Thursday thoughts on my faith

Hope.
Such a small word but filled with lots of promise. We received an email from some missionary friends this week and he was talking about the verse "...faith, hope, love but the greatest of these is love." How easy it is to accept the importance of faith and love but hope...that may seem not as important. He was talking about how without hope, it is hard to have faith. How do we have faith if there is no hope of God.
It hit home to me yesterday as Princess was asking me about Maggie, what happens after she dies, is she in heaven? I honestly don't have an answer for her about that. I don't know if animals go to heaven and I am not going to say definitely to her one way or the other. But I do have hope. Hope that we are going to heaven, hope that Jesus knows our hearts and knows how much our animals mean to us on earth. I have hope as I talk to my child about death that when we die, it isn't the end for us, it isn't scary. There are no more owies in heaven. What an amazing thing to be able to tell her.
Imagine if I wasn't able to tell her about heaven, that after we die there is nothing. We are just put in the ground and forgotten about. So sad and so hopeless. What would be our purpose if that was all there is to life? If there was nothing more?
An amazing gift God has given us.
Hope.

Tip of the Week

Here is my tip for the week: I am trying to find ways to save money on my laundry. Between soap, dryer sheets, and the energy it takes to wash and dry all of those loads, it really adds up. So anything to help in this way I am willing to try. I purchased these dryer balls (shown here from Lillian Vernon for $9.98):

They say they help with static, softening clothes and decreasing drying time. I think they do help with decreasing drying time and also with fluffing the clothes. They don't seem to do a whole lot for static cling but what I have been doing is just using 1/2 a dryer sheet and that seems sufficient for the static. I don't use any fabric softener and I have been using my homemade detergent (which I need to post about and will eventually), sometimes I use vinegar in a downy ball for a little extra help in cleaning/sanitizing and that seems to work well.
Give the dryer balls a try and let me know what you think. I actually bought them at Walmart for under $6. A good investment I think.

Thursday Thoughts on My Faith

This has been a rough week. I heard a few weeks ago (and I cannot for the life of me remember where) an analogy about how we see things. As we are going through life, it is like driving down a road. We can only see what is in front of us, we don't see what is around the corner, what is over the next hill. Just what is in front of us. God, on the other hand, looks down at the road like it is a map. He sees every twist and turn, every obstacle in the way, bad weather, speed bump. He gets the broad picture and that is really comforting to me.
When husband and I were picking what day we wanted to get married (really what day I wanted) I originally picked May 27th. I really liked the sound of that. But then my mom pointed out it was Memorial Weekend and I changed it to the 20th. Who knew, 14 years later we would have to put our dog to sleep on May 27th. I never would have guessed that. But imagine how hard it would be to have that be a reminder every anniversary. But God knew. He saw way ahead of time. That might be a stretch for some of you. But here's the other thing. We are going camping this weekend. We have planned it since last September. My mom was going to come and housesit/dogsit for us. 2 days before we leave, we have to make this decision. Now I have a three day weekend and a chance to be away from my house. The house that seems so empty and quiet without her. God saw this bump in the road way ahead of time and covered it, covered us. He always provides for us, even when we don't know it or see the impact of it right away. That is a huge comfort to me.

Tip of the Week

I love reading tips other bloggers write about. It helps me to try new things and is nice to hear what real people are doing.
Here is my tip for the week: When baking, use 1/2 the amount of flour as whole wheat flour and the rest as regular all purpose flour.
I bought whole wheat flour using a friends recipe where it was soaked in yogurt to help cut the taste but it was awful (sorry Abby, maybe if I used Kefir like you did although honestly I have no idea what that is:-). So now I have this 5 pound sack of whole wheat flour and it is sort of expensive. Instead of using the whole amount, I have started substituting 1/2 whole wheat for the flour amount and you can taste it a little but not enough for the kids to really notice.
I have used this in banana bread and gingersnap cookies. Both were a big hit. Maybe as we get used to the taste, I will start adding more. We will see.
It's a small thing but I figure, every little bit helps. Happy baking!

Thursday thoughts on my faith

Treading Water
Do you ever feel like you are not going anywhere? I don't mean necessarily with big life decisions. I mean in the everyday walk we have. This goes along with my post from the other day. I just feel I am out of control. When I try to start getting control, actually sit down to accomplish something.. to move forward on a project, I get sideline. Sidelined by extra laundry b/c son wet the bed so bad or the dog peed on the carpet bad enough I have to shampoo it, or daughter is so cranky she takes all your attention. There I am, not moving anywhere, just treading water, breaking even.
I see moms who seem to have it all together, they cook, clean, take their kids to the park, have playdates, scrapbook, and always look good (so obviously find time to exercise) and I wonder what is wrong with me?? I know that I work, but part time and even though that takes up three of my days, I still have 4 days to accomplish things, to move forward.
How is this related to my faith you might be asking. I feel I am treading water with my relationship with God as well. I read my Bible a couple times a week, listen to Christian music, try to talk to the kids about God, pray, go to church on Sunday, have a Bible study and Women's Prayer group. Looking at that list seems like it should be enough but it just isn't. I am keeping the status quo. I want more than that with God, I want my kids to see more than that in me. I yearn to feel His peace, His presence, His joy. I know He is there, waiting for me to reach out, waiting to embrace me, waiting for me to start swimming. I know that if I can get this tackled, if I can move forward with God, the other things will fall into place. Or at least I will have better tools to deal with the everydayness of life.
I am just not sure where to begin.

Out of Control

I feel my life is out of control. Okay, maybe not my life but my house. It is such a mess. Granted we do have a small house for 5 people with limited storage/closet space but it used to make me more efficient in a way. Now, I just have stuff oozing out of every nook and cranny, every available surface. I was going to post pictures but maybe later.
The thing is, I do have time. If I put my mind to it. I waste a lot of time on the computer. A couple weeks ago someone asked me how much screen time my kids get. My kids get more than they should mostly b/c of the earliness to which they get up. But if I stop and think about my screen time...it is so much more. I limit my TV viewing to after the kids go to bed but computer time on my days home is way too much. If I put as much effort into my house as I do my computer, I might have things under control.
That is my big summer goal. Limit computer time and get my house under control. We are having a garage sale in about 3 weeks so I need to purge, purge, purge as quickly as possible starting today.
Along with the limited computer time, getting my house under control, I want to spend more time with God. Somehow I was able to fit in reading 2 of the Twilight books last week in a matter of days but I can't take 1/2 hour to read the word? Honestly, where are my priorities. While I would much rather have my kids see me reading than being on the computer, I would also rather them see me reading the Bible and see it as a priority.
I will check back in with my progress and maybe post some pictures.

Tuesday Checklist

It has been a crazy 2 weeks. Philly, New York, 2 weddings, stomach bugs and ear infections. You can imagine what my house looks like. Lots of stuff to do this week.
1. Clean house, bathrooms, kitchen, vacuum.
2. Make list of meals for this week - I do so much better if I have a plan
3. Get back into exercising - so hard after so much time off
4. Play with my kids - I really missed them!
5. Write thank you notes
6. Start planning our camping trip for the end of May. Figure out what we still need
7. Start organizing garage. What a mess. Garage sale in 3 1/2 weeks. Hopefully we will get rid of a ton of stuff.
8. Sign kids up for summer camps.

That's it for now. Seems like enough doesn't it?