Psalm 119:133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
Is there such a thing as a second menopause? Or is there no excuse for the grumpiness I've been feeling lately? What's been going on in our house that makes it seem kind of...out of control?
Especially Luke. Luke is happy, healthy, cheerful and full of energy, and his energy has been stepping all over everyone else's toes, making for lots of cries of "Luke! Stop that!!"
I felt like all I've been doing lately is fussing at him, and he's so sweet, I just hate that.
So two nights ago, I went to bed determined to pray and pray before I slept. Tired mommy that I am, that prayer time didn't last near as long as I wanted it too.
But God is faithful, and I woke up knowing what was wrong.
We weren't ordering our days. A scipture was going through my head, and while I had some of the words wrong, it was still the right answer. I was misquoting Psalm 90:12, saying it this way: "Teach us to ORDER our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom" when actually it says to "Teach us to NUMBER our days."
But still, that was the problem. We were just getting up and doing whatever we felt like doing at the moment, rather than having a plan.
So I decided to order our days. Now these two are not problem:
Beau works full time in the 115 degree heat building barns, and yes, he deserves that frappie. Mary Susannah runs the kitchen, cooks most the meals and bakes everything AND cleans up the kitchen when she is done. She could probably MAKE a frappie as good as any Starbucks could.
It was ME and the little ones who needed help.
And yeah, I do work. I clean the bathrooms and wash the clothes and sweep the floor and buy the groceries and change the sheets and feed the animals and ...well, I'm a homemaker. You get the idea.
But that's not enough. We needed a plan. Proverbs 29:15 says "A child left to himself brings his mother to shame."
And what God revealed to me was that I have the perfect setup to order the kids days. I'm a stay at home mom on a minifarm. What more could I want?
So I dragged out the "Family Friendly Farming" book by Joel Salatin (see my book review blog to read about and buy that book!) and I started planning.
It seemed to me that the perfect thing to do is give the boys, and maybe Angel-Leah, an animal to raise. I talked to the boys, and right away they wanted ducks and geese. Now get this: Tommy wanted geese!! Check out past blog posts to refresh your memory of Tommy and the goose! I guess he's a glutton for punishment, but right now, I'm planning on taking my boys to First Monday at Canton, Texas in September and getting those ducks and geese for them. In the meantime, I told them we will also expand our rabbits. I lugged them out behind the barn, and we pulled out cages and took inventory of what we already had. Then, I said, every morning, we were going to cut some hay for the bunnies and baby chicks. So that's one thing we've been doing:
They had a lot of fun the first day we did this, but this morning, after one basketful, Luke wanted to know if I didn't think I could do this by myself.
Nope, sorry...
Then we lug the hay over and feed the rabbits:
My plan is to build rabbit tractors eventually (maybe soon, since son Gage is coming home for a while THIS WEEKEND, and he always builds me something while he's here?) and we will put the rabbits on pasture to raise. Then my boys job will be to move the tractors a time or two a day. We'll see how that works.
The geese and ducks, I want to put under my fruit trees and see if they will eat enough grasshoppers to keep my trees from being eaten down like they were this year...
Angel-Leah has been a bit easier to work with. She likes being inside, and she is learning to crochet:
We redid the floors in Mary Susannah's room while she was gone earlier this week, and that bonnet was uncovered. It's been on Angel-Leah's head ever since. Fits her, doesn't it??
So, crocheting, ducks, geese (in our imaginations), rabbits and cutting hay with scissors...that's been our last couple of days. We'll start homeschooling soon - maybe sooner than I planned too, and that will take up some more of our days.
I would love to hear how you order your children's day? Or how you used to, when they were young!
Is there such a thing as a second menopause? Or is there no excuse for the grumpiness I've been feeling lately? What's been going on in our house that makes it seem kind of...out of control?
Especially Luke. Luke is happy, healthy, cheerful and full of energy, and his energy has been stepping all over everyone else's toes, making for lots of cries of "Luke! Stop that!!"
I felt like all I've been doing lately is fussing at him, and he's so sweet, I just hate that.
So two nights ago, I went to bed determined to pray and pray before I slept. Tired mommy that I am, that prayer time didn't last near as long as I wanted it too.
But God is faithful, and I woke up knowing what was wrong.
We weren't ordering our days. A scipture was going through my head, and while I had some of the words wrong, it was still the right answer. I was misquoting Psalm 90:12, saying it this way: "Teach us to ORDER our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom" when actually it says to "Teach us to NUMBER our days."
But still, that was the problem. We were just getting up and doing whatever we felt like doing at the moment, rather than having a plan.
So I decided to order our days. Now these two are not problem:
Beau works full time in the 115 degree heat building barns, and yes, he deserves that frappie. Mary Susannah runs the kitchen, cooks most the meals and bakes everything AND cleans up the kitchen when she is done. She could probably MAKE a frappie as good as any Starbucks could.
It was ME and the little ones who needed help.
And yeah, I do work. I clean the bathrooms and wash the clothes and sweep the floor and buy the groceries and change the sheets and feed the animals and ...well, I'm a homemaker. You get the idea.
But that's not enough. We needed a plan. Proverbs 29:15 says "A child left to himself brings his mother to shame."
And what God revealed to me was that I have the perfect setup to order the kids days. I'm a stay at home mom on a minifarm. What more could I want?
So I dragged out the "Family Friendly Farming" book by Joel Salatin (see my book review blog to read about and buy that book!) and I started planning.
It seemed to me that the perfect thing to do is give the boys, and maybe Angel-Leah, an animal to raise. I talked to the boys, and right away they wanted ducks and geese. Now get this: Tommy wanted geese!! Check out past blog posts to refresh your memory of Tommy and the goose! I guess he's a glutton for punishment, but right now, I'm planning on taking my boys to First Monday at Canton, Texas in September and getting those ducks and geese for them. In the meantime, I told them we will also expand our rabbits. I lugged them out behind the barn, and we pulled out cages and took inventory of what we already had. Then, I said, every morning, we were going to cut some hay for the bunnies and baby chicks. So that's one thing we've been doing:
They had a lot of fun the first day we did this, but this morning, after one basketful, Luke wanted to know if I didn't think I could do this by myself.
Nope, sorry...
Then we lug the hay over and feed the rabbits:
My plan is to build rabbit tractors eventually (maybe soon, since son Gage is coming home for a while THIS WEEKEND, and he always builds me something while he's here?) and we will put the rabbits on pasture to raise. Then my boys job will be to move the tractors a time or two a day. We'll see how that works.
The geese and ducks, I want to put under my fruit trees and see if they will eat enough grasshoppers to keep my trees from being eaten down like they were this year...
Angel-Leah has been a bit easier to work with. She likes being inside, and she is learning to crochet:
We redid the floors in Mary Susannah's room while she was gone earlier this week, and that bonnet was uncovered. It's been on Angel-Leah's head ever since. Fits her, doesn't it??
So, crocheting, ducks, geese (in our imaginations), rabbits and cutting hay with scissors...that's been our last couple of days. We'll start homeschooling soon - maybe sooner than I planned too, and that will take up some more of our days.
I would love to hear how you order your children's day? Or how you used to, when they were young!
I *need* to order our days more. Lately we have simply drifted day to day and it has really shown a great deal of lacking character around here :( Most definitely a child left to his own brings his mother shame ;(
ReplyDeleteWhat a fresh word to a weary heart today! Thank you so much! I need to get back on track! We have been on a break from school and I have been getting ready for the next year,while they have been "on their own". I think have a plan and an ordered day is how we are going to finish the summer! Thanks for the wisdom!
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