23 July, 2010

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixéd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose Worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

~William Shakespeare~

"Wedded love is founded on esteem."
- Elijah Fenton

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Genesis 2:24

My dear friend Julia was married to a truly wonderful man last Friday evening. It was a beautiful wedding....I'm so thankful I know her...and Lee....They're the kind of people that make the world go 'round for me. Their example of true love, commitment and dedication to God encourages me every day. I love them both so much. :)

Hello it's me, may I come over....

You know how time does that funny thing of running away on you? Well, since it's been almost a month since I last posted I think I'll just sit down and write one!

Priorities are so important- It's why we do what we do. When we're busy and working on so many things, it's easy to be caught up and fail to do the important things. Like studying God's word. Praying. Spending quality time with family. Never be to busy for God.

A couple weeks ago we had a huge garage sale. It was really quite fun! I enjoyed seeing all the people go through and look at stuff, and talk among themselves....People are so interesting...why do we do the things we do? What are we telling the world every day by the way we talk, act, dress and places we go? It's incredible to me to think of how many people see us in public just going shopping, or to the grocery store, or even a garage sale!! It's thoughts to think, aright!

I know this is short and random.....I'm hoping to post more later! I hope you have a great weekend! Be safe and have fun! :)

Proverbs 31:18

"She perceiveth that her merchandise is profitable: Her lamp goeth not out by night."

It's a tiny bit ironical that the principle I want to touch on this week for this verse is time management and it's Sunday, 6 days late I'm posting!! *blush*

"Her lamp goeth not out by night"- You know that old adage about our mothers, "First up, last to bed." That's a long the same lines as this and how did our mothers manage this? How did the virtuous women pull this off? Time management.

We all have the same hours in the day, but how we manage them makes a huge difference! We need to take the time to analyze how we use our time and make the adjustments necessary.

Now I don't profess to know everything about this, in fact I'm not even equipped to write a long 'how to' in regards to children, but there are some principles that I think we all agree can be helpful.

I. Prioritize your time. Make sure you know how you're using your time. (added benefits-becoming aware of how you spend your time and catching bad habits)

II. Plan personal Bible study time. Even if that means teaching your very young to sit still on the couch by your side looking at a Bible book etc, while you study and pray. (added benefits- teaching your children dedication and self-discipline)

III. Plan your meals ahead of time. It saves money and headaches. (added benefits are ease in hospitality, emergencies etc.)

IV. Do a little house work each day. There are some good helps and planners like Fly Lady and Organized Home. (added benefits are ease of working within your home, hospitality, comfortableness.)

V. Don't plan too much. The object of using your time well is not to get more things done, but to get the things you need done, completed in a timely manner. (added benefits are spontaneous picnics, outings, time to care for other people and time with your children.)

These are just a few ways to work on better managing our time. I know sometimes it seems impossible to keep ahead of what seems like chaos, but we can have these anchors that will helps us keep our heads, and be able to be gracious moms, and daughters as we work toward these goals of virtue. :)

I would love to hear thoughts and comments on any of this!

A lonely table...

It started out with my little sister Naomi visiting friends in MO. and spending the weekend with them. She comes home tomorrow.

That puts us down to 8 people at our kitchen table

Than this morning my sisters Emily and Anna traveled to Jamaica for a two week mission trip.

Do you realize that puts us down to only 6 little people at our big happy table?!

(Go ahead and laugh...I know I'm pathetic!)

Our family, all 9 of us, have such a wonderful time together. Especially at meals when we talk and smile and laugh...and eat...:) Some of our best discussions have been around the table. We've share so much there! And I'm thankful. :)

So! Here's a little about my day, with half of my siblings gone. (For those who are counting and don't know, I have an older brother who is married and lives in China.) Dad was at work during the day; he's good like that. :) That leaves Mom, Nathan, Miles, Silas and myself all here at the house....the boys worked outside a lot and Mom and I cleaned house. We had such a lovely time, Mom and I, working together, talking together...sneezing together!

And then lunch time came, in trooped the boys all three of them. Just for the record, I love my brothers. They mean the absolute world to me. :) And since I tend to be a bit of a sucker, I made them deer stewy stuff and rice. And green beans to be healthy. :) They helped me do the lunch dishes- that was a blast too! Nathan's meticulous drying, Silas scraping for me and watching Miles wrestle the plastic wrap were all priceless!

(Miles being a goof!)

Then I'll have you know, all three of those boys came in and stood on the other side of the counter as I was dishing up supper looking at me like I hadn't fed them in 5 days, not 5 hours!! Hehe...based on the way the ate the lasagna, they must have been hungry! Afterwards we went down and played baseball/cricket! Oh yeah, me and my super athleticism! ;) It was fun, we laughed and had a big time! I think that ball could just jump up and hit me randomly!

It's been a good day! I miss my three sisters. I love my brothers. And I'm incredibly blessed by my whole family. And even though 6 is a pretty big number, when you're used to 9 it seems small.

Proverbs 31:17

"She girdeth her loins with strength, And maketh strong her arms."

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Earlier this year I went to Tanzania for the third year in a row. Every year I'm struck by how hard the women (and children as well) work. I have seen these ladies carry an eighteen month old baby on their back in a konga and hoe a field of corn at the same time. For four hours! And that's not all....they fix food from scratch, they scrub their clothes by hand, sometimes they carry every drop of water they use.

And I think of the work I do, the work we here do...and I'm inspired to work harder and strengthen myself to better serve.

We are very blessed by modern convieniences: but are we missing an important trait of hard work and building our strength? We always tease at our house that we actually have six or seven dishwashers! We don't have an automatic dishwasher but there are six or seven of us kids that are well able to wash dishes by hand! Some of my favorite memories are all of us in the kitchen working together and doing dishes. I'm thankful for washing machines, and dryers on rainy days. But there are so many ways we can choose the little bit harder option and strengthen ourselves by daily work.

"The labor of the righteous tendeth to life; The increase of the wicked, to sin." Proverbs 10:16

"In all labor there is profit; But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." Proverbs 14:23

The virtuous woman was aware of the strength and stamina needed to properly take care of her home and family. Notice how the language means ongoing as well as a choice to improve!

Here is a paragraph from Adam Clarke's commentary that sheds some very insightful light on this verse and sums up what I'm trying to say!

"7. She takes care of her own health and strength, not only by means of useful labor, but by healthy exercise. She avoids what might enervate her body, or soften her mind - she is ever active, and girt ready for every necessary exercise. Her loins are firm, and her arms strong."

I'm humbled and encouraged to do better with every verse of this passage! It makes me want to work harder, learn more and set goals for myself! I urge us all to be encouraged, to start where we are and work forward. :)

Proverbs 31:16

"She considereth a field, and buyeth it; With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard."

I'm going to refer again to the wisdom of my mother. King Lemuel's mother is giving good advice to him concerning a virtuous woman and here are some things my mother has told me...

I) This verse is talking about working within your capacity of keeper of the home. We can look around and be cognizant of opportunities to improve and help our homes, but it won't take you AWAY from your husband, children or responsibilities.

II) "She considers, and buys" Making good choices for spending money. Put in the effort to find the best economical choices for your family. Plan your menus so you can shop once a week: it saves money, prepares ahead of time and we all know how expensive those "run into the grocery store for one item" trips are!

III) God provides for His own, but He also expects us to be responsible.

IV) The last thing I want to mention is the last part of the verse- "With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard." Hard work. Working hard pays off. It's hard work, working hard, but the rewards and results are worth it. Teach yourself to work hard, teach your children to work hard and you will give them an invaluable gift they will use the rest of their life.

There's so much to learn, so much to work on, but with patience, hard work and perseverance we will reach the goal!

Please forgive any incoherency...this week has been busy but good...I just wanted to go ahead and post a few thoughts. :) Thanks!

How to have a successful shopping trip...

First: take your 12 year old brother with you. In case you don't know, this is my little brother Miles. I was 11 years old when he was born and I'm thankful every day to have him in my life! I guess I should say younger brother...cause he's definitely NOT little-er!

So he pumped my gas...(with a tiny bit of coaching)...he wasn't anxious to say it was his favorite thing to do, but I could tell he enjoyed doing a job he considers a grown up job!

Do you see that he is taller then I?! Ugh! What's with that?!

Second: pick out your vegetables and discuss Bok choy...

Miles- "Let's get Bok choy!"

Me- "Well, we don't really need it!"

Miles- "Oh."

Me- "Sorry..."

Miles- "What exactly is Bok choy?"

Me- "Chinese cabbage"

Miles- "Oh!"

He pushed my cart...you should have seen his face when I kept forgetting something on one of the aisles!

Third: He loaded the groceries up for me and laughed at me for taking another picture!!

Fourth: totally enjoy shopping for shirts and singing with the radio and just having a fun time with your brother.

Yep. I love my brother. He's a sweet guy! Everyday he blesses my life. He's funny, he's cute, he's sincere, he's thoughtful, and I've learned so much from him. :)

That's one way I have a successful shopping trip.