Recovering, Take Two

Okay, this time I think, I think, that all family members are on the road to recovery. 

Scott actually sat at the dinner table with us tonight, though he only ate about a fourth of what he normally eats.  But we will take it!!!  And he is finally headed back to work tomorrow.

And Ada has had absolutely no trouble since we arrived home from the hospital.  Woo-hoo.

I am exhausted beyond belief, but that is okay, I can easily recover from a little exhaustion.

As for John, I think, I think, that he may be weaned.  (Again).  Never mind his midnight and 5 am feeding last night and this morning.  I am not counting those;)

And that is our family. 

Plus, thanks to my mother, my house is in order despite the chaos that surrounds us.  Normally, in a situation like this one, my house would resemble that of a hoarder's.  Instead, lots of wonderful systems for laundry and clutter are in place, and the house is practically running itself.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, mom!!!! 

Let me show you what all we did while Scott was sick in bed.

I wish there was some way to make you understand the state of the dining room when my mom arrived.  Basically it was serving as a dining room and play room.  The floor was covered in clutter; the table was covered in clutter; and there was no room to walk.  It was chaos.  Look at it now.  Some local friends saw it when it was so bad, so they will appreciate the difference.

This used to be the guest room.  It is now the play room and office. The beauty of this is that if toys are covering the floor, all I have to do is shut the door.  We moved Ada's twin bed into this room so that a guest could still sleep in here if needed.  (When Ann's family comes we really need two guest rooms, and they are our most frequent guests).

Next we have the new guest room, in process.  At this point in the visit I was working on organizing old clothes.  Deciding what to keep and what to give away.  The baby bed is Ann's, and we just inherited the rest of the furniture from Scott's parents.  Let me clarify that we spent time organizing my house, not decorating it in the exact way that would reflect my personal style;)  My pride is saying, don't judge my taste based on how my things are currently arranged.  We have a ways to go.  This "go round" I only spent money on organizational tools.  The decor will come later.

Clothes to be stored.

A small portion of things to be given away.  We made at least two trips to good will, and what you see above is the stuff I am taking to the consignment shop.

Ada's bed room with the bed that used to be in the room downstairs that is now the play room.  In my house some where I have a bedskirt for that bed.  I will post more pictures when the bed is more "put together."  This was the bed that was in my room growing up.

And the laundry project.  My mother's main goal was to come up with a workable system for my laundry, which usually just covers my hallway and master bedroom floor.  In other words, the current system wasn't working.  The new system involves four laundry baskets--mine, Scott's, Ada and John's shared, and sheets and towels. 

The baskets are just for clean clothes.

These hampers are for the dirty clothes--darks, whites, Ada/John, and towels/sheets

So far the system is working amazingly well.  It has transformed my life (you think I'm kidding, I'm not).  THANK YOU, MOM!!!!

And one last shot of the transformed dining room.  Which by the way, I actually plan to paint that table and chairs and the walls. 

My house project list is long, long.  But, it's now an organized house, and my stress level has dropped so very low compared to what it was before the transformation occurred.

Tips for painting furniture, anyone?

Thank You

Thank you, friends, for the encouraging comments.  Sometimes, almost all of the time, all I need to know is that I am not the only one.

That seems to be my favorite lie to believe, "everyone, and I mean everyone else, has it all together, and I am the only one stumbling along, meager attempt after meager attempt, failing every other try," and then I find out, that is not truth!!

As I sit down in the midst of a still quiet house to plan another week's menu and grocery list, I pray that the Lord would speak to me in the midst of this very ordinary day.  I long for gospel truth to cover these daily moments. 

I hope that everyone, and I mean everyone, has a restful, restoring Saturday.

Menu Plan Monday

So, now that my pantry is stocked, what do I plan to do with all of that food? Much of the frozen food will be consumed by Scott when Ada and I head to Alabama this coming weekend. Ada is going to spend a couple of nights with Scott's parents while I spend a few days helping Ann with her three little ones. I am dying to see Andrew. I haven't seen him since he was born, and it is killing me. I also want to see Ellie and Luke, of course, and I want to hang out with Ann. So, it's a win-win.


Until then, however, this is what we will be eating.


Saturday night--frozen pizza
Sunday Lunch--split Shane's Barbecue
Monday night--corn chowder and home made bread
Tuesday night--spaghetti, broccoli, and bread
Wednesday--bean soup in the crock pot and cornbread
Thursday--I head to Alabama, and Scott is left to fend for himself. I might put something together so that he will have something good to eat when he comes home to an empty house. We'll see how that goes.


Breakfast--eggs (Ada eats three!!! Isn't that crazy? She would eat more, but I don't let her), toast, yogurt, cereal


Lunch--lean cuisine pizzas, PB & J, leftovers


What are you eating this week? For ideas on what to cook, head over to Organizing Junkie.

This morning I am encouraged by this quote

I say encouraged, but also, once again, confronted with my own prideful, sinful nature.

I have begun to visit this blog daily to receive encouragement for the day, to be reminded of my job. And today I found this quote, which really spoke to what I was dealing with in yesterday's post. Enjoy.

Perhaps that is an issue for some of us--struggling with the reality that God has called us to do less than we want to do or less than what we believe is best. That can happen in any setting. For me, it's been especially true in my years with small children - 'I got a college degree for this?' Maybe the problem is the way we see ourselves. Maybe we think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

If anyone was too good to die, it was Jesus. If anyone should have done greater things than walking dusty roads and talking with people too dense to understand him, it was Jesus. In Philippians 3 . . . is the verse, "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (verse 10). When God called Helen to less than she expected, he was helping her become like Christ, rather than like the best doctor or missionary she knew of. Who is it we want to be like?" (p. 172)

This quote is taken from the book, Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God, by Noel Piper.

Thoughts on Homemaking

I have always believed since I was a small child that a mother's place was in the home. I don't remember being taught this, but I observed it. My mother stayed home, my father went to work. And even then, not so long ago, the majority of mothers that I knew stayed at home. Now I realize that this is a controversial issue in 2008, and I don't wish to stir up controversy, I only wish to share some ways that God is dealing with my heart. I do want to make this clear, however, in my home, where I was indirectly taught that a mother's place was in the home, I was also directly taught that nothing less than my best in everything was acceptable. I could not play after school until my homework was done, and in elementary school I remember studying for tests with my father, and if I was still missing even a few questions that he asked me, well the studying was not done. I was taught to write neatly, do things completely, and I always knew that I would go to college. It was expected, assumed, and I never thought otherwise. So off I went to college, where I majored in fashion design, with every intention of having some huge career in New York City. Obviously that did not happen. And I even remember when making the decision to change my major, I told my mother that all I really wanted was to be a mother. But that was not an optional major, and reality showed that I very well could be single for my entire life. So I decided to choose a major that I would be happy with, that would be fulfilling if God gave me a life of singleness, and so I chose teaching. Because then I would still invest in young lives, and better yet, I would immerse myself in literature and writing. And what do you know, I fell in love with my major, and once I was actually in the classroom, well, I fell in love with teaching and with students and with, well, being in the classroom.

I am a big believer that truth is a very separate thing from emotion and feeling. I have to believe this because my emotions are so unpredictable, so I stand on truth. I fully believe that it is truth that I am to be at home with Ada, being a homemaker. And I always thought that I believed this to be a worthy profession, a high calling, a privilege. What I have found, however, now that I am home, is that there is not much glory in it. It is very daily, and at times, it makes me feel very unimportant, and I am tempted to want to go back to work. And this is where truth comes in. God is showing me in huge, huge ways that I am believing lies. And if my job is to teach my daughters the art of homemaking, well I must learn it myself, right? Again, this is not a post about whether a woman should stay at home or work, it is a post about my believing the lie that because I stay at home with my children, my job somehow makes my education useless or makes me somewhat worthless. How crazy is that? I even wrote a persuasive paper in graduate school outlining all the reasons why a graduate degree would benefit me if I were to stay at home with my children, and yet, I find myself forgetting what I wrote. In the midst of all of these feelings that have surfaced at the start of another school year, I find God sending me little messages, or not so little messages, about all of the reasons why he has called me to be a full time mom. And more than that, He has encouraged me so. Which I find so comforting. I don't feel so much disciplined by Him, but more reminded of truth. Of truth about why this job matters. And of truth about my sin and my pride in wanting a job that brings glory and acclaim. And truth that I must believe in homemaking if I am to teach my daughters that they are called to be homemakers in a world that is becoming more and more anti-homemaking. I am still in process, so forgive me if this post is somewhat unclear. Just know that I will probably revisit this topic more over the next months, years, lifetime even. And for some encouragement of your own, please check out this blog. Every time I read it, I find myself in tears because I feel like God is reminding me that He notices the job that I do, and that is enough. That is all I need.