My Babies

I have the best job in the world.

To-Do Lists

On facebook I'm a fan of Chalene Johnson, the creator of Turbo Jam and several other workouts. She's constantly posting status' about making and referring to your to-do list.

Back in Scranton I tried a to-do list countless times and always ended the day frustrated and disappointed in myself. I never seemed to be able to finish the list. Sometimes I wouldn't even get to anything on it! So I finally decided to-do lists were not for me and started ignoring Chalene's posts.

When we moved to Indiana life got, well, hectic. I am a very new mother of two, I suddenly have lots of family around, and we've jumped right into attending church as often as possible and spending time with Derek's students. It's a wonderful life! But a hectic one.

I kept forgetting things. The need for a daily to-do list was becoming imperative. I kept putting it off, trying to decide how best to go about this without ending each day feeling I failed. Finally I formulated a plan.

First, I pulled out a small sticky-note pad and told myself that my to-do list had to fit on a single sticky-note (4-5 things). This would combat the problem I had with making a to-do list 27 items long.

Second, I told myself to stick with broad to-do's. Instead of listing every separate room of the house and how it needed to be cleaned (1. dishes; 2. sweep kitchen floor; 3. swiffer kitchen floor; etc), I need to just write "clean kitchen." In fact, I've been going even more broad than that and on my list for today I simply wrote "clean." Since I don't need to clean to prepare for visitors, I can mark this off my list at the end of the day if I just did any cleaning at all!

Third, while there's a million things I could put on this list because at least a million things need to be done, I told myself to think through and decide what was most important to get done that day. Like today I am beginning a facebook contest for DandLs DangLs. That's important to get to. That's on the list.

Lastly, I gave myself permission to do things that are not on my to-do list. Like today, I did not have "blog" on my list. My previous attempts at to-do listing I would get frustrated because my list was so long that I felt I could only do what was on the list. Now that it's short, I don't feel guilty about doing non-list things. And also I've given myself permission to change what's on the list. You can't predict how a day is going to go. Sometimes priorities just have to change.

If you've been considering to-do lists or have been frustrated with to-do listing, I hope these ideas are helpful. Here's my list for today...

Now it's time to get to my to-do's!

God Box

The other day Derek suggested we get a box to keep little mementos in that are reminders of how God has protected us and taken special care of us. I'm almost certain he thought of this because we had just been at Michaels craft store and he saw these cool vintage-looking boxes that he was trying to find a reason to buy. But the crafty and thrifty momma that is trying to take over my body is going to find something in this cluttered house to repurpose.

Anyway, on to the point. The first three things we are going to put in this box (whenever I get to putting it together) are as follows -

1. Derek's backpack and helmet from his bicycle accident back in 2006. If I ever doubted God's hand in every tiny area of my life, I stopped after that horrific day. When we got home from the hospital and made it through the first long night of waking him up every couple hours to make sure he didn't fall into a coma or something, the little things started to become clear. All the bits and pieces of the previous couple of weeks that had a part in my husband still being with me after he should have died came together. I still get overwhelmed just thinking about it.

This is the bag that saved his back from serious roadburn.

They had to cut his favorite shirt. He begged them not to, the goof. 

This is the helmet that saved his life. Thank you, helmet. Thank you, God.

2. The night before Derek drove the HUGE moving truck from Scranton to Elkhart, his great friends (we love and miss you guys like crazy!) took him to a casino and handed him cash. He played craps. He loves craps. He won enough money to not only cover an outrageously expensive meal that night, but also to cover the gas to drive the monster of a truck 600+ miles. And he had a wonderful night with some wonderful friends. He kept this -

3. The Sunday night before Labor Day, my man and I were watching a movie and making tshirts for my little brother's soccer game the next day. At about 1 am we suddently heard shouting right outside our window. Then we heard a shot. I remember at this point we were on our feet, but I don't remember the actual standing up part. This was the conversation -

D - Get down!
L - But my babies!

In a matter of seconds Derek was upstairs grabbing Marie and I had Jack snuggled in my arms, huddled in the doorway of our main floor bedroom. By this point our house was literally surrounded by cop cars. While we all sat on the floor together waiting for the lights to go away, Derek told me he saw the scene from upstairs (there aren't any blinds on the windows upstairs. What on earth kind of landlord doesn't put blinds on the windows?) and saw that it was a tazer gun that we heard. And that the man who had been tazered was lying immediately next to my baby girl's playhouse. The creepiest part of it all I didn't realize until later the next day: we didn't hear anything until right before the guy got tazered which means the cops had just found him when we heard the shouting which means this guy was hiding out by our house for who knows how long... The next morning Derek searched the yard and found this to place in our future box -

The number of times God has protected and provided for this little family is humbling. Really we could consider this whole house a "box" full of blessings and provisions and protection. I think that's exactly what I need to think... this house is our "God Box." But also, I encourage everyone to make your own little God Box to remind yourself and your family of some significant times God has taken special care of you.

"Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say 'Blessed be the name of the Lord!'"

Psalm 91:2 I will say to the Lord "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!"

The Baptist Stereotype

So many people I talk to around here, including my family, have issues with Baptists. People seem to be embarrassed to admit they're "baptist" or when they say they go to a Baptist church, they quickly follow it up with, "But I wouldn't call myself a Baptist. I just go to a Baptist church." This is so unfortunate. It proves 2 things - Baptist churches have often given in to the stereotypes and people have no idea what it means to be a Baptist.

While I could go on and on about what a church should be doing about this, I think it needs to start with the people.

If you have a problem with believer's (Biblical) baptism, or think you need a priest to reach God, or want to find a way around taking responsibility to study Scripture and learn the truth on your own without just accepting whatever pastor says, then you are right in saying you are not a Baptist.

But what do people really have a problem with? The stereotypes. The typical "standards" (for lack of a better word) of a Baptist church that have no real basis in Scripture. They're just simply preference.

Here's a picture of some stereotypes... We had to sneak to a back room, telling only the photographer, to have a daddy/daughter dance just before our wedding. When someone walks in covered in tattoos and piercings, with a scowl and a ton of baggage, they usually walk out the very same way, having met no one. The first several rows in the auditorium are empty. Only the "enthusiastic" lady in the praise band ever raises her hands during worship. A change of order in the service would get the deacons shifting uncomfortably. Who's willing to give of themselves and work in the nursery?? The same two ladies every single week. And outreach is the youth group's job. Us older folk don't want to feel the least bit uncomfortable.

As we drove into church this morning, I said to Derek, "We personally don't struggle with most of the stereotypes, but we go to a church that has a tendency to be very stereotypical. Let's make sure we don't fall into that trap." So we're committing to being Baptists that live as bible-believing Christians, rather than letting the world's idea of the Baptist name shape who we are. So while we sat very near the front row, we listened to a message on the importance of being a servant. The very thing that would combat all these issues!

First Baptist has been around for 150 years! God has been faithful. And I believe He is faithful through a handful of faithful people. The problem is, it's only a handful! In a church of 1300, there should NEVER be a problem finding help in the nursery. I have no idea how many members belong to our church, but I know that they aren't all serving. How many people belong to your church? Are they all plugged in somewhere? Are YOU serving your church??

So here's my challenge - know your denomination and your individual church's beliefs and values. If they don't line up with yours (which should line up with Scripture), make a change. And secondly, before bashing on the denomination I am a part of, figure out what problem you really have with it. Is it simply a stereotype?

Superwoman

It's only natural. When you become pregnant, you are becoming a superwoman. Or more specifically, supermom. Just giving birth is incredible enough! (Praying for that opportunity someday...) Then you have a child and simply raising that child causes you to pull tricks that only a superwoman could possibly do. I think I'd go so far to say that the only way to be a superwoman is to be a mom. But I would not go so far to say that every mom is a superwoman. There is definitely ways around that.

But it does seem common, if you want to be a good mom, that being a supermom is not only something you have to be, but something you strive to be. When Derek tells me that he's impressed with something I handled related to the kids (ie spending all day with a screaming JackJack and a sick Meesters and still having a smile on my face when he gets home), I feel like my supermom status rose a little. And I like that.

So I'm striving to become more of a supermom. Of course every supermom gets ideas and tips from other supermoms and in this day in age, blogs are the easiest way to go about getting those. The problem is, I come across so many amazing blogs by supermoms that makes me feel suddenly like an almost-mediocre mom.

These women have multiple children, homeschool all of them, keep their own gardens, feed their huge families on $50 or less a week, make elaborate completely from scratch dinners every night, and still have time to blog daily and take fantastic pictures. And that's all just from a quick browse of their blogs. By that point, my supermom goal is almost completely out of sight.

The silly thing is, I'm always trying to find that blog by that woman who is like me... hates to cook, doesn't know what's for dinner til 6pm, doesn't wash all the dishes until the next day, kills everything edible that is supposed to grow, feels overwhelmed and stresses out about printing out all the coupons and finding all the deals, always needs at least 10 minutes to stash things away before someone comes to the house, and has no idea how long her hair is because it's been that long since she wore it down!

So, the other day, as I washed the dishes just before making dinner, it suddenly occurred to me why I haven't found that blog by that woman like me... duh! Women like me are unorganized and not good at managing time. So we're not going to blog every day! And even if we did, what on earth would we blog about?? The Little Ceasar's pizza we ordered for dinner, and how the buttery garlic sauce adds just the right touch to the cheesy breadsticks? Everyone knows that already!

I know you are out there - supermom's in your own right, but not quite the Pioneer Woman. Know that you are not alone. I'm here, not cooking up fancy recipes or writing out the 5 best ways to stay organized. I'm here as a fellow supermom who has to work just a little harder than some to impress outsiders, but am the greatest mom in the world  to two sweet babies who know no better :)

All that being said, maybe I'll throw in a bit here and there about things I've learned about becoming more of a supermom... you know, when I think to do it and have the patience to type it out :)

Here's a picture because most supermom blogs have pictures!