me a minutes rest if I make just one for myself, so I might have to tweak this idea for making 4 smoothies at a time instead of one.

There are some wonderful herbal add-ins for smoothies at the Bulk Herb Store (my absolute favorite place for herbs on the web!)  and a good source for getting chia seed, spirulina, flax seed, psyllium seed, and other great bulk items that may come in handy when you want a super nutritious smoothie.

What are some of your standby quick, easy, delish healthy snacks that you love? Would love it if you shared them…

Simplicity- Nuclear Reactor or Wise Response

Speaking to my Mom the other day we got onto the subject of reacting to children’s behavior or stressful situations in negative or angry ways. I confess that I have a very hard time keeping my cool in certain situations in regards to my children and their childish ways or my dog or stupid commercials or the news and its inevitable skewing of truth. I even find myself saying absolute statements about what is in our food or sinful behaviors in others or whatnot that I come across in life that are contrary to the Truth. I am opinionated, I know this. And I can be very caustic when it comes to the things I disagree with. I find that in my heart when it comes to people, I am absolutely on their side and would never want to come across as judging them… in my heart. On the outside in my attempt to show my children what is right and wrong, I find that maybe I am just coming across as judgmental and legalistic.

I, out eleven children was (likely) my moms most difficult child, being third in line and the eldest daughter. When I was born my mom has described me as “angry to be alive” and she even sought counseling from a pastor due to my constant crying in the first six weeks of my life, not just any kind of crying but angry, screeching wails of frustration. I find that this is very much my personality even now, and I find myself to be difficult for my own self to live with. I have a hard time accepting and forgiving my unlovable tendencies and struggle to forgive my own lack of perfection and self-control.

One of the statements my mom made that resonated with me was that every person on this planet deep down cannot find a reason to say that they are okay and I contend that if they can say that they are, then they are likely not being honest with themselves or they are not looking deep enough. This was when we were discussing the beautiful message from God in Tim Tebow’s amazing performance the other day playing football. She says that God wants us to know how loved we are and I completely agree. This brings me back to reacting to difficulty and crisis situations in a way that may not portray this beautiful truth to my children. If there is anything a loving parent wants for their children it is that they would know undoubtedly how much they are loved, because we all know that in this world there tends to be so little to reinforce that for them. So when portraying a spirit of judgement upon those things that are inevitably wrong with the world and life and people it fundamentally sets up a spirit of failure and never being good or lovable enough to be of any value, even when this attitude is projected elsewhere and not upon the child, they will still see your judgement upon that behavior and if they choose to act in that behavior not only does it set them up to feel judgment from you their parent but also sets them up to know how to attempt to gain power over you in an act of defiance.

I think ultimately as a parent though we want the best for our children and to help them avoid painful consequences and to be “okay”, then helping them out of difficult situations when those situations are ones they had gotten themselves into on their own, however many have a tendency to attempt to beat the bad out either verbally, physically, or manipulatively while missing the point of the fact that human nature is flawed by sin and no amount of rules and punishment can ever produce a perfect human. Human choice, the nature of sin and the law lead to us to the knowledge that there is no reaching perfection. Christ was the perfect human and it is by his sacrifice that we find our painful mistakes can be washed away, and that our children when they come up against the pain of  the consequences of their sin can look to him to wash the guilt away.

I would like to strive for a parenting technique that involves less reaction and more reasonable responses. The book “Parenting with Love and Logic” is a good example and advocate of this kind of parenting, using children’s own choices as their punishment when the choice they end up making has a painful consequence. It allows for children to learn independence and wisdom from their own experiences rather than the drumming of sets of rules into their minds while ignoring their heart attitudes and beliefs.

Growing up I see how this affected me in various ways in conflicts I have had with my mother as she admitted that she was at times a reactionary parent for us older children. I could see as a child I could use my mothers reaction to various situations to attempt to manipulate her to get control over what I wanted to gain for myself. Being a parent now I see this more clearly as I see myself reacting with nuclear strength over minor, major and childish behaviors that may have been handled differently or even modeling for my children an angry attitude over uncontrollable circumstances, such as, a flat tire or financial issue or something that happens to pop up on television. Ultimately when a child receives no reaction for their negative behavior they find it to be, logically ineffective all on there own. As a child grows up and meets the unbending demands of life in a job or in a relationship or in class, they will find that responding with yelling, violent temper tantrums, and negative behavior usually will meet with more severity in adulthood when they come up against the consequences of painfully broken relationships, a lost job or inability to hold a job, and jail-time for violent outbursts when they have not gained what they wanted. I have seen this in so many I have grown up with in conservative and secular circles and I see it now in the consequences of my own sinful choices, it is a universal principal that everyone has to face in themselves and humanity in general.

Ultimately I am glad I can learn from the wisdom of  my mother and others who have been there in the trenches raising many different personalities imperfectly but for the grace of God and constant prayer. I want to learn from my own mistakes as I see my children reacting in ways that I see they have learned from explosive reactions I have modeled for them at times in the past. I find it daunting to undo habits in myself, but find that I can see a little more clearly how I can model a better example to them by my own behavior in responding to crisis even when it involves outside stresses unrelated to their behavior. I am glad too for a Gracious Heavenly Father that guides my life and mercifully covers a multitude of my sins in parenting as he did for my parents and for so many, and while we all know the faults of our parents I am so glad that I can learn from the mistakes made.

Coincidence is a Myth

I can’t pass on this awesome miracle last night.

Just in case you were in doubt

Coincidence is a myth

Miracles are reality

John 3:16

A message of love

Banned by some sports big-wigs

God has a sense of humor

He counts the hairs on our head

He has named all the stars

316 yards

31.6 avg yards

Tim Tebow,

what a blessed man you are…

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16 NKJV

 

…and be done with it.

So I wanted to blog about New Year resolutions… but, it keeps coming back to me how miserable they are, how I have kept them up for quite a long time and then they fall through… My best year for resolutions was 2009, I kept the majority of them going for 4 months until the demands of getting up at 4 a.m. and working thirteen or more hour days with three kids and a house and etc, finally got to me. This year I didn’t have a set plan on the eve of the New Year to sit down and write out my overly romanticized expectations for myself just to watch them fail in one way or another. On January 1st, I did sit down though and think about some of the goals I want to accomplish; my mindset at the time was: I would not feel guilty if I did not meet them as perfectly as I would like. I have been battling unrealistic expectations for myself and the guilt just isn’t worth it. Not to say that I won’t have these issues later on but just that I am choosing to not be guilty if I mess up and to realize that if I continuously fail at something that maybe I need to lower the bar and shoot for a new goal on the way to the ultimate goal I wanted to reach. I determined I would not make my list too big and that I would be open to changing and adding or subtracting items from what I had written.

2012 Goals for a New Year…

1. Wake @ 5 a.m. five or more days  a week
2. Exercise 4 or more days a week for 20 minutes
3. Cut back and eventually cut out simple carbs
4. Increase smoothie intake with more veggies and salads in my diet, too
5. Strive for simplicity in every area of life
6. Declutter and reorganize

Some of my add on goals…

• Couponing
• Write more frequently and blog
• Hydrate
• Do more crafts
• Utilize the library more

My entire purpose of this is to refocus myself and align myself to a set of standards to reach for and then do my best. I tell you what I haven’t got up at 5 a.m. more than twice this year, but I know I want to… maybe I need to make it six, then 5:45, then 5:30, etc. or maybe I need to accept that I just don’t have it in me to do that as often as I would like. Working out has been a bit better but I have painfully motivating back issues if I don’t. Must say that I am somewhat happy that I have been more regular about this, but, again it hasn’t been 4 times a week either.

The point for me this year is that I want to reach the end of the year and see tangible changes maybe not specifically that I am fulfilling all my goals perfectly but that they have become a part of my life and made it better. Not another set of rules to beat myself with. It is all a work in progress for me and I am choosing to be happy with that and content to just let myself pass as a human being this year and not strive for anything that is not gently led by God for me to follow and also to forgive the frailty of where I fail to meet the expectations that in some ways enslave me to a miserable existence.

Maybe my resolutions should be

• Let go of expectations
• Forget the guilt trip
• Freely be who I am now and
• Know that I can’t force growth

Yes, I think that’s it.

Emerson quote via Pinterest

Unexpected Motivation and Inspiration

I have found that with so many things on the web like Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Stumble Upon and so on that you can really waste A. LOT. of time at the computer. So you can imagine what happened when I found Pinterest and I will tell you that I have spent quite a bit of time on there that very well could have been better spent. Now here I am, a few months after joining and I look back over the past few months and find a very surprising thing has happened that I would have never expected  in a million years- I have gotten a ton more done than I ever thought possible, I started working out again, I am inspired by new ways to organize my home (AND it is actually happening), I have found fantastic recipes not only for in general but also for better and healthier lifestyle changes, and now that I have a considerable amount of pins and boards and likes, I find that I don’t waste nearly as much time on it than when I first found it. Maybe I live vicariously through the pins on Pinterest, if I do oh well. I just see that my tasks are little lighter and I have a lot more to hope for when I find ideas and inspiration on this fantastic site. I just LOVE Pinterest.

Check out these awesome pins I found…

Tons of great teaching tools and ideas

Lots of pretty things

Tons of Sweet DIY, Crafts and Tutorials

Ball work out ideas which are my personal favorites

To die for gift wrapping ideas, ornaments, paper crafts

Organization ideas, home cleaners, decorating tips

Retro Dress pattern and other cute clothing ideas and patterns

Theme Change and Photo Additions

 

 

So I am changing my theme for my blog and found this one that I love and it allows me to add photos without too much difficulty. The last theme was for some reason nearly impossible to work with when adding photos. So here you go, I look forward to adding many more pictures. I will most likely play with it for a bit to see how placement works and all, so bear with me while I try and get it right.

These photos are of my daughter and I last summer when we did our nails and put cute little decals on them.