"Children, should be... loved, not coddled; led, not driven, respected as
an individual... guided to walk freely on directed paths; to slay
caprice and to liberate will; to kill selfishness and to conquer self;
helped by the shining of your steady light to a vision of the
relationship between the world of nature and the world of the spirit..."

Kate Douglas Wiggin (author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm)
(HT to The Common Room)

I'm trying to see my life as art... it's hard for this unimaginative soul. I miss too much joy, trying so hard to "do the next thing".

I know that my thinking- my heart is something that I constantly have to stop and realign. I can get very caught up in getting our chores done, our math and spelling done... even that Bible lesson - lesson 65 comes after 64 which comes after 63... And then my children are nothing but cooperators or annoyances - when they are not cooperating.

It is very easy to frame such thinking and living in righteous sounding terms. I am my husband's helpmeet and it is helpful to him if I keep the house clean and educate our children. I'm helping him in his calling...

But looking under it all, those are the good things that often take priority over the best. Those things are definitely important... doesn't that go without saying?

I've been forgetting the first G of the three G's of education*. I'm forgetting WHO GOD IS! What has that got to do with not appreciating my kids for who they are? EVERYTHING! We need to stop together and remember who God is and in that we remember who we are. Then everything is a precious gift!

Then I see my life as art! I see the beauty before the dust, I see the joy before the character flaws. I see His loving benevolence to me in my husband and children, in what we learn, in what we have and even in what I do.

Heavenly Father, help me to remember who you are, what you hve done and then what you require of me. Thank you for constantly renewing my mind and heart in Christ Jesus. AMEN


The three G's - Who God is. What He has done. What He requires of us. From When You Rise Up; A Covenant Approach to Homeschooling by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Some thoughts...

I've started water aerobics with my Mom...I feel like my skin is absorbing all of that chlorine! Yuck! I am really tired and sore but am enjoying it.

Over at Quiet Life, Donna is asking for warm weather meal ideas. Here is a favorite:
Oriental Crunch Salad
Saute in a 1/4 cup of oil:
2 pkgs of chicken flavored ramen noodles, crunched up
1 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Until brown. Sprinkle the seasoning packets from the Ramen noodles over. Set aside to cool.
Cook
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs. vinegar
2 Tbs. soy sauce
in a sauce pan over med.-high heat until the sugar is dissolved. Whisk well and set in refrigerator until cooled.
Shred one head of cabbage and two carrots and put in a bowl. (My friend Myra just buys cole slaw mix in a bag and our own family likes about a half of head of cabbage and mixed greens as well.)
Serve dressing and "crunchies" along with the salad (the crunchies will get soggy if you have mixed them all together and have leftovers).
For a summer meal, we often add a rotisserie roast chicken sliced to the salad, or just some grilled chicken from the bbq.

Yum!

I just found this really cute blog of decorated cookies. Great ideas there!

One of my favorite blogs that comes up in my reader every day is One Pretty Thing, check it out.

I've been inspired today for a bridal shower cake I'm making...I can't wait to get started on it!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Where do I begin?

I have confessed before that I really struggle with being a good housekeeper. I have needed to train myself through the years and constantly backslide in my standards for cleanliness.

There are “seasons” in my life when I have made good progress in this area and have maintained my home in a sufficient manner. There have even been a couple of “seasons” when I was manager of my home enough that my children were on the ball – doing a lot of the housekeeping along side of me.

THIS is not one of those “seasons”!

I have really let the ball drop as far as the children’s chores and my own.

I certainly have many legitimate (in my own eyes!) reasons to have spent my time elsewhere- things that were higher on the priority list, that have taken much time and physical as well as emotional energy. But that is more often the case than not, isn’t it?

I’ve let my housekeeping lapse. We’ve been keeping up on the laundry- mostly, and making our meals- though we have made far too many convenience meals, and our academic lessons have continued-until we took a break. So, even our necessary tasks have been suffering. This is surely not the way to be faithful in my God-given tasks in life!

I have learned over the years that this phenomenon - gradually letting everything slide until it is all screaming for attention has often preceded a change in direction for my housekeeping. Something that was working before isn’t, anymore. It is time to change my routines, or methods or look at some training that hasn’t happened (in myself, or my children).

So, we are taking a mini vacation from schoolwork so that I can pray and plan and work. It’s time to overhaul our routines and assess what training is lacking in the kids, or what has lapsed that must be taken up again.

We are spending time deep cleaning rooms and getting back to our daily chore charts. The kids have a little more free time and I’m spending time on paperwork – long range lesson planning, book lists to take to the annual home educator’s convention and slogging through old files, etc.

There’s so much to do like the above mentioned that there is no way that we are going to get it all done in the planned two weeks I’ve taken off (we are in the second week now!) So, one of my tasks is to find a way to fit those big maintenance jobs into our regular routine. This has always been a challenge for me!

Question: How do you manage to keep all your plates in the air and make sure things like deep cleaning, culling your files, mending, organizing and do ahead type things (i.e. gifts, meals, planning for special occasions) get done?