It's a neverending battle.  The yardwork, the housework, the body - health and fitness.  If you stop for a moment - like if you're spinning plates on a stick, and pause - it can all come crashing down.  Then, it seems, all that work was for naught.  You paint a room, someone knocks a hole in the wall somehow.  You mow the lawn, two days later there are dandelions sticking up all over the place.

It could drive the perfectionist crazy .

We want to find the balance between being good stewards, being diligent, and not letting our possessions own us. 

One thing I tell myself is this; perfection is for heaven.  This life - we are living in the fall.  We will fight this battle by the sweat of the brow, and we will not attain perfection.

One very wise thing my sister said to me the other day is this.  We need to be very, very careful about our time - and what the devil is giving us to take up our time so we don't spend it wisely.  The time is very short.  Jesus is coming soon.  I could be kept very, very busy with so many things.  And I'm not saying we chouldn't have a home, and whatever might come along with that.  I'm just saying that we won't attain perfection.  Accepting a bit of mess, or a not so neatly manicured lawn, is better than paying the price of having all of our time wrapped up in keeping it perfect.

I read in a knitting book once ... "Leave perfection to the perfectists - a miserable lot."

It is spring, and I am loving it.  Lilacs are in bloom, bleeding heart, etc.  There is a LOT of work to be done out there, but I got so much done yesterday and it looks so much better.

Does anyone else out there feel pulled in 100 different directions this time of year?  Wrap up the end of year school stuff (get my quarterly reports in, do the required annual test - but review first), deal with the yard work and garden stuff that needs attention NOW and keep up with the laundry so we can be ready to go on vacation at the end of June ...

I tell myself, we've survived this insanity many years, and we'll survive again.  Whatever, I LOVE SPRING!

P.S.  My daughter and son-in-law just got chickens and I'm so jealous!  Now I'm looking at these tracter coops on-line and checking out our local codes and zoning.

The world has gone mad, and Jesus is coming soon.  Here's a Foxnews (Glenn Beck) video to go along with the "world going mad" part. 

*Hi Robin - you asked how I'm doing ... I was humming along, then this trial in early Feb. just sapped me.  I'm still bouncing back.  But we had this amazing victory yesterday ... read on if you'd like!

* * * * *

**Note:  I just realized that I had left off the first paragraph - I had written it elsewhere, and copied and  pasted it here.  So here it is ... maybe it will make better sense now.

Isaac is 10, and he has turned his nose up at just about every book I've intro'd him to. If I say "story time" and I'm going to read to them, he begs me not to "have to come to story time." If we listen to an "Adventures in Odyssey" together, he stops me (we're listening on a tape or the internet where we can pause it) and says "I have NO idea what is going on." So comprehension has been an issue.

I had some input from Debbie Strayer a while back (author of Learning Language Arts Through Literature) on an email loop I was on, to really talk about everything we're reading.  If he can't repeat back to me what's happening, go ahead and tell him what's happening.  Stop as often as you need to, and give explanation. 

So, I went to the library the other day, and was scouring the shelves for something that would catch Isaac's attention and NOT be "twaddle."  I don't recommend that - I think that looking over book lists and deciding ahead of time is probably the better way.  But there I was ... and "Not-So-Normal Norman" by Cynthia Stowe was the book I chose.

I brought it home, and asked him to read the first chapter.  He moaned and groaned.  I urged him to go ahead.  He came back and said to me "I have no idea what this is about."  So I opened it up, and said "Let's go over the first chapter (short chapters - a child's first chapter book, so to speak).  He moaned and groaned.

By the end of it, he understood what was going on, but showed little interest in reading further.  I read the next two chapters to him, with all of the voice inflections and so on.  Now I had his interest.  I handed it to him and said "Now you read two chapters on your own."  He came back - he had read four chapters!  I KNEW he was reading further.  I could see him lying on the couch, soaking it in.  I was having my own mental celebration.

The following day, I asked him to read two more chapters.  He smiled and said "OK, I don't mind at all."  Victory!  Then, he went off for a long time, and came back having read the rest of the book.  There were 14 chapters in all.  I knew he had read more than I'd asked him, but I said "Did you read your two chapters?"  He smiled his "kind of proud" smile and said "I finished the book."  He added "It was good - it was actually really, really good."

This was huge for us - and this was just yesterday.  He still had a hard time putting into words what had happened in the book, but as I asked him a few questions it started coming.  Of course, I let him know how very pleased I was, and how proud I was of him.  His joy was written all over his face.  I think we jumped a major hurdle yesterday!

Addressing his friends and neighbors before he left for the presidency:

“I now leave,” he told them, “not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

How articulate - and he did not attend school.  Now compare that with the majority of our nation's youth in compulary education.  Where has public school gotten us, that those who lived without it didn't have?  The better question would be, what has compulsary education done to our youth?

Well, it's an A to Robin's Q -

Where was I during the birth?

With my grandchildren, babysitting.  Bethany made it real easy.  Called me close to 3 p.m., had the baby before 5, and the grandchildren were home by evening.  I went to see my granddaughter for the first time the next day.

I'd have answered sooner, but I'm right in the thick of this trial (my brother-in-law).  Pre-trial preparations, and now the trial itself, is overshadowing this new grandbaby thing.  But hopefully it will be over soon, and it is going very well so far.  Many prayers answered.  I'm wondering how things are going on your end?  Email me and let me know.

Our fourth grandchild, Caroline was born on 1/23/2009

She weighed 7 lb., 14 oz., and was 19 inches long.

She is perfect in every way!  Praising God.

Robin asks:  How's your daughter doing with the bed rest?

She's off bedrest (because it's ok for her to go into labor now) and doing well.  We somewhat expected her to go into labor as soon as bedrest was over, but still waiting for baby.  While she was on bedrest, she got on the internet and updated her blog. 

I've been working on a quilt for Caroline Rose.  It's almost done!

Just FYI, I just updated my other blog - "For Such a Time as This."  Why do children in Gaza die?

Also, Flylady is working out great for me.  I'm not doing everything, but one step at a time, in my own time, and I definitely have a few new habits down quite well.  I figure that since my bad habits are pretty deeply etched, I may need more than the typical 21 days.

Keeping up with the sink and dishes has been great, as well as doing my hair, makeup, getting dressed first thing (to the shoes).  It feels great to be prepared!

So I hate to admit to you all that at 50 years of age, I am still domestically challenged.  Maybe I'm not so challenged, it's just my personality.  Call it whatever, but at times it all really goes out of control.  Like during the holidays.

So after Christmas was over, I got onto my Flylady email group.  I had gone no-mail a long time ago.  I pulled out my book "Sink Reflections" by Flylady, and reminded myself of a thing or two.

I thought I'd write down what's working so far.

Into my morning routine, I get up and get dressed immediately. 

I go downstairs and drink a glass of lemon water.  That is, a freshly squeezed half lemon into a glass, add about 6 oz. of water.  This gives me half a lemon to put down my garbage disposal ever day.  The lemon thing is my thing - not from Flylady.

I fix my hair - wash it in the sink or just wet it, depending.  I take a shower later, after the gym on the days I go, or otherwise.

I wash my face, dry my hair, moisturizer, make up, etc.

This feels totally different from when I used to do computer first thing.  How great I feel.

Oh, before I wash (or wet) my hair, I put in a load of wash.  I make sure that it is downstairs by the washer the night before, so I don't wake anyone up gathering hampers, etc.  I try and deal with the wash (drying, folding, putting away) right away.  I admit, getting it into the drawers is my downfall and I'm working on that.

I keep up with the dishes all day - dishwasher, or washing the few I don't like to put in there.  I USED to let things dry in the dishdrainer, but am drying everything (or delegating the drying) and putting it away.  NOW we have more counter space, and it looks so much better.

I'll talk about my bedtime routine next, and how some of Flylady's other principles are working for me.

But I'll finish by adding - this has shown me the importance of routine - especially for someone as distractable as me - and part of that routine is daily prayer and bible.  It used to fall by the wayside much too often.  Silly me.  Without God, we can do nothing.