A bit of encouragement today

...[S]eeing that like the Holy Spirit in my own life, I was coming along side them, helping them, encouraging them in the path of righteousness in their own lives as one of my primary roles as a mom.

“No, not that way, but this is the true way.” over and over and over again, gently, lovingly, firmly, consistently. Always be ready to praise for good choices and say, “You are growing so strong inside, and I see you making such wise choices.” ~Sally Clarkson

I found this bit of Sally's post from last week especially encouraging... as well as the rest of it.

I don't know how many of you are feeling the same way these days, but I am overwhelmed with the task of raising these littles. Four and a half, three, and just about one.

I am so tired.

Failing constantly. Regularly losing my patience. Yelling. Ugh!

But I'm encouraged today to be reminded that it's a slow process. And by that I don't exactly mean that it's going to take a. long. time. Though that is true too. What I mean is that I need to slow down. Remember that this is my job. Slowly walking alongside each of my babies "over and over and over again, gently, lovingly, firmly, consistently."

Anyone else struggling to re-boot a 3 year old???

Labels: As it happens..., Life Lessons for Mommy, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 2:44 PM 3 Comments

Harvesting

Since I've been sick, our little garden has been sorely neglected. Read: not watered, tended, or otherwise visited more often than not. Being as that we're gardening in a greenhouse, not watering is a problem. We get no help from the rain.

Last night we spent a small amount of time down there "tending". Tying things up, ripping things out, etc. Oh, and harvesting. Mostly herbs, but we also pulled out close to 10 pounds of potatoes.

Yes, they are early. And therefore probably not going to store well. Like I said. We weren't watering much. And the plants were pretty dead earlier than they otherwise would have been. So we pulled them all out. And we did it wrong, so blight is a concern. So I'll be cooking lots of mashed potatoes for the freezer in the next day and a half before we leave town.

It also seem that there was a plant predator of some kind in our greenhouse in the last 48 hours since I'd been down to check on things. ALL the parsley was gone... well, except the green stems sticking up naked. We also found that several of our Echinacea blooms were bent over. Took a moment to figure that it's because just about all the leaves were gone off the plant! Ugh. They got most of the potato tops too. Not sure if we're talking mammal or insect, but we didn't see any evidence of one or the other.



We also did some blueberry picking this week at a semi-nearby local organic farm. We'll be going back tomorrow morning I hope (before the heat kicks in) but we started with 5 pounds in the freezer already!... well, minus what we ate. :)

Unfortunately, more of these guys will probably be waiting to startle me while picking. I could due without them!


You harvesting anything yet???

Labels: As it happens..., In our garden

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 11:45 AM 0 Comments

Where is my heart?

Well... first, let's start with a simpler question. Where am I? Here. I am here at home with my family. My mom, the last of our more than a month of help, left yesterday and if feels like a week ago. Truth be told, I've been able to take care of things on my own for a few weeks now, but it was nice to have the help since she was coming for vacation anyway.

Though I still have at least a month of antibiotics left, really, I'd say I'm just about back to normal. At least what I remember normal to be. Energy wise, I'm doing great! The only two little things that remain are my minor memory lapses from time to time and my singing voice. Now sure why that last one is happening, but I haven't been able to sing quite like I used to since that first weekend of being soooo sick. Maybe it is unrelated, or maybe it will still go away (as I'm hoping with the memory thing)... but if it doesn't, I'm ok with that too.


Funny story. Back in May, the Lord was doing some things in my heart. I read a couple different blog posts and articles that brought conviction and little pricks to my heart (sadly, I don't remember now where I read anything... sorry!) Coupled with what I've known for months (years?) now, I was beginning to give some things over to my Lord to control and decide. Among these was how I spend my time.

I felt a strong urge to take a blogging break. But this after 2 months of focusing on raising my numbers and doing all sorts of research to try to use this blog to help my husband build our "house" fund. My posting was regular, lots (um... that's a relative thing you know!) of you were reading, and I had the full backing and support of my sweet husband. Then these nudges. I began talking my heart pulls over with My Beloved (he was supportive of this too... do you sense a theme?) It seemed maybe I should take the month of June off. No blogging. Minimal reading of blogs. Minimal time at the computer. Period. I was really liking the idea.

Then I thought... maybe July. Things are so busy anyway in July with out of town trips and visitors. Maybe I'll take July off instead.

Then May 31st came and I still hadn't said anything about taking June off, so I thought July for sure. I'd just keep posting... but be careful not to spend too much time online.

Ahem.

Ahem again.

And so some of you may have noticed, that other than a couple update type posts and a blurb on being thankful for Lyme's, I took the month of June off.

I'm not sure I can tell you in only a few words how great it's been, but I will tell you that this time away has helped break my dependence on computer time. I've occasionally even considered walking away for good, and for the first time in years, I think I actually could do it. Easily. I don't actually want to be here sitting at the computer. At all. And if that is what I felt the Lord wanted me to do, I'd be saying good-bye.

But I don't think so. Not yet anyway. I don't know what His plans are for this little blog, but I know what his plans are for me (at least some of them) and they include lots of time focused wholly on my babies and my home (and Him of course). Not my computer screen.

I hope to share some of what this has all meant for me, but in the mean time, I'm back. But my heart... finally... is at home!

Labels: As it happens..., Life Lessons for Mommy, Lyme Disease

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 8:50 PM 2 Comments