Home Sanctuary

Oh, the games we play

On Friday, I posted about the things I was going to do, just for that day.  I did pretty well, except that I DID watch TV (well, it was a movie), I only ate half an apple, and I didn't spend ANY time in the Word until about 10 pm.  And that was only because I had blogged about reading for 15 minutes.

Sad, but true.

I have to play games with myself in order to get moving in the right direction.  I tend to get bogged down and overloaded with all the stuff I have to do, and then I am simply paralyzed and end up doing nothing at all!

I love the "Just for Today" game, because it allows me the freedom to feel that I am not chained to my "shoulds."  I should eat better.  I should exercise more.  I should (fill in the blank).  Yeah, I KNOW I should, but for the REST OF MY LIFE? I can't do it, I tell you! The PRESSURE! But for just one day, I think I can.

Another game I play is:  "Beat the Clock.".  Wow, I can move fast if I think I'm going only going to have to do a dreaded chore for 5 tiny minutes!  The timer has been a good, good friend to me over the years.  I used it A LOT with my kids, and it still works great for me.  It's truly amazing how much you can get done in 5 minutes.

And who could live without the game of "I'll Reward Myself Later?" Hey, no one is going to give you a medal for cleaning toilet bowls, so I firmly believe that rewarding oneself is perfectly justified. Chocolate is always good motivation, but rewarding my own hard work with some "eye-resting" is always my go-to choice.

Then there is the pathetic "I'm a Martyr" game, in which I do my tasks with much sighing and despair. Only I, the overworked and underappreciated mother of this ungrateful lot, am asked to do more than the fair share of work around here.

It sort of feels good to feel this bad.

But this game usually backfires on me because the other participants are all too willing to let me serve slavishly without feeling one bit of remorse! Such nerve. Why I oughta..... ...

Why I OUGHTA play: "Let's All Work Together, And Cheerfully." But see, it's that last clause that gets me in trouble. When I don't see cheerfulness in my subordinates, it makes me mad and then I return to playing "I'm a Martyr." "Let's All Work Together, and I Don't Care What Your Attitude Is" is a much better game, but it requires some organization and follow-through on my part, two things which are severely lacking in my personality. I'm still working on that.

One of my best games is: "Make a List, Then Do Other Things Not on the List." This is a fun one because my rule is that you can add the Other Things to the list (after you do them) and then cross them off. Like you meant to do them in the first place. The beauty of this game is that you get to experience that heady feeling of accomplishment without actually accomplishing anything on your original list.

Clean out fridge

Pay Bills

Wash clothes

Sort through old magazines and read them

Blog

Return Overdue DVD's to Blockbuster

Then there are the games of Pretend.  "Pretend I am Getting Paid," and its corollary, "Pretend I am on Nanny-Cam."  Honestly.  Some days I'd have to fire my own self for doing such a poor job.  Pretending I have someone watching me gets me off my butt and into gear.  Hey, I'm not getting paid to watch The Price is Right, so start moving.

Today I have a long list of things that need to be done.  With such a selection of games to help get me through, it's hard to decide which one to play.  I'll probably employ a combination of games, depending on my mood and caffeine level.

So let the games begin!

Just for Today...

...I'm going to pursue some badly needed peace. 

I'm not taking a life-long stand.  I'm not making any big promises to do anything, be anything, or change my lifestyle.  I've failed too many times to think I'm going to change my life simply by making an oath.

So just for today, I'm going to turn off the TV.  I'm going to turn off the radio in the car.  I'm going to find some silence.  I think it would be good for me.

And just for today, I will limit my computer/email/blogging time so that I can enjoy the life that is happening just beyond this blue screen.

Since I'm not making any big promises, I think I will eat a piece of fruit today.  I've got some apples that have been in my fridge since forever and today seems like a good day to eat one.

After I've eaten my apple, or maybe while I'm eating my apple, I might do a few leg lifts.  But just for today.  I probably won't do it tomorrow.

And since this is only one day, I'd like to spend a little time reading my Bible.  I've tried to make a habit of in-depth reading and of course, failed again.  So, for today only, I will read maybe 15 minutes or so.  I might even write down a verse that pops out at me.

And while I'm not making any big promises, today would be a good day to go ahead and let God take care of some of that stuff that's been bothering me.  I'll let it all go for today and see how I feel about it tomorrow.

I'm not very good at making long-term commitments.  It seems like I just simply forget that I've made them until one day I realize I'm still in my same old rut.

But for just one day, I think I can do it.  I'm not going to worry about tomorrow's decisions until tomorrow.  I'm going to focus on today, and do the best I can with what I've got.

I could use a Company Girl.  Wanna join me?

Tell me what you're going to do, just for today.  It will be waaaay more fun to do it together!

She said it better than I did

One of my sweet Company Girls, Mary@ Not Before 7, has posted some beautiful thoughts about God's first sanctuary in Genesis 1-3.  She recently spent some time on vacation at the beach with her family, and had a chance to think about what that first sanctuary was like.  I won't spoil the surprise, but how she applies those observations to her own family is simply wonderful.  I loved this entry, too.  It made me stop and look at the world around me with fresh eyes.  Head on over to her blog and enjoy!

Best and Easiest Pot Roast

Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

I've always made Pot Roast for my family, and I'm a big believer in the Crock Pot.  But the most compliments I ever receive from my family on my Pot Roast is when I make it with this magic ingredient:

Thanks, Fam.  Love you, too.

Seriously, McCormick's Slow Cooker Pot Roast seasoning might be loaded with MSG, but who really cares when your family asks for seconds?  Now I just buy several packages at a time and don't worry about having to follow a recipe.  I add some veggies, and I must say,

IT'S DELICIOUS!

(You could even hide the package and pretend you made it from scratch....they'll never know.)

Eden's Sanctuary: A Lite Treatise

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some thoughts on man's first home sanctuary, the Garden of Eden.  I'd like to park here for another minute and make a few observances about this very special place.

1.  God made an incredible earth, and then made an even more spectacular place for Adam and Eve.  He carefully placed them into this garden.  We were created for sanctuary...or sanctuary was created for us.  Either way, it explains the longing for it in our soul.

2.  God's creation was excellent in every way.

3.  The garden was separate from the world outside.  This is a very important point.

4.  The garden was separate from the world outside.  This point should be made twice.

5.  Eden was beautiful.  Some of the plants in there were created just for their beauty.  Just because.

6.  All gardens have an element of surprise:  you just never know how something will bloom and grow!

7.  Eden smelled heavenly, with all those flowers and trees and moss.

8.  Eden sounded lovely.  It was a symphony of bird songs, animal sounds, rustling vegetation and bablbing brooks.  There was no noise of TV's, blaring radios, or honking horns.

9.  There was plenty of nutritious food, and none of it came in a package.

10. It was the perfect temperature and atmosphere for Adam and Eve and all the living things.  In other words, Eden satisfied all their senses.  It was delightful.

11. Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God.  Wow.

12.  Right smack in the middle of the garden were two trees:  right from the get-go people had choices to make.  Within their own sanctuary.

13.  Adam was given a job to do.  You could say he had a home-based business.

14.  Eve was given a job to do...to be his helper.  She was a workin woman.

15. Their job was to tend and care for the garden.  It needed maintenance and nurturing.  Life wasn't all fun and games in Eden, but I'll bet they enjoyed their job because it was their calling.

16. Their job required organizational skills, even without junk mail to sort and laundry to do.

17.  God showed Adam all the animals before He made Eve.  Some things never change.  Men still need to see their options and come to their own conclusions.  (Eve wasn't there yet to tell him how much he needed her.)

18.  Eve was a gift to Adam, created especially for him.  I wonder how I can be a gift to my own man?  I've got some thoughts on that, here and here.  Oh, and here.

19.  There were no parents or in-laws in the garden.  (Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, threw in some commentary for free. v 24)

20.  They were both naked.  I'm not sure how much actual work was getting done with both of them running around naked, but I'm going to guess that there was plenty of sex.  Hmmmm.

21.  They had no shame.  They were intimately vulnerable with one another, on every level.

22.  God's presence was in the garden.  He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.  Great picture!  Their relationship with God was the central part of their sanctuary.

23.  After they ate of the forbidden fruit, they blamed each other for their problems.  Ouch, still true today.

24. Why did Satan use food to tempt Eve?  Because he knew she would fall for it.  Yeah, still true.

25. Adam and Eve tried to hide from God's presence because they knew they had disobeyed. 

26. Sin brought shame.

27. Sin brought an end to the first sanctuary.

28.God had to put guards outside the entrance of the garden because He knew they would want back in.

29. God called out to Adam, "Where are you?"

30. Somehow, I think God is still calling out to us, "Where are you?" 

I'm going through my list of observations and I'm trying to apply them to my modern-day home sanctuary.  Things like, 

Is it a place that pleases the senses?  Does it smell good?  Does it have a sense of beauty?  Does it feel good?

Am a vulnerable, open partner with my husband?  Is our relationship deep AND fun?

More importantly, am I walking with my Creator in the cool of the day?  Is my relationship with Him fresh and growing?

The garden of Eden speaks to me in a way that makes me want to capture the essence of what God planned for Adam and Eve, and infuse my home with it.  I've got a long way to go, but somehow just knowing that God delighted in creating that first home sanctuary for his prized people gives me a renewed vision for what I want my home to be. 

I would love to hear your observations about Eden and how you can apply it to your home.  Your comments?

This won't be a Starbucks flavor anytime soon

Disclaimer:  We live in Texas, out in the country, and we spend half our time keeping the spiders and bugs at bay and the other half fighting off possums and raccoons.  It is a losing battle, as illustrated by this sad story. 

The other morning, I stumbled into the kitchen for coffee.  As I lift the steaming mug to my lips, I see a huge cucaracha (that's Spanish for cockroach) floating, belly up, in the coffee.

Thoroughly disgusted, yet unfazed, I dump out the cup and get a clean cup.  I figure must not have seen the guy in the cup when I poured the coffee in.

So I pour a second cup and wander to the computer.  With my eyes on the screen, I lift the second cup to my lips for that first glorious sip.

As soon as the coffee hits my tongue, I instantly realize that the cockroach had been boiled in the pot and I now have a mouth full of roach-coffee gagging me! 

PTEW!!  ACK!!  GRGGHH!!  BARF!!

Needless to say, I spewed the coffee out and brushed and gargled for a very long time.

I don't even want to tell you what roach-coffee tastes like!  But it is exactly as bad as you would imagine.

Bitter, with a twist of oily effervescence.

Potty Training-Think Outside the Boxers

Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Here's a post I've had sitting in my "drafts" for several weeks.

With two relatively easy potty trainings under my belt, I was totally unprepared for my third child's cycle of witholding and constipation that made it nearly impossible to beat. It took some patience and creativity to finally be successful.

First, we tried to associate a pleasant experience with sitting (....and sitting...) on the potty. We had a stack of his favorite books, including a Nursery Rhyme book which came to be affectionately known as, "The Poopie Book." I still worry that my son will always feel the urge to go whenever he hears "One, two, buckle my shoe," but perhaps he can work that out with a therapist.

We also looked at his diet. We cut back on the milk and increased the water, and tried to add more fruits and vegetables. Canteloupe was his favorite fruit and it was just the ticket.

Then, we had to find the right motivation. Stickers, candy, and treats had no effect whatsoever. Not even Superman underwear could entice him into success. Finally, my husband hit on the Eureka idea.

Our son loved to build things. Even at age two and three, he was always trying to put things together. We had some extra bricks laying around from an old building project, so my husband got him all worked up about building a tower with those bricks! One brick for every successful "brick" in the potty, you could say.

It took awhile, but by the end he had a stack of bricks 6 feet tall. We didn't care what the neighbors thought, at that point we were so THRILLED we almost left it up permanently
as a monument to poopie success.

Who'd a thunk? Something so simple could work so well! It was all about finding out what really got him excited and "thinking outside the boxers!"

So, besides candy and stickers, what are some other offbeat motivations you could try?

Tender Mercies

Joby Thomas Rasmussen Dec. 1, 1986-Sept.9, 2007

Joby's funeral was Thursday. It was a day of deep, deep sadness and quiet celebration of a young life that touched so many people. There was standing room only in the chapel, as friends came to pay their respects to my nephew. I can't thank you all enough for all your prayers and emails and kind comments. It means so much to all of us.

My heart is overwhelmed with thoughts about this last week. So many of you have gone through your own tragedies, and know the feelings of shock, disbelief, anger, faith, love, and sorrow that seem to come in waves.  The feelings weave in and out of every waking moment and even invade my sleep.  Surely, we will all wake up and find that this has been a terrible dream.

And yet, through it all, we've felt uplifted and carried by our heavenly Father.  Even as we've asked the hard questions of life, His presence has been close.  He is truly near the broken-hearted, and how we have needed Him.  Oh, how Joby's parents need him every moment.

I've experienced one of the Lord's tender mercies in the middle of this heartache, and it has given me hope that Joby's parents will be comforted by His tender mercies toward them as well. It has come from the love poured out toward me and my family by 8 women I met by "chance" on the flight home from the Deeper Still conference in Nashville last Sunday.  I had sat down in the only empty seat I saw, and found myself surrounded by a group of ladies from Trinity Bible Church in Weatherford, Texas.  We immediately began to talk about the conference, and then our conversations moved on to every topic under the sun.  It was so fun and I felt an instant bond with these cute women. 

When we landed in Dallas and headed for Baggage Claim, my husband, Tom, met me and pulled me aside to give me the awful news about Joby.   We just clung to each other there on the bench at Love Field and wept in each others' arms.  Please, please tell me this isn't true.  God, no.  I couldn't believe it.

After several moments he left my side and went over to the ladies and told them.  They immediately flew across the room and covered me with their own tears, their prayers and their embraces.  I'll never forget being encircled by their concern.  These women, who had been complete strangers to me only hours before, now are forever etched in my heart as dear sisters.

Since then, they (along with so many of you) have emailed their prayers and words of comfort, and it has helped me come to understand the tender mercies of God's grace in the midst of deep sorrow.  Maybe it is a small thing, but the sweetness and comfort of that moment has washed over me again and again.  I am so grateful.

Joby's parents, brother and sister will need many tender mercies to strengthen them for years to come.  The other boys involved in the circumstances of the accident will need their own tender mercies as well.  Thank you all for your prayers for them, and for us.  We appreciate every thought, prayer and gesture of kindness on Joby's behalf.  I believe that the last chapter has not yet been written, and we will someday know the lasting effects of Joby's brief life here on earth.  He was such a sweet kid with a great heart.

My new "Southwest Airlines Sisters."  Thank you, sweet things.

 

Psalm 25:6 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

There is Deeper Still, the conference. And then there is Deeper Still, the walk of faith.

My husband, Tom, met me at the airport on Sunday with the news that my nephew had been killed that morning in a tragic, horrible accident. It is an unbelieveable shock. Please pray for our family as we go through this difficult time.

I have so much to share about the incredible conference, but it will have to wait. So many of you have stopped in from the Deeper Still blog to check out Flash, our balking donkey. Oh, how I feel like Flash today. I don't want to go where God is taking me, where He is taking our family in the midst of this nightmare. Beth Moore's session on David's devastation is so very real right now.

I had left the conference with an overflowing heart to go Deeper Still with the One who is calling me, pulling me, coaxing me along. And I stepped right into the crossroads that Kay Arthur spoke of. The life we are called to is not easy, and doesn't come with simple answers. And there are tears along the way.

Joby (left) is in heaven today but we will miss him here.

Deeper Still

I'm so excited!  I'm headed to Nashville to attend the Deeper Still Conference and hear Priscilla Shirer and two other ladies....oh, what are their names.....Oh Yeah!  Beth Moore and Kay Arthur!  Maybe you've heard of them.

You can probably tell who's my favorite!  My sweeet pal, Priscilla!  (By the way, she blogged about our Runaway Donkey Adventure, here.)

I've got to admit that I'm not much of a "Conference Gal."  But I just couldn't pass up the chance to attend this big event with 25-30,000 other women.  It is going to be AWESOME!

For this conference, I was able to find a lone ticket and will stay in a hotel with a complete stranger.  I have some big expectations:  I want to know God more deeply, and I want to hear His word for me.  I want my passion for Him to be kindled into an inferno.

So I'm going with open hands and an open heart.  I want all God has for me, and I'm ready for Him to Bring. It. On.