Teamwork

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a Teambuilding session with some coworkers. I must admit, at first I was not looking forward to it. After all, I had plenty of paperwork to catch up on instead of "wasting" time. However, at the end of the day, I felt it had been a great day. A group of us had to work together to balance a "boat" in the woods, transfer a can of "hazardous" liquid using a spiderweb like contraption, tossing as many koosh balls as we could around the circle without dropping, and get as many points as we could by tossing tennis balls into buckets - the catch being we couldn't move our feet from where we initially placed them. I learned that I have grown a lot. I used to not speak up in a group at all, but yesterday I found myself offering ideas to help our group complete the task at hand, and making a fool of myself lying down in the back to block tennis balls from rolling off of our carpet. Needless to say, today I'm a little sore.

God does not call us to spirit of fear and timidity. I am sometimes fearful of what others think of me, critical words that may be said behind my back, fear of not fitting in. When I find myself feeling fearful, I try to remember that God's opinion is the only thing that matters. When I am doing things He calls me to, I cannot do them alone. I need my brothers and sisters in Christ and I need to be able to work cooperatively with them to achieve our task at hand. I also need to speak up when I have an idea that I think might help us achieve that task more effectively, without worrying what others might think.

created beautiful

Wow! I've posted 2 days in a row! Our Women's Bible Study started back last night after a summer break. This session we will be focusing on how we as women are created beautiful by God. Last night we played a game in which we had to give ourselves a point for each "mindless" thing we've done. Such as locking ouselves out of the house, the car, leaving the iron on, forgot an appointment...and so on. There were 18 items and the winner had only ever done 9 of those things. In fact, most of us were up around 14 or 15. This just goes to show that we are all human. We make mistakes and it is only by God's grace and mercy that we are saved.

Make Every Effort

I read a devotional that said: "scripture tells us 8 times in the New Testament to 'make every effort'. This means that we have to do what takes effort even when we don't feel like it."

I don't know about you, but that spoke to me. I sometimes don't feel like doing something (i.e. folding laundry, cleaning, etc.) so it just doesn't get done. However, God has been teaching me that doing these little, mundane tasks blesses my family. I try to tell myself that, if I can keep up with them, and not procrasinate, it does make the task a little easier. (i.e. if I go ahead and fold that laundry it won't sit in the basket for 2 weeks waiting to be ironed.)

Some things I (try to) do to stay ahead:

Empty the clean dishwasher first thing in the morning, dirty dishes get rinsed and go straight into the dishwasher

On nights before evenings out (Tuesday night before church on Wednesday) when packing my daughters lunch, I double up. Pack 2 sandwich bags of chips, 2 containers of fruit,... so all I need to do on a busier night is pack the sandwich and the lunch bag.

plan my menu for the week on monday, making one grocery list. I only go to the store 1 time during the week.

In the morning

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to he ned of our lives - Psalm 90:14

Things have been busy, and I've been struggling to get back into a routine. Our usual school year routine has had a major shake-up My oldest started Kindergarten and I am responsible for getting her on and off the bus at a designated time. My hours and job location changed (even though I am still part time). I am now working 10:45:2:30, which is great in that I can get aforementioned kindergartner on and off the bus, but I no longer have that 1 1/2 hour nap/rest time to catch up on stuff and my brain is dead by the time we get the kids in bed at 8:00. I was getting a little down, and even let my quiet time with God slip through the cracks a few mornings. I should know from experience that's not a good idea So this week I set my alarm a little earlier so I could have longer uninterrupted times with my best friend (God) before the craziness of life came upon me. I can't say my to do list is any shorter, but I have a peace in my heart that only comes from time with my Lord. I subscribe to online devotions through Proverbs 31, and many times will read the blogs of the wonderful ladies who write them, This morning I was encouraged by the September 1st (yes, I know I'm a little behind) post of Renee Swope. Check it out http://reneeswope.blogspot.com/

Book selection

I love to read. Since I teach, I rarely have time during the school year to read for pleasure. However, the summer is a good time to catch up. I recently ventured to the local library for children's story hour with my 2 children. My youngest was in the stroller, so I thought I'd try to pick out a book or two from the adult's section. What a disaster! He was trying to reach every book he could and pull it off the shelf (they need to make those aisles a little wider). So I quickly grabbed 2 fiction books that looked interesting based on the cover. Turns out they were pretty good reads in my opinion, and I would recommend them to anyone interested in books about our friendships with other women. Circle of Grace by Penelope Stokes is about 4 girls who met and lived together in college, lost touch, and where there lives took them 30 years later when one was diagnosed with cancer. Thursdays at Eight by Debbie Macomber chronicles a year in the life of 4 friends who met in a journaling class, and continued to meet and share problems/struggles in their lives every Thursday morning at a local coffee shop.

Just Do It

I'm a procrastinator. I get overwhelmed with the daily tasks...dishes, cleaning, laundry...oh how I hate doing laundry. It never ends. When I get overwhelmed with everything, my first tendancy is to do nothing. Just sit and wallow in everything that needs to be done. However, I am trying my best to just get up and do something, anything. Empty the dishwasher, pick up a few toys, fold a load of laundry. Often, these little tasks take 5 or 10 minutes. I just need to get up when the commercials come on instead of changing the channel to see what else is on, since usually nothing is on. Even though I know I'll have to do most of it again tomorrow (or later today), the tasks are done for now. My house is a little cleaner, and I can relax knowing at least something is finished.

This morning I am proud to say I succeeded in "just doing it". I've been looking at those bananas on my counter for the last 2 days...getting riper by the minute. No one was eating them and no one was going to eat them. So this morning I got out the banana bread recipe and made a batch with my kids. What fun. We spent some quality time and for the 15 minutes it took us to mix up the batter, they weren't fighting or complaining they were bored. I have a very simple recipe and I usually have all the ingredients in my cupboards.

Cream together 1 cup of sugar and 2 eggs

Mix in 4 mashed ripe bananas, 1/2 Cup vegetable oil, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix 2 Cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt
Gently mix it into banana mixture. Pour into 2 loaf pans and bake @ 350 degrees for 45 minutes-1 hour.

You can add chocolate chips, nuts...whatever you like. My kids will eat it plain and it's a nice change of pace from cereal for breakfast. You can also wrap it in foil and freeze it if you're not going to eat it all right away.

So today! Just do it!

scrapbooking

Sometimes we need a little motivation.

I love to scrapbook. However, having a very active 22 month old son who loves to be into whatever I'm into makes it difficult to find time and energy to scrapbook at this point in my life. My husband commented the other day that I haven't worked on my albums in awhile and wouldn't you know that later that afternoon my (now) 5 year old daughter got a kids scrapbooking kit at her family birthday party. Sunday she wanted to scrapbook with me, so I helped her arrange her stuff and got all my stuff out for an afternoon of "cropping". My husband tried so hard to keep him occupied, but the little man just had to join us. I ended up spending more time peeling stickers for him than working on my album, but my stuff was out. So later that evening, after the kids were in bed instead of crashing on the couch, I scrapbooked. Thanks Katie for having me get my stuff out. Who knows...maybe I'll do a little more this week.