Sad Things Today

Depressing title I know. Here's my list of sad things:

- We are organizing the garage because it's supposed to snow, and it's just the beginning of a long cold winter:-( (Thankful I can park in the garage though!)

- While organizing the garage the infant car seat was pushed to the back of the shelf, won't be needing that.

- I've been reading the Little House on the Prairie Books, which makes me feel lazy and in-adequate. Laura was 15 and she wouldn't have to spell check "in-adequate", she was amazing! Not to mention "Ma" and all she did in a day. I know it's totally silly of me to compare, but still. It's just how I'm feeling.

- Micah is offically just huge and not a baby anymore. This fact didn't bother me before when I was waiting for another baby. Now it's painfully obvious that this house is without a baby for the first time in more than 6 years.

Ok, I'm done being sad. My house smells amazing from supper cooking, and my family is snug and happy under this roof. I can trust my Heavenly Father and rest in His mighty love.

This post is weird and I don't really like it, I'll still post it though. Thanks for listening.

Laundry and Prayer

I've been feeling really overwhelmed with house work lately. I've also been feeling overwhelmed in my heart in the matter of abortion and our country's stance on it. Two totally different things, but today they are chipped away together, at least in this household.

Today our government is dealing with motion 312. I'll be honest I really don't understand all the implications. Here's some info on it. I understand enough to know that I should be on my knees in prayer over the issue.

Basically Canada is talking about changing the definition of "Human Life", because as it stands now this hasn't been updated since who knows when.

So because I'm overwhelmed in house work and because I'm overwhelmed in my heart, I kneel and fold a HUGE pile of laundry and I pray.

I pray for our leaders, I pray for the conversation in that room today. I pray that our hearts will seek truth as a country. I pray for the lives that are at stake here. I pray for Christians in this country. That we would all wake up, not only to the crisis of abortion, but to so many things that we are blind to. That we would arise, join in prayer, join because of love.

Hibbidy-jibbidy. That's what's going on.

Look what I found on Pinterest today.

I honestly didn't know if I should file it onto my "funny stuff" board, or my "home organization" board. I mean do people actually do this? I mean real people, with kids, who have to cook and stuff. Seriously, if I tried to do this my kids would hate me by the end of the day, no one would eat. All day. I would collapse. I would call my husband in a hysterically sobbing mess on the floor. I mean, I call him hysterical on a good day, never mind trying to clean the entire house in one day. The image of it is hilarious. But also not, because it's a little bit too real to be funny.

The fly lady approach works MUCH better for me. Basically it's just cleaning up as you go. C-A-Y-G. I can still hear my mom saying that as I cook. Fly lady also has "zones" that you work on each week. I like to think my house stays pretty tidy usually, and once in awhile I give it a concentrated afternoon of scrubbing and call it good. That's reality for me. Usually. But lately it's been different.

Everything's different lately.


The whole reason for this post is to vent a little and give you all a dose of my real life.

Things I'm doing lately:
-Trying to educate my two oldest children.
-Trying to get a business off the ground, ok it's not that big of a business, but it's still something.
-Meal planning. Which is hard because I make everything so difficult by not doing things ahead of time, duh!
-Still getting the garden in and dealt with
-Keeping the house as tidy as humanly and realistically possible all things considered.
-Maintaining some important relationships, mainly my amazing husband
-Majorly cutting back on spending

This post was originally super long. I just wanted to vent about how tired and stressed I am/was trying to keep the basic things going in this household. It's funny the feedback you get when you vent isn't it? Some well meaning people will give you advice and solutions. That doesn't make me feel better, in fact quite the contrary. I just want you to pat my back and tell me I'm doing a good job!

But now I'm going to talk about missing Caleb. Yes again. Yes still. It's been more than a month since we had to say goodbye to our sweet babe. Hard for me to believe it's been that long. The pain has washed over me in a new way this week. It's been a really really hard week. Lots of tears. I try to keep myself really distracted, and so I've thrown myself into some sewing projects. It's nice to get stuff done, but I should know myself better by now.

I need to just let myself be held and comforted by the One that can offer me true freedom. It's so sweet meeting with Him. Jesus my saviour, lover of my soul. I've been so up and down and everywhere this week. Yet he is my constant. He offers me peace and rest.

This post is so scattered. I guess it's appropriate. If only you knew how scattered my head is these days. I can't begin to describe it, so instead I'll get some sleep.

Using Time for What Really Matters

I'm the kind of person who, when making a to do list, feels the need to fill the entire page. At the end of a day, no matter how productive, I feel like I didn't get enough done. I feel like there is always stuff to do and I could never accomplish everything I want to do. This has been a major learning curve in the last few years. Learning to let go of expectations and be realistic in my goals. The other day I stumbled upon this blog post "Learning to Enjoy Your Children" that really made me tear up, but not for the reason you may think. It was not with regret that I read it, but with joy. If you don't follow the link I'll sum it up here. She challenges parents to be intentional with our children and spend quality time with them everyday. She lists some examples, many of which we do with our kids often. I read it with thankfulness that Matthew and I do take the time to really enjoy our kids. It is because I play pirates with them, bake with them, read to them, listen to their jokes and many other fun things that my "to do" list is usually a "should have done" list by the end of the day. It's also why I can go to bed at night with a huge smile and warmth in my heart and just throw that list out of my mind because it really doesn't matter. Cheering for my kids as they learn and grow, praying for them and with them, that is what matters. So even if I fail in cleaning, baking, laundry, or sewing, I will strive to love on my kids in whichever way they need that day. Even as I write this post I've been interrupted countless times to kiss an owie, read a book, cuddle a baby, and sit a stubborn kid on the potty. It's all worth it. Oh my word, is it ever!




This picture was taken months ago, but sums up the silliness and sweetness of our little squirts.
So lately I've really been trying to just be more proactive in my tasks around the house instead of adding too many things to my list. I've been reading the Fly Lady's blog again for inspiration. Her stuff is mostly just common sense, like clean as you go, which my mom drilled into me while growing up (thanks mom:-) I really like her ideas for de-cluttering. Its very simple, fast, and doable. Yes, that's a word. Doable. You just start with one room, 15 min a day is all your allowed. First you bring a garbage bag into the room and throw 28 things into it, then you take it out to the garbage and forget about it. Then you bring a box and put 28 giveaway things into it, bring it out to your car to drop off at a thrift store, and forget about it. Once it's in the bag or box, just let it go, don't you dare take it out again! And then you're done de-cluttering for the day. So easy! The other thing I've been doing from her site is setting the timer for an hour and working, then setting the timer for 15 minutes and sitting down for a break. My break time is spent drinking water, and playing with the kids, in a chill relaxing sort of way. This way I'm connecting with them and they will play together really nicely for the next hour again. It's been working really well today, we'll see if I actually keep up with it or not. It's noon and I've made bread, and granola (with the kids help of course;-), vacuumed downstairs, majorly tidied the kitchen, read a couple stories, played Petshop, and nursed Micah twice. So I think I'll take the rest of the day off and plant some seeds in the garden with the kids and play. Yipee!