Define Necessity

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Christmas, Compassion, Operation Christmas Child, poverty, Samaritan's Purse, World Vision

I don’t have much to say about this.

If you want to do something, consider sponsoring a child through Compassion.

Or purchase livestock for a family in need through World Vision.

At the very least, consider packing a shoe-box for Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse.  This is a lovely way to bless children in need and get your own children involved.  Daisy has been talking about what to pack for her Christmas Child box this year, and Pearl is catching the spirit.

It couldn’t be simpler to purchase a few items, collect some toys and candy, and send a box of love to another country.  Samaritan’s Purse will even send you an email letting you know what country your box went to.  Last year ours went to Mexico.  We may include notes in English and Spanish this year on the chance they go that way again.

If you’re going to pack a box, you’d better get on it!  Next week is drop-off week.

Never discount the impact these few items can make on an impoverished child.  I have a friend who was blessed to participate in the distribution of Christmas Child boxes one year and she recounted how a little girl opened her box and exclaimed, “I’ve gotten a toothbrush!”  A toothbrush. We just threw away several worn ones.  I think we’ll pack a few.

There are several suggestions on the Samaritan’s Purse website, but my friend also mentioned that plastic shoe boxes (like Sterilite) are a good choice because they can be used to carry water when they aren’t holding treasures.

*There is some crossovers among these ministries. You can buy livestock through Compassion or sponser through World Vision, etc.  They are legitimate organizations with Christian foundations and emphasis.

A Thankful Heart

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30 days of thanks, gratitude journal, seasonal crafts, thanksgiving

Well, November is here and you know what that means:  Christmas music and decorations in every store.

Not what you thought of?  Good.  I love Christmas as much as the next guy (probably more) but its season is a little later.

At our house November means there are two little turkeys sitting on the mantle and a ceramic pumpkin tureen full of candy is somewhere around.

It also means my facebook feed will begin filling up with people starting a “30 days of Thankfulness” pledge.  Each day they post something they’re thankful for.  I like the idea, but it seems most people aren’t able to follow through with all 30 days.  I would probably be one of those people.

While it’s lovely to see Facebook turn into a series of thanks instead of gripes and muses, it’s certainly not the only outlet for recording one’s gratitude.

Several weeks ago, I came across this printable gratitude journal.

This is lovely, sweet, and just right to use for myself or my little women.  They love crafts and seasonal crafts are always a big hit.  If the idea appeals to you, it’s a super simple, totally free, printable.  Check it out at Motherhood Your Way.

In the past, we have created “Thankful Trees”.  The child traces her hand onto construction paper which we cut out to represent leaves.  I cut a large brown tree trunk, and we paste it onto a manilla or white paper.  Then on each leaf, she writes (or dictates to Mommy) something she is thankful for.  Daisy has requested we do this craft again this year.

It’s fun to look back on those later and see what she was thankful for.  Some of the most memorable are Pearl’s “for Mommy teaching me my letters” and 3 year old Daisy’s “for my new brother or sister”.

One of the neat things about a 30 day challenge is it pushes you to think beyond the top 5 things on your list.  Everyone is thankful for family, friends, food.  And certainly we ought to reflect with gratitude on these things.  After that, what will you put?

I’m thankful for my bed.  It’s just right for me and I always miss it when I’m away.  How blessed I am to have not only a safe place to sleep each night, but a just right, perfectly soft, not too warm, not too cold, snuggily, happy place to rest.  How blessed indeed.

Let this be a season of rejoicing and gratitude.  Write your blessings, not your wish list.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;  his love endures forever.    -1 Chronicles 16:34

Devote yourselves in prayer, being watchful and thankful.  -Colossians 4:2

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. -Colossians 3:15

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude
is happiness doubled by wonder.  ~G.K. Chesterton

The Exciting Return of The Lady at Home!

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Sjogrens Syndrome

After a year and a half (or more) since my last blog post, I’ve decided to rev up the ol’ blog engine and start writing again.  Mostly because there are so many things I want to share each day.  Please bear with me as I remember my way around.

If you were a previous follower of The Lady at Home, you’ll notice some changes.  I’m going to be writing more of what’s on my mind and sharing many more of the conversations that happen around our house.  I am dropping the scrapbooking section altogether.  I still enjoy scrapbooking, but as I have less and less time for it,  I’m doing more digitally created photobooks.

An update on the “at home” family.  We are now one member more.  In December of 2009, I found out we were expecting another bundle of joy.  In January, I learned I have an auto-immune disease known as Sjogren’s Syndrome.  In February, I developed pneumonia.  In June, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  All these things can be dangerous to the baby so it was a stressful pregnancy, but our little Smidgen arrived just fine in August 2010 and is now a growing, healthy, though tiny one year old.

Three girls.  That’s what everyone says.  Even strangers at stores.  There’s not usually a follow up comment, just a statement.  “Three girls.” I am not quite certain what this means, yet, but it usually carries a tone of sympathy.

We are still whittling away at our debt, but we have made great strides in that front and our credit cards remain off duty.

I still love cooking and will post recipes as I create them, but I’m not going to be pushing myself to invent.

We are still homeschooling.  Two are in school now, though the little one is only 4 and pretty much just easing into kindergarten.

I am constantly learning new things and hope to share those experiences with you.  Things that have been on my mind that I hope to be bringing up in the future (in no particular order):  God’s plan for women, couponing, painting furniture, vitamin/nutrition therapy, adoption, cloth diapering, photography/Adobe Lightroom, elimination communication, gardening.     Please use the “Ask Lady” tab at the top of the page to contact me with your questions and suggestions.

Another Wonderful Thing About. . .

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Netflix, workout videos

Netflix.

I’m not being paid, I promise.  The Lady at Home could be swept away in an out of control balloon and Netflix wouldn’t notice.  I just really like these people.  Here’s another reason why.

So, occasionally, I’ve been known to work out using exercise videos.  I think most every woman in America has tried it at one time or another. 

But there’s one very annoying thing about workout videos.  You have to buy the dang thing before you can try it out.  So you spend twelve bucks or twenty or thirty and pop the thing in to your DVD player only to discover that the host of this show is annoyingly peppy.  Or she isn’t quite wearing enough and you can’t stand to look at her.  Or she’s doing the same moves over and over and over and over.   Or for whatever reason, it ain’t your cuppa tea.

What do you do?

Garage sale?  Ebay?  Pass it on to a friend?

You can read reviews online, but the thing about workouts is that nobody is exactly like you and everyone has different opinons.

Netflix has workout videos.

You can try it out before you buy it.  Yippee!

It’s the little things in life that make me happy.

P.S. After writing this post, I came across a website called www.collagevideo.com.  They have short video clip previews of hundreds of workout videos.   Of course, you can’t try out the workout, but if you have some idea of what you like, you can at least tell what the set, music, and instructor are like.  It’s a vast improvement over just chosing based on the video cover and others reviews.

Small Things Make The Most Difference

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quotes about small changes

Well, how are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions?  I have been keeping mine.  If you remember, I resolved to read my Bible everyday. 

It’s a sad fact, but I’d gotten away from reading it in the business of motherhood.  Of course, I re-tell my children many of the well-known stories.  We read their little children’s Bible and even practice memory verses.  Many times, words of Scripture I’d memorized (intentionally or just through hearing it often enough) would come to mind.  And occasionally I would open up the old text at home to read or re-read something that came to mind. 

But I’ve never committed to daily bible reading. I’ve read devotional books daily and usually get tired of them pretty quickly.  At first, I thought this experience would be the same.  I’m reading the Daily Bible, an interesting book that breaks down the scriptures into chronological daily readings.  So far, I’m still in the Genesis narratives and it fits nicely into that format, but I’m curious as to how the laws of Leviticus and the wise sayings of Proverbs are going to work into that. 

I had expected to feel like I was doing something out of discipline, commitment, but so far, it just seems very natural and easy.  I’m glad of that.  So much better than other things I’ve resolved. Like exercising and accomplishing the maximum possible in each day. 

Speaking of resolutions,  I heard of a lady who, together with her husband, made an interesting New Year’s Resolution.  They resolved to give each other a real hug and a kiss everyday this year.  How cool is that!  Y’know, not just a have-a-good-day kinda peck, but a real honest to goodness kiss.  Every day.

Though they have a good marriage, there’s no doubt this commitment will lead to an improvement.  I think it’s wonderful they’ve decided to make that one small change to put their marriage first in their priorities. 

I guess that’s really what makes a good resolution.  A small change.  Not a huge overhaul of your life, but a slight adjustment, a minor activity that, when repeated over and over, makes a significant improvement in your life.

So, how are you doing?

 

“Great things are doneby a series of small things brought together.”

–Vincent Van Gogh

“Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.”

— Lawrence Bell

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”

— Mother Teresa

 

“Whatever you’re working on, take small bites. The task will not be overwhelming if you can reduce it to its smallest component.”
— Richard Russo, author

A Word and A Story

I’m working on an apple tart recipe to share with you later, but today’s word of the day reminded me of a bit of trivia I thought I’d share with you.  So here’s the word:

flibbertigibbet: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

flibbertigibbet: a silly, flighty, or excessively talkative person.

Have you ever used that word?  I tend to think of it as a hyphenated mess Flibber-ty-Jibbit or something.  And though I’ve heard the word plenty of times, I can’t think where and I hardly ever use it.

Once upon a time, a little girl and her mother decided to dress up the little girls plastic shoes.  They took some hot glue and some buttons, and created little thingies to stick into the holes in the tops of her Crocs. 

But what would they call them?  Thinking of nonsensical words, they hit upon flibertigibbet and shortened it to jibbet.

After selling them in local boutiques, and eventually online, they sold their invention to Crocs for a million dollars or something like that. 

Jibbetz for Crocs

Stories like that always make me wonder:  How do you go from a cute little idea to a million dollar company? 

I have cute little ideas.  Most people do.  Short of pouring your life into every little idea you have, how do you know when you’ve got a winner?

Food for thought. 

I think I’m gonna go make some real food now.

Pass the Peas, Please

Welcome to the new year!  Will you say “twenty-ten” or “two thousand ten”?  It’s a dilemma. 

Remember when we used to say “eighty-seven” or “ninety-three”?  We just left off the nineteen.  Could we just say “ten”? 

Well, I’m eating my black-eyed peas today.  I wish I had lots of ’em, but I got the last one-pound bag of frozen peas at the grocer’s the other day.  (When it comes to peas, opt for frozen rather than canned or dried.  Frozen is closest to fresh.)

Which tells me, at least around these parts, people know the tradition/superstition.

Apparently, eating black-eyed peas on the first day of the new year brings prosperity in the year ahead.  The more you eat, the more prosperous, according to legend. 

The superstition goes all the way back to the civil war–so they say–when the Yankee army stormed the South and destroyed all their crops.  They left the funny looking peas thinking they were feed for the livestock.  Those piddly little peas may have been the only thing that some families had to eat until the next year’s crop came in.

Though I don’t set great store by them, I love tales of luck.  And traditions.  And so I eat black-eyed-peas on New Year’s Day. 

With ham and cornbread.

Yum.

Yesterday, I talked about our resolutions for 2010.  Today, I want to share a similar concept.  Project 365.  Google it.  Everybody’s doing it. 

Just kidding.

Project 365 is a challenge to yourself to take a photo every day for an entire year.  Sounds simple enough, but it could prove difficult around day 237 when, gosh darnit, you’ve taken pictures of yourself, your kids, your dog, your friends, your friends’ dog and everything else you can think of.  Then the creativity will be required. 

But what if you’re not the photographer type?  Or what if you like the challenge of doing something every day, but maybe not the picture thing?

I propose your own Project 365. 

I’m intimidated and inspired at once.  What could I do everyday for a year that would make a difference in my life?

What would make me look back and say, “2010.  Wow, that was the year I. . .”?

For me, I think the most meaningful daily activity I could take on for one year would be reading the Bible.

That sounds so boring when typed, but if you know God, you know that a simple act like reading your Bible every day can take you on a fantastic journey you never knew possible.   And, I’m trusting Him to make it way more awesome than the self-focused photo project.

I may try the photo journey, but I think I’d end up taking way more than one a day and overloading my hard drive. 

I hope you’ll share with me about the things you are planning for the new year, too.

Now go eat your peas.  And pass the salt.