Dear helpmeets,

I grew up in a home where my mom was a single parent working to support me. Minimal housework got done. I remember having to make my bed, dishes being done on a semi-regular basis and the garbage being taken out every now and then. That's it. Now I'm not blaming my beloved momma for not showing me any different but this was not enough cleaning for me as I grew up and had a family of my own. I needed to make myself a control journal and have routines I try to stick to. Some chores need to be done daily......

Dailies include

Scooping the litter box

dishes

making the bed

sweeping the floor

toilet and I try to do the bathroom sink

Taking my vitamin

drinking water

spending time with the Lord

This is just a short list to give you a general idea

 

Weekly list may include

Vacuuming-I try to do this a few times weekly

Cleaning out the refrigerator

Grocery shopping and menu planning

Dusting-I try to do this more than weekly

Cleaning out the van

Bill paying

 

This does not include everything but it gives you a general idea of what a control journal may hold and what chores I do and when. If I knew how to post pictures I'd try to show you my control journel.For more examples of this type of thing I turn to the Flylady website. She has a message board and has things for us to do daily to "be the keepers of our home".

After the weekends around here, when everyone goes back to work and school I do a major clean up. We had some dinner guests for dinner last night and the night before. It was a blessing to be able to share our food with them. Saturday night they bought most of supper and Sunday night we bought most of supper. Saturday's menu was lasagna and garlic toast. Last night was more of a traditional Thanksgiving meal although it's not yet Thanksgiving! Turkey with all the fixings, yummy! Yesterday at church the pastor was talking about the "clothes" we put on. We want to put on clothes that show the world we are a Christian. We all have a past and sins we've asked forgiveness for. Not one of us is perfect! Why do some of us keep taking "those" clothes out of the closet and putting them back on? We don't need to! Christ died for our sins and we are forgiven. We also had communion yesterday to. We have it every 4th Sunday. I was possibly going to go to a seminar for women called "Iron Sharpens Iron". This is the first time ever they've had it for women and it was sold out before the head of women's ministries in our church could purchase those tickets! May those women be blessed who attend those services! We are trying to put together something sort of similar at a church not to far away since so many women had wanted to attend. It's also clean up day at the church and spaghetti supper, either eat there or take home! The women are not expected to help with the clean up day since they had planned to go to that conference. That is later on this month. The bible says women are to be keepers of the home and that's just what I'm doing today. Cleaning up from last night's company plus all my regular chores too. Have a blessed day everyone.

To my faithful blog readers, I know it's been a very long time. I have testimony I'd like to share with you and I would like to share how the Lord has been moving in my life lately. I have a friend who had lost her way and turned to some wordly things after the death of her beloved mother.  I have been praying for her and quite recently she suddendly started coming over again. Not only did she start coming over again but decided to attend church services with me for 2 weeks in a row now! Thankyou Jesus!   I have something else I'd like to share pertaining to my husband. I had bad tooth pain a couple of weeks back and it got progressively worse until my husband told me to make myself and appointment to get my tooth "fixed". My husband and I have no dental insurance. I called the office where I take my children and they told me it would take $60.00 for a doctor to evalutate what needed to be done and even more than that to fill a cavity, if it was a cavity and then even more if there was some other dental issue.  This did not sit well with me at all. I did not want to use up hundreds upon hundreds of dollars of my husband's earnings to possibly save one tooth. I told my husband I'd like to make an appointment with the oral surgeon he uses and just get it pulled once and for all. This is the only time in my life I've ever had dental pain like this and I must say my heart goes out to those with dental pain! I had to wait another week until my husband got paid. I was quoted a certain price for an x-ray, a price if the tooth came out whole and yet another price if the tooth came out broken. As I waited for the appointment I lost many nights of sleep and was in pain most of the time. On the day of the appointment I asked my husband if I should wait another week because we only had so much money left after paying the bills that needed paying. He emphatically told me NO he would not have me in pain for another week. We went to the oral surgeon and I knew we did not have enough money if my tooth broke. The oral surgeon asked me if I really wanted to have my tooth pulled and I told him I thought it was the best thing to do financially. The oral surgeon kept telling me what a nice set of teeth I have and did I want to go home and take another week to think it over. He would be more than happy to send me home with a prescription for paid medicine and antibiotics if needed. I told him no I was here today and wanted to be out of the pain I was in and get the procedure done. We took and x-ray and waited for the film to develope. The oral surgeon talked about many things other than the tooth and then went to talk with my husband who was in the waiting room too. I wish all doctors were like this.  The x-rays confirmed the tooth was too decayed to save and even a root canal would not be possible. The doctor told me he was quite certain the tooth was going to fall apart when he put his instrument on it and started pulling on it. I was near tears by this point and while walking to the other room I asked my husband to count our money and make sure we had enough. The oral surgeon looked and me and said "do you think I"m going to let you stay in pain if you don't have enough money?" I told him I might have to come back next week. He told me "come on we'll get you started, I trust your husband." I was so thankful that it was over I wanted to cry once more. I was very nervous about the procedure and the oral surgeon asked if I'd be more comfortable with a procedure where they give me a needle and knock me out to extract the tooth. I told him no I was here and I wanted to get it done today. Something told me I must let him do it and it must be today. He numbed me up and I closed my eyes and he started the procedure. He pulled and tugged (gently) and pulled and tugged some more. The tooth came flying out and in one piece, praise the Lord! A couple of minutes later my husband came into the room and told me he was praying for me in the waiting room and told me he said in his prayer if my tooth came out in one piece he promised the Lord he's go to church! I had no idea he would pray and even tell the Lord he'd go to church! I was so happy and the oral surgeon said "you prayed?". I was so happy and had the pleasure of my friend from childhood joining me and my husband joining me too. This is such a big step for my husband and I would love for him to be saved. The Lord also provided for us by the tooth not breaking because if we had to pay for a broken tooth extraction it would of been more money then what we had for the week. Because this tooth did not break we had grocery money and gas money for my husband to drive back and forth to work. Thankyou Jesus! Sunday night the phone rang and my husband said "Oh by the way your mom called earlier." He forgot to tell me. L.o.l. I ran to get the phone and  missed it. I called back my mom's number and my brother answered and said "Mom called you to see if you wanted to go to church tonight because they are having a special music thing." What!!? I have been asking my mom for months to go to church and she alway said no and this time she was inviting me! Praise the Lord!  I asked hubby if I could attend night service and he said yes. It was 10 minutes of 7 by this time and the service started at 7. I walked to the church so excitedly! It turns out my mother has a neighbor who attends my church and my mother invited this lady over for a cup of tea. The lady named Cindy told my mother she had plans to attend the evening church service because they were having a special music thing going on and my mother graciously accepted!  I was so happy to have my mother there. Cindy encouraged me to share my testimony with my mother and boy was she surprised too. It was a small gathering at the church was blessed just the same. Our church band played some music and we shared testimonies and prayed. Then on the television we watched some music videoes from Mercy Me and then from Casting Crowns. We had coffee and soup as well. If you'd read this so far I thankyou for doing so. How is the Lord moving in your life? I'll try to blog more but I can't promise.