A Timer is a Girl's Best Friend

A timer is a girl's best friend.

And by that I mean this . . .

If you are desperately trying to accomplish a goal that just seems TOO difficult, start by setting a timer for 10 or 15 minutes and then just "Go Forth and Do."  Just until the timer goes off.

You can do it!

I want to tell you how I do my devotions.  I set the timer for 10 minutes.  I read my Bible for 10 minutes ( plus the notes in the margins) and then the timer goes off.  I love my Bible because it has a weekly reading plan so all I really have to do is turn to the week and start reading.

Then there is the matter of praying.  Again, I set my timer for 10 minutes.  And I write my prayers down.  It just works better for me.  Over the years I have prayed in different ways:  30 minute walks where I prayed out loud ( I loved those walks);  prayers where I played worship songs at the beginning of my prayer time just to express my thankfulness and awe of God to Him.  You can choose verses to pray to Him.  You can write down the name of someone you love and then pray for them using the letters in their name, a character trait per letter.  This really makes you think about your loved one or yourself.

For example, my name,  Jennifer.

Lord, I pray that I would have a Joyful heart.  Lord,  I pray that I would do my work Earnestly.  Lord, please meet my Need.s  Lord, thank you that you will Never leave me or forsake me.  Lord, help me to be a woman of Integrity.  Help me to Forgive others as you have forgiven me.  Lord, Encourage me when I am downcast.  And help me to Rejoice in you always!  You are worthy to be praised, Oh Lord!

For sixteen years I have prayed my children's names off and on this way . . .you can see that it can be very easy to go over the timer!  Not a bad thing :)

I am going to add a third 10 minute part to my devotions: planning my day.  It would probably be even better if I took Saturday morning and planned the coming week but I'm not getting too far ahead of myself yet!

The planning part is just kind of saying "Okay, here's what our lives look like.  I have to do this and this and I see this issue . . .how can I address it?"

Here is what part of my "plan" for today looked like:

The Issue . . .

I think that one of the hardest parts of being a mother is promoting unity in the home and also a sense of everyone doing what is best for the family unit.

In my family there seems to be an innate belief that everything must be FAIR.

So, for example, if my 16 year old is too busy with homework or school activities to wash dishes at night, the 13 year old and the 10 year old do not believe it is "fair" that they be required to wash dishes.

I have come up with a solution for this, I believe.  It is going to look like this:

Fine.  You do not HAVE to do the dishes.  They'll get done eventually, but you DO have to surrender your screen time to me for the rest of the night.  Big Sis is not getting any fun screen time because she is doing homework.  So,  if you want your  fun screen time,  wash the dishes and you'll get it back.

So that's just a thought.

I sure hope this works!  Chores are a hard one around here!  In order for the kids to be disciplined Mama has to be disciplined and I am just kind of easygoing by nature . . .and that makes it hard to keep things ship-shape.  I am not a Tiger Mom.  I am a Jello Mom sometimes ( just sometimes!)  Sigh.  We'll see.  We will see!

Have a Wonderful Day!

~ Jennifer

Lemonade, anyone?

As I write this it is almost Christmas.  I'd really prefer to writing about fun ways to celebrate the Christmas season with your family.

But right now I am more about survival than celebration.

We got thrown some lemons in November . . .maybe you've heard the saying "When life hands you lemons, make lemonande'?

I was really disappointed by the lemons.  I had my own personal ideas about how things were supposed to go and they did not include lemons.

I have friends who are dealing with their own lemons:  one friend is recovering from a massively invasive surgery;  another has to find housing NOW in a town that doesn't really seem to have any place for her to live.  A third friend is very ill during her pregnancy and dealing with extended family that make things worse, not better.

The longer I live, the more I realize that we all have to learn to deal with lemons.

For a while I dealt with my lemons by stuffing them into a cupboard.  Lemon bothering me?  Pick it up, chuck it in the cupboard.  Then one day all the lemons fell out of the cupboard and some of them were pretty gross from their time in the cupboard and not much fun to clean up.

So now I am trying hard not to stuff lemons in the cupboard, but since it was such a habit for such a long time, I still put lemons in the cupboard sometimes . . .

But this is what I am trying to do with my lemons:

1.  Bring them to God.  I try to read my Bible and pray every morning.  For awhile I was really good at this.  Then I got whacked in the head really hard by some lemons and decided that my Bible reading and prayer was not working so I stopped doing it.  But I read this book by Phillip Yancy on prayer and I found out that I'm not the only person who has prayed and not gotten any warm fuzzy feelings from God.  He spoke about quite a few people who prayed for years before they got the warm fuzzies.  One lady prayed for 20 years, faithfully before God really showed Himself to her.  Now I don't understand that, but I am going to keep reading my Bible and praying anyway because I believe it is the right thing to do.

2.  Talk to my husband about my fears.  I did this yesterday morning.  It helped.  I was not dramatic and I find that talking about things in a vague matter is unhelpful.  I try to be very specific about what is bothering me and I try to bring it up when he is somewhat relaxed and receptive to talking about "stuff".  Many times I find that I am imaging the very worst case scenarios and he is able to bring things into a better light and then I'm able to be a much nicer mom and wife because I can give the people I love my full attention instead of only part of my attention because the other part is mulling over the trainwreck that I am afraid our lives will become . . .because I am imaging the worst case scenario.

3.  I am trying to take care of myself physically.  I need to be more intentional in this area but I'm making baby steps.  Hubby and I found a really great nutritional supplement and I notice a big difference on the days when I use it and on the days when I don't.

4.  After I do those three things I feel like I should just do what I'm supposed to do that day.  So I dive into my work for the day and I give it my best . . .today part of that to-do-list is concentrating on Christmas and how to celebrate it!

And that, my friends, is my recipe for making lemonade out of lemons.

~ Be well,

Jennifer