More than Adrift

Thanksgiving week is done, and on to the next set of crazies.  We have D's birthday party coming up in two weeks, then Christmas already!  Life is on roller blades it seems. We've been busy learning about fun new projects and ideas, thanks to my new favorite website (playathomemom3.blogspot.com) My favorite that we've tried out: These are actually little dehydrated beads you can buy at Michael's, in the craft vase area.  They come in a package priced at about 5 dollars, and we only used half of them this time!  You put them in water, and wait for four hours and they plump up and are juicy and squishy.  The kids enjoyed playing with them at all of their stages though! We wanted ours pink so we added a little food coloring  Even C had fun dumping them and squeezing them! Yes, we had to put our entire bodies in these.  My sister (in law)  and I agree that we want to fill a bathtub up with these and go swimming.  Amazing sensory exper...

As Christians, of course, we should always be counting our blessings.  But, if like me, you can tend to get overly focused on what's in front of you, your to do list, the list of things NOT going the way you thought they would... Thanksgiving gives us a great reminder to take a step back and see all that God has given us.  With spouses off work, children taking a break from school... it's like a pause button.  Spend time with your family, good quality family time without a list of things that should be getting done, without the stress of what your house looks like.  All of that can wait. I promise you won't forget to worry about it on Monday. I love the idea of a restart.  Let go of the ways you failed this week, last week.  The things you let fall by the wayside when the kids were sick.  The  mountain of laundry awaiting your return. God allows us a restart every day.  His mercies are new each morning.... if only I could remember that each...

Two posts in two days?!  It's true!  Count me out for the rest of the month now :-) This one is much more practical in nature, and inspired by my creative children, a book my sister in law was kind enough to recommend to me, and a wintry afternoon. I've always wanted to write a book.  I love writing.  I love reading.  Reading more than writing. I find words to be inspiring, moving, beautiful.  The bible is chalk full of examples of how important words can be. Ang brought a book this weekend while visiting, Honey for a Child's Heart, that reminded me of how important it is to pass that love of reading and writing down to my children. Who hasn't curled up in a cozy armchair by a fireplace, and been caught up in another world, transferred to a different time, a different country?  Lived through another person's fears, failures, triumphs? The world of writing is transformative, magical. For a child, all the more so. So today while the winter stor...

On August 13th, I wrote a blog posting on discipline, if you haven't read it, it might be amusing to go back and read it after! Lately, life has felt a bit out of control. First, it started with meeting my weight loss goal, which was an exciting milestone, but with that comes a lack of strict self control with eating and exercise. "One extra cookie won't kill me now!"  Soon one cookie was five cookies, and soon five cookies... well.  I won't admit how many cookies I've eaten. in one sitting.  But it's not pretty. Next, my newly acquired discipline with cleaning the house, my check mark list I completed each week, felt like routine.  So I quit.  I thought, how realistic is it to have a list that I check off EVERY week?  I need to find a healthy balance here, and now that I'm used to cleaning every day, it should be easy.  Ironically, this is pretty much the same talk I gave myself when I "quit diet-ing" ... which I already knew wasn'...