Do you ever feel like you’re just rushing your life away? You rush the kids to school, rush to get to work on time, rush back home and make a quick dinner before rushing to your child’s practice and then rushing home and hurrying the kids into bed by 8:30pm just to get up and do the same routine the next morning. AGH! I feel like there is just never enough time. It makes it very difficult to spend quality time with your family. Especially if you’re trying to spend one-on-one time with each of your children who are in totally different phases of childhood. And forget nourishing your relationship with your husband. By the time you get the kids to bed, you’re so exhausted you just crash. I’ve actually caught myself sending my husband emails during the day from work just to keep him aware of what’s going on with the kids. Communication is a real problem.
We discussed in Sunday school class this morning that when you hurry so much through your day you tend to miss what the Lord is saying to you. Well, no wonder I’m so worn out! I don’t know about you, but when my days get so busy I develop a severe case of control issues. I take the whole world in on my shoulders and I assure you nobody wants to cross me or question my motives. As my oldest daughter put it, “Mom your either super nice or crazy mean, there’s no in between”. The problem is that I lose my focus on the Lord and bringing glory to Him. I lose site that He is in control, not me. Well thank goodness the Lord loves me for who I am, failures and all. When I prioritize my life appropriately and spend some time with Him first thing in the morning before anyone else is awake in the house my day goes so much more smoothly.
My mission for the week (and yours too if you choose to accept it) is to SAVE MONEY on groceries! I don’t know about you but February has been a tough month for us financially. It’s a short month and for those of us who are hourly it is a real struggle to make ends meet. Especially if you are trying to live Dave Ramsey’s way and “live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later”. Well, I was talking to a couple of friends the other day and discussing this very thing. They proceeded to tell me that they had saved more than they’d spent on groceries this week. One had saved over $100 and only spent around $75! I had to know how! I cut coupons but find very few for the things I really need. They told me about www.Southernsavers.com, a great little blog that gives you the best prices on items per store and links to various online printable coupon sites. They found coupons for buy one get one free plus coupons for amounts off the price on those same items. AND they found these coupons on items that they frequently buy. I try really hard not buy food my family doesn’t normally eat just because I have a coupon. Those items tend to sit around and either get spoiled and thrown out or sent to school for one of those food drives. NO MORE WASTING MONEY!
If you decide to take on this challange with me, let me know how it turns out for you. Also, if you know of other cost cutting techniques, please share with us!
4/13/2010
UPDATE: Now you can get electronic coupons on your SMARTPHONES! For example, go to Target.com and click on Coupons. Under the Coupon Catagories section their is a link for Mobile Coupons where you can sign up to receive coupons via text on your mobile phone. Then when you are at the store, the clerk can scan the bar code of your coupons right off your phone!
Can you imagine! Living in the south we don’t see much snow. There are kids out making snowmen in the front yards, snowball fights all around and your kid has a runny nose. Do you let them go out in the cold? “But mom I already have a runny nose. It’s not like it’s going to get any worse!” Well, I found some great tips in an interesting article I read in Parenting Magazine. It seems that kids get 8 to 12 respiratory infections a year. According to Vivian Lennon, M.D. an Atlanta pediatrician, if they feel well enough they don’t have to stay inside. Here are some guidelines she gave for various symptoms:
Fever: If your child has a fever but it goes away with medication, let them go out and play for a while. However, a fever indicates that the child is contagious and should not mingle with others.
Sore throat: If it is a mild case and your child does not have a fever, let them do what they feel like. If it is a severe sore throat and your child has trouble swallowing, a strep test is needed and a visit to the doctor is in order.
Cough: Even after an upper respiratory infection is gone, the cough can linger for several days. As long as your child feels fine, stays hydrated, and can breath normally then they can go out in short intervals. If they become winded and the cough increases, they’ll need to come in and rest.
Runny nose: I don’t know about you but for as long as my kids are in daycare they have a constant runny nose. As long as they don’t have a fever along with it they can play outdoors in the cold. Just keep watch of the color and consistency of the mucus. If it becomes thick green or yellow for several days a doctor visit is in order.
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2
The subject of angels came up in my Sunday school class not too long ago. Our pastor was discussing the fearful fact that there are demons on this earth sent by the devil doing their best to enlarge the wedge between God and the lost. Yet, there are also angels sent by the Lord to bless us. He asked if any of us would like to share an experience where they might have been touched by an angel. I wanted so badly to have something to share but couldn’t think of anyone in my life that was so virtuous to have been a likely angel. I wanted so badly to have had such an amazing experience. I didn’t think about it anymore after church service that day but over the next several days that week an incident from my past was at the front of my mind. It almost consumed me and I could feel the emotion of that day with me again as if it had just happened. I was bothered about it to the point that I thought if I told somebody the story of what had happened that (like a dream that just won’t go away until you tell someone about it) it would go away. So I told my husband and will now tell you.
My dad and I had gone white water rafting on the Ocoee River one weekend in the summer of 1985. I was 11 years old and it had become an annual father-daughter trip. I always loved having this one-on-one time with my dad so we could just talk about anything but I was 11 now and was getting to where I knew pretty much everything and he was mostly wrong about anything and everything. So, on the ride home we were quiet, him probing me with questions about my life and me reading a book and mostly ignoring him. About an hour from home the car jolted, we had a flat tire. My dad managed to get the car safely to the side of the interstate and stopped. Well there were no cell phones back then, not even bag phones, and he didn’t have a spare tire. Almost immediately he realized he’d have to start walking to the nearest exit recalling that it might have a gas station and could call my brother or mom to come get us. He told me he didn’t know what type people he might run into and felt it better if I locked the doors and stayed in the car. He reminded me that Butch, his little 25 automatic pistol, was in the glove box if somebody came up all I needed to do was show it to them. I wasn’t too worried because it was only about 4 o’clock or so in the middle of summer. He should be able to get to a phone pretty quickly and we were only about an hour away from home. Well, he didn’t get 50 feet down the road before a big brown conversion van stopped and picked him up. I knew he’d be back in no time. I went back to reading my book, feet propped up, really annoyed at the delay more than anything. Hours passed. Several hours. It got dark. I got scared.
We were on the interstate so cars were frequently passing by really fast. But I noticed one car, a long Cadillac type car passed by really slow. Then it came by again. Finally, it pulled in behind my dad’s car. I guess being 11 years old I didn’t think this guy was coming to hurt me. I thought he was coming to see if I needed any help. An old man (reminded me of my grandfather) got out and came up to my window, knocked on the glass, and said something. I couldn’t hear him. I thought he was just old and couldn’t talk loud. Unfortunately, I was in a car with electric windows (a relatively new feature in ’85) and I thought my dad left the key but I couldn’t find it. So, I cracked the door open. This man proceeded to yell in a LOUD voice at me saying I should NEVER under ANY circumstances open the door to a stranger when I am alone and in an unfamiliar territory. Well, I was shocked. I thought how dare this man yell at me. He doesn’t know me. So, I closed the door and locked it, opened the glove box and slowly took Butch out and laid him on my lap. Seeing this, the man slowly backed away and went back to his car. Showed him. Well, that sweet, precious man went back and sat on the hood of that Cadillac until my dad was able to get back to me a couple of hours later.
As I was telling this story to my husband my eyes filled with tears because it dawned on me. DUH! The Lord is trying to tell me (remind me) that I have had the honor of being touched by an angel. This man was an angel sent by Him to protect me. He was saying “HELLO! My hand was in on that situation.” Now, how ashamed I am at how I treated that man. I’m sure he’s gone on to live with the Lord by now, nearly 25 years later. And although I can’t take back my actions, I can pay it forward.
If you believe you’ve had an experience with an angel, share your story here!
The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever. (Isaiah 40:6-8)
On Wednesdays I have the pleasure of going to lunch with my middle child and her 3rd grade class. Here lately every time we go and sit down at the long table with her friends there is always one child anxiously waiting for me to get settled so they can start asking me questions. “Does she really have 4 dogs?” “She said her dad climbed Mt. Everest, twice. Is that true?” “Does she really have a twin sister that stays home and doesn’t have to go to school?” As badly as I wanted to back her up and say oh yes he’s climbed Mt. Everest several times barefoot and walking backwards, I simply say no and give her the dreaded look all mothers give when they are entirely disappointed.
Of course as parents we strive to teach our children right from wrong from the very beginning. It seems easy for them to understand when your 2 year old slaps her big sister and you explain to her that we do not hit each other under any circumstances. And when your 8 year old tells her classmates that she slept in the freezer last night just to see what would happen it’s easy to tell her that not telling the truth is a sin and we should never tell a lie even if we are just trying to impress our friends thinking they will like us better. Sometimes it’s not so easy to explain to a young teenager that not only do we tell the truth but there is an absolute truth and that there really isn’t a gray area. Luckily, God set the standard for absolute truth and provided us with a written record of right and wrong, the Bible. It is complete, right, full of wisdom, and reliable.
God gave us a conscience to help us to know right from wrong but it can be flawed or weak because we are sinners by nature. We must rely on a higher standard to guide us because the Creator knows what is best for His creation. So what do we do if we are not clear on what to do? Pray. Pray. Pray until you get an answer. If you ask, God will give you the wisdom you need as you seek Him, as you study His word, and as you listen for His voice.
Welcome to From One Mom To Another! I started this blog in the hopes of networking with other like-minded women to share in the joys and trials of daily life as a working mother, a wife, and a Christian woman. Please join me as we strive to find a healthy balance between family life and career and living the life God has planned for us.
