This Week( and a half)

I used to do this more often and I read my friends blog who does this almost every week. So I wanted to give it another whirl and try to continue to do it each week. 

1. Shawshank Redemption is one of those movies you can watch over and over and love it just the same as the first time.

2. Friends are priceless. Nothing like two nights out in a row with good friends to refresh your spirits.

3. It's super fun finding good deals on expensive clothes.

4. One of the most moving experiences in a parents life is when your child accepts Christ with you by their side. 

5. One of my children reveals to me the flaws in my own life all too clearly because we are so similar.

6. Six days at home with cloudy, cold, weather and sick kids is enough to drive a mother batty!

7.  My husband is amazing, and I am always in awe of how I can be completely crazy and mean to him yet he turns around and shows me complete, unconditional, love.

8. Even though she's been gone for over three weeks now, I still expect to see my sweet dog Aspen greet me lovingly and excitedly at the door when I return home.

9. Fall makes me homesick. I miss my mom and dad.

How about your week?.....Did you learn anything about yourself this week?

Laundry Changes Everything

Matt and I have been working on keeping our house clean over the past two weeks. Not that we didn't try before or lived in squaller. Yet, it never fails that there is a pile of laundry or twelve on the couches. Dishes piled up, breakfast on the table, towels on the floor of the bathrooms etc... You get it--regular day "life clutter" 

Well due to a new plan implemented by my husband in our house things are going great and I can say our house has been clean for a week. We've been able to see the couch and the bottom of the kitchen sink for a week straight! 

What is this new system you ask??? It's called the "No Drop Zone, Everything Has a Home Plan"  We sat down with the kids and told them that we live in a no drop zone. Which means that everything has a home and we are no longer going to just drop things when we are done with them. We  put them in their homes. It has really worked out well for us. And it's amazing how much it helps the overall attitude of everyone in the house to make sure things get put back where they go.  With all the clutter of the kids stuff gone it has also really helped Matt and I to stay on top of our household chores.  

So this is the real reason I am writing....Today as I was cleaning and waiting for our Pest Control guy to show up I started thinking to myself...."This will be the first time our pest control guy to see our living room with no laundry in it!" It made me realize how much I love keeping up with the house and for it to be clean. 

So he shows up and we start going over the plan of where he is going to spray and he looks around the room and says" Oh I see you got new furniture"  I ABOUT DIED LAUGHING!!! I told him NO NO NO we didn't get new furniture this is just the first time you have actually been able to SEE the furniture!!!  So we both had a good laugh about it.

Proof in the power of laundry and that it can change things!

Pumpkin Patch

This time of year always makes me homesick. I miss the change of colors on the trees and the Cider Mill that we used to go to when I was a child. The nearest one to us is 3 1/3 hours away.

 

This year we went to Carmichael's again. The kids climbed on pumpkins, went thru the little hay maze about 50 times, pet farm animal,s and went for a really short and slow hayride. It is always a fun time seeing the kids get so tickled and excited about the same things we see and do every year. The trip to the pumpkin patch always gets me feeling festive and ready for hot apple cider and soup!

Who Am I?

I got to thinking one day last week Who Am I? The question sat on my heart and mind all day and while waiting for some friends to arrive at a restaurant I started to write this.... 

As a mom, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, sunday school teacher,team manager, friend etc... sometimes I feel like I'm not sure who I really am anymore. One of my goals as a person is to be truly authentic and consistent. I think I'm authentic but I know I'm not successful in the consistency part.

Sometimes I just feel all over the place. Who am I? How did I get here? Why am I here? I feel like a shell of who I used to be....but then again who was I? Was I or am I the same person as I was back then? Has life changed me for the better? I think not?! I feel like I have grown tremendously in some areas but can't ever seem to get out of the rut in others.  I seem stay focused on the "others".  

If I am like this, how can I be a mother to my kids and teach them to live? I don't even know what I'm doing or who I am?!?!?  As I said before, I feel like I lack consistency. People on the outside have a distorted view of who I am. But is that person I am? 

That's as far as I got..... I just feel like I get lost in all the hats I wear and I'm not sure what that means, how to take it,  or if I should even care.....

Mean Girls

It's tough being a woman in a mean world.

I am doing a bible study on the book of Esther. The statement above is one of the things we have learned.  

Here are some things to think about as you are dealing with other people...specifically woman to woman in this mean world. Are you a mean girl or do you know someone that is?

Meanness always has a history.

Just as Mordecai and Haman were enemies because of a long family history of hating one anothers "kind"

Meanness perceives a threat.

What am I perceiving as a threat when I react this way or that to people?

Why is my reaction "mean girl"?

Or...What am I doing or not doing to make the mean girl perceive me as a threat?

We compare ourselves to those we perceive as the biggest threat in our.

Who is my rival?

Why are they, or why do i perceive them as my rival?

Insecurity is at the heart of every rivalry.

Meanness catches like a virus.   

You can pass it around to others around you.

You can pass it down. Down to your children and other generations.

Anger is a source for people who feel they have no power. Mean girls will get mad and have a fit and people will just give into it and go along because no one wants to deal with it.

Coming in contact with a mean girl raises up your own mean girl!

Meanness is curable.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Do not take revenge

Leave room for God's wrath

If your enemy is hungry, feed her; 
If she is thirsty, give her something to drink. 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

(taken from Romans 12:17-21)