Miscellaneous Musings

Starting Places: On the Rightly Ordered Schedule
An encouraging article on the Circe Institute blog written by a homeschooling mom on ordering the day.  This is something I always strive to do but somehow always end up falling flat but Cathy has some wonderful suggestions for making it work.

Seven Thoughts on Time Management
Keeping with the theme of schedules and time management, Doug Wilson wrote out seven thoughts on time management:

1. The point is fruitfulness, not efficiency.
2. Build a fence around your life, and keep that fence tended.
3. Perfectionism paralyzes.
4. Fill in the corners.
5. Plod. Keep at it. Slow and steady wins the race.
6. Take in more than you give out.
7. Use and reuse. State and restate. Learn and relearn. Develop what you know. Cultivate what you have.

Finding Free Christian Kindle Books

Words of Grace has a post on finding free Christian book for the Kindle.  I love my Kindle, but as my husband has reminded me, those seemingly small charges for books add up quickly.  So I'm on the lookout for as many free books as I can find.

"The Art of the Commonplace" by Wendell Barry

On a related note, this Kindle book is now being offered free for a limited time.  I highly recommend anything by Wendell Barry.

Prodigal Sons and Daughters

On a completely different note, I thought this blog post by Sherry of Semicolon was very good.  It's an encouraging article for all of us with Prodigals in our lives.  And don't we all have Prodigals in our lives? 

Five Question Friday

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? 

One thing?!  There are many things I would like to change about myself.  Uppermost in my mind right now would be my energy level.  Normally I have very little energy.  The problem is I have lots of ambition to go with it.  So I spend a lot of time resting wishing I could do many other things.  Can be extremely frustrating at times.

Write about a time when you got lost.

I can’t think of one time I ever got lost.  I have “direction angels” that always seem to point me in the right direction.

Camping or 5 star hotel?

5 star hotel….no question!  I did a lot of camping when I was a kid.  I was a girl scout and my mom was the leader.  She loved camping.  I suppose I did at the time too.  But we did so much of it that I think I reached my camping limit. 

Have you donated blood? 

Never.  I have tired blood.  I don’t think anyone would want it.

Do you have a budget or do you 'fly by' most months? 

Budget?  What’s a budget?

Five Question Friday

1. Have you ever had surgery?

I don’t know if it’s technically considered having surgery…but I had 4 C-sections.  I think in one way C-sections are worse than surgery because you have to be AWAKE during the whole thing.   It freaks me out that I am awake while they are cutting me open.  Ahhh!!!  But they are way better than surgery because you get a beautiful baby to show for it!

2. Ever ride in an ambulance?

Only once.  The daughter of some friends of ours was quad riding on our property.  She decided to ride through some tall (not mown) grass in the middle of our mown field.  There is only one reason for tall grass in the middle of a mown field….boulders.  Needless to say she and the quad went flying.  Both her parents were out so I rode in the ambulance with her.  Turns out she ruptured her spleen and broke her thumb.  After that we had the boulder blown up and we sent her a piece of it. 

3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?

I am relatively calm during a medical emergency but it is a fight to keep the panic under control.  It is after it’s all over and everything is fine that I fall apart.

4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?

Neither…I wish I had both.

5. When did you move out of your parents’ house?

I went away to college but was still home on holidays and summers. But once I graduated from college, I packed up my car and headed to Washington, DC.  My college roommate had an apartment there.  I slept on her couch and looked for work.  After about 2 weeks I had a job and an apartment of my own.  I lost that job 2 weeks later.  L  But I was determined that I was not going to go back home with my tail between my legs.  So for the next month or two I hunted for another job during the day and worked in the local mall in the evenings.  I lived on peanut butter and hot dogs during that month.  I was very happy when I would get asked out on a date. Then I would be taken out to dinner and get a decent meal.  LOL!  I finally did get a job that would pay the bills and never did have to move back home.

Five Question Friday

I decide to participate in My Little Life's Five Question Friday.  Ok, it's Saturday...so I'll do better next week. Here are my answers to the five questions:

1. Have you ever testified in court? For what?

Never…thankfully!

2. Do you still have your wedding dress?

I still have my wedding dress.  It’s up in the attic all cleaned and boxed up by a professional dry cleaner.  But I always wonder…did they really put my dress in there.  Could they have mixed things up and put someone else’s dress in the box?  I’ve never opened it because I’ve been afraid that it will wreck the preservation of the dress.  Maybe I should peak now that it’s been 25 years!

3. Is there a special place you like to go when you're happy, sad, stressed, etc.?

My bedroom.  It’s my little refuge from the world.  It’s quiet and peaceful since the kids usually stay out of there.  And it is clean and picked up for the most part. 

4. If you have kids, do they sleep with you? If you don't have kids...will you let your kids sleep with you when/if you have them?

Absolutely not!  I have 4 kids and none of them ever slept with me.  I REALLY need my sleep and I can’t imagine getting any with a baby or a kid in my bed.  My husband’s lucky I let him sleep with me.  J  I always kept my babies in their cribs and I would get up at night to feed them when needed.    They all slept through the night pretty quickly so I didn’t have to get up that much.

5. Do you watch late night TV?

We don’t have a TV anymore…which has been a wonderful blessing.  I’m glad we got rid of it!