We had a guest Pastor today and I was so glad that Frank & I were able to listen to his message. In the month of Feb we provided coffee service, greeted, taught Sunday School and worked in the nursery. This was the first Sunday in a while where we just got to go to church and listen.
The message was based on Paul's letter to the the Philippians. He was imprisioned and was writing to thank the Phillippians for their past generostiy. And also to tell them that he was content with his circumstance. He had learned to be content in any circumstance. He had been rich and poor, fed and hungry. But he had made the decision to be content.
The Pastor made the following 5 points:
1) Being content runs Counter to our sinful nature. Satan wants us to want more, more, more. Becuase then we have lost sight of God. Think of the original sin. Satan promised Eve that she would be "Just like God" if she disobeyed and ate the fruit. Pastor told a story of a rich man who walked by a fisherman sitting beside his boat daily. Finally the rich man asked the fisherman why he was never out fishing. The fisherman replied the he had caught all he needed. The rich man told him that he should catch all that he could catch, not just what he needed. Why would he do that? Then the fisherman could buy bigger nets. more boats, and become rich. What would he do if he was rich? Why then he could just sit and relax and enjoy life. Which was exactly what he had been doing when the rich man walked up to him.
2) Being content has to be learned. It doesn't come automatically.
3)Contentment comes from a heart of gratitude. I am happy with what I have, not thinking about what I don't have.
4)Contentment grows in proportion in how we truly love and trust Jesus.
5)Contentment grows when we value relationships more that things. Both our relationships with God and with friends and family.
Well, I bet that you didn't come here for a sermon today, but I really felt the need to pass on this message. It truly touched me and I needed to hear it. Maybe someone else needs to as well,
Who I am
- Jess
- This is my journey to add beauty and organization to my home, as well as being the best Wife, Mom, Woman & Christian that I can be. Join me, you'll feel better about your own life. LOL!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Laundry Bags
Hi all,
In my previous house, I had a basement laundry room where I had plenty of room to sort laundry where no one could see it. Sure that room flooded from time to time and wasn't heated ( winter wasn't nice), but there was all that room.
In our wonderful Forever house, our washer and dryer is on the main floor in the entry way. So this is the lovely view when we walk in.
Yes, we will be painted the walls in the summer and the floor if I get my way.
Anyway, not the best view. In our main bathroom, we have a fairly large closet but not big enough to have more than one basket. So this is what that looked like most of the time. Because I am the only one capable of locating a basket, obviously.
The home owners had a laundry sorter in there, but A) I didn't really want to spend any money & B) I have never owned a laundry sorter that could stand up to my kids.
I popped the bottom shelf out of the closet and this left a ledge around 3 sides of the closet. I had some curtains from houses ago that had gotten stained and the mice had gotten into them when they were in storage. So, they were just so much fabric, nothing that I would be hanging in common areas.
I cut them apart and sewed them up on 4 sides to make 3 bags. Because I wanted the clothes to be sorted in the closet so that I could see when a load needed to be done, and we sort our clothes by person, I wanted the bags labeled by person. Because I don't have a Cricut or Silhouette (but I entered the giveaway over @ "How Does She") I printed the names off my printer onto Freezer paper that I had cut into 8.5*11 size pieces. I printed onto the Non-shiny side. I put the paper down on my self healing mat and used my Exact o knife and cut out the letters.
Then I laid the paper down on the bags where I wanted the names to be, shiny side down. I used a warm iron to iron the paper onto the bags. I wasn't sure what temp to use so I figured that cooler was better. The iron melts the shiny side of the paper into the fabric to make a perfect stencil that doesn't move. I then used a stencil sponge and Burnt Umber acrylic paint and painted in the letters.
I let them dry a few minutes then peeled the freezer paper off. It doesn't leave any residue @ all. It just adheres enough to allow you to paint with out bleeding.
Then I threaded the bags onto 2 3/4' dowels that I had spray painted black. I put the dowels on the little ledge in the closet that was left by removing the shelf.
I did put 4 finishing nails right beside the nails so that they didn't roll around, but the dowels and bags are easily removable if they need to be washed.
The kids were so excited to have laundry bags with their names. Now there is NO QUESTION about where dirty clothes belong. Notice that I put "Mom & Daddy" in the middle so there was no squabbles about who got to be next to who.
In my previous house, I had a basement laundry room where I had plenty of room to sort laundry where no one could see it. Sure that room flooded from time to time and wasn't heated ( winter wasn't nice), but there was all that room.
In our wonderful Forever house, our washer and dryer is on the main floor in the entry way. So this is the lovely view when we walk in.
Yes, we will be painted the walls in the summer and the floor if I get my way.
Anyway, not the best view. In our main bathroom, we have a fairly large closet but not big enough to have more than one basket. So this is what that looked like most of the time. Because I am the only one capable of locating a basket, obviously.
The home owners had a laundry sorter in there, but A) I didn't really want to spend any money & B) I have never owned a laundry sorter that could stand up to my kids.
I popped the bottom shelf out of the closet and this left a ledge around 3 sides of the closet. I had some curtains from houses ago that had gotten stained and the mice had gotten into them when they were in storage. So, they were just so much fabric, nothing that I would be hanging in common areas.
I cut them apart and sewed them up on 4 sides to make 3 bags. Because I wanted the clothes to be sorted in the closet so that I could see when a load needed to be done, and we sort our clothes by person, I wanted the bags labeled by person. Because I don't have a Cricut or Silhouette (but I entered the giveaway over @ "How Does She") I printed the names off my printer onto Freezer paper that I had cut into 8.5*11 size pieces. I printed onto the Non-shiny side. I put the paper down on my self healing mat and used my Exact o knife and cut out the letters.
Then I laid the paper down on the bags where I wanted the names to be, shiny side down. I used a warm iron to iron the paper onto the bags. I wasn't sure what temp to use so I figured that cooler was better. The iron melts the shiny side of the paper into the fabric to make a perfect stencil that doesn't move. I then used a stencil sponge and Burnt Umber acrylic paint and painted in the letters.
I let them dry a few minutes then peeled the freezer paper off. It doesn't leave any residue @ all. It just adheres enough to allow you to paint with out bleeding.
Then I threaded the bags onto 2 3/4' dowels that I had spray painted black. I put the dowels on the little ledge in the closet that was left by removing the shelf.
I did put 4 finishing nails right beside the nails so that they didn't roll around, but the dowels and bags are easily removable if they need to be washed.
The kids were so excited to have laundry bags with their names. Now there is NO QUESTION about where dirty clothes belong. Notice that I put "Mom & Daddy" in the middle so there was no squabbles about who got to be next to who.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Fun Bucks
Hey all,
i have a couple Crafty things that I plan to blog about here shortly but tonight I have an amazing story.
I have 2 very high energy kids. They run circles around me on a daily basis. As a SAHM with a DH that often works later than 6:30, I am the primary caregiver. And often I am too tired to enforce rules. I know that it is said to pick your battles, BUT! I feel that the kids know this strategy and know that I have to pick certain things to enforce. And the more things that I have to choose from, (the more ways that they are naughty) the more that fall by the way side.
Last week, I started a punch card system. Kinda like a frequency card that you get at the salon or the coffee shop. They were eligible for 5 daily punches. Morning, afternoon, evening, bed time and a bonus. It seemed to work well for a couple days. The threat of them not getting a punch seemed to work well. But there was no way to take back a punch if there was a major incident. The thought of a reward after they had accumulated a number of punches was not working.
I have been surfing through some of my Fav mommy blogs. Amy over at had some great ideas. She keeps a "Store" for her kids to purchase from. I kind of liked that idea but wanted to keep it simple. I am trying to decrease chaos from my life.
SO, I created Fun Bucks. I just made some generic Bucks on my laptop and printed out about 50 of them. Cut them apart with my Fiskar paper slicer. (love that thing)
Then I made a list of what could be purchased with their Fun Bucks. I told the kids that there were things on the list that they had previously gotten for nothing. Such as trips to Chucky Cheese and bowls of ice cream every night.
It has been amazing. LOL My kids were both off of school today for Teacher Inservice and I have never had such a great day with them. They were both willing to fork over 2 bucks each for a bowl of ice cream and didn't whine or cry or throw a fit when informed that they didn't have enough bucks to sleep on the couch tonight. Even though Daddy had already told D that he could. It is has been nothing short of a miracle.
I will keep you informed of any changes.
i have a couple Crafty things that I plan to blog about here shortly but tonight I have an amazing story.
I have 2 very high energy kids. They run circles around me on a daily basis. As a SAHM with a DH that often works later than 6:30, I am the primary caregiver. And often I am too tired to enforce rules. I know that it is said to pick your battles, BUT! I feel that the kids know this strategy and know that I have to pick certain things to enforce. And the more things that I have to choose from, (the more ways that they are naughty) the more that fall by the way side.
Last week, I started a punch card system. Kinda like a frequency card that you get at the salon or the coffee shop. They were eligible for 5 daily punches. Morning, afternoon, evening, bed time and a bonus. It seemed to work well for a couple days. The threat of them not getting a punch seemed to work well. But there was no way to take back a punch if there was a major incident. The thought of a reward after they had accumulated a number of punches was not working.
I have been surfing through some of my Fav mommy blogs. Amy over at had some great ideas. She keeps a "Store" for her kids to purchase from. I kind of liked that idea but wanted to keep it simple. I am trying to decrease chaos from my life.
SO, I created Fun Bucks. I just made some generic Bucks on my laptop and printed out about 50 of them. Cut them apart with my Fiskar paper slicer. (love that thing)
Then I made a list of what could be purchased with their Fun Bucks. I told the kids that there were things on the list that they had previously gotten for nothing. Such as trips to Chucky Cheese and bowls of ice cream every night.
It has been amazing. LOL My kids were both off of school today for Teacher Inservice and I have never had such a great day with them. They were both willing to fork over 2 bucks each for a bowl of ice cream and didn't whine or cry or throw a fit when informed that they didn't have enough bucks to sleep on the couch tonight. Even though Daddy had already told D that he could. It is has been nothing short of a miracle.
I will keep you informed of any changes.
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