Mommy and Me

Mommy and Me
Sharing life with you is fullfilling

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Getting back on track

It is amazing how a series of tiny differences can add up to make your week a mess!
whatever that last holiday was (yes I should know but it isn't even 6 am yet and my brain hasn't turned on yet) we decided to take advantage of the amazingly warm weather and go to the zoo. Originally when I planned this and invited all our home school friends I had no idea it fell on the holiday and therefore had no idea that a lot of people wouldn't be working and kids wouldn't be in school. I just thought it was warm, sunny, and Monday in January and the zoo is free.... let's go.
I will start off by saying it was incredible!  I loved it, but man were my mommy skills challenged!  There were so many people at the zoo it was hard to move around! Especially when you had 13 kids to watch! Now I wasn't the only mama watching them all, we actually had 6 adults in our group. .. but wow!
And I won't even tell you about our adventures in the parking lot where the spaces were painted so long ago that not even a small car has enough room to open a door without hitting the next car over. A friend has had to leave her infant car seat (infant inside) on the ground back up her car to open the door and then put the seat inside! How scary is that? I would be FREAKING OUT!
Anyway zoo on monday, grocery shopping, babysitting a couple extra kids, and visiting a few friends on Tuesday,  and by Wednesday I was on adventure withdrawal.
Does anyone else get that? Am I alone on adventure withdrawal?  If I has a series of events that get me going or raise my adrenaline and then follow that with a day of absolutely mundane every day stuff... I get antsy and won't do a thing the way I am supposed to.  It happened immediately after Patrick and I were married, he thought I was going crazy or in a huge depression, which in a way I was... All that planning, preparing, celebrating and excitement that my biggest dream was coming true, then the honeymoon and touring the area, and then home and back to work. .. and doing laundry and dishes (for two now) I was down... I needed an adventure and quickly.
So the zoo and visits with friends is a much smaller deal than my wedding obviously,  and the feeling down stuff didn't last long, just all day Wednesday!  Which meant my dishes piled up, my floors got dirty, my laundry did not get washed, Caeden actually finished school when he was supposed to,  and though that was AWESOME,  it left me with nothing I HAD to do the rest if the day and I was bored out of my mind...lol
No more today though.
So far today I have put in a load of laundry, gotten dressed, loaded the dish washer, done my bible study, and let the dog out.... and of course written this... and the kids are still asleep.   my last two goals are to clean off the table and to fold the load of towels I took from the dryer.
And it is only 6am.. why can't I be this proverbs 31 woman every day..?
Good morning!  Have a cup of tea and wake up at your pace... before your kids. From my experience your day goes much more smoothly.  Or at least starts out better.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Letters to Jesus

It is time once again (and long overdue) to share a letter to Jesus.  Every morning I try to wake up before the children and spend some time reading God's Word and reflecting on the day to come and where I need him most in my life at that time, the result is a journal of letters I write to God.  Some of them I think are helpful to others and I share them here.  Enjoy the read.
"Dear Lord Jesus, ruler of all,
When that woman was about to be stoned and you forgave her and the men who dropped their stones walked away, you were full of mercy, something not all Christians have been able to grasp.  But I am seeing now why it could be hard to understand.
Ephesians 5:10-13 says "Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the unfruitful acts of darkness,  but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible. "
This sounds like we should expose other people's sins, but I believe we are meant not to tell of their sin, but rather expose to them that the action is sin. Not to shame them as your word says: but by being the light of Christ we can tell them there is darkness, but we do not have to live in it.
Ephesians 5:14 "For everything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says "sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. "  "
Expose the sin simply by being the light that shines bright enough to give the sinner a way out of the sin.
I never paid much attention to the particular words of Ephesians 5:33 either until now either, and I see how they are incredibly needed.
"Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband. "
Love comes easily to most women,  we give it freely to our husband, our children, our families and friends. What is not natural is respect.  We love our husband deeply, but when he does something we don't like, or forgets to do what we ask him to do we resort to nagging, the evil eye, tattle telling to other women,  withholding our bodies, and clinging to the offense. None of this is the respectful character you have called us to.
And husbands should love their wives. .. but they respect more easily than love.
When Patrick and I were first married he came home from work wanting intimate details of my day. And I didn't have anything to offer the conversation. So I would ask him to take out the trash or help with dinner, he would walk away and watch TV.  All of this was incredibly frustrating.  I thought he was wanting to spend time with me or show me he cares but really he was showing me I was his equal (asking about my day and sharing his with me) and not showing me love (helping me with my work).
We all need to be careful to meet the needs of those we love.  "Men love your wives" and " women respect your husbands". How else could we do this but with you Lord Jesus?

Love,
Samantha"

This letter is my personal thought on the word of God as it pertains to my walk with Christ. I do not claim to know your life or how you should live it, I do hope my thoughts are helpful to you, but if anything I have said offends you I pray you can see that it wasn't meant to do that, but instead to encourage and bring you closer to the love of God.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Clean and homey

I feel bad it has been so long since I have updated this page but everything has been incredibly busy and incredibly wonderful!
I am not what we call a crunchy person. .. but I am learning so many things in the art of home keeping lately that it makes me excited to tell you all the wonderful things I am learning.
I hate cleaning bathrooms,  and hate scrubbing things even more... I mean come on who wants to spend the day with chemicals and strong odors and a sponge that seems to do no good? Not me.  But then thanksgiving came.
I hosted thanksgiving twice this year. Once for our friends and once for my cousin and her family, the closest and only blood relatives able to travel and spend the holiday with us.
Thanksgiving was awesome by the way.  But Friday evening I learned what is possibly the best cleaning secret on the planet.  Baking soda!  Yup. This amazing cooking substance also scours pans, counter tops, teapots,  and glass electric stove tops!
Just a small pile of this lovely stuff a wash cloth, and a tiny bit of water and a but of elbow grease.  And all that built up cooked on, stuff that even the amazing  Dawn dish soap doesn't lift, is magically done forever! Well until you cook it on again anyway.
So after that amazing discovery I had to use it on EVERYTHING! And use it I did! But my fascination did not stop there... There had to be other tricks no one ever told me...
Pintrest helped out by giving me a list of cleaners I could make on my own. I have only tried one but it was so simple and wonderful I fell in love!
1 tablespoon dawn dish soap
2 quarts of water
1\4th cup of vinegar. .. Mix well and store in a spray bottle. .. works great for so many things.  Pintrest said it was a glass cleaner and yes it works great on glass, windows mirrors you name it, but what else? Apparently carpets!
My daughter spilled my delicious mint flavored hot chocolate on my carpet.  I SUCK at carpet stains and totally freaked out. Normally I would make my husband clean up the mess so it wouldn't stain, but he wasn't home. The only option left was to try to clean it myself.. I grabbed a wash cloth and the first cleaner I could find which happened to be this mix, spray spray spray and like one of those fake commercials the color of the chocolate on my off white carpet completely disappeared,  and I mean completely.  I sapped gently with the wash cloth and it collected the chocolate color and my carpet was left amazingly clean! Now I will say it was not an old stain I don't know if it would work on a old stain but I can say I am SOLD on making my own cleaners!
That of course could not stop my excitement,  I quickly budgeted a few extra things into my grocery list and made my own laundry detergent!  And yes I am totally sold on that too!  I followed a Recipe that includes Borax, washing soda, baking soda,  and gain crystals with Fels Naptha Soap that I grated with my cheese grater... and u will be using this mix Forever!  Only thing I would change is the amount if gain...next time just 1 bottle instead of two, the smell is good but too strong.
The rest is history!  I am turning crunchy by accident!