Surrendering each day

As a mom, of course I have plans for each day. Vacuuming, a trip to the store, or what-have-you. But as they often do... plans get delayed or cancelled altogether. Children misbehave, traffic is horrible, or well, the day is just B-A-D.

Last night I was doing my personal devotions before bed, when God struck me with something in Job chapter one.

(I'm paraphrasing this in my own words...) In this chapter, Satan appears before God, and like a proud papa, God says, "Hey, have you noticed my Job?" It's like He takes out the pictures in His wallet. (Oh, to have God brag on me! I've seen this over and over in my devotions where God says that so-and-so is obeying and has a good testimony. I so VERY much want God to be pleased with me!) Anyway, He brags about Job to Satan, but Satan just sneers and says, "Well sure. You've got this hedge of protection around him. Anyone would be able to be faithful then. But make life hard to handle... heh, then we'll see." So in verse 12, God says,

"And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord."

God gave Satan permission; everything that happened to Job, God allowed. The same is true for ME and MY life. It's easy for me to see the big trials and such are allowed by God. (And those are truly hard to be faithful in, like Satan insinuated.) But I forget that even the little things in my life are allowed by Him. What about a bad day? I should not be angry at my horrible day. This, too, passed God's fingers. Okay, so the day didn't go as *I* planned. Will I allow it to go as *He* planned? He allowed this trial, this annoyance, this day. In those times I should humble myself and ask God what He has for me today. Surrender my plans, take a deep breath, and follow. No, even more than that. I should praise Him for intervening to show me He had something more than my own plans included. I look at Job as a great example. When he heard how all his children were dead and all his livestock were dead (his wealth in those times), he bowed down on the ground (verse 20) "and worshipped." Wow. Complete surrender.

I can view each bad day or upset plans as either a time to strengthen my dependence on Him (what joy! an opportunity to be closer to Him!) or as an opportunity to be a light for Him. Are my children being horrible today? Great! It accomplishes both of those things - I need Him for patience and kindness when they're being horrible, and they need me to show Him to them and to lovingly bring them to Him so they may see their sin.

I recently saw this little blurb I'm about to share on a board I frequent, so I cannot take credit for it. In fact the gal said she got it out of a book, but she couldn't remember which book, so sadly, I cannot give credit. But here it is:

"I am here:
~by God's appointment
~in His keeping
~under His training
~for His time
First He brought me here. It is by His will I am in this strait place, in that I will rest."

*If anyone knows which book that came out of, please tell me so I can give proper credit.

I'm not a "schedule" kind of gal

I tried over the first four years or so of childrearing to get myself into a schedule. You know, sit down, draw out the blocks of time, and then put assign tasks to each block? Well, I can tell you, I just can't do schedules. To me, a schedule creates an expectation. And then every single day, that expectation isn't met. Because a house full of little ones just doesn't fit neatly into boxes. At least not here in my house.

I've spent a lot of time feeling like that we should be running on a schedule, and since we weren't, it must have meant I just didn't have it together enough to do a schedule. Until the day it dawned upon my mind... I could still have an organized and smoothly running home with a routine.

Now, that routine has morphed over and over again, because we've added a couple babies, moved, started homeschooling... and each time things completely change. While I'm pregnant, life is in survival mode the entire 9 months. But we have a routine, even if it is bare bones. I know if I tried to keep up with a schedule then, I'd be having major expectations of myself that I just can't meet.

Right now our routine looks like this:

• Mommy up (6 am) - dressed/eat, put in a load of laundry, tidy one room somewhere in the house, computer time
• Kids up - eat/dress, make beds
• Bible time (family devotions)
• School for Sunshine and anyone else who feels like joining in.
• Exercise (they play while I exercise, sometimes they join in)
• Lunch, prep for dinner
• Chores (like sweeping the kitchen floor, taking out trash, emtpying dishwasher, reloading it, tidying the kitchen or bedroom, etc)
• Take a walk or do something outside if the weather permits
• Rest time
• Get dinner started (I try to have dinner ready to eat at 5:00, but sometimes I'm late)
• Kids tidy up living room and we all fold laundry (yes, the two older girls really do fold laundry, and they do a great job, too!)
• Half hour of tv while Mommy finishes up dinner
• Eat
• Start getting ready for the next day: laying out clothes, clean up the kitchen one last time, get the kids into pjs, brush teeth and braid Sunshine's hair (lessens tangles)
• Play and read together until bedtime for kids
• Once kids are down, I take the baby to my room and I do my own personal devotions. I try to be in bed by 9:30 these days. Baby still wakes in the middle of the night.

If you noticed, the baby isn't listed for where in the routine she nurses. I just work around her, so the kids get free time while we nurse. Sometimes we all pile on the couch, and I read to them while I nurse her. It all just depends on what I feel like that day. And bath days are a few nights a week, so we do that after dinner on those evenings.

Yummy and Healthy: Oatmeal Cake

If this recipe looks familiar, it's because I got it off the side of the Quaker oats canister. Except they called it "low fat chewy fruit and oatmeal bars." That title is very misleading. It made me think of granola type bars. It doesn't bake up like that at all. It comes out as a moist, heavy cake. Very good, very filling.

One more note: this recipe calls for low-fat or fat free ingredients. If you don't have all of that on hand (I don't), the recipe is still very delicious when you are done!

• 3/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1 c (80z) vanilla or plain low-fat yogurt
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 2 T fat-free milk
• 2 t vanilla (I double it and use more than 1 T)
• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 3 c uncooked quick or old fashioned oats
• 1 c diced dried mixed fruit, raisins or cranberries

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, combine sugars, yogurt, egg whites, oil, milk and vanilla; mix well. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add to yogurt mixture; mix well. Stir in oats and fruit.
2. Spread dough onto bottom of ungreased 9x13 inch baking pan
3. Bake 28-32 minutes or until light golden brown. (Since this recipe is brown when uncooked, "light golden brown" is hard to tell. I take it out when the top has a caramel color. In our oven, that means 28 minutes of baking.) Cool completely on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered.

I serve this for breakfast, but since I am not "with it" enough to bake first thing in the morning, I make this the day before. We love this served with fruit on the side (I personally leave the fruit out of the recipe) and a tall glass of milk. If there is any left over, we have this as an afternoon snack.

Enjoy!

Finding what makes a home "homey" to me

I've been married 7 years, and in that time I decorated a wee bit for the first couple years, but after that, I didn't. I couldn't put up curtains or pictures in one place we lived, and that seriously hampered things. Then the few knick-knacks I had were just not "me" anymore, though I didn't know what was "me."

Since I've been in my parents home for almost a year now, (wow, I canNOT believe it's been that long, nor would I have ever thought I'd be with my parents as an adult with children, but hey - life has been been way different than I'd ever imagined, anyway) I have really contemplated what I want my home to be like when I get back to my own place.

A big thing for me is: what would I put on my walls? Well, I've solved that one. I love pictures of family, of my children. I've decided I want to do a lot of our candid photos in black and white, close ups on their little faces, blown-up shots. I also love paintings of outdoor scenes -not animals, just scenery. And cross-stitch - wonderful quotes, lots of scripture. And all of these can be done by me. (I cannot paint yet, but have asked a close family friend to teach me. And when I move, I hope to continue by taking classes.) That's the best part: that I can surround our family with stuff that is so personal.

Another thing that says "home" to me is pillows and quilts. I hope to get a sewing machine sometime to work on that, as well.

Scented candles are also a big one for me.

And one more: I want to collect those family figurines from Willow Tree like this, this, this, and this.

So, what is home to you, in the realm of decor?

Thanks for the Unlovely

On Christmas break from my freshman year at college, I was in another family's home for one night. (Their daughter had taken me most of the way home.) Above the sink hung a wonderful plaque, and sadly I cannot remember the actual words, but I remember the basic premise of the plaque.

It gave thanks for the dirty dishes, for it meant she had food to prepare for her family. It gave thanks for so many dirty dishes because it meant she was surrounded by many family members. And it gave thanks for the dishes because well, it meant she had dishes.

I've often wished I could find that plaque. I have never seen another one, but I would love to have just such a thing to hang in my kitchen.

However, in the spirit of that plaque, I will give thanks for the "unlovely" things in my life that at first would not spring to mind to be thankful for.

1. For disobedience and defiance of children - their sin of rebellion is not hidden from me, and I can pray for wisdom in how to deal with it. You cannot pray for sins you do not know your children have.
2. For the hurt of my marriage troubles - it gave God an open door to so many other things in my life!
3. For not getting that curriculum last year when we should have had the money- because then God laid it on the heart of a good friend to just give me hers, as she wasn't going to use that curriculum after all. He answered my desires in a much more wonderful way than I could have ever thought.
4. For losing the quality of my devotional time this week - I've been trying to rearrange my schedule, which meant doing my devotions while the kids were up. That did *not* work. It just showed me even more how much I love my quiet time with Him, and confirmed some things I was turning over in my mind.
5. For the lack of my husband being with us right now - less laundry! (LOL I couldn't resist. But truly, I miss him horribly. I love him so very much!)

Oops

I had posted some new blogs in my sidebar, but didn't realize I'd messed up the links. If you were wanting to check them out, it is now fixed.

Or, you could just click here and here.

That reminds me

My previous post gave a link to another blog's post. It reminded me to post the following poem, which I came across in a church bulletin. This really is a powerful thing if you fully contemplate the meaning.

Judgment Seat

When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ,
And He shows me His plan for me;
The plan of my life as it might have been,
Had He had His way and I see...

How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there;
And I would not yield my will,
Will there be grief in my Savior's eyes,
Grief, though He loves me still?

He would have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I cannot retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well nigh break,
With tears that I cannot shed;
I shall cover my face with my empty hands,
I shall there bow my uncrowned head.

Lord, of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me and break me, mold me to
The pattern Thou has planned.

--By Martha Snell Nicholson

Lord, please keep my heart tender before You. Please don't let my desire for comfort and ease keep me from serving You with my whole heart. Please always let me seek You for the sake of You alone, and not for selfish wants. In Jesus' name, Amen.