Works for Me Wednesday – Kitchen Edition

If you know me, you may be chuckling at the prospect that I have anything to contribute to a discussion of great kitchen ideas. But let me tell all you smart-alecs out there – it’s not about cooking, it’s about kitchen organization!

In my opinion, the pantry is THE most vital kitchen space. If you don’t have one, or have ever had to live without one, you know exactly what I mean. Everyone needs a nice, large space for food storage. Because we have lived in older homes, we’ve found ourselves in the position of converting broom closets and coat closets into pantries.

In the home we’re in now, the pantry is an oddly deep closet that sits above the stairs. There’s lots of room, but it’s impossible to find anything. So I created a system of baskets of various sizes, had an afternoon of fun with the label-maker, and voila! A pantry organized just the way I like it (with all foods alike in one handy location) – and everything’s accessible! We’ve even got some BBQ tools (and fly swatters) on pegboard on the walls. (Bibs used to hang there, too.)


I don’t know about you guys, but I find it handy to buy some things in bulk. But bulk storage can be tricky. But since last summer, when Pat built me a seating bench for around our table, I’ve had a great place to stuff in all those bulk supplies.


Have fun organizing your kitchens! :)

For more tips and tidbits, go visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Filed Under: carnivals, organizing, WFMW September 30, 2008 By 4 Comments



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My Prerogative

Last night Kai started fussing just before 11pm.

We were in already in bed (getting old, I know), chatting about our days. I looked at Pat and said, “Your son is crying. You should go take him a bottle.” Yes, he’s still waking in the night. I’m just too tired to tough out the crying required to get him sleeping through. Sigh.

Pat laughed and challenged me to a game of Paper-Rock-Scissors for the duty. One, two, three – rock, rock. Again – scissors (Pat), paper (me).

I insisted that PRS is always best of three.

One, two, three – rock, rock. Again – paper (Pat), rock (me).

He smirks and rolls over, making some smart comment about how I should bring him a drink of water when I come back. So I did what any self-respecting woman would do – I whined (with a flirtatious smile on my face, of course)! “But honeeeeeey, I always have to get up with him in the middle of the niiiiiight. The least you can do is take him a bottle when you’re still up.” (insert the batting of eyelashes)

So my sweet, darling husband rolled out of bed and took his baby a bottle. When he came back to bed I was giggling. He gave me a long-suffering patience kinda look. I decided it wise to keep my smart mouth shut. But honey, here’s what I was giggling about…

The moral of the story is – even when I’m wrong, I’m right; even when I lose, I win. From now on you should just do what I want right from the start and save yourself the humiliation.

LOL!

Filed Under: just because, marriage September 30, 2008 By 1 Comment



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Searchable Me

Every Sunday I get a nice little email from sitemeter.com, providing stats for my blog visitors. There are many times I choose not to read it – I don’t want to get all caught up in the numbers (because that’s not why I do it), as well as time constraints. Sometimes, though, I read it, curious about where readers are from and how they found me.

This week, I got my first hit from Jamaica! Cool, eh? Look…

Location Continent : South America
Country : Jamaica (Facts)
State/Region : Manchester
City : Mandeville
Lat/Long : 18.0333, -77.5 (Map)

Just below this basic info, sitemeter shows me the referring URL (which in this case is a google search – thanks for the props google!).

Now, before you click the link below to view the search, I want you to think about all the things you know about me and my relationship with housework. If you need some help, check out this post…or this one. Okay, feel like you know me now? Good. Check out the search my Jamaican friend used to find my blog….

CLICK HERE.

Filed Under: fun and games, just because September 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment



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Beauty

I’m not generally one who finds lovely little analogies in everyday moments. But today, I saw something that simply begged for me to tell it.

A little girl and her grandma sat down in Tim Horton’s for an afternoon treat. One must have been about seven and-a half (my guess based on the two-tooth sized gap at the bottom of her smile). The other, sixty years older or so. The little one was a tow-head with straight, fine hair past her shoulders. The older one, gracefully coloured hair in a beautiful shade of auburn. The young one had pale, unblemished skin, the older had dark spots of age smattering across her hands. The contrast was so striking.

Grandma opened a bag containing two long johns covered in chocolate, each with a dash of sprinkles on one end. In typical zest-of-youth style, the girl dove into her long john sprinkled end first. Grandma started at the other end, apparently saving the best for last. I watched them enjoying one another’s company, chit-chatting about their weeks, nibbling away until their doughnuts were less than half their original size.

Then the grandma reached out to her grand-daughter, and offered to trade doughnuts with her. The girl seemed a bit confused, but quickly accepted the trade once she realized that she would have the pleasure of eating BOTH of the sprinkled ends.

Their exchange reminded me of the Christian walk.

When we are “young” we tend to dive in to “the good stuff” as quickly as possible. We don’t want to wait even one moment for those delicious sprinkles. We don’t hesitate or waste any time.

As we get “older” we take things more slowly. We tend to wait, hoping to save the best for last. We savour every single bit that takes us closer to the sprinkled end.

Neither approach is wrong, nor right – just different. Sometimes it’s wisest to go slowly and methodically, waiting for the good things God has in store. Other times we should hurry and do what He asks quickly, with all our hearts and energy.

The true beauty, though, is what happens if we do the “wrong” thing. Perhaps sometimes we jump in, full of fervour, not thinking of the consequences. We rush ahead of God’s plan and push our way through. We eat the sprinkles first, when we should have saved them for later. But God, in His ever-patient and understanding way, seldom lets us end that way. He doesn’t like to leave us empty and disappointed, having gobbled down the sweet sprinkles too quickly. Rather, He extends His hand of grace and trades doughnuts with us. He lets us have the delicious reward at the end of the journey, in spite of our own impulsiveness.

We sit there, confused. Knowing that we did nothing to deserve such a sweet reward. That’s the perfection of God’s grace – He is ready to hand us the end with the sprinkles on it, even before we ask.

Filed Under: my walk, writing September 28, 2008 By 5 Comments



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My Heart for Women

A question posed by an anonymous poster got me thinking…

Although all those ministry things are great and bring glory to the Lord, do you still feel the Lord leading you to serve there, or are you just doing because you’ve simply always done it? I hope that’s not offensive to you… cause I know I can do that at times… I just keep serving somewhere even though I feel the Lord moving me somewhere else but I don’t want to hurt feelings by moving on. Ya know what I mean?

Yes, my secret friend, I do know what you mean! There have been many times where I’ve realized that I am doing this.

For years, I helped in the nursery at our Church. I felt I should – after all, I’ve put a lot of strain on the system! LOL! Every time I helped in the nursery I would head home after Church feeling exhausted and cranky, and every little sound my own children made grated like nails on a chalkboard. Someone very wise told me two key things… First, if the experience of serving leaves you drained rather than pumped up, you’re probably serving in the wrong area (God designed us each with our unique gifts for a purpose – He wants us to serve using those gifts, and that experience should leave us feeling fulfilled, purposeful, and satisfied). And second, if you serve in a particular ministry area simply because “someone needs to do it,” or “if I don’t do it, who will?” you may actually be interfering with God’s plan. Often, people do not hear or believe God’s call on them to ministry, and if they feel a call but don’t see a need, they may ignore that calling. Sometimes the best thing we can do is leave a gap wide open, for the right person to walk in and fill it.

Even within women’s ministry, I’ve experienced this. We have a number of ministry areas for women, and my job is to oversee each of them, and encourage/equip the leaders. The difficult part of my job comes down to what to do when there isn’t a leader for a particular area. Do we leave that position vacant and let that ministry area fall away? Or am I to step in and fill the vacancy until someone comes forward or is found? I am so thankful that I work with a team of women who can help me discern such things.

So, in answer to your real question, do I still feel the Lord leading me to serve there there [women's ministry] or am I just doing it because I’ve simply always done it? (Oh, and don’t you worry about offending me – I’m not, it’s a GREAT question!)

Women are the heart of the home. They set the tone for the entire family. But so many women today are hurting, broken, insecure, isolated. My heart burns with passion to reach these women, and to share life with them, to speak love to them, to help them see how amazing they are – so that ultimately they can embrace Jesus Christ and pour His love out in their homes!

Though I had accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour, I spent years believing that my worth as a woman was tied up in the love of a man. If I wasn’t loved, I was nothing. When I found the love of a good man, though, I wasn’t satisfied. Perhaps I really wouldn’t be a valuable contributor to society until I was a mother? Unfortunately, the main feeling that motherhood brought me was – loneliness…isolation. I was aching and empty, and my marriage and children were suffering because of my emotional void.

One day, way out of my comfort zone, I decided to attend a women’s group. (I think, hoping the void could be filled by developing friendships with other women.) Little connections were made, and I felt myself emerging from the “new mommy fog.” I went to a women’s retreat… Things were changing in my heart. At first I thought it was the friendships – they were what I needed all along! But it didn’t take long for me to realize that the filling of my soul was coming from the Only Source with the ability to fill. The other women were simply the tool He used to reach me!

I knew, in one simple moment, without a doubt, that I needed to bring other women out of their dark loneliness. That somehow, way beyond my personal abilities, God could use the work of my hands to touch the lives of other women – if I simply did what He said to do. So I did it. Because how could I not?!

For now, and for as many days as I feel the certainty of this call on my heart, I will pour myself into women’s ministry.

Of course, marriage-family-home must be priority number one. It would be impossible for me to show one other woman how Christ can change her life – making her strong and beautiful and satisfied, in spite of all the crap the world tells her about how to “find herself” – if I am not living the satisfied (and balanced) life in my own home. If I have learned one thing, though, it’s that you can’t teach such things. In order to truly experience them, we must live them together as women.

So until the day God tells me “STOP” or “GO HERE NOW” and the team of wise and discerning women I am blessed to call friends back up what He’s saying, I stay. I stay, not because I’m simply doing what I’ve always done. I stay because He is doing the great thing that He does, and I get to be a part of it!

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the Word of God. ~Titus 2:3-5

Filed Under: family, ministry September 27, 2008 By 3 Comments



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Some Answers

Thanks for all the tips and encouragement regarding my scheduling issues. You peeps rock! Since there were some great comments and questions, I decided to address them in their own post.

FYI – Pat came home last night and informed me that he could care less if the bed were made every day. Once in a while is good enough for him. Thank-you, Lord, for giving me a husband who doesn’t need what I can’t give! He didn’t mention, though, how we loves it when I cook mac and cheese and hot dogs for supper (ahem). Definitely gotta work on that meal planning! Thanks for the link, Bobbie.

On another note, I do generally try to get up early for my prayer/Bible time. Unfortunately, it seems that the rest of the household is getting up early, too. I am working my way towards getting up earlier so that I actually have some quiet time to accomplish this. Hope said she’s up at 5:30am. Oh my, that IS early! Given that monkey-baby was up at 6am every day of the past week, I may be right there with you, girl.

Exercise…sigh. I’ll be renewing my gym membership on Tuesday and going first thing every Mon/Tues/Thurs. Over the years I’ve discovered that at-home, self-motivated exercising simply doesn’t work for my weak-willed self. I need to spend a bit of money and do it out of that money-guilt-gotta-make-it-worth-it drive.

Housework. Ugh! This is the bane of my existence. You know, it’s not even that I dislike doing housework. Really, I don’t mind most household tasks (with the exception of laundry). But it seems so overwhelming to clean the whole house that I end up just putting it off for another day. I appreciated Hope’s suggestion to do pick 2 days to do laundry and go till it’s done (I may need to pick 3 days, but I think that could work for me). I also just loved anonymous’s idea for splitting the housework into two days. Way more manageable! I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this?! Everyone said – get your kids to help. You’re right. They do – sometimes. I’ve put off giving them regular chores to do because of the ‘training’ involved. But in the long run all I will have accomplished is lazy people who don’t know how to properly clean a bathroom.

There were a couple questions about the time I spend away from family…specifically ministry. I cannot answer that question in a brief paragraph, so keep your eyes peeled for my next post. :)

Filed Under: family, just because, real life September 26, 2008 By 3 Comments



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Working it all Out

I usually spend the last couple weeks of August looking forward to the fall. Though I love the laissez faire feel of the summer months, my administrative brain thrives on organizing, planning, and list-making. One of my greatest pleasures in life is to feel like I’m accomplishing things – getting stuff done, if you will. Such task completion is unheard of during the long, lazy days of summer; those days are filled with a whole lot of kids, sunshine, and bar-be-que.

You would think, then, that I’d be in my glory right now. I should be able to do all sorts of great things with the spare time afforded me by the fabulous school system! Rather, I find myself running ’round in circles, accomplishing a little bit of this, a touch of that, and a whole lot of nothing.

My husband diagnosed me with a case of “too much on my plate.” Which boils down to too much ministry/meeting/socializing and not nearly enough housekeeping/cooking/parenting. The tricky thing in being healed of this syndrome is determining which of the many good things needs to be released. Because it’s not like I’m really wasting my time (overall), the things that are consuming me are all decent and worthwhile things.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure any of the tasks that are keeping me busy need to be relinquished. I suspect my problem could be solved by a dose of serious scheduling. It’s a matter of setting aside specific times for certain tasks, rather than randomly jumping from one thing to the next without ever actually completing anything. And, here’s the clincher – stopping at the designated end time, even if the task is not complete (because running on all day trying to make a video on Movie Maker will only result in NOT completing such tasks as dinner, children’s homework, and effective communication with spouse).

So, in an effort garner a few extra coveted comments, and in the spirit of keeping it real, I’m going to give you a list. I want your honest opinions – is each item a worthwhile way to spend my time? If not, let me know! If you think it is (or could be), any suggestions on how I schedule it in? Your system for doing such tasks…your favourite time of day to do certain activities…things you do daily, or weekly, or however often… I want need your help! (And I’m pretty sure Pat will appreciate it, too, because maybe one of these days I’ll start making the bed – if you insist!)

Things I try to do daily:
- morning time with God (sadly, since the summer this has been more like every other day)
- emails, on and off as they come in or when I sit for a break (or if I’m sitting at the computer all darn day) – usually ministry-related
- assorted computer work, typically about an hour but as I said it can be an all-day production at times (note the above-mentioned movie creation) – usually ministry-related
- spend time on the phone (again, some days it’s only a call or two, but others it feels like the whole day) – about half ministry-related, half just life
- a load of two of laundry (um, I wash, dry, and fold it, but it typically lives in ginormous piles on my laundry room floor – maybe I should sell our dressers!)
- dishwasher
- cook supper (though it sure hasn’t been anything fancy – or healthy – these days)
- write for my blog (okay, I confess, it’s more like 3-4 times per week, but I’d like it to be daily)

Things I do weekly:
- clean bathrooms (they get a quick wipe mid-week – have you ever tried Clorox bathroom wipes?!)
- vacuum
- sweep and mop (I probably do this twice per week)
- balance the budget
- read other blogs I enjoy (once or maybe twice during the week)
- attempt to help the kids really clean up their messes (this hasn’t happened for nearly a month now)
- attend women’s Bible study (Mondays)
- attend life group with Pat (Sundays)
- attend/host ministry meetings for planning/prayer/etc. (on average, there are 3 evening meetings per month)
- attend our women’s group (Wednesday AMs)

Things I do monthly:
- parent helper at playschool
- parent helper at kindergarten
- take Braeden to medical appointments

Things I don’t do often enough:
- have fun with the kids
- snuggle with my husband
- memorize Scripture

Things I don’t do but should (I think):
- make the bed
- meal plan
- schedule chores/housework
- put away laundry
- have a shopping day
- exercise the dog every day
- exercise myself – at all

So, what do you think? With effective planning and time-management, can I fit it all in? Or do you see some things there that jump out to you as “gotta go” items?!

Filed Under: blogging, budgeting, family, just because, ministry, my walk, organizing, parenting, puppy, real life September 24, 2008 By 9 Comments



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Writer’s Block

I have nothing of value to say here. I can think of no creative, funny, or inspiring words. It’s weird. Many days I find myself writing blog posts in my head as I go, or wishing I had my camera for a good ‘bloggable’ picture. I can’t seem to think anymore!

Does anyone have any good fodder for me to use? A fun and interesting meme? A silly writing exercise designed to get the creative juices flowing again? A funny story that will make me laugh and remind me of something funny in my life?

It’s very sad, really. My mind is whirring around ministry activities, children’s schedules, budgets and meal planning (which are going nowhere). I am incapable of forming coherent thoughts not related to these topics! Unfortunately, the topics listed do not make for exciting blog material. Not that this post is any better – maybe I should just list the kids’ schedule…

Filed Under: just because, real life, writing September 22, 2008 By 4 Comments



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A Good Day

Pat’s away this week. He was away last week, too.

It isn’t supposed to be this way, but sometimes things just don’t go as planned.

So it’s the busiest two weeks of the ministry year, the kids are all exhausted from returning to the school routine, we have a new puppy, and I’m single parenting (but with the privilege of being home).

I was expecting that I’d be a mess by tomorrow, desperate for Pat’s return so I could run away. It would be easy to let it happen…

Instead, I decided to take advantage of possibly our last day of lovely weather. We went for a walk. The dog walked me, the kids took turns walking the stroller (and the dog for brief periods). We had a grand adventure – saw two mule deer leaping in the grass and through the trees; found a new playground (very far from home), discovered a patch of wild sunflowers (which apparently housed a million “tarantulas”).

When we got home and I looked at the clock – we had been out for an hour and twenty minutes! Everyone is blissfully exhausted and on their way for an early bedtime. The happy exercise endorphins are pumping through my brain and body and I’m feelin’ good.

It’s a good life – even on those weeks that might be difficult.

Thank-you, Lord, for turning what the enemy could have used for evil into something good.

Filed Under: anger, carnivals, family, Mommy Why Are You Angry?, my walk, real life September 17, 2008 By 4 Comments



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Finally!

After months of reading books, I can finally return to my regularly scheduled programming. That’s right, people, it’s season premier month!

Here’s what I’ll be watching:
Tonight and every Tuesday – House
Thursday this week, maybe a few others – Survivor
Wednesdays, always (starting on the 24th) – NCIS
And here’s my big ticket day…
Thursdays (starting on the 25th) – ER (didja hear Carter’s coming back???), Grey’s Anatomy, and the Office

Unfortunately, we must wait for Tuesday, October 14th for Eli Stone. And – get this – sometime early 2009 for Lost! What these people do to me…

If you want to see when you’re favourite shows start back up, visit the TV Addict (he even has printable calendars, though I’m not sure about time zones).

Filed Under: just because, TV, watching September 16, 2008 By 4 Comments



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