a settled place

The other morning, I woke up exhausted and did not feel like following our schedule... at all. I did not honestly feel like exerting energy on anything, and I would have wasted the entire morning, I think. Thankfully, though, the kids know our routine, and they are such good accountability. When I said, "ok, kiddos, why don't you go play upstairs for a while?" Ivory replied - "but Mom, first we have to do jobs... and then we have to do school!" And so we did. We went through the motions, even though my heart was not in it at all. Ultimately, what would have been a lot of time lost forever ended up being a productive and happy day. This has been, perhaps, the greatest benefit of our schedule this fall - it brings structure to our days and freedom to our off-days,  even when I don't feel like it . And I started thinking that it's not unlike my faith. A friend and I sat on our back patio yesterday afternoon and talked about how we are both dealing with di...

If you followed my last blog, you know that I occasionally do book reviews through Blogging for Books and Tyndale Publishers. Let me know if you ever want to borrow a book I've reviewed! :) Come to the Family Table was just as much about hospitality and family togetherness as the table itself, and it had a lot of practical ways to make those things happen. However, I have to admit that overall I wasn't super impressed. The formatting was pretty choppy due to multiple authors and inclusion of a lot of extra material (family recipes, etc.) and while the different perspectives and "extras" were good, I personally prefer to read a book that is a book - not a collection of family ideas. I also feel like the entire book could have been summarized in a chapter or less, and that is always frustrating to me. The concepts were not new or novel... it was somewhat watered-down and surface-level. To be fair, I might have found this book more relevant if we were in a different...

This mum is all I have to show for a shopping trip the other day that involved three different nurseries (one of them twice) with kids who were tired and hungry and myself, who hadn't planned very well. I still don't have any boxwoods for our front landscaping, but I do have this and ant bait, which both came in extremely handy this weekend. On to more successful projects... A "before" and after of our back entryway... I'm so bad at remembering to take before pictures, so this one is actually only "semi-before"... I had already taken off the existing hooks. The boards were the same color as the wall and had been painted over several times... anyway. A little paint and some reclaimed wood cleaned this area up significantly, and now I can walk in my back door without being irritated about the gross walls and trim. :) I'm sure this area will still look great this winter when it's lined with layers of heavy coats... I also worked ...

In church recently we read in I Timothy 3/Titus 1 that have various qualifications for those who will be involved in ministry/church leadership. One of them is "no striker" and the minister talked about how most of us don't struggle against a temptation to physically strike someone... but our words . We can strike with our words. I have been on both ends - hurt by others' words, and hurt others with my own... it's so, so painful. Recovery is long and hard. You have probably experienced it too. A few days after the sermon, a dear friend and I talked about the message. It was  a choppy conversation, as it always is when you're chasing three young children around... but so relevant. When I thought about striking others with words, I thought about peers. But she brought it up with relation to our children. I have a fair number of moments  daily where I have the choice to strike with my words or not. There are situations and interactions with my kids that m...

As a follow-up to my very first post about our schedule... there's a lot of details I could share but I feel like what works well for me won't necessarily work great for other people. I will share this article , though, that I found very helpful for bringing focus to my mornings... when I do these things our day does go better! :) Just a few random pics we got the other night when we were in the right place at the right time... don't be deceived, though. Life is good, but I lost count on number of temper tantrums today at about 10 a.m. I guess we'll just keep plowing patiently ahead...

"You measure and I'll bang..." she says. "Two hours!!" he replies. We'll keep working on our units of measurement. And another classic quote from this evening: "Ok, Ivory, it's time for you to be done going potty. You have been sitting there for a long time!" She protested:  "But I need to finish this book!!!" Tonight for supper we had pesto pizza flatbreads... a recipe I kind of invented by myself a long time ago when we lived in Speer. I ended up making flatbreads from scratch tonight and loved this recipe: Quick & Easy Flatbread . It was definitely quick and easy, even for a first-timer, which it better be when you don't decide what's for supper until 5 p.m. (I'm trying to do better about that). After I made them I loaded them up with pesto and then cooked/shredded chicken and chopped tomatoes, peppers, and green onions... a layer of mozzarella on top and a little Italian seasoning and garlic salt. I added sp...

A dangerous phrase to hear from a two-year-old boy, and an even more dangerous phrase to utter if you are a blogger... because then your thoughts and intentions are all wide out in the open... and you have to follow through. Oh well, I suppose a little accountability never hurt anyone. So I've been learning that there are two toddlers (and a daddy) around here who like life to be predictable. Gone are the days when spontaneity, freedom, saying 'yes' to everything, and living on caffeine formed my life motto. Well - I guess the caffeine part still applies. Regardless, we all function better and actually achieve more freedom under structure... even me. So with that in mind, I spent our chaotic summer planning for smoother waters ahead: a "back-to-school" routine for our family that would theoretically make us all happier people. The devastating realization I came to is that it involves saying "no" a LOT. I think that in order to say "no" well,...