Schedules

[This] is the great conversation in our life: to recognize and believe that the many unexpected events are not just disturbing interruptions of our projects, but the way in which God molds our hearts and prepares us. -Henri Nouwen

I am one of those people who LOVES schedules. I particularly love to write them. I will plan out my day, starting with a list of rpiorities, such as God, Family, Home, and then plan out my day in 15-minute increments. When I did this as a teenager, I would start the day with high hopes only to be dashed against the cement of reality within the first few hours of the day. Things just don't happen as we expect them to.

After innumerable such falls, I gave up. Why even PLAN? WHO CARES!!!!

And now, after awhile, I am writing schedules again. Because when I do have them, at least the floor is vaccumed and my lessons are planned, even though a family member went to the emergency room and we ended up waiting 6 hours there, or the power went out at 5:30 and we ended up barbequeing dinner and reading magazines by candlelight. I just have to be content with half-done. :)

Here is my basic schedule: (Because I love reading other people's.)

5:45--Shower

6:00--Morning prayer

6:15--Get ready

6:30--Make breakfast and pack lunches

7:00--Eat and leave for work

7:30-3:45--Work (read Bible at break)

4:00-6:00--Chores and teaching piano

6:00--Make dinner

6:45--Eat, clean up

8:00--Gym

9:00--Hang out with husband, read, journal, nightime prayer

10:00--Bed

What helps you schedule your day?

Schutshund

Our Saturdays are usually spent at Schutshund Club, where we train our German Shepherd puppy in obedience, tracking, and protection.

There isn't much for me to do but watch and make lunch sometimes, so today I laid in the back of our pickup and watched the clouds drift and blend across the deep blue afternoon sky. It was one of those days when it doesn't matter what you look like, what you need to do, or how old you are. Whispers of beauty, scents of childhood, tiptoeing, joyful, elusive dreams were everywhere.

I took this video of Thrall the other day. He cracks us up sometimes. Thrall is almost one year old, and he LOVES protection work!

The noble dog.

My husband and Thrall, in the "long down" while another dog is doing obedience.

Commitment to Loveliness

It's time for another Commitment to Loveliness! This is a fun way to increase femininity and beauty in our lives each week without even trying! All you have to do is choose five things that you would like to work on or do during the week that will increase the loveliness in your life!

Here are mine:

1. Read a poem.

2. Turn off the radio and listen to the rain.

3. Bring hand lotion to use at work.

4. Put on my apron before doing housework and cooking.

5. Work peacefully and thoughtfully.

To participate, visit Mat. Emily's lovely blog, Charming the Birds from the Trees.

"I luvv 7-up tew..."

The Bible lesson at school was: God brings good out of every situation. I didn't get to finish teaching it. I came down with the stomach flu.

Good things about having a horrible flu:

1. My dog felt sorry for me and only galloped across the bed and my tender stomach once.

2. Several long, guilt-free showers.

3. Instant abs...almost.

4. 2 days off work.

5. Made me appreciate the ability to drink water.

6. Made me think about suffering, how bad I am at it, and how many other people deal with suffering, for a much longer period of time. Compassion.

7. Made me think about death. I want to long to be with my Savior, to have no fear of death. It made me want to pray more, to seek Him more.

8. A good chance to practice cheerfulness... :)

The Neat Room

Well, the once nightmare-inducing crazy room is no more. In its place rests a placid space to be used by overnight guests or visiting children. Yesterday, with no plans whatsoever, I began emptying the Crazy Room of its contents.

Jaina, who considers this room her personal hideout from Thrall, was more than mildly upset. Each time another layer of junk was excavated, she got up and hid further back. Finally all that was left was the drapes. I cut them off below the window. Poor Jaina. Maybe she can hide under the bed now.

At the point in time when I took this photo, the crazy room now looked perfect, but the rest of the house looked as if a 100-foot giant had vomited the the partially digested contents of 80 garage sales all over the floor. Thrall took this opportunity to swallow a 6-foot ribbon. (When he wasn't trying to catch Jaena.) Thank gooodness I caught him when there was still about a foot hanging from his mouth. Pulling it out was...interesting.

The rest of the afternoon was spent piling garbage in a corner, cramming papers that should get filed into "file later" boxes, sorting stuff for the salvation army, and cramming "I-don't-need-this-but-I-can't-get-rid-of-it" type stuff into my closet. When my husband came home, I was standing on white-hot pointy stars, um, I mean my feet, washing dishes as usual. I let him discover the transformation for himself. It was an extremely satisfying day. :)

Why should I be discouraged,
Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely,
And long for Heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion?
My constant friend is He.
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

Failing Household Science

"The kitchen should be thoroughly cleaned after each meal. If it has become dusty or disarranged it should be put in order before the next meal is prepared. While the cooking is under way, everything should be kept in an orderly condition...."

Wow. And I thought I was really something getting the dishes done before bed! There are so many homemaking books at gutenburg.org. Books like this give an interesting background to the stories I read from this time in history. Here's the book where this quote comes from: Household Science in Rural Schools. I found a lot of these kind of books by just searching 'home' at gutenburg.org, in the subject box.