Archive for Gratituesday
Gratituesday: My Gift
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Ever since I lost my mom to ALS in July of 2004, Mother’s Day has been difficult for me. I miss her every day, but Mother’s Day is always harder.
Matt has always been so considerate each Mother’s Day – spoiling me and making the day special, yet acknowledging and understanding that it is a day that I tend to feel sad. I love his strength and compassion.
We don’t tend to give each other gifts on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. We’ve never felt much need, and instead, fixing special food has always been our fun tradition. That is why I was so surprised to be presented with this on our way to church Sunday morning:
Receiving a gift at all was surprise enough. Seeing that he picked out a Bible with a cover described as “Pink and Chocolate” – well, does that tell you how well he knows me or what? And did you see what he had engraved on my new Bible?
Isn’t he the sweetest?
My husband shows me great honor in how he continually treats me like his queen. He had all of our boys sign the inside of the Bible, letting it be a gift from all of them.
I feel empowered to rise to the occasion and be the kind of Heavenly Homemaker they deserve and desire. I am honored to be the one God has chosen to make our family’s home more heavenly.
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
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Gratituesday: Wrapping It Up
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Every year is my favorite school year. This year was no exception.
I love home schooling my kids. I love all the time we get to spend together every day. I love reading piles of incredible books with them. I love having a flexible schedule. I love learning beside them. Seriously, did you know that we have 60,000 miles of blood vessels in our bodies? That’s enough to go around the entire earth almost three times! Yes, I learned that today. I am getting so smart. (It is an added benefit to home schooling that the kids are getting smarter as well.) ;)
We’ll be continuing to read all summer, but we do usually take a break from “regular school work” for a couple of months. This week, we’re wrapping up our last few math lessons and finishing the final chapters of a few books…
And then? Well, it would appear that we started a new tradition last year on our final “official” school day: Ice Cream Cones for Breakfast.
And not the healthy, homemade ice cream either. I know. I don’t know how that even came about. But apparently I did it last year, so that’s all the boys have been talking about for the past few days. Hey, why not? We can have broccoli for lunch that day.
I am so thankful for the gift of another great school year with my kids. And…I am amazed at a God who could arrange 60,000 miles worth of blood vessels in my body with such perfection. What an amazing Creator!
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Gratituesday: May Day Preparations
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Because they are growing boys with “big boy” interests, I figured they wouldn’t even give May Day a second thought this year. This morning, they proved me wrong when one of them said, “Mom, tomorrow is May Day. We need to get baskets ready so we can surprise people tomorrow!” Everyone agreed that delivering May Day Baskets was necessary. Who am I to argue?
It is possible that the adventure of surprising people is what draws them in. And yes, it’s very likely that the food going into the baskets is what excites them even more. Quality control is done thoroughly around here to be sure. ;)
But they all chose a family they wanted to deliver a basket to, and plans were made for how we should fill them. Tonight, baking supplies are out and ready so we can start putting goodies into the oven in the morning. (Because yes, I over-ruled the idea that we should buy lots of candy to fill the baskets…)
I’m glad my boys still enjoy these simple, fun little holiday traditions. And as a side note – today I got to have a lunch date with our 10 year old, Elias. Here we are as we were heading out the door to his favorite restaurant…
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Gratituesday: Date Time
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Since it has been several months since I’ve taken any of my boys on a date, I decided it was time to start another round. When I mentioned it to Matt, he asked if he could please be included in the rotation. I can’t say I would mind that one little bit. Five dates for me with all five of my favorite men? Let me get my calendar!
Today, Malachi and I headed out for a little one-on-one.
We started our date at Pizza Hut – his choice. He’s been planning this for weeks actually. In his mind, there was no other option besides Pizza Hut for his time out with Mom. We headed there nice and early to beat the lunch crowd, which was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself. Or at least I thought it was brilliant until we got there and saw a huge chartered bus had arrived there ahead of us. And what do you suppose we found inside the restaurant? Table after table was full. And it wasn’t just any kind of full. It was the full of hungry college age boys kind of full.
I warned Malachi that the buffet might not have any pizza on it for quite a while since there were so many big eaters there. He was willing to wait. We got seated, got our water, talked about important subjects like Legos and ninjas, and we waited some more. Each time pizza would be delivered to the buffet, swarms of college boys would devour it within seconds. And so, we continued to wait. My little man was the picture of patience. Hey, when you’ve got Mom’s ear all to yourself, who needs pizza?
Well, would you believe that after about thirty minutes and the third round of pizza getting snatched up before we could even get out of our seats, one of those nice young college boys came over and introduced himself to Malachi? He told him that he’d noticed how long he’d been waiting for food and he said, “As soon as more pizza comes out, you and I will go up there and get you some.” Sure enough, as soon as some fresh cheesy bread sticks came out, the guy hoisted Malachi up, butted in line in front of this friends and said, “Hey, let’s let this fella get some of those bread sticks, okay?”
Malachi was in such shock, he almost forgot to say “thank you”. But wow, did he devour those bread sticks. He was even nice enough to share one of them with his hungry date. :)
I was able to take another moment to thank that young man for showing my boy such kindness. I hope Malachi remembers this and shows the same kind of love to someone else someday.
It wasn’t much longer until the place cleared out and we were able to enjoy the “all you can eat” part of the buffet. Malachi decided that posing for some pictures was a great idea:
I think that in the following picture, he’s trying to show us that he finally got enough pizza and he’s thoroughly stuffed. Four bread sticks and three pieces of pizza will do that to a seven year old boy.
Next, we headed out to Wal-mart where I promised that he could have several, unhurried minutes to gaze at Lego sets. You would have thought I had offered to take him to Legoland. No need to buy Legos. Just having the time to look at them for a long, long time was gift enough.
He’s been running up to me for hugs all day since we’ve been home. I’d say round one of five dates was a success, wouldn’t you? :)
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Gratituesday: Stretching
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I like hiding behind my computer. I feel safe there. I can write freely - which I love to do. And then I can edit if I don’t like how I wrote something. Yes, my computer is very safe.
This is why, the past few months as I’ve been invited to speak to a few different groups of women, I’ve really hesitated. I haven’t felt sure that I had what it took to get up in front of people and speak. I don’t care what size the crowd – public speaking has been intimidating to me.
God knows best, however, and He decided to stretch me in ways that He apparently felt I needed stretching. He’s wise and fun like that.
Here is what I have learned through the past few months. First and foremost: I must always have a big bottle of water with me because, wow, my mouth always gets super dry when speaking to a crowd. Next: I may be the one up there doing the talking, but if I can remember to let go of myself (and my nerves), and embrace the fact that the Spirit can take over and do the talking – then we’re really onto something.
Several months ago when I was sharing my desire to simply stay behind my comfortable computer screen and avoid public speaking, my friend Emily said something very empowering to me. “Laura,” she said, “what you do on your blog is wonderful. You have been able to encourage women in so many ways. But just think how much more you can bless them when talking with them face to face.”
Well, shucks. I hadn’t thought of that before. She knew that I had what it took, and I’ve carried that vote of confidence with me ever since.
Satan has still been working to wear me down – just ask those who have had to live with me. I’ve had many moments of being a bit of a basket case leading up to each event, and have, unfortunately, done my fair share of completely freaking out. It has not been pretty, but somehow, my family and friends still love me anyway. God bless ‘em.
What I have appreciated most recently is the army of prayer warriors I’ve had behind me. Matt and I took a trip to South Dakota last weekend so that I could speak to a lovely group of ladies there. The week leading up to this event was challenging in many ways, but God continued putting women in my path each day who were happy for me to share my angst. They all pumped me up with encouragement, and more importantly, they promised they would pray.
I wasn’t doing this alone. This has never been about me. God knows what He’s doing every time.
For this, I am thankful.
And as a selfish little aside, I am also thankful that I’ve checked all of my speaking engagements off my calendar for now. Yep, here I am, waving from behind my safe little computer screen. Stretching has been nice, but relaxing again back in my comfort zone is awfully nice too. ;)
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Gratituesday: God is Faithful
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I have so much to be thankful for and truly, when I look at the big picture that is my life – all is well. Life is good. I have Jesus in my life, I have the best husband in the world, my children are incredible, healthy, and happy. I am so blessed that I can hardly see straight through the beauty and gifts around me.
But today has been a challenge for me. I am emotionally exhausted. Even though doing the right thing is the right thing to do, it can also be very hard. (I’m pretty sure you’ll need to read that sentence three times for it to make sense.)
God is faithful. He never asks us to do something difficult, and then shoves us away to muddle through it on our own. Never.
God is faithful. When we pray for something, and the answer is “no” – He is waiting to comfort us, because truly, our Father knows what is best for our lives.
I mess up. Life doesn’t always go the way we think it should or wish it would. But God is faithful. And because of that hope, I can sleep peacefully tonight.
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Gratituesday: Gardening Season Begins
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I know it doesn’t look like it yet, but there will soon be lettuce and spinach in this garden plot you see here…
Talk about exciting! I didn’t even know Matt was planning to get started on our garden until he already had this space dug up and some seeds planted. With the weather being unseasonably warm for days on end, we are starting a little earlier this year.
We’ve begun making plans for the rest of our garden. Matt even found some asparagus to plant, which will be a fun new addition this year. Now we just have to work on not getting too hungry for the fresh produce while we wait for it to grow!
I’m so thankful that we have space to plant a garden – and that we were able to get started with our growing season already. Bring on the fresh salads!
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Gratituesday: All Ribs in Alignment
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It began last Thursday afternoon.
I was doing a good deal of extra cooking that day, and as the hours ticked by, I began to feel more and more tightness in my right shoulder. This was strange, as typically, stirring and pouring are pain free experiences for me. (That’s a good thing, otherwise my family may never have food to eat!)
By that evening my right shoulder was tied up in a big, huge knot. We likened it to a large potato in my shoulder. I know – we’re weird. But that’s what it felt like. Gradually, the pain started shooting down toward my back bone – or was it actually shooting from my backbone up to my shoulder? By Friday, I really wasn’t sure. All I knew was that everytime I took a deep breath, it hurt. And I couldn’t really figure out where the pain was coming from any more.
I kept thinking that the pain would eventually just go away. Matt worked on my muscles, trying to ease the soreness. A friend worked on me, trying to release the knots. Saturday, I felt quite miserable and had a very hard time not being grumpy. Ice seemed to help, as there was definitely quite a bit of inflamation. But Saturday night, I hardly slept because I was hurting so badly.
Sunday, I finally decided that something needed to be done. (Yes, I know – it did take me too long to figure this out. I guess I just thought it would eventually all go away, you know?)
I called on my wonderful friend who is a massage therapist, just on the off chance that she might be able to work on my pitiful self that afternoon. Joy upon joy, she was available right when I called. I went over, explained my situation, and she said, “It sounds like you’ve got a rib out of place.”
Hmm, well that made sense. After just a few minutes, she discovered that I had not one, but two ribs out. Well, no wonder I’d been hurting so badly with every breath I took.
She worked her magic (which is absolutely a gift from God) and by the time she was done with me – I could tell a big difference! I was still sore, but I’ll take sore any day over sharp shooting misery.
By today, I am feeling much, much better. In fact, I was able to go on a long walk this afternoon and felt great afterward!
I’m so thankful to be feeling better and to be on my way toward healing. What a blessing to have a friend with such a gift, and that she was willing and able to use her gift to help me.
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
What Gratituesday Is All About (and how I plan to keep the focus on gratitude)
Posted by: | CommentsI began writing Gratituesday posts when my blog was just a baby - I believe back in January of 2008. I loved the idea of focusing one post each week on God’s work in my life – plus it helped keep my thoughts focused on what I was thankful for.
A few months after I began writing my own Gratituesday posts, I opened it up for my readers to also participate in this weekly blog post theme. I added a “Mr. Linky” so that other bloggers could write a Gratituesday post and then link up here. Over time, more and more people began joining in, and soon, we were able to click over and read many Gratituesday blog posts which shared about God’s provision and care. I found it to be inspiring, and a huge dose of God-focused encouragement every Tuesday.
Hey, guess what? I still do. I LOVE reading your Gratituesday posts.
Except for when they aren’t really Gratituesday posts.
I have to say that I can find it a bit discouraging to click on your Gratituesday link and instead of reading about what God is doing for you and your family, I find a tip about how to clean purple sharpie marker ink out of my carpet. As wonderful as it would be to learn this information, this does nothing for my spiritual walk. Nor do your recipe tips or your ideas for decorating on a budget. Again, these are some great posts and wonderful tips, they just don’t really fit with the Gratituesday theme.
Somehow over the course of four years of Gratituesday linking, gratitude got lost. Don’t get me wrong – many of your posts do share what God is doing in your life. Many of you are writing specific posts about what you are grateful for – keep it up!! I love it!
But I’m finding it hard to find the grateful posts among all the posts that tell me how to organize my sock drawer.
I feel yucky writing this post today. I’m not trying to be the mean neighborhood lady who stands on her porch grouching at the kids who are just trying to have fun. I’ve not cracked down on this earlier because I don’t like to be the bad guy. Plus, enforcing that Gratituesday posts remain Gratituesday posts will take a lot of time that I really do not have each week. Do I really want to go in and analyze each post and then decide whether or not to go delete it? No ma’am. I sure don’t.
But enough already of the “how to avoid getting gassy when you eat a lot of beans” posts when Gratituesday is really about giving praise to our Father. (And for the record, I’m making up these non-Gratituesday related blog topics as I go. I don’t specifically remember anyone posting about gas or sock drawers or sharpie markers – just in case you did and you think I’m picking on you.)
The thought has occurred to my husband and me that it might be fun to add some sort of “Heavenly Homemaking Helpful Hints” link-up once a month, so that those of you who do want to link these other wonderful posts full of helpful hints have that opportunity here on our site. We’d love for you to share these homemaking type posts, when it is appropriate, and if we host a link-up for that purpose. What are your thoughts on us adding this feature to our site?? We’d appreciate your feedback on this.
In the meantime, I’m asking you to please join me in keeping the gratitude to God in Gratituesday. Write and share about what you are grateful for. And please thoughtfully link back to my blog on your post, saying something like Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers! – because that’s the kind bloggy thing to do when you link up with someone.
If I feel that a post is not in line with the Gratituesday theme that I know my readers are looking for, I will delete the link. I won’t enjoy myself, but I feel that I owe this to my readers. I’d be ever so, well…grateful…if you’d make this deleting job easier and not give me anything to delete. Simply write and link up a post about what God is doing in your life and we’re all good to go! Because I know that God is working all the time in all of our lives, I’m very sure you can think of something each week to share! And as always, for those of you who don’t have blogs, please continue to share what you are grateful for each Gratituesday in the comments section.
So there you go. Can we still be friends? I’ve been needing to, but not wanting to write this post for several months now. I love and appreciate you all and would like to hear your thoughts on this subject, and on the idea of beginning a new monthly feature/link-up allowing us to share homemaking tips.
Okay. Your thoughts? Questions?
Gratituesday: Moms Vs. Girls
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As our home school basketball season came to an end, we celebrated last Friday with an awards night with players and their families. It was wonderful night filled with recognition of players’ accomplishments, an ice cream social, a highlights video, and oh yes – basketball games.
But not the regular basketball games we’d been watching our kids play all season. Nope, this time, the siblings and parents got to be involved. There was a short game for all younger siblings to play against each other. Then dads and sons played a game against each other – and moms and daughters played a game against each other.
Most of the moms weren’t too excited to get out there and play, but many of them did it anyway. I can’t tell you how much fun it was – even if I was about to pass out after the first half. (I was having so much fun that I sort of forgot to pace myself…)
I’d like to offer my heartfelt apologies that I have no pictures to share of the event. Okay, sorry - that’s a lie. Even if I did have pictures, I’m very sure I would not be sharing them with you here. Having documentation of me out on the court might scare you away permanently from ever coming back to my blog.
All the gals were great sports about this and guess what?! The moms won!! (Okay, okay – they gave us a 10 point lead going into the game. But stillllll.)
I’m grateful for a super fun night celebrating with our teenagers. And I’ve got to say – I’m thankful I could still walk the next day. ;)
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
