At our house we have had kids playing outside, and laundry hanging on the line! It’s been a whole new world after a long a bitterly cold winter. These warm early spring days can be some of the most enjoyable days of the year, when your skin remembers what it feels like to have sunshine soaking into it.
Daily Planning & List-Making
I love my daily list. In my early years of homemaking, I used those narrow little $1 notepads. Oh for the days when all my tasks could fit so neatly into such a slim space!
Then I upgraded to a journal size, then a school notebook size, and then I recently found my ultimate dream in list-making… what is called an “Organizing Notebook” and is actually 9.5 x 11.5! It allows me to have a little more “margin in my days” literally, haha. I found it at Staples and hope to have such good fortune the next time I need a new notebook.
I can’t use a traditional planner. I have looked at them, but I just can’t. I start every day with a blank piece of lined notebook paper (now in this amazing larger size). I make my own little sections, and start each day by writing down all the things.
Main section: what I need to do or hope to do that day.
Right column: who is coming and going at what times, or being picked up or dropped off.
Bottom right: what is for supper.
Above that: any evening commitments we have.
Lower section: Items I need to do that pertain to our work with ARP.
I may dress it up with a few colorful stickers, or use some colorful gel pens. And off we go, the day begins, notebook always nearby to keep panic from setting in.
Cooking: Quick & Easy Menu Idea
Here is a meal idea for when you don’t have time to do much, but need something more appealing than a frozen pizza or hot dogs. These frozen ravioli are delicious, offered in three varieties. They only take a few minutes to boil, while you pop some garlic toast in the oven, heat up some sauce, and mix up a salad. Serve with mozzarella cheese. (The big bags of frozen shredded mozzarella from Sam’s are much better than the typical grocery store brands. My teenage son literally requested that I get this specific cheese after trying it for the first time at his Grandma’s house. I get the big bag, and then divide it up and freeze it in quart or gallon size ziplocks.)
Gifting: Vintage Corelle
Husbands can be hard to buy gifts for. Here’s an idea that may work for you, if your husband is at all sentimental about his childhood memories. His mom likely had corelle dishes, and your husband probably remembers which pattern it was.
I got Steve these two cups and saucers at a little vintage shop last summer, and gave them to him for Christmas. He seemed to enjoy this gift and be surprised by it. They look pretty in the china cabinet and they are just right for his Sunday afternoon cup of coffee. They bring back good memories for him, too!
Playing: A Boy with his Boomerang
Speaking of gifts, Micah got a boomerang for his birthday last December. He is finally getting a chance to try it out on these warmer pre-spring days. He flopped on the couch, exhausted, after being outside for a long time. “That boomerang is addictive, Mom! I just couldn’t stop throwing it… that boomerang wore me out!”
Thinking & Growing: Be an Encourager, not a silent Pharisee
Something I’ve been thinking about: I have within my power to give encouragement to someone, even if/when I have “reservations” about the path that person is choosing.
God may actually be working in someone’s life in a way that is outside of my own personal comfort zone. Imagine that! Maybe my “reservations” are correct, and the person in question is actually mixed up, confused, or misguided. But on the other hand, maybe I’m the one who is mixed up. As Steve has said on more than one occasion, “God works through His confused people every day.” (Not referring to open sin, of course, but to those who are trying to do good
I don’t have to fully understand the situation, or have all my questions answered. That person in my life may be desperate for encouragement, for someone who believes in them, for someone who sees their heart to follow God even when others don’t understand. A kind word spoken to someone under these circumstances will never be forgotten. (I know, when others have reached out like this to me, I haven’t forgotten. And I never will.)
I don’t want to hold back and be a Pharisee who watches silently from the side, and doesn’t say anything. (Mark 3: 1-6)
I heard this statement by a wise pastor last year, “If we are stingy with grace, we don’t get that from Jesus.”
[Steve preached on this topic here. The sermon begins at 25:00.]
Podcasting
New episode: “You Can’t Get Data from Myths” – Applying the scientific method to the Bible. The content on this episode is both faith-strengthening and mind-stretching.
From the Archives
Treasuring Home 