Thoughts among the Rambling Roses!
Sandy
 

Every time I have started writing since the last Home Notes or Nutmeg Notes sent out, I have stopped after a few sentences and parked whatever it was I would have written. You see, I have this pet peeve about people writing one way and living another. When I don't have it all together I find myself questioning what I'm writing because I don't want to be sending out a lie. I would rather not write something than to write it and see a hypocrite in the mirror.

Guess what I'm realizing? I'll never have it all together! If I wait until every area of my life is precisely how I long to have it before writing...
there shall never be another sentence to share! I've shared similar thoughts before because this has been an ongoing challenge for me but I'm starting to recognize the patterns in my life.   There are times when I am being a beautiful helpmate to my husband and I am loving him with God's love instead of my sometimes selfish womanly flesh. It just might be that at that same time, my house is a mess or I'm struggling with order, routines, and/or looking well to the ways of my household.

There are seasons when I am cooking and managing my meals with great care and snapping at my darling children all the while.

I'm mean sometimes and even though I hate it and I pray for help over it...
I still am sometimes. Even if I don't say it out loud... I'm feeling it.
This reminds me of something my daughter said one night after her little brother got in trouble for saying not nice things to her. She looked at her brother and then at her dad (who was the one dealing with Braxton) and said, "He's still thinking it."
She knew that even though he had submitted to our authority and stopped ...
he could do what he wanted with his mind!
This has been me many times... I'll want to be or feel or think one way but raging in my heart and mind will be another.

There are times when I get lazy and tired of working so hard on a house that can get cluttered so quickly. During these times, I take care of dishes, laundry, and basics and that is it. There were times in former years when I didn't do that much. I lose my motivation and let one important routine after another slide off my list and even though I might glance as the priority falls... I don't do much to retrieve it!

Even though I could go on for days on my many faults and shortcomings... I don't want to bore you about me and take up any of your precious time with it. Just suffice to say... I fail & falter, mess up, and sin no matter how hard I try or great are my intentions. Accepting just how imperfect I am brings me closer to seeing and being AWARE at all times at how perfect GOD is.

Constant distractions have also pulled me continually away from writing...
from reading... from creating pages for the scrapbooks I long to fill. My toddler has been in my lap at this computer since he was born. I'd hold him close to my heart as he snoozed and as the weeks turned into months, he'd nestle in an organic cotton sling I was delighted to find for him. When he started crawling and walking... I'd wait until he was tired and he'd climb up here with his blanket. For awhile, he would rest with books on a little pallet I made him on the floor at my feet. Now, he hops up here and begs to "drah" (draw:) and fills paper after paper with brightly colored marker creations and pen scribbles. He scrawls out fish and circles for his older brother in basic training and loves to make lines and squiggles just to see them come from his drawing instruments:) This also means I can read emails but rarely type them!
What I have learned to do with this after five kids is: I just haven't cherished enough! Now? I want to absorb every minute of it:)

Our family has been busy trying to make order of our home and yard. My husband has been working from morning until night so we are doing what we can to allow some rest when he is home. When I start feeling overwhelmed as I try to do so much of the child raising on my own until my husband can be here more... I try to remember the importance and opportunities to teach them in everything!

"And this responsibility is not equally divided between the parents: it is upon the mothers of the present that the future of the world depends, in even a greater degree than upon the fathers, because it is the mothers who have the sole direction of the children's early, most impressible years."

"The mother is qualified," says Pestalozzi, "and qualified by the Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the development of her child; . .
. and what is demanded of her is --- a thinking love."

Charlotte Mason from the Home Education Series "Training and educating children under nine"
Volume I

The yard took hours of work and some precious friends blessed us with tools and hard labor for all of them. They even carried the whole truck load for the dump the next morning!
We threw away trash, took things to the shed, cleared the area of weeds and trimmed branches. We carried arm loads of thorny rose bush prunings to the edge of our land for burning or disposing of later. After all of this, raking, refilling the bird feeders, and watering all of our plants... things are looking much better!

Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow! He has kept alive so many plants that would have died without His tender care! We have blooming heirloom roses cascading all around the green leaves and climbing roses in a different color making their way all the way up our house this year!

The Confederate Rose is a beautiful green and growing large already and dwarfs the tiny butterfly bush I planted last year or the year before that.
Calla lilies are coming up and some of them are with the hostas that keep coming back every year as well as the spider grass planted by my sister.

On the porch, big pottery planters (I got on clearance some time ago!) hold a rosemary plant on each side of our door and herbs are lined in clay pots along the sides. My sister gave us two Palms last year and now we have one on each side of our steps:) We have several peppers and a few herbs and I added two lavender plants today. Granted, I have had success with one lavender bush that I accidentally killed the same year it flourished and have been through countless others since but I am going to try it again!

Our house cleaning is SUCH a chore when so much living and growing is going on all around us outside! I need to require more from the kids and I am making up some more simple daily lists to better fit the summer hours on the way. For me, I'll keep up with my routines and add what I am led to as I go.

I figure if I keep the sinks, tubs, and toilets clean in the bathrooms, make sure all trash is taken out daily, make bed making mandatory, and make sure dishes and laundry are completed each day... I'm doing enough to keep things tidy. This way we have more time for outdoor exploring:) and maybe even for reading and scrapbooking!

How are you doing, excellent homemaker? Are you faring well as you do all that must be done to take care of your family and the home God has blessed you with? Have some chores to check off and be done with each day so that you can make your schedule include something fun and beautiful. Hugging someone you love and relaxing can be rewards quite priceless for the heart:)

Home is the true wife's kingdom. There, first of all places, she must be strong and beautiful."
~ J.R. Miller, Secrets of Happy Home Life

Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, And eat his precious fruits.

I will close for I want to share some writing from the 1700's that blessed me amazingly to read.

She owns her dependence upon Christ himself to make this garden fruitful. To him she has an eye (Son_4:15) as the fountain of gardens, not only the founder of them, by whom they are planted and to whom they owe their being, but the fountain of them, by which they are watered and to which they own their continuance and well-being, and without whose constant supplies they would soon become like the dry and barren wilderness. To him she gives all the glory of her fruitfulness, as being nothing without him: O fountain of gardens! fountain of all good, of all grace, do not thou fail me.

Those that are gardens to Christ must acknowledge him a fountain to them, from whose fulness they receive and to whom it is owing that their souls are as a watered garden.

She invites Christ to the best entertainment the garden affords: “Let my beloved then come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits; let him have the honour of all the products of the garden (it is fit he should), and let me have the comfort of his acceptance of them, for that is the best account they can be made to turn to.” Observe, 1. She calls it his garden; for those that are espoused to Christ call nothing their own, but what they have devoted to him and desire to be used for him. When the spices flow forth then it is fit to be called his garden, and not till then. The fruits of the garden are his pleasant fruits, for he planted them, watered them, and gave the increase. What can we pretend to merit at Christ's hands when we can invite him to nothing but what is his own already?

[Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible --- parts excerpted from the commentary on Sol. 4:16]

Isn't this just lovely? In one part, it even says that when God's Spirit is poured out the wilderness becomes a fruitful field!
My home and my yard have resembled wilderness paths far more than I'd care to admit but I am not limited to my own strength! When I invited God to my garden... the garden of my very soul... He turns all barren into beautiful.

Praying the same for you, dear devout to our Lord!

Love,
Sandy

Site Spotlight:

www.nogreaterjoy.org

I have read magazines and books written by these Godly and biblically strong people for some time now and I have been challenged, repentive, blessed, encouraged, strengthened and taught beyond what I can adequately share!

A Christian Home... the way home.    The canvas where your memories are painted
 

Welcome Page

Welcome Home Messages

Christian Life Issues

Motherhood & Parenting

Kathryn’s Letters

Modest Clothing  & Links

the welcome home blog

Good Things and Recipes Notes

Titus2 Journey Study

Letters to Mothers

The Hope Chest

Clothing

The Great Page

pamela's writings

Woman To Woman

Sandy's Home Notes

Just for Young Ladies

Good Things

Bible Study Resources

Ministries to Women

Homemaking

Pregnancy List

Sewing & Crafts

 Glenys's writings

Devotionals

My Reply letters to Women

Home Management

Pregnancy - Childbirth

Gifts to Make

Holidays

Home Church

Notable Quotes

Top Ten To Do's

Child Training  

Courtship

Just For Young Men

Missions

Home Schooling

Kathryn's Kitchen

-Adoption-

Weddings

Just For MEN

Bible-Quiet time

 Teaching Children

Our RECIPES

Past sexualabuse

Grandmothers

Marriage

Hymns & Quotes

Far Above Rubies

Chocolate!

Post Abortion Hope

Large Family

Dates

Bookshelf

Medical Info Page   PCOS

Low Carb

Garden

Games & Rules

Guestbook

prayer requests

Neat Stories   

Nutrition - Health - Food Values

Funny Funny

Simple Living

message board

Christian Music

Various & Sundry links

Diet & Weight Loss

Our Favourite Websites

Greeting Cards

Tchotchke Graphics

AChristianHome.org   © 1999----2006       A Christian Home  ~  PO Box 2130 Snohomish, Washington 98291 USA