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I hate conflict. With everything in me, I hate conflict. I hate the thought of making someone else unhappy, disappointed, frustrated, sad, or any other negative emotion that exists.
To help make ends meet, I sell things on e-bay. I have an unhappy buyer right now. In taking time to work my response back to him, he took that as a nonresponse and has filed a complaint against me. My day will be consumed with thinking about this man and trying, in vain, to come up with a solution that will satisfy both of us and that will also make his opinion of me a postive one.
You see, I feel like that people are put in our space (virtual included) for a reason. I want everyone who enters my space to leave better than they were when they entered. Happier, bigger smiles, wiser, more peaceful, etc. etc. etc.) . In this situation, this man has become sad and frustrated in my space. What did I contribute to him? What was his benefit? I pray that the e-mail I sent him today will have a positive effect on him and that his complaint against me will be dropped. I hope that this situation can be Win-Win. But ultimately, may God's will be done in my life. My final thought and prayer...may God's will be done in my life. |
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"Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Gen 4:6-7
WOW!!! And thousands of years later sin still desires us and we still have not mastered it. The part that really gets me however is "But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door." Sin crouches because we do not do what is right. The whole answer is to just DO WHAT IS RIGHT! It sounds so simple. It sounds so attainable. Then why oh why do I wake up day after day making choices that are not pleasing to my Heavenly Father???
And, yet, Heaven awaits us where Holiness will abound and sin will be no more. I long for that day realizing that this is a temporary situation. A time for me to learn to do what is right and master sin. The ever fleeting goal that remains just out of our grasp. |
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It is 7:00 in the morning. DH is off to work. Children lay sleeping in their beds. The only sound heard is the tapping of the keyboard and an occassional sniffing.
Yesterday was one of those days. Just a blah day. Isn't it great that the greatest blessings come in the midst of blah days. I had some errands to run. All of the girls knew it was a blah day for me. I was gone for about 2 hours. When I arrived home I was greeted with, "Mom, would you like some french toast and bacon?" (We eat french toast and bacon at all hours of the day. It's the best in comfort food.) I said yes with a smile but my brain was telling me a different story. "Your kitchen is going to be a NIGHTMARE! You may as well just be prepared! The rest of your day is cleaning laundry cleaning laundry and then more cleaning!" My third job (Wife first...Mom second) is that of Mary Kay sales director and I had some things to take care of so I was off to my computer while the french toast was being made and my kitchen was being simultaneously destroyed. A sweet voice peered into my room. "It's ready mom." Prepare yourself, woman! Keep a smile on your face. Don't go insane right now. I walked into the kitchen to a beautiful plate of french toast and turkey bacon and a glass of iced tea AND CLEAN COUNTERS, CLEAN STOVE TOP, EMPTY SINKS, AND A SHINING TABLE! So much for the power of positive expectation but a great lesson in the greatness of my girls! |
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I'm not a believer in whining. I think whining is a waste of time and energy. However, sometimes....it is necessary. So...I'll make this as painless as possible. Here's the list:
Now, I know that I have an extremely blessed life. I know I have no room or reason to complain. But, every now and then I just need a  to make it through the day! |
(this is how they looked during that convo)
and although my kids are older this picture is a perfect depiction of how I feel sometimes!|
Why is it that when we see a problem in our home we seem to think that we can solve that problem by just adding more. Even a hot fudge sundae can only take so much hot fudge.
I wrote earlier this week about our household friend, Dell. Well my dear husband decided this week that in order to help alleviate the burden Dell was putting on our family, we would get him a helper. So we added a new friend, VAIO.
Now my old self would be dancing for joy, screaming from the rooftops, doing the jig...but my older, wiser self sees that too much a good thing is just wrong.
Can you imagine what we did just 10 years ago without internet addiction??? What was the world like???
No...let's go farther back...before GameBoy, Computers, Cell Phones, Satellite TV......
My Top 10 List of things I did growing up in the 70's and 80's:
10. Played cowboys and indians with a stick that looked like a gun. 9. Went to Dairy Queen with my dad just to get an ice cream 8. Played school with my sister 7. Endless bike riding 6. Endless Roller Skating 5. Endless array of church activities 4. Went to bed at 10:00 3. Got up by 7:00 (and felt good because I went to bed at 10:00) 2. Read Read Read and then Read some more 1. Boat riding (in a box), water sports (on an ironing board), horseback riding (on a broom), archeological digs (in the flower beds) etc. etc. etc.
What will my girls write in 10 years about what they did growing up??? I hope that the list is longer than:
10. Internet 9. Phone 8. TV |
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For quite some time my 12 year old daughter wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. She comes from a long line of public school pioneers and was itching to carry on the tradition. Since hitting pre-teen her aspirations have changed. However, every now and then hints of great teacher still pop up.
Last week she came to me with a unit idea. Each child would draw out of a pile for a country. They would spend time discovering new and interesting things about that country. Write a "research" paper (I put the word research in quotes only because in our house I let the girls choose exactly what to focus on in their research papers. Instead of going to typical topics like government, etc., they usually choose something like fashion, real estate, teen aged life), write a creative short story, and prepare an authentic meal. I said, "Sounds great."
She listed several countries, gathered her sisters together, and we were off and running. Last night was our first "authentic" meal. Our 12 year old chose China so she planned on Teriyaki Tofu (I've never had tofu before and let's just say I could have gone to my grave having made that statement and been just fine), fried rice, and egg rolls.
Teriyaki Tofu??? Sounds pretty authentic to me. Fried Rice??? You just can't get too much more authentic. Egg Rolls??? C'mon. This is the Chinese burrito. How much more authentic can you get? I would say not much more except our egg rolls were filled with Roast from the night before, Chili and cheese from our afternoon lunch, and Taco meat from a few nights ago. We were thankful for a familiar sight at the table. We laughed about the Teriyaki Tofu, cried about the fried rice, and devoured the egg rolls.
Was this unit study successful? Absolutely. We came together as a family. We laughed. We loved. We bonded. This is a beautiful life. |
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We have a friend living in our home. Up until this year, he has been a wonderful friend. He has helped us get organized in our finances. He has given us many brilliant ideas for meals, homekeeping, child rearing, homeschooling. He has taught me the basics of gardening and helped me produce my very first home grown veggies last spring. He is now helping me with winter veggies. He taught me how to knit and has also helped me earn extra money selling out of my home.
He has also been a superb teacher. He has helped my children with homework when they were in public school. He has helped the girls with countless papers from research to creative writing. Since our venture to homeschool, he has been absolutely indispensable. He has taken my girls on trips in their minds to China, Australia, and Russia. He has helped them plan and execute many awesome projects. He has introduced us to homeschooling organizations where the girls can meet other kids their age. He has also come up with the most innovative ideas for the girls to keep in touch with their public school friends and to continue to nurture those relationships.
We love this family friend, however, lately he has been getting under my skin. Sometimes, he drives a wedge between my girls. He will spend an entire afternoon with our youngest daughter and then almost completely neglect our oldest. He causes the girls to bicker back and forth with each other. They come to me constantly during the day to let me know who is doing what with our friend and how badly they feel when our friend does not reciprocate at that exact moment. He is really causing major squabbles and I just don't know what to do about it because I'm just not sure I could live without our friend. We have tried before and we all suffered. So, the question is how do we get this friend to realize that all of the girls need to be treated equally and all of the girls need equal time?
Hey, I was just thinking, if you are reading this you may know exactly who I am talking about. You may have a similar friend in your home. His name is Dell. Do you know him?
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I started homeshooling this year. My girls are 17, 15, and 12. Every May for the last 10 years, my husband and I have gone through the same conversation. It goes a little something like this:
Me: What do you think about homeschooling? Husband: I don't know. Me: I wasn't satisfied with the schoolyear again. I'm thinking about homeschooling. Husband: I don't know Me: Can you believe that the principal didn't do anything to that girl who threatened our Courtney in the bathroom last month? Husband: Me: What about that teacher who made those completely inappropriate comments in Brittany's class? Husband: Me: So, what do you think about homeschooling? Husband: I don't know
TEN YEARS!!! We finally did it but is it too late? Can we be successful keeping the older ones at home for their last 2 or 3 years?
I just found out that AGAIN we have done things completely backwards. Most families homeschool their children at the tender ages and place them in public or private schools for their high school years. Can we really be successful?
I feel like I have failed the first 4 months. I don't feel like I am challenging them. We don't have structure or routines. We are starting a new program in January. I structured set of classes and assignments monitored by someone outside the home. Please let that help. I would hate to fail my kids and send them out into the world less prepared for "life" than they should be.
However, having said all of that, my 13 year old neice who has been in one of the best public schools in Texas and whose mom (my sister) has a masters in education and has worked in public schools all of her adult life came over to my house the other day. The first question out of her mouth, "Where they at?" WHERE THEY AT??? What kind of question is that? It doesn't even make any sense! Maybe we will be ok! Maybe I can do a better job training my children. Well, full steam ahead.
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