Rabbit Trails

**********S*********** for Sandra my mom this is what she always said when we were growing up: "See, that wasn't so bad." And she was right. Don't we always honk and make a bigger deal out of things than we should? In the time it takes us to whine about doing something, we could have done it. right? Think of some jobs you don't like to do. Then think about how really long they take to finish. I know my mom must have gotten tired just like any housewife....but I never remember her complaining about housework.........everything was kind of fun!   .......she didn't have the joy of the Lord, she didn't have encouragement from the Bible, she didn't have direction like young Christian moms do........yet what I remember about growing up, is all good about her being my mom.  She played games with us in the snow, she loved company, she did dishes after supper, she kept our clothes nice, she was also very organized.......I don't rememb

*R*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rise and Shine Keep your *stuff* clean.  Rise up when you don't feel like it, shine your stuff until it's nice, THEN put it up. If you keep your stuff clean and nice, the life of your stuff will be prolonged.  When thinking about *R*, a thought came to my head.  What if we just got ONE of each thing. ONE thing, not one after another because the others got ruined, but just ONE thing.  Lawn mower, coffee maker, high-chair?  We would probably take better care of our things if we knew we couldn't just trot out and replace them when they were ruined....often being our own fault.  I was not brought up in a poor home, but I was brought up to watch my parents take care of the things they had.  My sister has the ice chest we used to take camping when I was a kid.  That makes it pretty old....it's still a pretty green and very usable.  The life of ice chests these days is very short.........because we can just trot out and get another one. Yes, I

  *P*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Priority What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you see this word?  When I see it, I think of the word FIRST.  Do it first.  Get it done before anything else.  Everything else should come second.   For thirty years we have been living our lives where church AND home are priority....neither one is more important than the other.....but that's a different blog post! buying cooking dressing caring loving coming going swimming shopping teaching driving cleaning eating ironing leaving coming selling blogging tweeting pinning facebooking drinking grilling sweeping mowing gardening fixing sewing crafting reading writing toodling piddling toasting scrubbing studying de-cluttering changing decorating washing hanging wiping shining waxing freezing defrosting baking Everybody I'm sure could add a few verbs to this list.  And different days call for different things to be first.  You are called on as a *keeper-at-home* to know what needs to

*O*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Offer rewards, bribes, presents, gifts, and nice things to people that do things for you, and mostly, when your kids do what I call *Strange Jobs*. Strange jobs:  cleaning all the ceiling fans, yard trash, clean out car and truck and van, take down all the curtains and wash them and hang them on the line, or go a *junking* for me.  Junking means I see something on the road and either a kid was with me and I made them hop out and get the item......or I got them from the house so they could help.....and for a certain time, I would just come home and tell the boys where something was.  Once I sent them out for a bathtub I saw and they came back with a rabbit cage. I've always had the kids UNDO things for me, then I would clean whatever it was and put the things back.  They will take eVERythINg out of the garage and put it on the driveway, then I would go through the stuff and only put back what I wanted to keep.  Same with the telephone book drawer and Blue&

*N*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Never leave the house in a mess before you go to bed. Applying the *See How Much You Can Get Done In 15 Minutes* might be needed sometimes before bed.  NOBODY wants to get up to a crock-pot full of chili that needs washed, or newspapers and shoes all over the floor, the table cluttered with the day's events, wet play clothes and muddy shoes,  unfolded laundry on the couch or a pizza party in the front room...a cold and stale pizza party it will be in the morning.  Remember, the elves hardly EVER show up, so it's up to you.  Getting up to a mess in the morning can sometimes ruin a whole day.  You just never seem to get ahead because you were already behind even before you got up. Try to always put things up and make things nice and have things where they belong before you go to bed.  Have you ever stayed in bed longer because you knew what you were fixing to get up to?  tut tut...... Not only go to bed with a tidy house.....have a plan for breakfast

*L*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learn more.  Be informed.  Google things.  Ask questions.  Find out why.  Read up on it. I'm thinking we have more information at our fingertips than any other day or time.  We can look up anything we need to know....(and sometimes find out more than we needed to know).....in less than a minute.  Books are either cheap or free. (I LOVE this book.....it got me interested in houses and their floor plans.  It also reminded me that all the rich people that lived in their big fancy houses weren't necessarily happy. There's more than one way to be rich.) Think of the things you go through in just a week.......the things we find ourselves involved in are endless.....why not take advantage of learning more about the things that your life is made of? Bible study......art.....crafty projects.....cooking....bread baking....grilling.....history....cleaning....home-schooling.....illness and medicines.....decorating....relationships....gardening....sewing...