This is a crazy time for us right now. The school year is winding down and summer is on the way. I have three kids getting ready for summer camp and another two getting ready for summer internships. Throw in a birthday or two and it's a bit crazy.
Adding to the level of chaos, is the house. My normally too-small, too-crowded house is filled to the brim right now, since I started cleaning out my mom's storerooms. I have hauled home more than I've had time to process, so stuff is stacked in every spare space. By "spare space", I mean down the front hall, in the corners of the den, large amounts of the library, a piece of my bedroom and most of my front porch.
I can't deal with the chaos anymore, and I have fourteen(!) books to review next month, so it's time to do something radical. I'm planning a two-week purge. I'm talking extreme decluttering. This is what I'm planning to accomplish:
•front porch completely cleaned off
•front hall completely cleared out
•all boxes and containers removed from hall
•access to library restored and space cleared to move around
•I have some food items that need to be put in canisters and put away
•clean out and remove dead freezer
•lay out some simple menus for next month when I'm going to be reading like crazy
•work on the kitchen, which is looking a bit ragged at the moment.
•get my clothes weeded out and everything I'm keeping put away.
Whew! That's a lot for two weeks, isn't it? Prayers and well wishes are certainly welcome.
Since misery loves company, if any of you have stuff you need or want to accomplish in the next two weeks, whether a little or a lot, feel free to join in. Leave a comment and let me know what you're planning to do before summer gets into full swing.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Food for Thought
” When home ties are loosened, when men and woman cease to regard a worthy family life, with all its duties and all its responsibilities lived up, as the best life worth living, then evil days for the nation are at hand.”
--Theodore Roosevelt
--Theodore Roosevelt
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Pearl Girls Giveaway Winner
AND ... thanks too, to all of you who entered to win the beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. I'm thrilled to announce that the winner is ...
Jennifer (heavensent1)!
Jennifer, please email amy@pearlgirls.info with your mailing address.
If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we're all about. The purpose of Pearl Girls is to connect women so that together, we can make a difference in the world. All proceeds of the Pearl Girls book go in full to two charities: Wings (women in need growing stronger) to help fund a safe house in the Chicago suburbs and to Hands of Hope to help build wells for schoolchildren in Uganda. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls™ products to help support Pearl Girls.
Please stop by the Pearl Girls blog and connect with us there.
Quirky Quote of the Week
Never go to your high school reunion pregnant or they will think that is all you have done since you graduated.
--Erma Bombeck
--Erma Bombeck
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Pearl Girls Mother of Pearl Mother's Day Series: Each Life is Unique by Lucinda Secrest McDowell
AND ... do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. To enter, just {CLICK THIS LINK} and fill out the short form. Contest runs 5/1-5/8 and the winner will on 5/11. Contest is only open to US and Canadian residents.
If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we're all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls™ products (all GREAT Mother's Day gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.
And to all you MOMS out there! Happy Mother's Day!
“God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. II Peter 1.3 (NIV)
Moms, God wants you to know that He has given you everything you need for life --- your unique life. He does not plan to give you what you might need to live the life of your best friend, or your neighbor, or even your favorite mother-model. No, God has called you to the life that He planned. I suspect that for most of us, it didn’t turn out to be the life we thought it might be… so long ago when we were young and dreaming of ‘growing up.’
On Mother’s Day I often recall my own dreams to one day be a mother. I grew up playing with dolls and looking to my own Mama as a model for that particular role in life. However, by the time I reached my thirties I was still not a mother! God did, however, have a plan. It just wasn’t what I imagined.
My own unique life would find me becoming a mother through the adoption of my first three children who were ages 9, 7 and 4; and then much later giving birth to our fourth child. Of course I was shocked when God revealed this to me, but I was ecstatic as well. It’s as though I could hear Him saying, “Well, you’re not getting any younger so I’m just going to just give you a jump start with three at one time!”
A huge blessing! A huge adjustment! A joy and a struggle. Change is often like that, isn’t it? We finally get what we want then we have to deal with it. May I just offer a bit of advice if you just got a great answer to prayer, but perhaps not in the way or form you imagined? Just receive it. Embrace it. And be willing to move forward into a new paradigm for your life. So what if you’re not like all the other mothers you know? So what if you’re not like your own mother? So what if your family unit is different? I guarantee God has a plan.
Not only did he want me to embrace my own story, but He called me as a mother to do perhaps one of the most important tasks of all --- to nurture my children to live their own unique lives. Not for me to try and squeeze them into what I hoped and dreamed they would be. Not for me to try and live my life through them. But to recognize how God made them, gifted them, and called them to their own special place.
All of my 4 kids are different from one another. Let’s take sports, for instance: I have one child who wins gold medals in international tennis competition, one who is a born equestrian, another who competes nationally in obstacle course shooting matches, and yet another who manages to dance onstage in 3 inch heels, do cartwheels and splits while singing at the same time. Now, honestly, I do none of these things. And yet they do.
I don’t remember placing my order with God for these things. But I do remember when that tennis player turned 9 years old and I enrolled him in Special Olympics for the first time and how it changed his life… and ours. I remember getting a counselor job at an exclusive summer camp so that my daughter could take English riding classes. I remember being a Cub Scout leader (even though I knew nothing about boys) so that son could one day become an Eagle scout and pursue his love of the great outdoors. And yes, I remember enrolling my preschooler in dance lessons. Later when all the little girls were scared to go on stage for the recital, she exclaimed that she had endured a whole year of lessons just so she could go on stage.
Don’t compare yourself to someone else. And don’t live vicariously through your favorite reality show star. Live your own story. And Moms, raise your kids to embrace the unique life God has for them.
Remember, He has given us everything we need for life!
Lucinda Secrest McDowell, a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, is the author of 10 books including “Role of a Lifetime,” “Amazed by Grace,” “Spa for the Soul” and the new Bible Study “Fit and Healthy Summer.” She is an international conference speaker and enjoys being a Pearl Girl from “Sunnyside” – her home in a New England village. Visit Cindy at www.EncouragingWords.net
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