Habits.

Sacred Mundane8 Comments0

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

-Aristotle

~

Habits. They make us who we are. I have plenty of bad ones. When I’m writing, and focusing intently, lost in thought, trying to find the right word, I pull back on my cuticles with my other fingers. It makes my nails look dry and awful. Oh well. I also hardly ever wash my hair, but I haven’t yet decided if that’s a good habit or a bad habit. Depends who you ask. Also, if I’m staying at home several days in a row, I’ll will wear the same pants and shirt over and over (and over and over). I know, disgusting. Oh, and I will re-use my cast-iron skillets throughout the day without washing them in between. I figure a little scrambled egg mixed in the toasted cheese sandwich never hurt anyone.

There you have it. Terrible. But there are some good habits mixed in there too. Like time in Word, prayer, exercise, eating well. I do brush my teeth. Most days. 🙂

But my favorite habit is probably our morning routine with the kids, and recently someone asked if I’d share a quick snapshot of what that routine looks like, in case you wanted to incorporate a bit of it into your morning as well. Not saying this is the best way, but it works for us. I’d love to hear your ideas as well because I’m always up for improvements!

5am-7am: From around 5am until 7am is my time. Quiet time in the Word, prayer, and exercise. If the kids get up during this time they can read, snuggle next to me, or play quietly, but Mama’s top priority is Letting In Light so I have Plenty to give!

7am-8am: Then I get ready for the day, make breakfast, and the kids do their “morning 3” (Make bed, get dressed, pick up your room). We eat breakfast together at 8am.

8am-9am: After breakfast they do their next 3 chores: Brush teeth, unload the dishwasher (with my help), take out the trash. We all clean up, straighten the house, and I let them play for awhile while I figure out the day and do any food prep, toss laundry in the washer, etc. I find that I really need until 9am to get the whole house functioning and ready.

9am-9:30am: Here we do Presentations. This is simply each kid choosing an item and standing up front. He explains and talks about the item (show and tell) and we ask questions about it. This is when we work on greetings, manners (need to more!), and answering questions appropriately. Then they recite their Bible verses (expanded from Letter Lessons–I’ll include updated version here soon!) and we read several Bible stories together from the Jesus Storybook Bible, Gospel Story Bible, or the Big Picture Bible. They would read all day long if I let them. Then we pray. As I mentioned here, they usually go to their prayer spots, but sometimes we’ll stay on the couch and pray together.

9:30am-10:30am: From 9:30-10:30 is our concentrated school time. We just do reading (100 Easy Lessons book or Bob Books or any other of the Easy Reader books we have), then writing, spelling, drawing (all in their notebooks), and math (we use Saxon). For science and history we just read together–curiosity is enough at this point to spur on learning in those areas.

That’s it! The rest of the day is ours to do what we will. I’m a huge fan of Jamie Martin’s Steady Day’s Schedule, and I’ve created mine to include pockets of directed play, free play, alone play, rest time, errands, etc. I spend afternoons working on the blog, writing, or preparing for speaking engagements while Heidi naps and Dutch has quiet time. If you’re looking for help with forming your own daily schedule, definitely check out Jamie’s book. She’s been a huge help and encouragement to me personally.

There you have it. Now, your turn. Please share your own most-loved habits and how they help you grow in excellence. Don’t be shy! Thanks so much for sharing, and reading.

On the nightstand {2013}

Book Lover6 Comments0

norton anthology

Who will influence you this year? The people you spend time with are the most significant influences in your life. And while we don’t always have a choice about who we spend time with in person, we do have a choice about who we spend time with on the screen and on the page. What blogs will you follow? What shows will you watch? And, my personal favorite: Whose words will you let wash over you this year?

This past year I was thankful to read the following books. These are the ones I’d recommend to you (top picks have *); it was time well-spent in their pages:

Annual re-reads include The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer and Humility by Andrew Murray.

Also, 2011’s list is here, if you’re looking for more great reads AND a Fifteen Fiction books are here in case you’re looking for some fun sprinkled in with the serious stuff.

And now, drumroll please.  2013’s nightstand:
(Had to sneak that last one on there! Not sure of the subtitle, but I am hoping it will make it to nightstands by the end of this year!)
My stack of books isn’t as high as years prior because this year, my real hope is to hide more of one Book in my heart and mind. I MUST keep my mind full of God’s Word or I seriously slip downhill. I was so inspired by Ann Voskamp’s post here. I’m going to do her Romans Project Memorization this year, in place of a few more books on the nightstand. Will you join me?
{What were your favorite reads of 2012 and what’s on your nightstand for 2013? Consider who will influence you this year. Thanks for sharing and reading!}

Week's end with thanks

Sacred Mundane2 Comments0

photo (25)

  • Exploring our new neighborhood. Ithought that moving away from our faux-farm and into the city would mean a shortage of trees and nature walks. But then … hooray! A wooded park with old swings and winding paths overlooking the river, just a few blocks away. Grateful. 
  • Exploring our yard. Berry bushes! We found four blueberries and two raspberries. Looking forward to a little summer harvest.
  • Unpacking, unpacking, unpacking. Grateful for able arms and sturdy backs.
  • Family members and friends full of grace.
  • SO many people chipping in to help in so many ways. Painting, painting, painting. Watching kids, moving furniture, loading, unloading, cleaning (CLEANING!!), praying, picking up pizzas, paying for pizzas (!), installing shower rods, delivering dinner to the door, bags of groceries, I can’t even list all the ways we were helped. Overwhelmed with gratefulness.
  • Dinners delivered. Oh! What a gift.
  • Hosting RENEW at our new house the day after moving. So fun! Full of warmth and laughter. Grateful for those people.
  • Struggling through the funk of another transition, feeling so tired. Grateful that His mercies are new every morning. A mulligan, over and over!
  • Celebrating the sweet things God has done and is doing here, in this little place we join together. More than 120,000 visits last year from people in 102 different countries! Thank you, Jesus! And thank you for sharing God’s love and truth and inviting others into this little place we learn and grow together.
  • (Cold) runs with Danielle.
  • Joanna’s gift of a new chandelier! It’s so pretty!
  • Debra’s gift of lightbulbs for it!
  • Spray paint. Wow, what it can do!
  • Every day, a little better.
  • Re-learning how to choose joy and give thanks.
  • Feeling so lost and overwhelmed, so often, and grateful He just carries us. When we’re feeling so weak, He carries us.
  • Trusting that He is in all our future days, however unknown they are to us.
  • My kids. Oh those kids are a joy to me every day.
  • My new writing spot–a comfy chaise with a cozy quilt in the corner of Jeff’s little office. I love it.
  • Popcorn. With lots of butter. And salt.
  • Vegetable soup!
  • Cultured Caveman rainbow fries.
  • Sarah.
  • The Re-Build It Center
  • Ella-Rose with purple hair who brightened our day.
  • That I haven’t screamed or yelled at anyone even though I felt so tired and out of sorts from moving! SO grateful for God’s grace in that!
  • That so many of you are giving and receiving Plenty and Let In Light! Thank you for your enthusiasm and encouragement!
  • Sleep. Always so grateful for that.
  • That He never changes. In all our ups and downs–He never changes.

{A blessed weekend to you. Thank you so much, with all my heart, for reading.}

When God gives you a glimpse of the future

Sacred Mundane13 Comments2

Patterson-24

We’d finished presentations and Bible reading, and it was time to pray.

I hadn’t planned on prophecy that day.

Usually, my kids like to run to their prayer spots.” Dutch goes to his bed and Heidi stands by the front door (I don’t know why) and they hide their faces in their little hands and pray to God there. Although I want them to be comfortable praying in front of people, I also like the habit of “hiding away” in a private place to interact with God. I have no idea what Heidi says, but I’ve overheard Dutch’s prayer-time and it’s the real deal.

But this particular day, they opted to stay on the couch, with me, and pray there. We bowed our heads, closed our eyes, and I waited.

Silence.

After a bit I opened my eyes and looked at Dutch. He still had head bowed, eyes closed, face scrunched up, intent. I closed my eyes again and waited.

Silence.

A waited another minute then looked up again. “Dutch, Babe, are you going to pray?”

He looked at me. “I’m listening to hear what God’s saying.”

Well I’ll be. Who’s discipling who here?

“Oh! Well that’s great, hon. Ok, I’ll let you listen.” Now, we’ve discussed how God does in fact speak to us, silently, in our hearts, more like an impression, or like whispering a thought into our mind. But Dutch has always insisted that He’s never heard God speak. I waited. None of this was initiated by me, and I never want to encourage them to say they heard from God if they didn’t. I don’t want hearing or not hearing to be the reason I praise them or chide them. ANY words from God are always a gift, not something we earn or deserve praise for.

Dutch looked up, all seriousness.

God said, “Read the Bible every day.” I slowly nodded my head.

“Okay. That’s a good thing to do.”

He bowed his head again. Waited a minute.  He looked up again, very serious.

He said, “Follow me.” Again I nodded. Again he bowed his head. A minute later:

“Serve the world. He said, ‘Serve the world.'”

By now my eyes are filling with tears but I blink hard so he won’t see. Such simple words, but so true. He bows his head again, then just sits quietly for a moment. I slowly open my journal, trying to keep him from noticing because if I make a big deal of this I know he’ll get embarrassed and run off. I nonchalantly grab a pen from the coffee table. I can’t miss a single word of this. He starts again:

“When I grow up, I’m going to write Word-Bibles.  I’m going to listen to God and write down all the things God tells me and put them into books. And I’ll  design songs about God and write those songs down too.  And I’ll write Bible stories. Not  the ones in the Bible, but stories like them from these days, things God is doing to help people in these days.

And the books will say: Serve people you don’t know. Die for people (if you want to). Unless you have a job, then you can’t die for people. Buy people Christmas trees. Build houses for people who don’t have houses.

And the books I write will be 1,000 pages long. And I’ll write down everything God tells me, I’ll write it down.  And I’ll have workers too, and they’ll help me write down all that God tells us.  I’ll have 26 workers in my company. It will be called the “God Saves Us” Company. Or, I might call it “Get To It,” like “Get-to-it-telling-people-about-God.”  And we’ll mail the books to people. There’ll be 1 book for every family in the world. And it will spread almost all over the world — even to Hawaii. Even to Africa. Even Asia! Even Australia  the farthest country from here. Even people in the ice pole. Even South America. It’ll start in North America, in Oregon, in Molalla. (Close to Oma and Papa) And it will spread to Antarctica.

He sat quiet for a moment, looking off into space. Then looked at me:

“Now can I play? That was exhausting!”

 ~

I felt like taking off my shoes, right there. Sure, there’s no way to know for sure if that was God’s prompting or merely a little boy’s imagination. But you better believe I’ll be keeping this with me all his growing-up days and praying that indeed God would make Dutch a man who speaks for God and spreads His Word all the way around the world–even the ice pole! 🙂

What if we sat still long enough to receive God’s dreams for our lives?

There’s a lot of talk about dreaming dreams for God. Attempting great things. That’s awesome, but let’s start by sitting still and listening, by simply asking, “God what are Your dreams and what part would you like me to play? Sure, some of the sacred is sure to be lost in translation. Chances are Dutch’s publishing house won’t be based out of Molalla. *smile* But the heart is there.

As we approach the New Year and the world is abuzz with resolutions and self-improvement, might I suggest a time of quiet for your heart? A time to sit silent before your Father and ask Him, what His dreams are this year and how He might want you to play a part? Whether “designing” songs for Him or “buying people Christmas trees,” no doubt He has some grand ideas for your life this year.

Before you launch ahead, listen. God may give you a glimpse of the future.

~

{In honor of this call to silence and listening, we’re staying quiet here tomorrow. We also moved last weekend, so I’m up to my eyeballs in boxes and a day of rest from writing is needed by this Mama! Take some time this weekend to get alone with God, open His Word, and listen, really listen. You might be amazed at what you hear.  Thank you for reading.}