My Days At Home

I spend most days at home with my kids. I don't do a whole lot. Well, ok, I keep the house tidy, I keep good food on the table, I kind of school my children, and recently I've been trying to generate a bit of income besides what my hubbie makes. But really, our days aren't filled with activities and the things we do don't feel busy or stressful.

When I first came home from Uganda my days at home loomed long and boring ahead of me. I couldn't believe that I had stayed home all day everyday with the kids before the trip and I was ok with that. I felt restless. Like I was missing something. I felt that life in Uganda was moving along without me, and life here in Canada was just stuck. As I started processing the trip more I kind of got out of my funk. I realized that there is a lot that can be happening in Uganda, and if I take it a step at a time I can still be part of it. I don't know what that will look like yet. It's pretty simple though, it's just praying about it and saying yes when God gives me the opportunity. I'm totally in love with Uganda and a little obsessed when random strangers visit and I somehow get to see their pictures on facebook. Someday I would love to go back and hug those kids and pray for those families.

BUT I'm here now. So now what? Well. I spend most days at home, and that can seem pretty boring at first glance. But what if I let God take that and use it for His glory? That is my purpose here on earth after all. My life brings glory to my God, my creator. My actions, words, attitude, choices, they all mean a lot more than just surface stuff. What if I decided to visit my neighbour who just lost her husband to cancer? What could God do there? I don't know, but I'm sure going to find out. I can go hug her and pray for her and I bet you my heart will be filled to overflowing, just like it would be if it was a cute black kid in my arms.

What if instead of belitting my child for getting the windows smudged yet again, I patiently took their hand as we helped each other clean it up, while I joked about the pet spiders crawling outside and up their arm (and of course start a tickle fight).

What if I told a new friend about my awesome church family and how they helped us out when my husband got his tools stolen, and how much love we felt because of that? What if those thieves were prayed for and loved instead of hated?

What if I prayed to commit a new business venture to God and His glory and immediately see him bless it by doubling my income overnight?

The point I'm trying to make (to myself more than anyone), is that I can say yes to God, and see Him work, and get goosebumps when I see the Spirit at work, no matter where I am. I did go and visit my neighbour, and it was great. I know it's just the beginning of something amazing because it's totally the Spirit guiding my words. She commented that there was something special about me. Someday I'll tell her that that something different is my Creator, Saviour, Lover, God living inside of me and He's her creator too and He's drawing her and wanting to woo and love her.

There is no way that on my own strength I can happily keep my household running and skip around the neighbour hood spreading warm fuzzies (believe me I've tried, it's not fun, there is a lot of pressure and sadness). But thank GOD that it's SO much more than that. When I live for HIM it clicks, makes sense, and it's sheer joy to serve Him. Even in sorrow we can walk with Him, even if it just means telling Him how mad we are. Realizing my purpose, and changing my perspective makes life worth living.

This post was supposed to be about a typical day that I spend at home. It was supposed to be peppered with funny things the kids said recently, and how much fun we've had frog hunting and planting seeds. I have thoroughly been enjoying my days at home, and I was going to write all about that. I would still like to write about that someday, but I'm glad that at least for today it turned into more. God is definitely doing a work in my heart and I just love it. I love Him. So I guess for now, I'll just go enjoy one more day at home and see what else happens on this blog another day.

This picture was taken at the airport when they came to pick me up after my trip. I was tired, and happy.

Summer is not for Sewing, so I Cheated.

Here's a couple projects I did a few months ago. I've been saving these pictures to blog about during this craft lull to make myself feel better for doing nothing in my poor abandoned sewing spot. Soooooo here's my sweet little Princess and Prince. I was inspired by this blog post to make these fun crowns. This was a fun spontaneous project and gave me great satisfaction to finish both of them. I spent two afternoons working on these. Now that I've made them I could do another one super fast. These would be a great birthday present for people who would appreciate them. Some people would not like this style, even Miss June Bug isn't totally crazy about it, but she does like the fact that it won't get stepped on and broken like the cheap loonie store ones. I like run on sentences, sue me. Moving along now.

 

I made Prince O's crown second so it's a lot better. I didn't follow the instructions, it's just not how I roll, but they worked out great anyways.

 

The Princess wanted lots of sparkly beads on hers and even helped me sew them on, she's getting really good at hand sewing and embroidery.

 

I love this wonderful friendship they have, they worked so hard on getting their arms around each other just right for a picture.

 

Here's my segway to my next project, new chair covers. Our chairs came with off white, which looked super great for the first five minutes. Then we blinked, had three kids, and booom our chairs looked so bad they would make Monica (from Friends) have a hissy fit. So I got this great oil cloth and my wonderful hubbie took the chairs apart which forced me to have to finish a project, yay!

 

Cute foot on pretty chair

 

The monkey fell asleep on the pretty chairs one day, such a funny kid. He doesn't really nap anymore, unless he just falls asleep in his creative spots, like the big toy box.

 

Seeing him like this just makes me want to curl up in my comfy bed. He slept like that for about 15 minutes!

 

Here's June Bug working away writing the names of her family. She has memorized everyone except the 'lil meatball.

 

Such a sweetie. Hubbie likes to buy camera equipment a lot, which normally really bothers me because it's expensive and he really doesn't even use it all that often. However, his newest purchase is a new favorite for me. A 1.8 50mm lens gently used for only 50$, boo yeah.

 

Another project by June Bug, for some reason she is always the biggest person in her family pictures. I wonder what the meaning is behind that. We also have a dog in this picture, which we don't have in reality. It's a little easier to decode that meaning: June Bug wants a dog.

 

Even though it kinda looks like he's pooping in this picture I included it because it really shows what the 50mm lens does. Love it.

 

And that's it for fun pictures. The fam has fallen into a great summer routine this month. Lots of backyard play, watermelon eating, gardening, and trying to stay on top of keeping the house at least tidy and some kind of decent food on the table a few times a day. I was debating on doing this blog post or doing a special one for baby Eva, but I guess I'll do that one next week. Most of you know what's going on with her anyways, so for now I'll just say how happy I am that she is doing SO much better, praise God! I'll go more into depth with it all later, it's been an emotional couple weeks that's for sure. Gotta go to bed, so sleepy, night!