Happy Homemaker Monday

 

 Once again this Monday, I may not logically have time for this, but -- I'm joining Sandra for this link party over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. 

The Weather:::

Rain, Rain, Rain!  Currently it's 68º with a 100% chance of rain.  94% humidity with a 5 mph breeze.  Our weather for the past week has been either rainy or hot and humid.  Not the greatest, but I try not to complain too much.  Humidity is not my friend.

As I look outside my window:::

Everything is incredibly lush and green from recent cool rainy weather.  Mostly wildflowers and weeds are blooming around here.  Orange daylilies are abundant on roadsides and in people's yards.  The elderberries are flowering gloriously.

 

Right now I am:::
 

Working on a blog post.

 
Thinking and pondering:::

 

On a sentence I recently read in Holy Hygge.  This was in the context of living out the purposes God has for us -- that as we invest time, energy and talent in these we will be motivated to "put our hands to the work and do it with laser focus".  It all reminded me of back in 2010  when I spent a few hours considering God's purposes for my life -- which I will share below.  (If you have never identified God's purposes for your life, you really should.  It's incredibly important and helpful.) Taking into account God's purposes for all believers and for me in particular, I came up with a list which I wrote out and placed in my prayer journal.   Since doing that, I make it a point to review God's purposes for my life frequently.

God's overarching purpose for me is the same as for any believer: To bring honor and glory to God with my life by using the spiritual gifts and the talents He has equipped me with.    I have broken this down into a 3-part personal "job description":

1) Be a godly wife [this includes being a good homemaker]; mother, grandmother.

2) Use my teaching gifts and other spiritual gifts for God's glory -- to encourage fellow believers and help them to grow spiritually, and to reach out to those who don't yet know Him.

3) Use my writing talents and other talents to God's glory -- again, to encourage my fellow believers and to point others to Him.

 

Anyway, back to the sentence from Holy Hygge, in this context: 

 

Be the person you wish others would be for you.

That certainly motivates me!  How about you?

On my bedside table::: 

 A lamp, three books,  a pen and a jar of lavender-infused oil for helping with insect bites.

On my tv this week::: 

Nothing this week.

 Listening to::: 

The falling rain.  An occasional passing car makes a wet noise on the road below our house.  Phoebes singing outside the window.

 On the Breakfast plate:::

I do intermittent fasting so don't have breakfast.  Lunch will be a salad with cubes of pork roast, tomato, avocado, and some banana pepper rings in addition to leaf lettuce.

On the dinner plate::: 

Egg roll in a bowl, made with broccoli slaw and leftover pork roast. 

 

On the menu for this week::: 

I usually plan my menus from Thursday to Thursday, and grocery shop on Friday morning.  A few meals on my menu plan:

Egg roll in a bowl

Egg bake
Cheeseburger Pie

Fish Chowder
Enchilada skillet

 

On my reading pile:::

 

Holy Hygge by Jamie Erickson

Finding a Mentor, Being a Mentor by Donna Otto

We Travel an Appointed Way by A.W. Tozer

The Teaming Church by Robert Crosby

 

On my to do list today:::
 

Work on blog posts
Etsy listings

Laundry √

Prepare and send an Etsy order√

 

Plans for this week:::

Plan menus and make grocery list
List some notions, patterns, cards, and kids' books on Etsy
Visit Story Land, a fun White Mountains amusement park as our granddaughter does a concert there

Ironing
Take a bag to the thrift store

Write blog posts, especially some for Christmas in July
Work on my Sunday School lesson

Possibly get together with friends for a picnic

 

 

What I am creating:::

January cross-stitch sampler
Felt food for some toddler birthday gifts
Crocheting a red, white and blue hot mat

Refurbishing a tiny vintage balsam pillow√

You might wonder about that last project.  I failed to get a photo but the original looks a little like the screenshot below.  Mine is a New Hampshire pillow.  I've had it for years.  It was stained and no longer had any balsam scent at all.  It just smelled musty and old.  But I love it and really wanted to keep and display it.  So I opened up one end, dumped out the balsam needles, washed the pillow cover and hung it in the sun to dry.  Then I pressed it, refilled it with fresh balsam from a bag I bought a few years back from LL Bean.  And stitched up the end again!  A small project to be sure, but one I'm very happy with.

 

Bible verse, Devotional, Quote:::

 

This, from the study Between Grief and Glory in the chapter A Pattern of Deliverance: "We cannot interpret God and His character based on our present pain.  Instead, we need to interpret all our circumstances based on knowledge of God from His Word and from the evidence of His past faithfulness.  Circumstances change, but God does not."

So important!  I love that -- interpreting all our circumstances based on our knowledge of God from His Word and from His past faithfulness to us.  

It reminds me of a favorite quote of mine from F.B. Meyer: 

"Unbelief sees God through circumstances, as we sometimes see the sun shorn of his rays through smoky air; but faith puts God between itself and circumstances, and looks at them through Him."

 

On my prayer list:::

 

Friends & family
Church family
Missionaries
Our country

 

And there's the Happy Homemaker Monday for this week!