Letting God handle the new year's resolutions

At this time of year our thoughts naturally turn towards the making of new year's resolutions. It is tradition and a part of our culture. But this year, I'm taking myself out of the equation. I am going to let God handle this new year. Now, don't get me wrong. We have lots of plans for this year. Lots of things that we hope work out and work out in our favor. We have plans for our home, our family, our business, and our finances. But we all know what is said about the best laid plans, don't we?

I know that I am not the eldest or sagest of people, but I have lived on this earth long enough to know ~ to fully understand and incorporate into my being ~ that I am not in charge! If the Lord chooses to bless our plans for this year, wonderful and thank you Lord! But He may not. He may have a different plan or something in store so different that we cannot even fathom it. We also have some things we truly need to do this year and are honestly not sure how in the world we can make them happen. I'm excited and interested to see if the Lord will bless those things and make them come to be for us. I'm equally excited and interested to see if He does not allow them to happen how He will allow us to work around these things.

There is so much in store for all of us in the new year! And we are not in charge of any of it. The Lord has His hand in all of it. So if I am to make any resolution at all, it is simply to give this year over to the Lord and see what He will make of it.

An eventful day

The weather here has been gray and dark and dreary. I find that on days like this I have a hard time waking up to full attention. It feels like I fight a constant fog on days like this. I have often wondered if I suffer from S.A.D. syndrome because when Spring arrives and we have days full of sun, I am full of energy and vigor.

So this morning getting myself and everyone out of the house and to church took a bit more effort than normal. My plans were to stay in the sanctuary of the church and attend the Bible class there instead of going all the way across the building and up the stairs to the ladies class. Simply because I did not feel like traveling that far and had every intention of giving into my laziness, lol! But at the last minute an announcement was made that the ladies class would have a special guest speaker. That peaked my interest and I decided to get up off my fanny and take myself to my regular class. Oh my, I was so glad I did!!

Because we were having a special speaker, we were allowed to hold our class in what is called the "family room." This is a special room in our church fixed up to resemble a pretty, cozy, if large living room. It has two couches, two wing back chairs, a fireplace, several pretty pictures and flower arrangements, along with a small kitchenette. A few rows of regular chairs had been brought in to accommodate all the ladies in attendance. As I was waiting for everyone else to arrive and for our class to begin I was chatting with a sweet sister. Then I looked over and who should I see but my high school drama teacher! I quickly went over and we gave each other a big hug and it was so nice to see her! I have many fond memories of her as I think I spent more time on her stage than I did behind a desk in high school. As it turns out, she was our guest speaker ~ how exciting!

I thoroughly enjoyed her talk and came away with some new things that I want to study in the coming year. She has written a book on Philippians and this is to be our ladies class text for the coming months and she came to teach the very first lesson.

It was such an enjoyable class. I had to give myself an internal thump on the head as I was so sluggish getting myself out and about this morning, then I had determined to just sit in the sanctuary class instead of going to my regular ladies class ~ and I would have missed out greatly if I had!!

Lesson learned ~ don't let the grumpies take a hold of my day and steer which direction I go!

Inspirational Aprons

I found these and just had to share the link. This reversible one is just precious as well.

I love my aprons and couldn't do without them. I seems most women are either "I have to have an apron on" or "I never wear them" types. So for those of you who do need them/love them/ wear them, go take a peek!

A little here, a little there...

...and it all adds up in the end. That seems to have become my motto for all the tasks of any given day. Let's face it ladies, when we wake up in the morning we never really know what that day will hold or where it will take us. Most wives, mothers, grown daughters, whatever the title(s) you wear ~ we all know our days can throw us curve balls and that can make finishing the day's tasks difficult.

If we spend time doing housework, we feel badly because we have not yet partaken of Bible study.

If we are working on a favored hobby, we feel badly because there is housework to do.

While cooking dinner, our mind is on the library books we have not yet started.

It seems that if we allow it to, our female mind can take any given task we *are* doing and make us feel guilty for three more that we *are not* doing. What a mental mess.

First of all, I do think having a plan of action for our days is a good thing - as long as we realize that it is subject to change without notice! It's not worth getting upset over if something simply cannot be taken care of that is on our list.

Another thing that I am doing in an effort to "fit" everything into my day - Bible study, housework, reading, needlework - is to chop some of my hours up into quarters. When I am not cooking or teaching, I take my other hours and spend them in this manner:

* 15 minutes of housework

* 15 minutes of Bible study

* 15 minutes of housework

* 15 minuets of needlework

The next hour will rotate like this:

* 15 minutes of housework

*15 minutes of reading

* 15 minutes of housework

* 15 minutes of Bible study

And so on and so forth.

This way, I get to spend time my loves ~ Bible study, reading, and needlework every day without feeling bad that housework did not get done. Yes, I do have to keep an eye to the clock but that has not caused me any trouble at all. I love it that I can easily fit all of these things into my day! I just have to remember to hold this system loosely as it obviously cannot be used or has to be stopped at times when I am homeschooling or cooking. But on most days I can fit this system into anywhere from 2-4 of my hours. I really love it because not only does it fit in all the things I love doing, it still allows me 50% of that time to devote to keeping the house tidy so I really do feel like I have covered my bases.

What are your systems of "fitting it all in?" I'd love to hear how others do it.**~**~**~**~**~**

Christmas on my mind

I must admit, I have Christmas preparations on my mind right now. Yes, it is far too early to think about pulling out the decorations, but not too early to plan menus and all the goodies for the children that will be under the tree. Financially speaking, I think it's best to plan ahead and not wait until the last minute. I am also going to gift wrap ahead this year. In the past I have had marathon wrapping sessions and this year I prefer to eat that particular elephant one bite at a time. I am going to wrap presents as they are purchased.

On a different note, we have been having wonderful sermons the past several weeks at church out of the book of Malachi. Our preacher has done a wonderful job of conveying the message of that book and it has been a very enriching experience. Perhaps if I have the time over the weekend I can share my notes on his sermons.

The house is quiet right now. We just finished lunch and the children are attending to their work. I will soon have to get back to mine. We will take one short jaunt out today to purchase some last minute items for this week & weekend. My daughter also wants to go visit her grandmother's grave, so we will stop and get some flowers and then proceed on to the gravesite. It is very cold (despite a bright sun) and we will have to bundle up so as to not catch a chill.

That's all I have time for right now. Blessings to all my blogging sisters!

A quick post

It's been so long since I have blogged on a regular basis. I am going to try and do better. I could regale you with all the stories and circumstances that have kept me away from this keyboard, but really ~ does it matter? Lol...

I have had a very long and fast paced day today. I am now sitting for a while with a cup of hot tea to relax just a bit before my husband gets home. I have classical music playing in the background, but my daughter also has her teeny bopper music playing so the sounds surrounding me are not quite as relaxing as I had hoped. :-) Oh well, those sounds will be gone too soon. I spent the first half of the day running bill errands and the children worked on school assignments. The second half of the day was spent shopping ~ trying to fill in gaps in the children's wardrobes here and there where certain items have been out grown. (Can you believe the cost of clothing now??) I had hoped to fit in a trip to Hobby Lobby today, but after taking care of the children's needs and groceries it was simply not to be. ((Sigh)) Oh well, perhaps another time. :-)

Well, I really must get my mind pointed toward getting dinner on the table. But I will be back. I promise.

"I have loved you...And you have snuffed at it"

Malachi 1:2 ~ "I have loved you," says the LORD

First of all I would like to say how wonderfully comforting that sentence is. I think that sometimes we get into the frame of mind of thinking about God in terms of what He wants us to do and how He wants us to do it while forgetting that all of that is backed by a love so immense that we cannot comprehend it. I think that we are given an earthly glimpse into that love with our relationship with our children and the love we have for them.

In Malachi chapter one God is dealing with the Israelites post excile. He expressed his love for them but they responded with, "How have you loved us?"

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Malachi 1:6-14

6 "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. "But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?'
7 "You place defiled food on my altar. "But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' "By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. 8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty.
9 "Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?"-says the LORD Almighty.
10 "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty.
12 "But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' 13 And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously," says the LORD Almighty. "When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD. 14 "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.

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Look at verse 13. "What a burden!" It is hard to believe that a people that had been so blessed and protected by God would ever express themselves thusly.

Is it possible for us to have this attitude towards God as well? Of course it is! How many times have we, as a people, complained that a church service is too long, that reading the Bible is boring or that we "don't get anything out of it?"

The Lord tells us exactly how he deals with such attitudes in verse 14. ~~

"But cursed be the deceiver..." Malachi called those who thought God would be satisfied with just any kind of lifestyle a deceiver. He not only called them a deceiver, but he told them they were "cursed" before God.

Let us not snuff at the love of God and His commandments!