By Friday, we go stir crazy in this house. Especially with the cold weather keeping us inside, so I make my kids do the minimum of schoolwork…math, reading, and writing and we take off and spend the day somewhere exciting. Today we went to the discovery center, you can see Prov painting, and Hope and Cara made a huge fort out of bendy tubes.
I’ve been exercising to Jillian Michael’s “The Shred” the last few days and am incredibly sore. It’s making me more sore than running ever did so I’m going to keep doing it. I also plan on printing off Ann Voskamp’s Sanity Manifesto (pictured above) and framing it on my kitchen wall to help organize the days. I love her advice of starting the day in the word, working out, and making a plan. If I could just do that much, I would be so far ahead of where I am now.
It’s been a busy weekend, no house showings, so we got a lot of work done on the new closet and bathroom, I think the closet only needs paint and it’s finished!
The girls are fighting with each other often, I keep separating them but I need to figure out a better solution. Even the two yr old has figured out how to pull hair….at least she’s not biting 🙂
Had an amazing date last night with my husband, we went to eat at a really good Italian restaurant and then played darts at a bar with another couple who have been good friends for a long time. We got home late and slept through church this morning, our daughters have been restless today. I think they’re ready for some action, they keep buzzing around me like flies needing something to do.
We are having a family night tonight, my husband found a cake in the grocery store made from Cake Boss (one of our favorite shows), and I think we’ll do a family devotional and some hallway bowling with tall cups and a soccer ball.
Some goals for this week for me are to:
1. Write down the food I eat
2. Exercise Daily
3. Check back here next Sunday with results.
We made paper mermaid tales and got stressed out by the timers on free online typing games for kids today. My husband put “The Chronicles of Narnia” on the girls’ ipod for them to listen to at night and they love it. We made a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and I bought a new pencil box for Cara. Hers has been broken and had a huge hole in it for over a month and she never complains, she just turns it upside down so the crayons don’t fall out, I love that about her; it is a strength and a weakness.
I gave lots of hugs and cuddles and throwings into the air today, we had a relaxed morning cleaning and playing and an intense afternoon doing workbooks, flashcards, and reading books. My husband and I are sharing the frosting container from the cake, I’d thought of a new diet rule that I can’t have anything sweet unless I lick it off of him, but I haven’t told him about it yet, he might reinforce it :).
My supper turned out amazing tonight, the chicken was juicy and cooked just right and the homemade French fries were delish too. That doesn’t happen too much, so I’m reveling in it.
I don’t understand when to love the world despite their sin and when to withdraw from them because of the awfulness of their sin. I wish it were easier, we are told to love them, but sometimes what they do and say are so painful to watch that it is hard to be around them.
I am thankful for good friends who I can go to when I have questions, I’m thankful for my family, and for our ten butterflies flying in a netted cage in our living room, I’m thankful for hamsters that keep two year olds excited about life, I’m thankful for busy days at home with my family.
Homeschooling has been hard, and it’s not fun to nag my children through their assignments. I often think about what a better job a regular teacher would be doing than me. I need to plan our days better so that we have more fun and get done quicker. It was nice during the summer to be relaxed, but I think better planning will be better for all of us. I also think about my friends who were homeschooled and are sending their kids to school now instead of homeschooling. My relationships with my kids are getting better, so that is a plus. I’m teaching them about God more, it’s hard to know how much they are absorbing at their ages. I’m discouraged about weightloss, I really just keep losing and gaining the same five pounds, I wish the weight would go away already.
“To fully experience our fulfillment in Christ and fulfill His will for our lives, we must come to the point where we give our whole selves to Him –our freedom, our time, our bodies, all of our possessions and gifts–trusting Him to show us how to use all that we are for His glory. To sacrifice means to give up or surrender something of value. We are living sacrifices, which means that moment by moment, out of our worship of Him, we are to surrender our own needs and expectations for the greater value of pleasing our Lord…..He clearly states, again and again, that if we lose our lives for Him, we will find our lives–the joy and fulfillment we long for.” The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson
I’ve kind of been feeling the tug of my heart to go more this direction, but I’ve been ignoring it in favor of my own desires. To be honest, I know exactly what things I do in my life that are frivolous and don’t bring me satisfaction..only temporary amusement, but I keep doing them anyway just because I want to. Today I want to give my time to my daughters, I want to put puzzles together with them, spend an hour reading every book in the house, bake something delicious, teach them some bible stories and love on them all throughout the day without them having to beg for my attention.
God, help me to put my wants aside and go get what I really need. Help me to find my life. Show me what it really means to sacrifice my desires. Amen
Journey Through Grace 