Summer Mornings

We all have morning routines.  Whether carefully thought out, or organically created from what feels natural.  Mine is a little of both.  My usual morning routine goes a little something like this:

COFFEE!!! *ahem*

Then I have, what I call, my quiet time.  Time to greet my Lord in prayer and read His word.  I've found this helps me ease myself into the day, since I make no bones about the fact that I am not a morning person.

After that, and a second cup of coffee I turn my sites to the great outdoors.  This particular sunny, summer morn, I observed many wonderful things going on in my little microclimate.

The sun was shining!

The birds were praisin'!

(and scavenging stray bird food that dropped while loading their feeder!)

The lizards were leaping!

A butterfly was fluttering! 

And a dragonfly was dancing along to the cicada's song! (You can hear the cicadas over at my @TJsSweetHome Instagram June 5th post!)

Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! 

(See what a little quiet time does for this morning grouch?!😉)

I hope you are having a beautiful day! 

I would love to hear what your morning routine is like!

Thanks for stopping by! I always enjoy your sweet comments and encouragement ~ thank you! It means more than you know ~TJ

Take the Time...

 

To enjoy this day that the Lord has made! Rejoice and be glad in it!

Take the time to savor and enjoy each and every tiny moment with your family, home and anything else the Lord has blessed you with!

(Time DOES have a way of "flying" and getting away from us.)

Holding My Plans Loosely

We all only have one life...

I believe God wants us to enjoy the life He's given us!

Recently, I posted that I was trying to figure out a workable schedule for myself that would allow me to accomplish all the things in a day that I wanted to do. After much pondering and much anxiety that it put on me when I was trying to order my day in a way that I thought I could, I finally loosened the reins and "settled" for a big variation. Ahhh, the relief that that brought. And I found myself actually enjoying and looking forward to doing the things that were putting (self inflicted) pressure on me, resulting in a lot of stress and disappointment in myself because I couldn't seem to manage to "do it all".
I originally wanted to try and treat my apron business like a part time job, eventually working it full time job hours (8 a day, Monday through Friday). I wanted to work it during the day while my husband and daughter were at school and work. I figured I would do housework and errands in the evenings, just as I would have to do if I were working outside the home. And each day, I would wake with those lofty goals ahead of me and each day never quite panned out like I wanted it to. So many things "needed" doing during the day and I never would quite make it to the sewing room. Each day would come to a close with me feeling stressed about it, not having sewn one stitch, and thinking about the fact that I failed. Again. And that resulted in me not enjoying the time when my family was home because I was dwelling on the "problem" and trying to figure out a way to "fix" it. And not enjoying the time when I did sew, instead feeling pressured by it. And that's NOT what I wanted.
Well one day, the clouds (in my mind) parted and the sun shone on a new concept for ordering my day. I wanted so many things: I wanted to do it all AND enjoy my family and my life. But how?
Well, I'll just begin by saying I had to give myself permission to embrace the season my life is in right now and work with what I've got. I think this bible verse helped me to see that light and put things in perspective:

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Act 17:26 NIV

What I took from that was the saying "bloom where you are planted". I needed to quit swimming against the current, quit trying to covet and live someone else's life, and enjoy these very moments that I have been given. Enjoy these very precious people that he has placed in my life. Because children grow up & move away and loved ones can be taken from us in the blink of an eye. I decided to put my priorities back in place: God, family, work, everything else. And you know what? Now each day feels delicious, luxurious and just right.

I don't aspire to sew four hours a day, or even eight. I sew in the evenings with my daughter in the room with me and we listen to music or she might watch an old video from our archives while my machine hums away in the background. After I've spent some time with hubby & we've had dinner (& he'd just as soon be able to watch his sports & programs & decompress from his day at work anyway.) We're all under the same roof and that is comforting and enough and it suits us to a tee. It's our family's rhythm and we like it just fine.
There may come a day when sewing four to eight hours a day is doable AND enjoyable. But that day isn't now. And each day, I will hold my plans loosely, because sometimes God has different plans for my day. And those are ALWAYS much more wonderful than anything I could've come up with (:

If I had to sum up the lesson learned here in just one sentence I think it would be this: When we are doing what we're put on this earth for, we feel at peace with our lives.
Because:
Proverbs 10:22 Amplified Bible (AMP)-
The blessing of the Lord--it makes [truly] rich, and He adds no sorrow with it [neither does toiling increase it].

Just for fun, here's a peek into my old & new daily to do's:

OLD

Wake, make breakfast & lunches & take Ari to school.

Computer stuff (check emails, check for free lance jobs, etc.)

Time to read my bible & meet with the King

Sew (hahahaha)

Run any needed errands before picking up Ari from school

housework/dinner prep

a relaxing evening with the family (do you hear the little birdies singing in the background?)

night-night

NEW

Wake, make breakfast & lunches & take Ari to school.

Computer stuff (same as above)

Time to read my bible & meet with the King

Tackle my daily to do list

Run any needed errands (sometimes before, sometimes after I pick up Ari, depending on what the errands are & if I have enough time to squeeze them into the day before I pick her up)

pick up Ari

housework/dinner prep

time with hubby/dinner

Off to the "woman cave II" to sew (Woman Cave I is mine & hubby's bedroom where Ari & I go sometimes to watch "our shows" & escape the 24/7 sport-fest on the living room television, lol!)

Let's all go out & MAKE IT a great day!

Need Prayer?

The day after Thanksgiving, in my morning time with the Lord, I felt led to pray for all those in the world who may not have anyone to pray for them. I don't know why (but He knows). Lord knows I'm no saint, just a struggler. I don't even consider myself a so called "prayer warrior". I just pray for what's on my heart at any given moment of the day. And I DO know desperately the need for, and the power of, prayer. So, if you have a prayer need, I invite you to share it with me and I will share it with my Father...and ONLY Him. (You don't even need to share your specific need with me~I don't need to know it~God will know.) That's a promise. You can message me on my Facebook page (found on the sidebar here).
Or email me at: TJsSweetHome@hotmail.com

Recovering!

From a stressful couple of weeks to be exact. We've all had 'em. Those days, weeks, sometimes even months of unexpected, expensive events that seem to occur in multiples.

The thursday before Labor Day, I awoke at around 5 AM hearing a dreadful noise that I can only describe as the sound that say, a metal zipper or buckle makes when it's in the dryer. It was also thundering, lightening and raining at the time so at first, in my just-waking-up disorientation, I laid there...listening. Again...metal clanging-banging sound. So, I get up to see if my DD is up doing a last minute dryer-ful of clothes so she will have something to wear to school (not uncommon-she is in charge of washing her own clothes and has to be at school at 7 AM, and she's a teenager (; ). Anyhoo, the dryer isn't going. The noise doesn't happen again. I just woke up (I'm NOT a morning person!). So, I fuhgetaboutit and lay back down until I have to get up. Life goes on.

Fast forward to friday evening. hubby retires for the evening, & DD & I are watching t.v. when DD says, "did you hear that?" Well, vaguely. Because when I'm "watching t.v." I'm usually also reading. I just figured it was hubby making noise because he was also awake, reading in our bedroom. Well, goosebumps & adrenaline went on alert & we waited & listened. Again..."there it is again". DD gets up and goes toward the noise to investigate. Again, the noise. She comes back looking like she saw a ghost. For the rest of the evening we wait & listen and finally conclude there was SOMETHING in the air vent in the ceiling. Eeeek!

Let me tell ya, I didn't get much restful sleep the next two nights not knowing what it was. Would it chew it's way through and walk across me in the middle of the night? Would I wake up staring into it's beady, glowing red eyes? Would it eat my puppy? What was it?! My imagination ran wild...

Saturday morning I had the pleasure of greeting hubby with the news and we begin to search out a pest control guy. We found one & he was GREAT- showed up when he said he would & all-that's a rarity in our experience.

To (try and) make a long story short, by Sunday evening, we had to call him out at 11 PM on his day off (double the $!) because hubby saw a possum tail in the vent in our bathroom...YUK! We thought it might be dying since it seemed to have been trapped in there for at least two days trying to get out. Well, the pest man got him out alive, and after a third visit monday morning to set out traps & bait for any other varmints that might be lurking up there, we have had quiet, restful nights. Hallelujah!!!

NOW, last friday, we had to call out plumbers because of some concerns hubby has had about our driveway that seems to be sinking since we got our house foundation leveled back in May, and a couple of leaks in a couple of our bathrooms. Two full days with two plumbers at work (and they aren't finished yet), our laundry room ceiling ripped out, new bathroom sink & tub fixtures, and the cost of a GOOD NEW CAR later (hopefully insurance will pick up some of it), we are waiting to hear from the insurance adjuster as I type before we can move forward.

Now add in my recent second foot surgery, hubby's back & hip problems (limiting us physically) and the trials and tribulations of raising a teenage girl (she's really a great kid~I just added it for dramatic effect (; ) and you've got just a wee bit of stress.

But, God is still good and blesses us each day beyond measure so, I will cast all these cares on Him & try to trust like a little child. After all, it could always be worse. I just pray that hubby is able to do the same...

If you would like to share/vent any of your stressful times with me, here's my shoulder...& my prayers for you.

Thanks for stopping by & listening!

The Beauty of My Imperfect Life~

As I look at the quirky little spots in my home

that can only happen when we live in the real world with husbands and kiddos, my forehead wrinkle gets a little deeper with frustration. Then the frown that has begun as I ask myself "Why?!" morphs into a satisfied smile as I realize that I am so very blessed to have them in my life, even if it means my home isn't magazine worthy. Yes, my home would be much neater and nicer looking (read: staged) but my life would not be quite as beautiful!

I hope you find the beauty in the imperfections of your life too!

God's Been Good to Me

What a Revelation!

I have been studying the book of Revelation. No, I don't understand it all, anymore than I understand everything throughout the rest of the bible. But this time through, more is making sense because I, 1) have prayed for wisdom and 2) am actually taking the time to study it. It used to scare me, and parts of it don't sound too pleasant still, but this morning when I read the last two chapters...it brought tears to my eyes. I can only imagine...or most likely, in my human-ness, I can't begin to imagine.

Are you ready?