Memory Verse: 1 Timothy 4:15 (NIV)

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.

Please try to learn our memory verse this week. We will be sharing a new verse every week and hope that you will store them in your hearts and find a special joy in His words.

Intro: It keeps going, and going, and going…. (Marketing credit: Energizer)

Housekeeping: that household mess, it keeps going and going and going. It’s a perpetual chore that we diligently need to keep going on to stay on top it. We all have different ways of keeping ourselves energized.

Assignment: How do you keep energized so you can get it all done? bouncy music? treat it like a workout? Do you use a schedule?, a housekeeping binder system? luck of the draw system?.. or is this an area where you need encouragement? Do you need God’s help to keep order and beauty in your dwelling place? Take this week to tell us how You diligently keep going with your housekeeping chores.

 I actually had to re-write this. I’m trying to decide between the blatant truth or just telling it like it is. ha, ha! The short version - I don’t do well in this area. I want to improve. I continue to work at it. I have been feeling very discouraged in this area lately, am so tired of clutter and mess being everywhere I look, and feel overwhelmed, not knowing where to even start.  It seems I just get one area done and another falls apart.  When I do clean, I love working to either Peter Davidson’s Comfort, or Eden’s Bridge’s Celtic Worship. Philippians 4:13
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Jacqueline at Jacqueline’s Jabberings tagged her readers for a random things meme.

I generally don’t do memes of this nature. However, I thought it would be interesting as I have a few new readers, and I could share some random facts about myself.

Here are the rules.
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag sixish people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I’m a music producer. Officially. I have been known as a pianist, a soloist, a song-writer, and even a recording artist, but I am now officially a music producer. To find out more, stay tuned. I hope to get a post written tomorrow about my latest music venture.

2. I have no middle name. I have a hyphenated first name. I have a last name. When I fill out forms, I always enter n/a in the middle name or initial category.

3. I have visited Maine several times, Texas, Tennesee, Pennsylvania and Virginia twice, and once for the following states: Arizona, California, Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. I have driven through a few others. I have only been to five of the ten provinces and three territories of Canada, not including the one I live in: Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. I have also lived overseas, in South Korea, for nine months.

4. My left ear has a double earlobe.

5. A goal of mine, is to have my own little “studio” down by the water, where I can paint and scrapbook and work with wood - just be creative…in my OWN space.

6. A more serious one: I may very likely never regularly attend a traditional church again. We are home-churchers. We do not believe today’s church practices and traditions and such are the way God intended for believers to meet and function, and we have serious issues with the hierarchy that has been in place over the centuries. Tomorrow we will be gathering with two or three other couples (maybe more? - come join us!) for a time of fellowship. When we have sung and shared and prayed, those who need to leave will, while others will linger for some time, and we’ll share a meal. It’s beautiful and organic and fluid and we LOVE it! It feels so right.

So, I’m going to follow suit with Jac and say, if you’re reading, consider yourself tagged. Don’t feel you have to though. It’s up to you. I just wanted to spice up the blog a little, as all I’ve written lately have been posts related to either work, or my weekly memes.

I have a new, new job.

I quit the other restaurant.  Not because I have a new pass-time of learning a new job for a few days, then leaving.  I had a great opportunity at a restaurant nearby come up.  Today was my first day.  I must say, I like this one MUCH better.  It’s still all sorts of busy, but it’s nice.  And I’m working with older people.  Nothing against younger people.  I was one once.  I suppose I still am.  But you get a different attitude about work from the younger set.  The biggest reason, though for taking this newest job, is that it’s a six-minute round trip; as opposed to a six-TY-minute round trip.  So much more worth it.  This means I’ll actually be taking home pretty much all I earn.  Instead of 1/4-1/3 of it going towards fuel.  God is good!

Oh, and, they want me to work the Christmas season at Kings Landing!  Woo-Hoo!  They make AWESOME tips there.  AND, you get to dress in period costume.  Now that’s my idea of a uniform.  The folks at the new job didn’t sound like it would be a problem for me to take the time.  My sis in law would also like to work at Kings Landing, but she doesn’t want full-time.  They want a five shift/week commitment, so we’re going to see if they will job share.  I can take three shifts, and still do one or two a week at the other restaurant.  Kings Landing is the same distance from my house as the other restaurant.  The only difference is you turn left for Kings Landing, and right for my newest place of employment. 

Happy Saturday, All! 

Thanks for the various thoughts on my post on Saturday. Shortly after I wrote that, Greg and I had a lengthy discussion, prayed, and decided it was time for some worship. We have access to an old barn that has been renovated to use as a place for special meetings. So we phoned our friends with the keys, loaded the kids in the van, and headed out. We spent over an hour before I had to go to work just worshipping and praying together. Our situation didn’t change, but our attitudes did. Yesterday we were feeling the pressure again, and both Greg and I were struggling again, so we decided to again head out there, to just worship. It makes a big difference.

I didn’t mean to imply that all Christians are fake. I just meant that the group of Christians I grew up with were not ones who necessarily dealt with things. We weren’t shown how to process stuff, PROPERLY. We were basically taught, particularly by example, that we don’t speak about the struggle, we only speak positive words. It’s like an unwillingness to be real. Jesus Himself had to work through the emotions and sacrifice He was being asked to make, in the garden, before He got to the point of “nevertheless, not my will, but thine.” He was so anguished He sweated drops of blood. Sounds like some pretty intense processing going on inside of Him.

Anyway, whether it be here in our own home, or at the barn, we’re determined to turn to worshipping the Lord when our situation is overwhelming us. It’s something we would have said we do, but reality was, we weren’t.

If you think of us, one more contract is kind of dangling in front of us, and we’re getting nowhere with actually signing for it. Please pray that the powers that be will make a decision asap. We just want to know. It would be amazing if we could get it. I would continue to work, as we have had to take on a bit more debt to make it through the past couple of months. So I could put some extra towards our debt repayment, and we’ve been hoping for nearly three years to get away in the winter. As you know, ahem, winter is not my best season, so I am really hoping to be able to put a bit aside for a little change of scenery for March Break.

Happy Fall!

Memory Verse: Psalms 26:2 NIV
Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.Please try to learn our memory verse this week. We will be sharing a new verse every week and hope that you will store them in your hearts and find a special joy in His words. Intro: Try it, you’ll like it! (Life Cereal)
When everyone else was afraid to try Life Cereal, they called on Mikey. Sometimes stepping out of our comfort zone is just too scary. Have you felt God gently (or maybe not so gently) nudging you to do something for someone else? You know that it needs to be done, but you keep putting it off because it is outside of your comfort zone? Well ladies, this week we are taking a step outside of our comfort zones.

I dislike my flesh.  I don’t admire my carnal nature.  And my self-centredness is despicable. 

And sometimes, I feel too tired to do anything about it.

I am struggling with my attitude about life right now.  Struggling to keep putting one foot in front of the other with a smile on my face.  It’s easy to grumble and complain.  It’s hard to bless the Lord, anyhow. 

I want to “give thanks in all things.”  I want to learn that in “whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”  But unfortunately for me, I do not possess that happy tendency to do as many Christians do, and smile on anyway.  So there you go.  Full-on admission to being selfish and discontent.  (I feel guilty even expressing this, because just yesterday I was talking with another homeschooling mom who is about my age, and she’s fighting a battle with breast cancer.  Makes me sound petty.)  But, the biggest difference, is that most of those Christians I’ve known who carry on with their “glory hallelujahs” and “bless you, brothers” and “the devil is out to get you, but praise the Lord anyway, sisters” just aren’t realistic.  They don’t really deal with the big, difficult struggles in life.  They shove it all down inside, and pretend it isn’t there.  So is it better to live in denial, and have some sense of peace, albeit manufactured?  Or is it better to get the mess out in the open, even if it means a few moments, days or even months of anger and resentment being the main emotions you express? 

What say you?

Well, I’m still recovering!  ha, ha…

My shift was good, went fast.  They basically threw me into the fray.  This particular restaurant in understaffed, and they don’t have enough extra people to train.  So I hung out with one of the girls, and helped her assemble orders.  I’m in the take-out section, for now. 

The girl training me has been there for three weeks.  lol!

But, I’m thinking it’s pretty much a God thing.  She’s a Christian.  And we had some great conversation after the crowds died down and we were able to work on stocking supplies.  She’s got a great heart, strong faith, and is witnessing to her co-workers.  From the first time I entered this business to leave a resume to last night, I’ve had a good feeling about it.  I’m still struggling with just wanting to be home with my kids and hubby at night, but I know that this doesn’t have to be long-term.  For now, I think I’ll enjoy it. 

Note to self: purchase some REAL non-slip shoes. 

I will be getting to my Blogger Friend and Homeschool Memoirs posts asap. 

Well, today I go to work.  For the first time in well over eight years.  It’s nothing glamorous - serving/hosting at a restaurant - but it’s an income.  The business has not done well the past two years, and we just can’t keep up on the few contracts that Greg has.  We *could* move to a cheaper house, but that might take months just to sell this place, not to mention we couldn’t afford the moving expenses.  Traveling to town is hard with the gas prices, so in some ways, a move back to town makes the most sense.  At the same time, we’re not convinced that we should be anywhere but here.  So for now, I need to work, so we can eat.  Cause we all like food.  We’re crazy like that.  My first shift is today, and I work for six hours.  I know it will fly by, as it usually does on first days.  I’m not nervous about the job, really, just that I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing.  This means being away from the kids at night, so Greg will have tucking-in duties.  I’ll miss that.  At the same time, it’s been so long since I’ve done something that was sort of separate from my family - I mean this is FOR my family - but it’s just me…and the general public.  ha, ha….

Anyway, I WISH we were in a place where I didn’t have to do this, but I just keep telling myself now I’m even more Proverbs 31.  Now I’m out in the “marketplace,” while still homeschooling the kiddos in the morning, and getting lots of time with them.

Pray for me!

So, here we are, beginning our third week of school this year.  So far, so good.  This is our fourth official year of homeschooling, and the very FIRST where I’ve started on my target date, and stuck with it EVERY day.  I’ve had a few days where I felt more like doing next to nothing, but we’ve gotten it done anyway.  Not much resistance from the kids, and in fact, Cole seems to be more motivated than I am.  Luke is difficult to focus for any time, so I’m going to be purchasing a timer, as he loves to race the clock. 

We have a few fun field trips coming up over the next several weeks, and we will soon begin making trips to the library frequently.  Something that hasn’t happened since before the baby was born.  The kids LOVE the library.  I need to learn to relax while we’re there.  And I think we’ll be actually staying there longer when we go.  Up until now, we’ve basically made a quick run in, grab a few books each, and then back out.  After having a brief tour of the library in June, the kids are anxious to be able to stay, sit at the tables, use the computer and read books before we leave. 

For the other homeschoolers, how is it going in your homeschool?