Raking in the Dough

Tomorrow I'm going to earn some money. The first money I have earned in at least 2+ years. I have always worked up until I quit a few years ago to stay home. I worked from the age of 13 until I went to college. I took off my freshman year at the request of my dad so I could "learn to study." After that I worked the remainder of college and after graduation, began teaching. After I quit teaching, I worked part-time for several years. I have nearly always drawn a paycheck of some sort.

Tomorrow I will use all the training I received as a reading specialist to test a little girl who is struggling with reading. I will earn $10.

I know! But I'm still excited. It feels good to use what I know to help someone else and earn a measly little amount to help our family. Who knows? Maybe testing will turn into some tutoring jobs? It certainly would be nice.

It's hard to trust God for the future sometimes. I know so many families who have operated under the philosophy that mom will stay home when the kids are little and then return to work when they are in school. Many times the reason given is because they have to do something. I mean, in a few years the kids will be in college and they will need money for cars and braces, etc.

I understand that way of thinking, but if you understand God's word to say that wives should be keepers at home, then that plan doesn't work as well. Homeschoolers really have a problem as no matter how old the kids are.....they aren't going to school. It makes it doubly hard for mom to help out earning money. Which makes you begin to question all the things you are "supposed" to do.....college, cars, vacations, etc. Who says that's how we must live?

I've heard women say that they truly believe God wants them to be home, but then when they throw their job application out there and get a job offer, they say that clearly God wanted them to have that job! Either the Bible addresses this or it doesn't. I don't believe God would leave us to wonder on such a huge topic.

We are just better at listening to our culture than God's Word.

So why am I taking this job? Because it will take 1 hour and my kids will not be neglected. I can help a friend, earn a little money in the process and be done. I think there are probably tons of ways for wives to earn money and I am all for that if it can be done from home. The more a job takes a woman away from the home (and from her family!) the more leery I am. It's hard to keep the home if you aren't there.

Ah well. I never thought this way until a few years ago. My heart changed long before I came home. I didn't think there was ANY way I could ever become a homemaker but by the grace of God....I am. Whenever I think of it, I am motivated to work even harder for my family. I am so grateful to be here.

I just found out about a friend who has gone back to work full time as her youngest child is now in school. It breaks my heart to think she is not at her house taking care of things anymore. I am praying for their family. I hope they will decide it's not worth it, trust God, and she will come home again. I do not think it is impossible anymore. The Bible transcends culture and years. His plan for the family still works.

Even if you have to eat a lot of bologna sandwiches. :)

What's Better Than Schoolwork?

Field trips, of course!!!

Train rides....

Spending time with friends....

Searching for...
and finding that perfect pumpkin.

All of that is better than schoolwork!
(But tomorrow it's business as usual. :)

Your Daily Cry

I love Sara Groves. I love her even more now. I'll give you a few reasons why in this post but first of all, if you do nothing else, listen to this story she tells.....



...and then tell me how you can not want to go give away half of everything you own to someone who needs it. I love because he loved me when I had nothing. I was not a person of promise either. He gave everything. He loves us.

Here are some other great links.

I Saw What I Saw
Love is Still a Worthy Cause (the song)

I Can't Even Concentrate on the Furniture

We are in the market for a new chair as our ten year old recliner finally bit the dust. We really need a chair because without it, we only have the couch to sit on. We do not enjoy sitting that close to each other in the evenings....all four of us. Lined up like little monkeys.

We have Bible study with good friends every other Friday and last week I grabbed the outside chairs from the garage and put them in the living room. They are really good friends so you can do that. S got home from work and said, "We're back to lawn furniture?" Actually even when we were newlyweds we didn't have lawn furniture. He suggested we get a cable spool for an end table too. Hey, I liked the cable spools. Mostly.

So I've been looking on Craig's List hoping to score a great chair for very little money. Can we just establish a few things?

1. It's called a dining room table. NOT a dinning room table. Stop it with the double n already.

2. I don't care if you paid $4,000 for it new....it's not new anymore and you need to get rid of it so come down on your price.

3. If you are going to post a picture of a chair and matching ottoman, consider taking the baby toy off the ottoman. Consider taking the heap of whatever it is out of the chair. (Is that laundry? Is that the baby???) It's just a thought.

4. "It rocks back and forth" is not tantalizing me either. It's a rocker. I expect that.

5. Throwing the word "designer" in the title doesn't fool me. Everything was designed by somebody!

And for goodness sake use spell check or get a friend to look over your work!

Still looking.....

When It All Fell Apart

I am always honest about my lack of natural organizing skills. I am a work in progress in this area. (An entire category called "disorganization" is a dead giveaway, huh?)

To be fair, I am still pretty new at all this homemaking stuff. In the days of yore, ladies got married, set up housekeeping, and started running a house. A while later, children came along and they adjusted as they went. Plus they probably learned a lot about being a homemaker as they grew up.

Not so my generation! I've been a wife for the better part of two decades and a mom for one decade.....and something as simple as allergies can throw our whole household into a tailspin.

See, I became a full-time homemaker a little over 2 years ago. I already had 2 kiddos and a house full of accumulated stuff. (I would REALLY like to wake up one Saturday and clean the whole house in 3o minutes like I used to.) We were in the thick of life and THAT was my training ground for full-time homemaking. Oh, while learning to homeschool too.

Which is why I'm still learning.

Anyway, we went to some local historical places yesterday and enjoyed it so much. What a great way to spend a Saturday! Part of the local historical place was "restoring the landscaping to historical accuracy" which S said was fancy talk for "we aren't mowing anymore." :) It was really neat to see all the native plants around and it made me wonder out loud if pioneers had allergies. I wondered that as I had been sneezing my head off for half the afternoon.

I managed to cook supper but by 8:00 I could no longer keep my eyes open because they were burning so badly. Plus I had taken an allergy pill and I was sick of blowing my nose so I just went to bed. I woke up....get this.....12 HOURS LATER! I would have been really nice had I been able to breathe.

So, I woke up in a still-groggy, drug induced state and realized that it was impossible to get all four of us dressed and out the door in 45 minutes for church. IM-POSSIBLE! Wanna know why?

I normally do all this on Saturday evening, but I needed to locate outfits for all of us, iron them, find socks that match the outfits, and fix 3 heads of hair. Plus feed 2 faces and find Bibles, shoes (again that match), etc. Forty-five minutes was not enough. So instead, S went to church and I sat on the couch and stared while the drugs wore off.

My point is, our lives should not be SO disorganized that it takes this much effort to get ready for church. If the laundry were done, if some clothes were ironed, if breakfast was thought out, etc. it would be so much easier.

Still working on it. I'm new at this. But I want to be able to face down an allergy emergency and come out victorious.

What sets your household on "out of control" mode?