My Truths

As I stood in the very hot water of my sister-in-law's beautiful stone-tiled shower, I had a few moments of peace this weekend. In those brief moments, I had an epiphany of sorts.

Every mom has certain truths about herself and her family that can make it or break it. For me, I realized, those two things are very simple:

1) If I have enough sleep, I am a better parent, wife, friend, and person; and

2) If I get up before my children, take a shower, get dressed, greenish grayish hair done and face made up (not like I'm going clubbin', but a little foundation, a little mascara and a swipe of bronzer and lip gloss), have some hot water, tea or coffee (pregnancy dependent), and some moments in Bible Study or other inspirational reading, I am a better wife, parent, friend and person for the rest of the day.

So, once I discovered these two truths, in that peaceful, beautiful hot hot shower, I thought to myelf, "These two things are simple and yet I have not made any effort to ensure that every day has these two things in it. That's not very smart...and I am a smart lady darn it!"

So i thought about what the common denominator is in making these things happen...

That's easy, and so I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before--maybe I did and wasn't disciplined enough to implement it. Maybe I've just been too lazy and tired the last few years to really commit to bedtime enforcement (my Achilles' heel as a parent.)

The simple answer is that both require me to put my children to bed consistently at 8:00PM so that I can go to bed by 9:00PM (9:30 at the latest). This will ensure enough sleep for me and the ability to get up when that alarm wakes me up at 5:00AM (maybe 5:15) for my own quiet time and self-preparation.

What are your truths? What are the things you KNOW will make you a better mom, wife, friend or parent each day? Have you implemented the simple changes you know would help? Well, maybe if you can pray for me to be strong enough to implement bedtime (and I really need help with this because I'm a big ol' softy) then I can pray for you to do something powerful and meaningful (and probably pretty simple) for you and your family!

Blessings fellow travelers!

Chickens Among Us

We got new baby chicks the week of Easter. We are not sure why, except that the chickens we have are so great. They provide us eggs, fertilizer, bug control (they can only eat so many earwigs, but they try to help out), garbage disposal (they eat anything) and a good laugh now and then. So, why not have more???

??????

We're still not sure about this decision. It's kind of like having more kids. The ones we have are great, so...bad reasoning...

Anyway, the new baby chicks are different types than our old ones. My favorite new chick is the light brahma, which has feathered FEET! Scott built them a great little enclosure in the garage complete with pine shavings, DE, and the perfect little roost. It's nice to see the little girlies whenever I travel to the garage fridge for my daily (one of my daily) Diet Pepsi(s). It is sad for the van that it had to be displaced for now, but if the van ate earwigs, maybe we'd reconsider.

Everybody's gotta love that last view of the rear...I mean chicken cage. :)

A Night to Remember

Tonight I am facing the week ahead with hope. I am hopeful that this week will bring the Lord's presence in our home, that He will be with each of us and teach us things He wants us to know about Him, about ourselves and about how we should live. I pray that we would lead our children straight down the path that is within His will for their lives, that we would not falter in our commitment and devotion to His ways and His alone. Let us be the light in the darkness Lord; let us not focus on the negative, but rejoice in the positive. Let us remember everything could be good or it could be bad. And let us focus on the good. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.