Do all for God's glory

The whole life of a Christian should be nothing but praises and thanks to God; we should neither eat nor sleep, but eat to God and sleep to God and work to God and talk to God, do all to His glory and praise.               Richard Sibbes                                                                               

                                       

 I've been trying to explain this to my kids for some time now. We talk about everything we do should be for God's glory. We talk about setting a good example for those around us and showing them Christ through our work. I still seem to have the same problems. They don't do their best. They forget. They purposely overlook something. I get frustrated, but then I realize, it's my job to train them.

What does MY attitude towards work look like? Would I rather sit around and read all day? Do I complain? Do I slack off or rush through something missing the little details? My children are looking to me to be the example. They need to be doing everything with praise to God. Bringing him glory when I clean up that mess one. more. time.
For example: My bedroom is still not done. I spent this weekend doing everything but finishing it up. Things pile up. In order to put together a sewing/craft nook for my little future homemakers I HAVE to finish my room. My middle daughter has waited and waited to pull out the sewing machine she got for her birthday... last September.
Everyone is waiting for me to move forward. I realize when I am sitting still not working (I'm not talking about my Be Still time with God) that I am setting the example for my children that my pleasure comes before the peace I should be bringing to my home. Why should I expect them to work for God and not self, when they don't see me model that?
Oops! I pray that I will be a better example moving forward!

My menu plan system

Sigh, blogger is acting all crazy and typing in weird places. LOL I'll keep going though and just hope that it looks ok on the actual blog. 

When I plan my menu I plan for the whole month. I usually pull out my super cool calendar with big boxes. This way I can see what we have going on that day or week. I like to jot down meal ideas at the bottom of the box for that day. Yes, Mother's Day does say, "I better not be cooking!" LOL

 After I jot it down on my calendar I put each week's menu plan on a index card. This index card goes in my recipe box in front of all the recipes for the meals I have planned that week. When I'm done I just scoot it to the back. Easy peasy. GF means the recipe is actually in my green folder and has not been put on an index card yet.

Then I make up four weeks of grocery lists. On shopping day I grab the list, add anything I need and head to the store!

It's really made cooking a lot easier. We did this through April and it worked great. Another advantage I just discovered tonight is I can hand one of the girls a recipe card and have them make the meal. I am right by the kitchen so they can ask questions. I ask if they want me to help and sometimes they do but mostly they just let me go off and do something else. :) Great practice for them. Probably in the fall I will assign them a week to plan meals. Something I am definitely thinking about.

My day went well. I met my mom and my great aunt and had lunch with them and Miss Lily. We then headed to the Farmer's Market, but I did not have any cash so I have to go back Friday. My mom had some and she bought her some stuff. She kept offering to buy me some stuff, but I told her I would just wait. She's sweet like that. :)
I got my glasses fixed and then headed home. I worked in my garden a bit and watched the kids play outside. Then Karly made dinner. Now we are just relaxing until bed time. Lily conked out early. I hope that does not mean she'll wake up all rested in the middle of the night. She had a busy, busy day.

Hope you all had a great day!

Just realized it's homemaking link up day on Raising Homemakers. I think I will post this over there. If you have not taken advantage of this great resource please do!

In the home.

Face meet asphalt! :) Poor kid he fell off of his scooter the day before the party. He's still one of the cutest kids I know!!

Yesterday, I shared this blog post with my girls. They immediately ran to their room and began cleaning it again.  It looks so nice now. :)
Today, I plan to share this one. As I said before I want to share something about homemaking every day. I am also going to help out in a room today. Right now the kids are getting breakfast and finishing up room chores so I have a couple of minutes.
I also took some time to post to my homeschooling blog here. Today is the sixth anniversary of starting our homeschooling journey. I look back and I'm amazed at how far we've come, but also at how far we still need to go.
I will leave you with a quote about family. It is supposed to be by Winston Churchill, one of my favorite people in history. I'd never heard this attributed to him before so I can't promise for sure he said this, but I do love the quote!

“There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained”

Be blessed today as you work around your home!

Cleaning Lists

 What a fun and busy weekend we had! Saturday marked our six year anniversary of adopting our kids. We spent a fun day at the beach with family and friends! The baby was having a melt down when this picture was taken so she was not allowed to join! :) Anyway, this is the reason I did not get to list some of the articles I found that I will be sharing with my girls this week. I will see if I can get to that a little later today.
For now I just wanted to share some of the things that are going to help me teach my girls about being homemakers.

In our home I came up with a list for every room of the house. Each child has a room they are responsible for and it rotates every month.  These lists tell the kids which chore needs to be done and when. Daily is everyday, of course. Saturday chores can be an extra hour to two hours on Friday or Saturday. It's a deeper cleaning. Then I listed monthly chores that can be done each Saturday. For instance in the bathroom on the first Saturday of the month we take the cat box outside and hose it out and scrub it clean. Some rooms have 4-5 monthly projects some rooms have 1-2. In the kitchen on the fifth Saturday of the month (if there is one) we pull out the stove and fridge and clean behind it. Because there are only a few fifth Saturdays this does not get done very often, but it is also not a neglected chore.

I'm sorry that the pictures are blurry. I was rushing around taking them last week. I just downloaded them this morning so I did not know how blurry they were. :)
We've been using these lists for about 2 months now and it's working out well. I have seen some things that I need to tweak so I'll probably work on that this month.
Starting this week I will be working one on one with the kids in the rooms they are responsible for. I'll probably work with a different kid every day and keep doing that until I feel they can work more independently. Then I will make sure to check their work. While the jobs are being done around here they are not being done well. I want my kids to do everything they do for God's glory. Yes, even cleaning the bathroom. :) I think if my attitude were better about keeping our home up I would do a better job at it. I'm hoping that working with my kids in the coming weeks will help all of our attitudes improve.

I hope that you all are having a blessed day in your homes!

Secret Weapon

Disclaimer: These pics are not of my home... yet. :)

 I made an amazing discovery today. I was reading through my copy of Large Family Logistics (love this book by the way!), anyway I was reading and taking notes and realized that I was getting restless. You see, the same thing happens when I'm reading a good encouraging blog. I can't just sit on my blessed assurance while reading of someone else's productivity.

 I need to get up and clean something, cook something, teach something, make something.. I think I might have found a secret weapon. :) Mother's day is coming up and I think I will make a list of homemaking books that I've had my eye on, unless I get my real wish and hubby is able to take a day off to take me to the state homesechool convention at the end of the month.

I have been making lists and notes and coming up with all sorts of ideas to share with my family next week as we launch our new Giving My Girls the Advantage project. I'm so very excited! I've been praying and asking God to strengthen us and give us grace for next week. To really bless our week and give me wisdom. I've been led to many blog articles that I'm looking forward to sharing with my girls.I'll try to list some this weekend!

Giving my girls the advantage!

I remember a blog post I did not too long before Lily was born. I linked to this post from Lady Lydia (who I adore by the way!) The one line I took from that post that has stayed with me even until today is this:
"A woman with more than one daughter ought to have the nicest, cleanest, prettiest house. "
Here is the blog post I wrote way back then... :)
I need to get back on that wagon! I'm cheating my girls out of so much with my lackadaisical approach. They need me to teach them, to mentor them, to guide them. I am so grateful for ladies who have the gumption to put it out there and tell it like it is. For ladies who are willing to mentor and guide younger women.
Next week I will spend some time talking about what I am doing to give my girls more guidance. I'm excited. I also want to share Mrs. Lydia's writings with my girls so I think every morning I will pick one of her articles to share with them. This one will probably be the first one. :)
What are some ways you are training your young ladies to be keepers of their homes?

Betwixt and Between

Raising Homemakers is at it again with a great post and a give away.

They are advertising a mentoring program for moms of girls ages 9-13, the "betwixt and between" stage. They'll be going through the Beautiful Girlhood book starting September 12. I'm very excited about this as I have two girl who fall into this age group. My oldest could probably benefit from it as well. We are going to spend the month of August working through Raising Maidens of Virtue so in September we'll just pick up the Beautiful Girlhood book as our next selection!

So click on over and see what's up.