Titus 2: 3-5

Aug30

Moms Survival Guide Logo

Moms Survival Guide Logo

3Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,

 4so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

 5to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Years ago, I was inspired to create a newsletter called Mom’s Survival Guide after reading the Tightwad Gazette books. Although I started typing the newsletter and even had my brother design a logo, I had to put off the project because of pregnancy. Continue reading →

Monday Supper Plans

Aug29

The tentative plan was to grill sausage, hamburgers, weiners and leg quarters. Also to make potato salad, deviled eggs, barbecued beans and coleslaw. BUT… we clean out refrigerators on Monday. The plan now is to eat ALL possible leftovers that might otherwise ruin!

I’ll let you know how this works out. As for today, we ate at Podnuh’s with Melissa for lunch and had a bowl of cereal for supper because the girls are sleeping at Melissa’s house.

To-Do Monday, August 30

Aug29

Pick up girls from Melissas
Clean the master bedroom.
Laundry: Allens, Julies, towels
Deposit money in bank for bills
Find shopping lists, articles, etc. to add to MSG blog
Contact Memorial website owners
Put out the solar lights
Recreate the fountain
Consolidate my student loans
Update all my blogs and check my Twitter account well, one blog & Twitter
Throw something away! De-clutter!
CLEAN the refrigerators
Finish this week’s menu
Update Bill Board

Stuff we bought for fixing up my yard

Aug29

Found Fountain

Found Fountain

Bought groceries and a lot of stuff we had put off. A hand pruner ($4.97), a pair of gripping gloves ($3.97), 3 more small solar lights to match a first one I bought the other day (3@$2.50), some clear silcone ($3.77), and one 3″ chlorinating tablet ($2.27). This stuff is for my gardening, landscaping, yard work.

My yard is progressing. My neighbors, The Whitton family, have such a beautiful piece of property and they always inspire me to work to improve mine. I’ve had some successes and I’m in the process of getting the yard cleared so it doesn’t look like a graveyard for bicycles, lawnmowers and automobiles that no longer function. Two old trucks moved out and another to go soon. Continue reading →

Dream Job, check!

Apr12

Every day as I drove to school, I would look at that big beautiful CenturyTel building. One day, I had a vision as I was driving by the building that I was looking at my truck parked in the CenturyTel parking lot- and I was seeing it from INSIDE the building. I looked down from the third floor window, just under the arch and I could see the truck parked beneath a specific pecan tree and I could see Denmon Engineering’s building in the distance.

Wow. I was so excited. I began imagining driving into the lot, almost every single day as I went to school or came home. I could see myself holding a container with Jackie’s famous “Grilled Chicken Salad” in it and looking out that window. I could see myself walking through the big front entryway. I could see myself strolling along the concrete walkway that wound through the pecan trees to the building’s front door.

When my professor told me to apply for an internship at CenturyTel, I didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t see myself knowing enough to get an internship. I wondered how I would finish school if I was “working” and worried what impression it would make if I applied and then failed. But he insisted so I did.

I talked to the interviewers and waited. Oh, well.

Later, I applied again. I was different. More confident but still didn’t know how I would “work” and go to school. This time I had that vision in my head of pulling in the driveway and walking in the building. I told the interviewers when they asked about my plans for the future: I want to be at CenturyTel!

Hooray! I got the internship. BETTER YET- it’s absolutely PERFECT. I’m in the web development department and getting know the wonderful people there. The team is AWESOME. They are really busy but they take the time to show me how things get done and they are giving me tasks to make me feel like I am useful and part of the team. Our team leader is very nice and has given me the option of flexibility in my schedule so I can continue to do well in school, too.

I tell everyone that you know you are at the right place if you would go there EVEN IF they didn’t pay you. I would – but they DO pay me! GOD IS SO GLORIOUS! Thanks, Heavenly Father.

This entry was posted on April 12, 2008, in Journal, Plan.

Declutter a very nasty room.

Jan15

If you wait for perfekt conditions, you’ll never get anything done.

Eccles. 11:4 (NLT)

How to de-clutter a very nasty room….any nasty room.

Put on an apron and a comfortable outfit.

If you don’t have an apron, it’s ok. Clean anyway.

Get these four containers for things :

  • hamper: for dirty clothes
  • clothes basket: for clean clothes
  • trashcan: for trash
  • cardboard box: for clutter

If you don’t have four containers, it’s ok. Clean anyway.

clutter: anything that is not where it belongs, including things that don’t have a home yet.

This is VERY important. Never leave the room until you are finished. That’s what the four containers will be used for. To keep you from having to leave the room to put away the clutter.

If you like, put on some good music. Carmen, or Stephen Hill. Bluegrass is pretty uplifting. Videos WILL distract you so CDs are preferable.

If you don’t have any music, it’s ok. Clean anyway.

Clean the largest horizontal surface in the room: In the bedroom, this will probably be the bed. In the dining room, it will probably be the table. In the living room, it could be the couch or a big coffee table.

Do this by putting anything ON it in one of the four containers. Do NOT leave the room.

Then you are going to go around the room clockwise, throwing everything that is out of place in one of those four containers. QUICKLY now. If you come across something that belongs in this room, just leave it for now. Really. We’ll get back to it.

Now take the trash and put the container back where it lives in your house. Empty the bag and replace the liner if you need to.

Now put the hamper of dirty laundry in the laundry room or where ever it lives at your house.

Now put the clean clothes away. Fold, hang. Hopefully, this will NOT take all day. If it is too much to do quickly, leave it for last.

Now put away everything in the cardboard clutter box that you KNOW where its home is. At our house, shoes go by the back door, toys go in the toy box, school supplies and books go in a school supply and book box on a shelf in the living room.

Now. Look at what you have left in the clutter box.

Is it worth it to pick this stuff up? Could you just throw it away and still wake up happy tomorrow?

 If it’s really important, give it a home now even if it’s a temporary home in a cardboard box under a bed.

If not, why doesn’t it have a home in your house already?

Funny Story: My sister once watched me sweep stuff into a pile in my living room. Then as I stooped to pick up some stuff out of the pile to put it away (mostly broken Happy Meal toys and orphaned game pieces), she took the broom from my hand, swept everything into a dustpan and poured the entire contents into the trash can. I stared at her in complete shock. “If they don’t care enough to put it away, why should you?, ” she beamed back at me.

Wow… such wisdom. And she’s my little sister!

Here’s an idea:

Make a folder on your desktop computer and put in it a document- word or even just notepad which is on every Windows computer called House Locater. Now just type in word pairs like : cute socks from junior’s second birthday party fourteen years ago that i can’t live without : cardboard box on tallest shelf in hall closet. If that takes too long, put junior socks hall closet box.

Now you can use the find feature on your computer to locate junior’s socks when he gets married and you want to pass them on… tuh dah!

Assistant de-Clutterer today was Sandy Ashley.

This entry was posted on January 15, 2008, in HomeMaking.