New Year, New Home Order!

I wanted to share this link with you. It’s from a ministry called Above Rubies. I was introduced to the Above Rubies ministry through attending a local Homemaker’s ministry meeting at a church. The article is titled “Order in the Home.” Sounds daunting almost like an article reminding you of how bad you are for keeping a dirty home and how ill-mannered your children are. GOOD NEWS, it’s not. I found this article very encouraging, flexible (adjustable to your family), full of wisdom with great suggestions and examples we can all relate to as parents whether you work from home, even if you are a dad, out of the home, or are a homemaker. What I liked most about the article was pointing out the different seasons we face. “Do you have younger children? Do the basics!” And also, “Start training early.” I read it from time to time just to see where I am and for encouragement. If you want to change your home for the New Year or you are a new mom and need some help and encouragement and just to know and understand you are not alone I implore you to read it.

I Missed You!

Within two weeks we’ve experienced 2 deaths in our family, my husband’s uncle then his father. My husband is from Alabama so we’ve had to take travel to both Tennessee and Alabama. Keep us in your prayers as we try to find some normalcy. 

If I am posting this message that means we’re getting back to the groove of things!

Happy New Year!!!

Usually I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but for 2013 I plan on challenging myself to genuinely love others instead of just loving my own immediate family.

Saturday I went to a funeral in Tennessee. My husband’s uncle died. I don’t like funerals. The Pastor at the church where the funeral was held gave a sermon and one statement stood out to me, particularly, “no one was a stranger.”

My husband explained to me how his uncle started his own successful 20-year-old cleaning business. First, my husband’s uncle began bartending and genuinely developing contacts and friendships with the patrons to then owning 3 cleaning businesses in 2 different states. The woman he married already had two children and he was a father to them as if naturally they were his very own.

When I met my husband’s uncle 2 years ago, he treated me as if he had known me for years. His hospitality was genuine and he was very generous and outgoing. I didn’t know he was living with cancer for 10 years already when I met him.

People-pleasing creating a false sense of happiness

This morning as I drove the kids to school my son told me how his teacher is out of school all week and he wanted to make her happy by making sure all of his work was complete and given to the substitute teacher.

This sounds good but as a person who struggles with people-pleasing I have noticed some of the same qualities I have in my son Joshua. I am fascinated by the characteristics children inherit from their parents. I never wanted my kid to be a people-pleaser. He is the child with a personality similar to my own in many ways. I can only thank my Father for opening my eyes to know this-- you can never make someone else happy. Now I am not talking about giving a gift and someone is happy about receiving a gift you gave. What I mean is to continuously please someone and then feel depressed when your efforts fall short or they are not happy with you.