a survey question:

department wars

My life seems to have departments.

There's the housekeeping department, the supportive wife department, the caring mother department, the bookkeeping department, the weight-loss department, the-- you get the idea.

Frustratingly, it seems these departments aren't capable of simultaneously functioning well. If I'm having great productivity and results in one department, at least one or two are noticeably failing. So I focus on the failing departments only to turn around and realize the initial successful one is going down the drain...

Anyone else have this problem?

Last week I wrote about having the housekeeping department in order and I was so excited about that ~ till I realized that the supportive wife, bookkeeping, and weight-loss departments were being forgotten and/or ignored almost completely.

Dang it, why can't motivation be universal??!! Why does it seem to take so much out of me to work up forward momentum in just one area that I have nothing left to devote to the others? Why are there seperate departments anyway?! Is this another "blessing" of womanhood??

I HATE not being able to make headways in all areas at once!

And I know all y'all are gonna be all supportive and kind if I end here; saying that I shouldn't beat myself up and that I just need to prioritize and work on the departments that are truly the most important, but you know, I think I kinda disagree with that. You know why? Because every single one of those departments are fully dependent on two things: self-discipline and God's grace.

We know God's looking after the grace part. He's pretty good about making sure there's a steady stream of that, so really, it boils down to my efforts in developing self-discipline ~ my desire and conscientious sacrifice of my own wishes and desires in EVERY decision and circumstance of my life in order to bring Him glory.

I can't decide that because I finished my "to do" list early, I don't have to do the books today.
I can't punish my husband by treating him like just another child simply because I'm tired.
I can't be punishing my children when I'm frustrated with my efforts as a wife.
I can't reward good exhaustion with bad overeating.

And yet how many times a day do I notice these kinds of trade-offs occurring? Worse, how many times do I NOT notice because they're habitual occurrences?

What is the remedy for this departmental life syndrome? Is there one?

how time flies

My 4-1/2 lb preemie turns 8 today.

She was SO tiny...


And now we can't keep up with those stinkin' long legs!!


Happy birthday, Peanut!

flying lessons

Yeah. Not that kind. (I WISH!)

The last two weeks I've conducted an experiment on myself to see if I could really form some serious housekeeping habits à la FlyLady. And I've surprised myself.

I started towards the end of the first week this month, after we returned from Christmas-ing in The Big City, and was in full swing by the time last week started.

I'd made the beginnings of a control journal last January already, but had given up after a few days. This year, I dusted it off and set aside one day to thoroughly read through all the "Beginner Baby Steps" and "Building Your Own Control Journal" pages, and then I ripped out all the old pages in mine and started over.

I know you're supposed to go one day at a time with FlyLady ~ especially with the baby steps ~ and I understand why, but this time I was just too impatient. And I told myself, you're ready for this! You can handle all the little things that make up the "before bed" routine, the before and after breakfast and lunch routines. But you'll need to be very disciplined.

Ah, self-discipline. The thing I love to say I don't have in order to excuse the evidence thereof.

I hate to admit it, but it's HARD for me to get everything on my to-do list done first thing in the morning rather than pouring another cup of coffee (or three!) and wasting a couple of hours here in front of the computer. Especially on days when I've got the house to myself! It's even harder to not come in here every 15 minutes to see if I've gotten any Facebook notifications or new emails. (sadly, I'm probably not exaggerating)

But now for the last two weeks, I've done quite well. No matter how long my day has felt, I seem to not be able to go to bed without first washing the dishes and cleaning my kitchen countertop. My bed is always made by 9 am, my laundry is always folded and put away as soon as it's done in the dryer; my dishes get washed twice a day so they don't pile up; and except for three of the four days I was without a computer last weekend, I've completed my "Zone Mission" every single day, in addition to the things that are on my own weekly chore list.

But it feels good, though I'm often a lot more physically tired in the evening than I was before. I know it's only been two weeks, but this time it feels different. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful new relationship with a tidy home and a system that will ensure it stays that way.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the seemingly never-ending chaos in your job as keeper of the home, I encourage you to give FlyLady an honest shot. I don't think you'll be sorry. It's made a world of difference around here!

And with that, I need to get going. Wanna "kick the tires and light the fires" with me?!

for memory

In a post last March, I talked about how rare it seemed that I heard the phrase "memory verses"; how somewhere along the way, over the years, that idea seemed to have lost its importance. I posted some verses I wanted to memorize and I have to admit, I didn't memorize a single one. That very day, in fact, I printed out a cute little card with the first passage on it, and taped it to the cupboard door that's right beside me when I'm washing dishes. It's been there ever since. And I still don't have it memorized.

Bible memory seems to be making a bit of a resurgence ~ or it's more common than I realized ~ though not noticeably in the circles I happen to travel. But I've been hearing more and more talk of committing verses to memory ~ most recently, in a series of broadcasts on Revive Our Hearts ~ and I've decided I want to give it another shot. (I'm going to force my girls to do it with me so that we can practise together. Whenever I'm helping them memorize something, it seems to come easier for me!)

I'd like to start with these:

1. John 10:27-30
2. "Romans Road" (basic version)
3. Psalm 103:8-13

I'll cross them off once they're memorized, and though I don't have a specific goal in mind, my hope is that there will be at least 24 passages crossed off by the end of the year.

DoSD 10: the practice of discernment

The final chapter. The where-the-rubber-meets-the-road chapter. After all the definitions, the arguments, and the conscience-pricking, NOW comes the handy 17-point checklist for putting discernment into practise.

I'm totally not joking about the seventeen points!

And if we were all to carefully put them into practise each time we tried to make a decision or weigh something we'd heard or read.... well, let me just tell you, there'd be no such thing as snap decisions or jumping to conclusions anymore! And probably no false teachings or weak Christians either.

I'm not going to go into detail here like I have in some past chapters. If you want the step-by-step process, you'll have to read the book for yourself! Using a case study-style approach, author Tim Challies makes many important observations, suggestions, and conclusions in this chapter. Among them:

• You cannot approach situations or teachings that require discernment without prayer. You MUST be dependent on God.
• Testing doctrine or teaching does not mean embracing it, but comparing it to the unchanging standard of Scripture.
• Even the best of Christians will still be wrong at times.
• Every false teaching starts out with a measure of the truth; it's important to determine which parts are true and where the point of departure occurs.
• Remember that which is good and perfect is that which honours God above all things, even our own personal likes and desires.
• There can be no ambivalence! Once we recognize error from truth, we cannot simply shrug our shoulders and walk away!!

This book has been a huge eye-opener to the importance of KNOWING GOD'S WORD. There is simply no better way to know God than through His special revelation to us. The importance of guarding our hearts and minds is also evident. Challies quotes John MacArthur when he writes:

"Some Christians immerse themselves in the philosophy, entertainment, and culture of society. They feel such a strategy will strengthen their witness to unbelievers... But the emphasis of that strategy is all wrong. Our focus should be on knowing the TRUTH. Error is to be shunned." (179, emphasis in original)

I'm so guilty of employing this strategy in the past. Probably because I've grown up surrounded by believers who employ it as well. While I may have heard living a seperated life preached from the pulpit from time to time over the years, I've rarely seen it lived other than in a legalistic sense. This is not to point fingers or place blame; just stating the facts. I've simply grown up in a time in church history where the church believed embracing the world would make it attractive to the world. I don't think it's worked.

I'm ready to try something different.

This book offers a great look at why studying The Word is vitally important. Practical holiness is necessarily a result of developing spiritual discernment. I want both.







And with that, we're DONE! I can finally move on to other books!!! I may never again vow to review a book chapter-by-chapter. Man, this book would have been finished MONTHS ago if it hadn't felt like an assignment! I've started other books during the last four months, but definitely not done as much reading as I would have liked.

mapping out the new year

Two years ago, I decided I was going to quit making New Year's resolutions. I didn't quit making goals for myself, but I quit making quantitative promises. I decided progress was my goal, not achievement. And rather surprisingly, this approach has been quite successful, especially this past year.

So I think I'm going to continue along that line and plan for another successful year in 2010.

First and foremost, I've committed myself to reading through my entire Bible again. (Yes, I know this is the first thing on the list and already I've posted a quantitative goal!!) Two years ago, I promised to have it done by the end of December 2009 and I made it ~ but only by cramming a little right at the end! In doing so, however, I realized just how little time it actually takes when I just sit down and do it, so I figure I really have no excuse not to do it in one year this time. My cousin Tammy is hosting a one-year chronological Bible-reading blog/challenge, and I'll be following that plan.

I also want to incorporate more of an organized prayer time in my devotions. For several months already, my morning devotions have included listening to Revive Our Hearts' daily broadcast, but I'd really like to specifically spend time in prayer as well, even though I generally converse with God regularly throughout the day most of the time. The new reading plan, the broadcast, and the addition of a prayer time may mean waking up earlier each morning or shifting things around a little. The broadcast might have to become an evening thing, since I tend not to watch a whole lot of TV anymore anyway.

Secondly, I want to continue working at developing some self-discipline. I'm notorious for procrastination (one of my favourite sayings has always been "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?"!!) and I'd really like to change that. I'm planning to dust off last year's pitiful attempt at a FlyLady control journal this week, organize myself, and start doing what the daily "Flight Plan" emails tell me to do! I really want to make it a habit.

As for all other things non-housekeeping related, I'm just gonna have to practise making, and most importantly DOING, my own to-do lists!!

Thirdly, but closely related to the previous goal, I want to continue developing better eating and exercise habits. In doing so, I'm hoping to reach my ultimate goal weight by the end of June. I've only got about 19 pounds to go, and the first 5 or so should come off fairly quickly since they're all Christmas-related! I'd like to see 2010 be the year I cut out routine evening snacking. I don't intend to disallow ALL evening eating, but I really want to learn how to relax and unwind WITHOUT eating.

And fourthly, I want to continue working at hospitality. For those of you who know me "in real life" this probably sounds like a bit of a joke already. For those of you who've been reading my blog for a while, you maybe remember seeing this on my list of goals for the last two years... ::sigh:: It's probably one of the goals at which I have to work the hardest because it goes exactly contrary to my hermit-like personality. And yet it's the one area that I most strongly desire to be a different person! I really want to be a blessing to others. I need to work on what I like to call, "planning for spontenaity." I'd love to have ready-to-eat desserts in the freezer and the ingredients for larger meals on hand at all times so if we realize that TODAY is the only day it works to have someone over, there's no panic. (for cooking OR housecleaning!!)

Cue "Impossible Dream" music...

Looks like I've probably got enough here to keep me busy for at least another year!! And I've got at least a dozen MORE goals floating around in my head that I could be adding, though many of those are the smaller details of achieving the above four.

In making this short list, I realize half would probably be called standard resolutions and the other half, impossible dreams. There seems to be no end to the improvements I'd like to make around here ~ both in myself and my home ~ but I think I'll leave it like this and strive once more to simply be able to sit here a year from now, reviewing this list, knowing I've conscientiously worked towards making progress ~ and been successful in changing.

At least a little.

a successful 2009

I did it! For ONCE I kept my New Years resolutions from last year!!!

I went easy on myself ~ not being terribly specific and yet expecting results. My goal was mostly to simply be a different person in a few ways by the end of the year. Not necessarily extremely different, but at least a little. So I'd know there'd been progress.

I wrote: "My resolve this year is simply to change. At least a little. At least as much as I did over the last year. I simply want ME to be a little different a year from now. I want to see that I've been more PURPOSEFUL and DELIBERATE. What I want most is to sit here a year from now, knowing I've reflected, examined, and re-tooled on a regular basis (preferably daily, but no less than monthly!!) so that I don't feel the need to make sweeping, virtually impossible to keep, would-be life-changing promises next January. EVERY day is the beginning of a new year."

Well, I can honestly say that I completely forgot about the "reflecting, examining and re-tooling on a regular, frequent basis," but I can confidently say, without a doubt, that I know I'm a different person from one year ago. I don't know that I've been as purposeful and deliberate in general terms as I'd hoped to be, but certainly in a couple of specific areas.

I said last year that: "I want basically to continue working on some of last year's "non-resolutions": to finish my two-year reading-through-the-Bible plan; to continue pursuing a more active lifestyle, and learning to appreciate healthier eating habits; to continue practising hospitality, and make my focus serving others rather than how much effort it requires. I also want to make spending time with God more of a habit. It seems to come and go in phases and I'd like it to just be an automatic thing every day."

These things, ALL of them, I've either accomplished or at least made significant changes. As of December 29, I finished reading through my entire Bible for the first time. It took me two years. Having read the entire 22 chapters of Revelation in just one hour on Tuesday, I've decided there's no excuse for me to not be able to read through the Bible in just one year this time! I took up my cousin Tammy's challenge and am following this chronological plan.

As for the "continuing to pursue a more active lifestyle and learning to appreciate healthier eating habits..." well, I don't know about the appreciation of healthy eating, but I did change some of my unhealthier habits and managed to shed 25 pounds. I also took up jogging this past summer; I fully intend to resume once the roads aren't frozen or slushy again in spring. I still walk whenever I can and even do the occasional workout video. But the "appreciation" aspect of healthy eating is still a work in progress!! ;)

Practising hospitality is still just that: PRACTISE. It does NOT come naturally, but I can honestly say I am much less concerned with having a perfect house before I let people come in for coffee or a meal now. I still try to make sure it's tidy, but if that means shoving everything into a laundry basket and hiding it in our bedroom until afterwards, so be it. And I sometimes leave the overhead light in the kitchen off, using just the under-the-cupboard lights, so there's just enough light to function, but not enough that people can see how many dirty dishes are sitting by the sink or the clutter on my counter! Anything to take the pressure off! I've enjoyed having people over more this year than I have previously, although it still hasn't happened terribly often. Will work on that some more this year.

I think my spiritual life would have to be the most notable change though. I have professed to being a Christian essentially my whole life, but only in the last several months have I finally taken it seriously, dug DEEP into the Word of God, started studying it as well as what others have learned from it, and started taking my relationship with God seriously. Most recently, I've sought to understand holiness and the type of holiness that God expects from believers; the kind that's supposed to set us apart from those who don't believe and exactly what that's supposed to make my life look like. It's been an exciting though sometimes intimidating, scary, and tiring journey, but FOR ONCE I'm passionate about my faith!!!

Two goals that got added a few months into the year were Scripture memory and more reading. The latter I've done exceptionally well with. The former.... not so much.

So all in all, I'd have to say 2009 was a success as far as "resolutions" go. (Probably the first time THAT ever happened!!) I am most certainly a different person than I was a year ago.

And for 2010...?

I think more of the same is a good plan. But I'll probably work out a few specific goals and share them here yet in the next week or so. We're still Christmas-ing in The Big City, but for some unknown reason, I'm wide awake at 1 a.m., so I'm sitting here and taking stock of my last year and blogging about it for your benefit!!

Okay, but now I'm gonna go try sleeping again. Maybe I'll dream up some good non-resolutions in the mean time!

FFF

hawer

aweroiaskdfk