When Your Days Are Filled With BUSY

Today I was in a store and a young girl was pounding away on the piano.  From a couple of aisles away I heard her mother tell her to "stop pounding" on the piano.

The little girl kept pounding away and her older brother came over and said "Mom told you to stop playing the piano."

The little girl replied, "No she didn't.  She told me to stop pounding on the piano.  I'm not pounding.  I'm making music."

Are YOU pounding away at something today?  Or are you making music?

Sometimes it depends on how we look at a situation, doesn't it?

To my ears she was pounding away on that thing, but to her ears she was making beautiful music.  Who's to say who's right?

I heard loud noise and she heard beautiful music.  I heard pounding, she heard inspired.  I heard discord, she heard harmony.  To me it was an annoyance, to her it was pure fun.  I heard clashing keys, she heard a song.

Maybe sometimes it's all in how you do it, how you view it, how you hear it and who you're doing it for.

Think of everything you do each day.  There's a lot of repetition in it.  You get up and do your morning routine.  You either go to work for several hours or stay home and start a load of laundry, clean the house, change diapers or chase toddlers, wipe noses, mediate between quarrels.

Make lunch, put them down for naps, get them up from naps.  More diapers, mopping up tears and maybe even some spills on the floor.  Errands, doctor's appointment, homework to help with.  Kiss hubby hello,  mediate more quarrels, flip the laundry, start dinner and still more diapers.

Then there's cleaning up the kitchen, picking up the house, baths, story time, prayers and bed for the kids and folding laundry for mom.

Maybe your kids are older, or you have no kids, but your days are filled with busy.  You're exhausted and your day tomorrow looks pretty much the same.  You're not sure if you can stand the same old same old of it all.  So you go to bed, and wake up to start all over again..

But what if you woke up with the intent to make something beautiful out of your day today?

Psalm 118:24 "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

image credit: K. Sanders graphics: mine

What if you wake up with the thought that today is the day that the LORD has made just for YOU, geared to your needs and perfectly suited to your strengths and weaknesses and abilities?

A day perfectly ordered to build you into the woman He desires you to be.
Will you rejoice and be glad in it?  Will you make beautiful music or will you pound away in frustration when it seems like things aren't going your way?
 
It's a brand new day, my friend.  You can make music, or you can make noise.  Make some music.


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A Day In The Life (Of A Pastor's Wife) #9, My Clothing Malfunctions

Earlier today I left the grocery store and noticed that the zipper to my jeans was down.  All the way down.

Clearly I was thrilled.

I mean, who WOULDN'T want to walk all around the store with your zipper down?

Yesterday I took my mom to the doctor and on a couple of errands.  It wasn't until I was actually walking into the pharmacy that I noticed I was wearing my slippers.

Now maybe YOU don't mind wearing your slippers outside the house, but I do.

I like my slippers and I don't want to get them all ruined with rain and dirt and mud and all the other spring weather stuff we've got going on out there.  Plus, I just refuse to wear my slippers to the store.  Until yesterday, apparently.

One morning I grabbed my car keys and jumped into my car to run over to a friend's house to pick something up.  I got all the way into the car and was backing down the driveway before I realized I was still wearing my pajama bottoms.

And......get this.....shoes.  I was wearing shoes with my pajamas.

So apparently, I wear shoes with my pajamas, and slippers with my jeans, but I can't be bothered to zip those jeans up.  

Now, I know how to get dressed.  Really I do.  But in the mornings I will often exchange my pajama top for a shirt and put the shirt on before I do my hair and makeup.  That way I don't "muss" things up afterward by pulling a shirt on over it.  So at any given time I may be walking around with a nice shirt, jewelry, earrings.......and pajama bottoms.

Once I thought I was all ready for church.  My hair and makeup was done, earrings and necklace on and I was ready to go.  I even had my coat on and was nearly ready to walk out the door.  I was pulling on my boots before I realized that I was still wearing my pajama bottoms. 

Oh, and I walked out of the church bathroom with a piece of toilet paper stuck to my shoe.  I would have rocked that toilet paper all the way down the aisle if someone hadn't stopped me.  Bless her.


So how YOU doin',,,,,,,,,,,?  Any clothing malfunctions in your life?


Click here for more A Day In The Life (of a pastor's wife).


If you don't want to miss any blog posts, you can follow me or subscribe in your reader or by email.  You   can also find me here on facebook as well!  I'd love to connect with you!

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The Secrets Behind The Lazy Mom And Your Questions Answered

I have received hundreds and hundreds of emails asking me questions such as how do I come up with my weekly Lazy Mom series posts, do I really clean that way, are the photos real or staged and am I really a "Lazy Mom?"

O.k., so maybe I only received ONE email but I'm sure that she spoke for all the rest of you, right?  ;)   And besides, it gave me something to write about today.  So let's get to it.


ARE YOU REALLY A LAZY MOM?

Yes, I am really a Lazy Mom.  I love a clean, tidy home and work hard to keep it that way.  But we also live in this house and I am a busy person (aren't we all?), so it does tend to get messy from time to time.

Sometimes I just get tired and lazy and I don't WANT to clean, but I have to because I don't like the clutter and chaos.  So I bribe myself by promising it will be easy, fast, and painless.

I also like to have fun and be motivated at the same time.  So I really DO like to race the timer and I really DO like to alternate between work and fun breaks when I can.

There's a motto that goes something like "Work smarter.  Not harder."

My Lazy Mom motto is: Make it easy, make it fun and get it done!

I believe that you can have fun while cleaning and organizing.  So I watch t.v. or listen to music when I can.  Occasionally I might get a little distracted by a good movie but I get right back to focusing again.  Usually.....


HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH YOUR LAZY MOM POSTS?

Many times the posts come out of cleaning/organizing projects that I am actually doing around here.  For example, Monday I sat down and cleaned out one of my bottom kitchen cupboards and so later in the day I wrote this post about it.  I really DID clean it out that way, minus the crying part, lol!

So I clean or organize and then think, HEY!  That would make a great Lazy Mom post! I just write up a post about what I did (such as this cleaning the fridge post) and another LM post is born.

Sometimes I look at something and think oh wow, THAT needs to be cleaned and I start thinking "How could I do that the Lazy Mom way and make it easy and fun?"

Today I was starting to clean and organize an area and I stopped a moment and thought "I should take a picture of this!" so I tossed the few things back that I had already removed (lol!) and went and grabbed my camera.

Next Tuesday it will be a Lazy Mom post.  That picture is both real AND staged at the same time.  It's a real mess that I had already started cleaning, but it was staged in that I threw a few things back so that I could take a messier picture of it.  I had already removed them before I thought of making a LM post out of it.


ARE THE PICTURES REAL OR STAGED?

Well, both, actually.  It depends.

Some of the photos are "before" photos, such as mentioned above, when I have decided that something needs to be cleaned or organized and so I take a before picture, just in case I want to use it for a future Lazy Mom post or some other post.

Then when I do a Lazy Mom post on it, I already have a picture!   I'm always taking pictures of messes or crazy things around here and my hubby is always laughing at me or saying "I don't even want to know."

Some of the photos are staged, such as this post when I decided to do a Lazy Mom post on cleaning the living room.  However, my living room was already clean but I wanted a messy one for the picture.

So I just grabbed a laundry basket and threw a bunch of CLEAN kitchen towels in it that were already folded and put away (I had to unfold them for the shot and then fold them again and put them away, lol!), grabbed some clean dishes from the kitchen and put them around, tossed my coat and purse on the loveseat, tossed a blanket and some pillows around, and grabbed a tissue box and a magazine and set it down and took a picture of it all.

It's not like I'm doing a "before" and "after" shot so it's really not a problem if I do stage something. 

DO YOU REALLY USE LAUNDRY BASKETS TO CLEAN AND ORGANIZE WITH?

Absolutely!  All the time.  They're sturdy, it's easy to use them to sort stuff into, they have carrying handles and I already have them around.  Plus it encourages me to keep up with my laundry so that they're empty and I can use them, such as I did in this post!


DO YOU REALLY CLEAN THAT WAY?

Yes.  And no.  I really do squats when I load the dishwasher or dust.  But not ALL the time, just some of the time. I really do lunges when I vacuum.  Sometimes.  Sometimes I dance!  And sometimes I just skip the fun and vacuum like a boss!

I really use baskets to sort and organize and bags to toss garbage into.  I really race the timer sometimes and work hard for 15 minutes and then goof off for 15 minutes, and then go back and work another 15 minutes, etc.  Sometimes I will work away at something for 45 minutes or a couple of hours with little to no breaks.  It just depends.

I really will listen to music when I do dishes and I really will watch t.v. when I fold laundry, unpack a suitcase, clean a messy drawer or clean the living room. Why not? 

But I believe in motivating myself and having fun and if I can sort or fold laundry and watch a fun t.v. show while doing it, I am so THERE!


DO YOU REALLY LIKE AND REWARD YOURSELF WITH M&M'S?

Well, duhhhhhh! Yeah.......  ;)

Note: While we're on the subject of questions, I would love for you to leave me a comment or email me if you have any questions that you'd like to see me do a blog post on or any questions you'd like me to answer!  So feel free to leave your questions in a comment or pop me an email.  That way I'll get another blog post out of your questions and YOU get to do all the hard work thinking it up and I only have to answer, lol!  ;)



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Lazy Mom Organizes The Lower Cupboards

Do you know what it's like to bend down to look inside your bottom cupboard, and it's so full of STUFF that you practically have to crawl inside it to find anything?

Yeah.  Me neither. ;)

Don't worry about it.  Find your way back out of the cupboard and let's organize those cupboards the Lazy Mom way!


LAZY MOM TIP: Organize The Lower Cupboards  

Lazy Mom's motto: Make it easy, make it fun and get it done!


("Lazy" and "Mom" are not usually two words you'd put together in a sentence, are they? But sometimes we moms get tired and we DO feel like being lazy.  We've had a long day of doing stuff but there is more to be done!  That's when I suggest we do things the Lazy Mom way!)


Click here for more Lazy Mom tips.


If you don't want to miss any blog posts, you can follow me or subscribe in your reader or by email.  You   can also find me here on facebook as well!  I'd love to connect with you!

Be sure and come back Monday and link up to the Making Your Home Sing Monday  linky party!


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Also We Are That Family And A Bowl Full Of Lemons