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Showing posts from 2015

Working Towards Contentment

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Calm.   Peaceful.   Happy.   Content . Happy Family 1955 Eloise Wilkin No more mad morning dashes out the front door. No more being late to work. No more snapping at the kids. No more schedule rearranging. No more sick days. No more melt-downs in the mornings. No more, “Who is picking up the kids today?” No more, “Who will pick up dinner?” No more, “Who will stay with the sick child?” No more, “Not now, I’m working.” How would your life change? He begged her to stay home.   She didn’t feel adequate.   She couldn’t accept his care of her.   She feared abandonment.   “What will it take?” he asked.   She jokingly replied, “A Porsche Cayenne.”   Within a week he had one delivered and demanded she resign.   He told her that he and the kids desperately needed her to be at home.   The chaos and negativity of her job was destroying their home life.   She quit, and the above was her partial list of what changed.   Does your husband really want you to work?  It

"Mama...work?"

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The Job A. Sarnoff When my baby was 2-1/2 years old, my old job called to see if I could fill in for two and one-half weeks while someone was on vacation.  Lured by the easy money, I readily agreed. I was to begin on a Wednesday, so my DH took off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  I left a full fridge, no dirty laundry, and a sparkling clean home.  I was gone 10 hours.  I came home to dinner and a clean home, happy to see baby and daddy. Thursday, same scenario, except the house was no longer sparkling. Friday, I came home to no dinner and a messy house.  I was exhausted, and as I hadn't made the mess, I went on strike.  I wasn't going to do any dishes, laundry, or housework on my weekend.  I did take over caring for baby. For the next two weeks, daddy took baby to grandma and grandpa's house.  Then he went to work.  When he picked little one up, grandma had dinner ready and waiting for him. I began working 12 hour days.  As long as I was away from home, I mig

Mother is My Favorite Pin-Up Girl!

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Children think their mothers are beautiful! We are so very beautiful to them, no matter if we have make-up on, are overweight, or are wearing old pajamas with holes in them. They say the sweetest things about how we look that are highly exaggerated.   Write them down!   I keep a small book in the kitchen of all the funny and sweet things my son has said over the years, and funny events, comics, etc.  (I began with scraps of paper I threw in a box.)  How we giggle when we go through it! He just told me I didn't look any different with make-up on, so why do I wear it?  "It's the same old, adorable, beautiful face!"  Ha, ha! When I saw this boy's pin-up, I realized that is truly how our children see us - we are the most beautiful gal in the room. both ads by A. Sarnoff Happy Mother's Day!  You are blessed!   “Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work.” -C. S. Lewis “Love me when I least deser

I held the key to my own happiness

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Photo credit You can alter your life by altering your attitude .   ~ Unknown I embraced my situation in life on April 3, 2000.  I found a support group for a problem in my life that filled me with fear.  I took baby steps in ending the reign of my clutter (I believe I was one of FlyLady’s first 100 people).  I was also one of Rhonda Britten’s (of Starting Over fame) first clients.  I acknowledged myself for the many baby steps I was taking in several directions and my self-confidence grew.  I began to visualize how I really wanted my daily life to be.  It was indeed a journey and I had many instances of confusion deciphering, “What am I committed to?  How do I act?  Where do I spend my time?  What do I want out of life?”  Yet because I was now consciously searching, writing and taking notes, spending an hour a day in prayer, devotion and learning, I had many key instances of clarity, vision, and discovering who I really was, what I wanted from my life, and the realization

If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done

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photo credit We always think we are going to get our life together after the wedding, when we have a better job, after the baby is born,  when the child goes to school, when we get a raise, a dependable car, a bigger home, better organized, finish college, lose ten pounds... Alfred D. Souza said, "For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life.  But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business...then life would begin.  At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." Instead of being surprised by hardships, I've come to expect them.  When I have a great day, I rejoice! I've recently learned three things: 1)  To accept and bless my present circumstances - there is no better time to be happy than right now!  I have finally accepted the silliest things that bothered me in the past.  I have blessed my small house.  I went through each room and found something

Life - In Order

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I love to do things in order – everything simply turns out better!  Our God is a God of order! He tells us that when we seek his Kingdom first, our other concerns will fall into order.  “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  Matthew 6:33 Your home can be a place of order, but FIRST it needs to be a place of WORSHIP.  Silence, or reading in the sunlight and listening to the everyday sounds of a child playing, or a dishwasher humming, is relaxing and well-worth turning off the radio, computer and t.v. to attain.  Singing a cappella, or with a CD, is a way to bring worship into your home.  You don’t need to practice yoga and sit in silence, emptying your mind, to find serenity. In fact, as Christians, we are called to FILL our minds with Scripture.  When we have questions for God, He often will answer us through memorized Scripture.  And if you haven’t memorized any – or rarely read your Bible – well, you might