The after dinner kitchen dash

My biggest battle is always keeping on top of the potential disaster zone of the kitchen.  It doesn't take much for this to turn into the messiest room in the house.  There are a few ways that I have overcome this, although it is a constant battle to keep the mess at bay.

Living room liberation

How to make a room look 90% tidier in less than 10 minutes
Here are a few tricks to improving the look of a bedroom or living room in just a few minutes.

1. Focus first on the largest piece of furniture in the room, either the bed if it is a bedroom, the sofa in the living room or the dining table, for example. Clear all clutter onto the floor and straighten the furniture. A bed takes up about 60% of the floor space in a room so the simple act of making the bed when you rise in the morning will do wonders for your perception of your bedroom!
   

Has it been so long?

I realised today that I have not been a very regular blogger lately!  Tut, tut!  I guess it was a combo of getting a new job and not being able to blog about that for a while til it all went through and being so busy with church "stuff" that kept me away from the keyboard.

Not a great set of excuses, but they did wring me dry for a few months.  Now that I have the job - back to work full time in a more managerial role - things are starting to settle down.  Also, the peak of the various bits I'm involved in at church have settled too.

Pox party anyone?!

Well, after what seems like numerous viral imposters, our eldest has finally come down with the dreaded pox!  Bless him.  He's quite unwell with a high temperature.  He never does well when he's "hot" as he calls it.

"Do the ear thing," he tells me many times a day, meaning take his temperature with our thermometer that you poke into their ear.

Artists impression of what we all might look like with pox

It won't be long before Number Two and Number Three come down with it.  Number Two had a slight temperature this evening and we can make out the vague beginnings of the rash.  Number Three has been moaning incessantly all day (although I was only around for an hour or so to verify, having been at work, mercifully!).  This has got to be a sign of the virus festering in his body too.

We've always been pretty keen for them to get chicken pox and get it over with.  Yes, your worst fears are confirmed!  I am one of those mothers!

After the Leaves Fall, by Nicole Baart

I stumbled across author Nicole Baart's blog, Girls in White at the end of 2010 and after a bit of reading was thoroughly captured by the stories she was weaving and just had to get a copy of her debut novel, After the Leaves Fall (Tyndale, 2007).

 

Nicole lives in Iowa, USA with her husband and sons.  She has written four novels, including two sequels to After the Leaves Fall.  Her follow-up novel, Summer Snow, was a finalist in the 2009 Christy Awards and her most recent novel Beneath the Night Tree, has just been released.

I have read copious amounts of Christian non-fiction but until very recently, I have not been a reader of Christian fiction.  I honestly did not realise how vast the collection of Christian novels on offer was!  And this novel is certainly able to compete with the contemporary secular novels.

After the Leaves Fall follows Julia DeSmit as she grows into a young woman, from the point her mother leaves her as a young girl and later through her father's death, on to her time at college.  The story explores the choices Julia faces and exposes her heart in such a way that I was left empathising deeply with this teenager and loving her inspite of herself. 

New Year's Resolution Number 1: Parenting

I. Am. Tired.  So many things to do and so little time as always.  Before I had kids I thought I was busy but now I juggle so much that I now realise that I must have been supremely bored before!

The issue at the forefront of my mind lately has been parenting.  My kids are at such different stages at the moment, but the eldest two are definitely trying very hard to get the better of me these days!  And I am doing my utmost to not lose the plot every 10 minutes... um, seconds! 

There is just so much emphasis on building a good marriage in the church: marriage preparation classes, marriage improvement classes, etc etc.  But one thing I have found lacking is the preparation for parenting.  I was speaking with a friend last night and we both realised we have never been on a parenting course.  Plenty of marriage classes but no parenting.

If we were to adopt, we would have to go through so many procedures to ensure we would be suitable, effective parents.  But bring a child into the world yourself, and you need absolutely no qualifications at all!  What on earth possesses us to think that we could raise a bunch of independent, selfabsorbed, needy, individual humans with no training or advice?  The hormones start racing round your body and you feel the need to procreate, but when that little baby arrives, what do you do with it?

Our first child was born at home and when the midwives left, Matt and I just stared at this baby, wondering what we should do with him.  How did the nappy work again?  Why was he crying? Which way was up?

With parenting it feels the same.  Why is he stamping his feet?  How do I stop his screaming?  Why is he lying down on the aisle floor in the supermarket waving his arms and legs and turning red?  And how can something so small emit such an intensely loud wailing sound?

'Scuze me for just a minute, gotta go wipe a little person's bottom...

Book giveaway: Mary DeMuth's Defiance Trilogy

Jane at Admissions of a Suburban Philosopher (http://heartscape.wordpress.com/) is having a book giveaway!

Follow this link to the giveway: http://heartscape.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/book-giveaway-week/.

Take a glance at the book reviews on her site and generally have a read: it's a lovely blog.  Gonna spend sometime reading my way through it.

Plan for 2011 ... or the top 10 tips on how to make new year's resolutions last more than a week

Pre-Christmas snow

We've just arrived back from our Christmas visit to my parents in Scotland.  

Initially it was doubtful we would leave home for the snow.  Even getting to the airport was a feat.  The 5 minute journey took about half an hour as all of London seemed to be trying the only airport just moderately affected by the pre-Christmas weather.  We made the flight by the skin of teeth after running through the airport - even our 5 year old was dragging a suitcase.  It made the Griswald's vacations look tame! 

The rest of the time was much less eventful.  The snow and ice made for a few treacherous trips out but was soon washed away in the rain that followed.  Santa did indeed find us, much to the kids' relief, although I think he may have been a bit liberal with the nice list this time.

I must confess that I have not felt that level of stress in a long time - living in a small apartment with 4 adults and 3 kids.  I am still feeling the effects of it now!  Matt bought me a diary for 2011 while we were there and it had a little bit on stress management on one of the pages (no, he didn't know it was there!).  It said I need to do some things that I find relaxing.  I realised I don't do anything that I find relaxing.  Perhaps a bit of that in 2011 will be a bonus.  Which brings me nicely to how to make new year's resolutions last more than a day.  Is it even possible?

Creating a better story

A thought popped into my head this morning.  Nothing new, but this time with more clarity and urgency - a God thought.

If I died today, would I be happy with the life I have lived?

Would the story I weaved be pleasing, exciting, interesting?  Would my chat with Daddy be brief and predictable or full of moments of laughter and memories of adventures?  Would the stones in my wall be glorious?

I realised, as I have done numbers of times in the past few years that apart from a few moments and a handful of adventures, my life resembles far too many other lives - routine and without much of a good storyline.

About Stones of Delight

Isaiah 54 is one of my favourite passages in the Bible.  It is God's promise of everlasting kindness towards His children and the church in light of His gift of grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Verse 12 says "Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, And your gates of crystal, And your entire wall of precious stones."  (NASB)

Young's Literal Translation puts it like this: "And have made of agate thy pinnacles, And thy gates of carbuncle stones, And all thy border of stones of delight."

When I think about this I imagine the wall is my life and the precious stones are the people, events, circumstances and victories that God is building in.  Stones of Delight.

If you need a job done...

Lucille Ball said "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it."

I would like to clarify this: If you want something done, ask a busy mom.  Well, I'd like to think so anyway.  In reality, our house is a study in chaos!

Last night I spent a few hours looking at my schedule and trying to find a way to fit everything in.  There is too much to do: exercise, laundry, time with Matt, reading with Number One child, studying, my own reading, writing, brushing the kids' teeth, painting Number Two child's toes, brushing my teeth, having a shower, planning for next year's kids' ministry, painting the wall where Number Three child just drew his first masterpiece, and on and on.

There is so much I want to do and I'm struggling to find the time to even give myself quality time or to have space to listen to my Daddy's plans for the next year or even to carve out a bit of time to write.