Writing is something I've always been passionate about, even though the words don't always come out as eloquently as they did in my head. You'll laugh, but I'm constantly thinking of short sentences, phrases, or even paragraphs that I could write. Alas! As soon as I find a moment or two to finally type out those words, they seem to disappear into thin air. If only there were more minutes during the day or rather while both kids are sleeping and my husband is at work...haha. Imagine all the beautiful things I could write! ... or the things I could get done around the house! The list of "things" grows longer as I'm typing this.. one-handed... while the baby is finally cuddled asleep in my arms. I'm not ready to put her in her crib yet. She's so peaceful. I could watch her for hours.
[Darn! My arm got numb so I put her to bed... and of course she woke up. I'm hoping she falls right back to sleep.]
Anyway, one of these days I'd love to write something special and meaningful that could be published -- maybe an autobiography or a children's book or poetry. Until that time comes, I'll keep working on my other list of things to do..... cleaning out the storage closet, weeding out any unused items, getting some of my photos printed (including figuring out how many Christmas cards/designs I want to do), the endless baskets of laundry and sinks full of dishes, the bathroom that is slowly being overtaken by men (my son and husband), the playdates, toys on the floor, vacuuming, and much more. Of course, that's only the beginning..... and then it starts all over again. :-)
Well, I suppose I will have to let you all go for now. It's been refreshing to just type and not have a specific topic to write about. I should probably go get a few of those items on my list done though. Hope you have a great day!
-Michelle
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Ode to Freecycle
About a month ago, I signed up for the Ozaukee County Freecycle group with my Yahoo! account. I had heard about it through friends and finally had some time to become a member of the group so I could check it out. If you're not familiar with Freecycle, it's kind of like Craigslist, except that all the items are free. It's like this great big swap of free stuff. I haven't posted anything of mine on there yet, but have acquired some boy clothes for Caleb and a nice baby highchair for my parents to use when we visit them. I enjoy watching the different posts to see what treasures are out there that people would normally have just tossed into a landfill. What a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle!
Friday, November 5, 2010
A moment to reflect....
I haven't been as good about posting lately. Usually I try to at least upload a picture and write a short "caption" about it. *sigh* For some reason, I've just been having more down days. Of course, Tim has been wonderful. He doesn't fully understand how or why I'm feeling the way I do, but he's accepted it and just offers to help with dinner and even let me take a nice hot bath the other night.
The past few nights, I've gone to Moments for Moms and then had a meeting with all the women interested in being mentors and mareas (the ones wanting to be mentored) at church while Tim watched the kids for me.
Moments for Moms was good. We talked about forgiveness and one of the women mentioned a story where she was really holding onto a woman's reaction/comment to the point that it became an unintentional idol. She let it consume her thoughts rather than letting go and having God work through her and believe His Truth. It was an eye-opener for me. I realized that I have lots of little "grudges" that keep coming back to me and I never fully let them go. I prayed when I got home and God just gave me peace about a few feelings that I had been harboring and gave me strength so that when I do see certain people again, I won't be afraid to bring up the topics that caused a rift in the first place.
The mentoring meeting also went well. I was able to chat with some of the younger women and get to know them better. We also did a speed dating game to sort of interview the ladies that were hoping to mentor us. It was such a blessing to meet such wonderful women! I felt that I was able to connect with almost all of them and it was really hard to write down three names of potential mentors that I wanted to be paired up with. I'm really looking forward to having a more experienced woman walking alongside me with my journey as a mother, a wife, and child of God. I just need someone to challenge me to spend more time in the Word and help me grow as a person. Hopefully I can bless that other woman just as much as she blesses me.
Another thing that we're working on at home is starting some family worship time. This is outside of going to church and just casual talk about God or even bedtime prayers. It's supposed to be a time to teach our children about our faith and take time to share with each other. Tim is an amazing man of God and this gives him an opportunity to continue growing into the spiritual leader that God intends him to be. The 'Love & Respect' study that we're doing with a few other couples at church only brings us closer together. I'm learning to encourage Tim even when I would probably do things a little differently. I didn't realize that by trying to be helpful by showing him the way I like things done, I was coming off more as criticizing and ultimately disrespectful. Then of course his reactions came off as unloving to me... and we started the Crazy Cycle! lol... It's so nice to recognize some of the signs and how to love and respect each other better.
On a happy note, I'm on my way to feeling more spiritually fulfilled. One of my chats last night, I was asked how being a stay-at-home mom was going. Somehow, I had a revelation and it hit me that the reason I was feeling so down lately was because I started an internal crazy cycle. I wasn't getting as much done around the house and was spending less quality time with the kids. There was too much to do that I couldn't wrap my head around it so I just vegged out and read a book instead or watched movies with the kids. This in turn made me feel lazy and unmotivated to get the growing list of things done. Once I made a list of what needed to get done, my thoughts were more organized and I resolved to tackle each thing one at a time. It was so rewarding to cross those things off my list. :-)
Wow, this post is getting long! I do have one more happy thing to report. My best friend from college finally got engaged and she asked me to be a bridesmaid! I'm so excited for her and honored to be in her wedding. I was a little nervous since I know there are going to be a few more expenses in the check book than we were anticipating and we'll have to figure out how to manage the kids during the wedding and traveling... etc. But, our God is an awesome God and he'll take care of all the details!
That's all for now. Don't forget to read Grace Like Rain if you haven't been keeping up to date on those posts. Thanks for reading! I'm so blessed to be surrounded by so many friends. Love you all!!!
The past few nights, I've gone to Moments for Moms and then had a meeting with all the women interested in being mentors and mareas (the ones wanting to be mentored) at church while Tim watched the kids for me.
Moments for Moms was good. We talked about forgiveness and one of the women mentioned a story where she was really holding onto a woman's reaction/comment to the point that it became an unintentional idol. She let it consume her thoughts rather than letting go and having God work through her and believe His Truth. It was an eye-opener for me. I realized that I have lots of little "grudges" that keep coming back to me and I never fully let them go. I prayed when I got home and God just gave me peace about a few feelings that I had been harboring and gave me strength so that when I do see certain people again, I won't be afraid to bring up the topics that caused a rift in the first place.
The mentoring meeting also went well. I was able to chat with some of the younger women and get to know them better. We also did a speed dating game to sort of interview the ladies that were hoping to mentor us. It was such a blessing to meet such wonderful women! I felt that I was able to connect with almost all of them and it was really hard to write down three names of potential mentors that I wanted to be paired up with. I'm really looking forward to having a more experienced woman walking alongside me with my journey as a mother, a wife, and child of God. I just need someone to challenge me to spend more time in the Word and help me grow as a person. Hopefully I can bless that other woman just as much as she blesses me.
Another thing that we're working on at home is starting some family worship time. This is outside of going to church and just casual talk about God or even bedtime prayers. It's supposed to be a time to teach our children about our faith and take time to share with each other. Tim is an amazing man of God and this gives him an opportunity to continue growing into the spiritual leader that God intends him to be. The 'Love & Respect' study that we're doing with a few other couples at church only brings us closer together. I'm learning to encourage Tim even when I would probably do things a little differently. I didn't realize that by trying to be helpful by showing him the way I like things done, I was coming off more as criticizing and ultimately disrespectful. Then of course his reactions came off as unloving to me... and we started the Crazy Cycle! lol... It's so nice to recognize some of the signs and how to love and respect each other better.
On a happy note, I'm on my way to feeling more spiritually fulfilled. One of my chats last night, I was asked how being a stay-at-home mom was going. Somehow, I had a revelation and it hit me that the reason I was feeling so down lately was because I started an internal crazy cycle. I wasn't getting as much done around the house and was spending less quality time with the kids. There was too much to do that I couldn't wrap my head around it so I just vegged out and read a book instead or watched movies with the kids. This in turn made me feel lazy and unmotivated to get the growing list of things done. Once I made a list of what needed to get done, my thoughts were more organized and I resolved to tackle each thing one at a time. It was so rewarding to cross those things off my list. :-)
Wow, this post is getting long! I do have one more happy thing to report. My best friend from college finally got engaged and she asked me to be a bridesmaid! I'm so excited for her and honored to be in her wedding. I was a little nervous since I know there are going to be a few more expenses in the check book than we were anticipating and we'll have to figure out how to manage the kids during the wedding and traveling... etc. But, our God is an awesome God and he'll take care of all the details!
That's all for now. Don't forget to read Grace Like Rain if you haven't been keeping up to date on those posts. Thanks for reading! I'm so blessed to be surrounded by so many friends. Love you all!!!
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