Homemaking With Intention

These are the days. The days I'll look back on and love to remember.  These are the days that I never even realized I wanted. These are the days of a big family in a small house. Its nothing fancy, with its uneven floors and crooked doors. It's hard to keep warm, this old house. The bitter wind seeps through the old window pains on these short winter days. But its what God has given us for this season. So, these days I do my best to balance homemaking and life making; too much of one means not nearly enough of the other. These are the days of ever growing children. These days they out grow pants and shoes and jackets. They out grow toys and board games, and the cartoons they once loved. Just like the flowers in spring, the growing cannot be stopped or even slowed a little. But, I'm learning to love the growth and embrace the out -growing that these days bring. These are the days of relaxed homeschooling lessons. Long days spent playing outside in the warm sun. These

Service.  Its defined as the act of helping or doing work for someone. We thank our military, our police officers, firemen and health care workers for their service . We are grateful that they are there when we need them to keep us safe, to help us heal and protect us. And yes, to even lay down their lives so we can live as we please. It is considered a beautiful sacrifice to work a job that serves others. Unless ofcourse you are *just* a wife and a mom serving her husband and children. Then the service is seen as a wast of time, a wast of education, a wast of possibilities, a wast of her life. But this view of motherhood isn't biblical. The Lord sees a wife as more precious than a rare stone. He sees motherhood as a beautiful piece of his perfect plan in creation. As Christian's we are to take up our cross and follow Jesus. He has a plan for our life. A life plan filled with an abundance of service to others and ultimately to him. But what if our cross, our life of service

Competition. With 5 kids in a small house, it is  everywhere . Who can get to the phone first when it rings ...Who can grab the seat first at the dinner table ... Who gets to the chicken coop first to collect the eggs...Who gets to be first to ride the horse ... I can jump higher on the trampoline. I can climb higher on the rock wall. Race you down the hill. Race you up to the top of the tree. Competition. It's not always a bad thing. But, I have noticed in my parenting it is not a good thing. Lately, I have tried to be intentional about teaching from a story point of view instead of a "see what this kid did, don't do that" point of view.  I want to encourage and equip my kids as I train them up, not tear them down. Using one kids mistake as a benchmark for the others neither encourages or equips any of them, it only divides. A few weeks ago my twins brought home each a baggie with 3 beans in it from school.  There was a wet paper towel in each and we

               "Listen and Obey." It's a phrase I started to say to my kids when the eldest was just a wee thing.  I would tell her to do something and you could see the wheels in her little 2 year old head turning, "Should I do this? What will happen if I don't?" Ultimately that little girl has grown into a now medium sized girl who listens and obeys Mamas voice pretty constantly.  She has 4 younger siblings. Some of them take after her and others need a bit of......um.....'encouragement' in the listening and obeying department. But what about Mama? How well do I listen and obey? This was a question I have been thinking about for the better part of the day today. I have a handful of experiences where I did not listens to that voice and obey His words. And those experiences left me feeling sorry and brokenhearted. But, I have an immeasurable amount of experiences where I have walked away from a situation or a person thinking "I should have don

For a long time I struggled with the idea of God. It wasn't that I didn't believe, I just had trouble fully committing. I wanted to sit and chat with God first, kinda like an interview. I wanted to shake his had and ask him why he thought he deserved my devotion. My faith. What made him so great that I should trust him. Trust. It's a big word. When it's broken, it's painful. Who wants that kind of pain? What made him so worthy of trust? I needed to touch him before I could trust him. I have been participating in a 30 day on line challenge where there are little questions to get you thinking or actions you can take. It's been fun. And eye opening. One of the questions was "What does love feel like to you." When I hear the word love, my mind automatically goes to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,  it is not easily

I find something special  in a love note. Maybe it's the sensitive side of me or that words of affirmation is my love language, but when someone has taken the time to make sure I know that they love me, I jump for joy just a little. My husband, the wonderful man that he is, is not a writer. I tried to force him to write me love notes in a journal a few years ago. That cute little blue journal with the silver 'M' on the front was quickly lost after the initial love note was penned into it.  In fact most of my anniversary or birthday cards end with a simple "me" scratched at the bottom. That one word makes me smile because I know doing just that was completely outside of his comfort zone! Last year my sweet friend signed us up for a local marriage conference. It was not something we would have done on our own, so we headed in with a skeptical mindset. Imagine my excitement when I was looking over the agenda and noticed a time blocked out for 'writing a love not