My Inner Child

Today I decided to take the day off from being a grown up and spend the day relaxing and bonding with my children. So often we single mothers neglect to synchronize our inner child and we become so engulfed by adult lives that we can neglect the little joys of life. Do you remember when life was so simple, before the cares and worries of this life?? Even Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3 "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. What better way to keep this humbleness of mind and spirit than to once in a while surround ourselves with our children and come down to their level. Children live for the moment, not the to-do- list, or the must complete now or the world will end tasks that we as mothers let consume our lives. As a matter of fact, their existence is the very reason why we become so consumed with the stressfulness of parental responsibilities. Sometimes if we try to see things through the eyes of a child, we may receive a spiritual epiphany, a glorious Ah-Ha moment that can bring us closer to God, or give us instant edification. So let us remember to be like the child that Christ so ordered us to be. Take a day off to be silly, be simple, live for the moment and tune up that inner child before our children grow up and leave us struggling with memories.... Have a blessed weekend.

Keeper of The Home???

Hello friends, I have been reading other blogs from women who are stay at home mothers and wives who have strong beliefs that women are to be keepers of the home and help meet to their husbands. Guess what! I whole heartily agree with them. With all the things going on in the world coupled with corruption and violence in the schools our children are better off under our guidance and leadership daily. Who better to train and teach your child then the one who carried him or her. Now I know you may say " what in the world does being a keeper of the home have to do with being a single mom and how in the world can I be a keeper of the home when its just me?" A lot, even though our situation may not be traditional, we still have a God given responsibility to be a keeper of our home, a help meet to our husband(God) and we still have the same biblical expectation of raising our children under the leadership of God. Titus 2:3-5 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. This Scripture clearly states the role of the aged women in teaching the younger women on how to run the household. There is so much that I have learned from blogging with these "Keepers of the Home" Even though I have to work and provide for my family, I can still use the wisdom from other mothers to help lighten my load and still follow Scripure. Here are a few tips that I have learned and would like to share, if you have any tips and ideas to share, please feel free to post!

1. Schedule/Routine Binder- Get a 3-ring binder and create a schedule. Before you do this, take a moment to write down everything you do from the time you wake up, to the time you put your family to bed. After this, give yourself allotted time frames to do so. Type it up and put it in a clear report cover and insert in your binder. Keep it in a place like the kitchen table or counter and make a copy and post it over your mirror to remind you of your daily routine. Share this with your family and get them accustomed to time frames.

2. Chore Charts- These work wonders!! Make a list of chores for your family to do daily and nightly, segment them off to daily jobs ( smaller ones that can be done in less than 15 minutes) weekly jobs ( those taking from 15-30 minutes) and monthly jobs ( those taking more than one hour). We as single mothers overload ourselves trying to tackle so many chores at one time. If you get in the habit of spacing out your chores then you will be less likely to overburden yourself and you won't allow yourself to be easily condemned by the enemy on what you have or have not done!

3. Timers- I have recently become addicted to my timer! I bought a cheap $1.00 egg timer from the Dollar Tree and I have one in every room. In the mornings I set my timer to 15 minutes when getting dressed. Trying to race against the ticks of the timer is motivation and for me it keeps me focused on the present task. I can not believe that I have not been doing this all along. I also give myself 10 minutes each morning for sparse cleaning, this keeps me from getting sidetracked in the morning with trying to clean, clean clean ( this is another trick of the enemy to throw you off on your time in order to condemn you for always being late or behind schedule) . My children also use the timer for everything to bath time, to playtime.

4. Preparation- I can not stress this enough.. Prepare, Prepare Prepare. There are so many things that can be done the night before or on the weekend like fixing lunches or snacks... My daughter has to take snacks to school each day, so her chore is on Saturdays preparing her snacks for the week, all she has to do the night before is take it from the fridge and put it in her backpack. We have a special spot by the front door where all backpacks, coats, hats, umbrellas and luch bags have to be before we can go to bed. This prevents rushing about trying to find stuff.

I have attached two links that helps with creating chore charts and schedules, also printable educational materials for you to use at home with your children. These few tips are one small step to help us be keepers of the home and blessings to our family.

Helpful links
http://www.starfall.com/
www.dltk-cards.com/chart/

Blessings to you and have a wonderful Friday!

Perfect Me O' Lord

Yesterday was my youngest daughters sixth birthday, and I was pretty down about not being able to do things that I wanted to do. Flat out, I felt like a horrible mother for not being able to do the things I wanted to do. I wanted to get up and have her favorite breakfast ready for her as a surprise but I overslept, I was exhausted!!! We were running late and the enemy started in on my mind telling me that " You asked God to help you in this area; now look at you" Well my faithful God sent me a scripture Psalms 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

My God is still working with me, he is still perfecting me, and as long as he is perfecting me daily then I am a perfect mom. My daughter was okay with out having her favorite french toast sticks, she happily thanked me for her " Birthday cereal". As single mothers we have to trust in the Almighty God, we have to accept his compliments and his love as well as his chastisement. We can not let the enemy battle our mind with our imperfections, accepting his condemnation will not do anything but tire us out and dehydrate us from the spiritual water that we need to energize ourselves to take care of our families.. Besides do our children really care if about the mountains we make out of mole hills? I say nay, they are perfectly happy with birthday cereal!