- Grocery shop
- Clean
- bathrooms
- kitchen
- + wipe cupboards and walls
- + mop
- living room
- bedrooms
- Dress the baby
- Feeding therapy with the baby
- Dispense medications
- Mix formula
- Clean up time with the kids
- Clean up kids spills and messes (5-10X daily)
- Read with each kid for at least 10 minutes each day
- Listen to my kids
- Make Breakfast
- Clean up Breakfast
- Make Lunch
- Clean up Lunch
- Make Dinner
- Clean up Dinner
- Make snacks
- Clean up Snacks
- Comfort crying kids
- Supervise the baby outside
- Change diapers
- Wash laundry
- Fold laundry
- Guard laundry from jumping kids and swinging objects
- Put away laundry
- Bathe kids
- Take kids to the park
- Mediate kids' arguments
- Discipline
- Discipline again (and again and again and again)
- Make Doctor's appointments
- Go to Doctor's appointments
- Order medical supplies
- Go the the Library
- Drop and pick-up kid from co-op
- Home school my kids
- Make sure I'm teaching the right curriculum
- Follow the proper method when I teach
- Document what I teach
- Document how in depth each kid knows what I've taught
- Document each state standard they have met
- E-mail people
- Other communication with people
- Pay bills
- Wash the van
- Call the phone company
- Paint that bare spot on the wall
- Fix the shower
- Fix the bathroom drawer
- Fix the shelf
- Exercise
- Eat healthy
- Shower
- Brush my hair
- Look at my husband
- Talk to my husband
- Beat my husband in rummicub
- Play the piano
- Play the guitar
- Sing
- Spend quiet time in prayer
- Read my Bible
*******************************************************************************************************
When I quit my job after the 3rd baby came, someone asked me what I was planning on DOING all day at home!? I guess, before I quit, I managed to fit all these things in, somehow, while also working outside of the home (and so many people I know and love follow the working road still-I commend them for their hard, hard work and perseverance!). At any rate, this is where I'm at today and this is my current list of this year, this stage. I am not sitting around bored. I never wonder what to do. In fact, as you might have noticed, I feel a bit crazy most of the time.
This list is my list. You have your own etchings that make the busyness of your life - different from mine. The point is-we've all got lists of demands. My list is not in any particular order and it's not comprehensive, but I got too bored writing it to add anymore to it. Really, the most important part of my list are the very last two listed. And-ironically-spiritual battlishly-sadly-or somethingly-those tend to be the most difficult two to fit in.
Just over a year ago, when I was in the dredges of sick baby and I couldn't often go to church and I was running all the time to keep everyone alive at home and I was drop dead tired, I had to find another way spend time with God. What I had known as worship, up until then, was to spend time reading my Bible each day and to meet together on Sundays with other Christians. Also, I had experienced a few camps and retreats which bolstered my faith. But I couldn't do any of that anymore. I was so supported by people around me, but at the same time, so alone in the task given me. I prayed to find a way to integrate worship into my everyday life, into that list, as I cooked and diaper-changed and disciplined and figured out feeding tube stuff.
God really met me in a special way as I prayed for ideas (these were really fast, desperate, on-the-run prayers). In my tiny claustrophobic condo, I needed to be reminded of God more. So I, firstly, put up signs with verses. These visually remind me of where my thoughts ought to be and of God's amazing plan. One of my very favorites says simply, "Abide in Him." Abide in Him. I remember a specific moment when I was particularly flustered in my motherhood journey and had just lost my temper with my kids. I walked the 5 steps from their bedroom and around the corner to the living room, leaned my head against the wall, looked up.......Abide in Him. It's like a teal whispering every time I look that direction. Abide in Him.
A second way God led me to integrate worship was to put my hymnal on a stand right next to the kitchen sink. I specifically chose that location. For some reason, washing dishes was where my mind would start to wander in judgement, criticism and self-pity. I hated washing dishes, and maybe this was why. It was my angry spot. But now, if I'm not singing a song and my mind starts to wander in the wrong direction, I intentionally avert my eyes and mind to the words in the book- "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty-early in the morning my song will rise to thee." Not only have I become less resentful and angry, but I've grown closer to God in singing these old words and my kids occasionally burst out in something amazing ("This is my STO------RY, this is my song!). My angry spot is now my worship spot. That's the kind of thing God does, the great heart-changer.
Lastly, because I felt so completely desperate and helpless, my prayer life increased ahundredfold. I wasn't on my knees for hours on end-no-not a chance. I didn't have that time. But I was folding laundry (prayer), sweeping the floor (prayer), talking to Doctors (prayer), hearing my baby gag (prayer).
The list. I write it out to remind myself that, yes, it is a lot-but it could be more. Yes, the load feels heavy at times. But also, yes, God is with me right in the middle of it all. And, to remind myself to continue in the lessons He's so firmly taught me - to Abide in Him, to worship in the tasks He has given me, and to pray continually. To know that the last two listed - spending quiet time in prayer and reading my Bible - are worth fighting and sacrificing for.
So, now that things are back to "normal," we're not missing church anymore. Corporate worship is so much sweeter now that I know Jesus a little better. I remember trying to live, walk, breathe worship before, but until the rug was yanked from beneath my feet, I didn't really get it. Not that I do it all the time now. Nope. It's still a struggle and a battle. But now I get it. I've lived it. I know it.
And that's the gift of these last 18 months.
God really met me in a special way as I prayed for ideas (these were really fast, desperate, on-the-run prayers). In my tiny claustrophobic condo, I needed to be reminded of God more. So I, firstly, put up signs with verses. These visually remind me of where my thoughts ought to be and of God's amazing plan. One of my very favorites says simply, "Abide in Him." Abide in Him. I remember a specific moment when I was particularly flustered in my motherhood journey and had just lost my temper with my kids. I walked the 5 steps from their bedroom and around the corner to the living room, leaned my head against the wall, looked up.......Abide in Him. It's like a teal whispering every time I look that direction. Abide in Him.
A second way God led me to integrate worship was to put my hymnal on a stand right next to the kitchen sink. I specifically chose that location. For some reason, washing dishes was where my mind would start to wander in judgement, criticism and self-pity. I hated washing dishes, and maybe this was why. It was my angry spot. But now, if I'm not singing a song and my mind starts to wander in the wrong direction, I intentionally avert my eyes and mind to the words in the book- "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty-early in the morning my song will rise to thee." Not only have I become less resentful and angry, but I've grown closer to God in singing these old words and my kids occasionally burst out in something amazing ("This is my STO------RY, this is my song!). My angry spot is now my worship spot. That's the kind of thing God does, the great heart-changer.
Lastly, because I felt so completely desperate and helpless, my prayer life increased ahundredfold. I wasn't on my knees for hours on end-no-not a chance. I didn't have that time. But I was folding laundry (prayer), sweeping the floor (prayer), talking to Doctors (prayer), hearing my baby gag (prayer).
The list. I write it out to remind myself that, yes, it is a lot-but it could be more. Yes, the load feels heavy at times. But also, yes, God is with me right in the middle of it all. And, to remind myself to continue in the lessons He's so firmly taught me - to Abide in Him, to worship in the tasks He has given me, and to pray continually. To know that the last two listed - spending quiet time in prayer and reading my Bible - are worth fighting and sacrificing for.
So, now that things are back to "normal," we're not missing church anymore. Corporate worship is so much sweeter now that I know Jesus a little better. I remember trying to live, walk, breathe worship before, but until the rug was yanked from beneath my feet, I didn't really get it. Not that I do it all the time now. Nope. It's still a struggle and a battle. But now I get it. I've lived it. I know it.
And that's the gift of these last 18 months.
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