Life and Lists

Life

Today the children and I went grocery shopping together. They were eager to spend some allowance money, and I try and get my weekly shopping done once during the week. Sadly, the credit card machine was broken, so we had to leave our cart full of groceries there, but I'm thankful that it isn't because our credit card is maxed out or anything like that. I know we will be able to purchase what we need tomorrow or the next day, it just means an unplanned trip. Humanly speaking it was frustrating to be sure! But I can say Thank You Lord. He provides for our needs, and I can drive to the store just as easily another day as I did today. I will pray the machine works next time. :) I don't normally pray for the machine... but when this happens, I am reminded to pray for it each subsequent time I shop. And then things work as per normal, and I begin to take it for granted, and then I stop praying about it. I will praise the Lord for this experience as a gentle reminder to me of Philippians 4.

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again--rejoice! [...] Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 

--Philippians 4:4a, 6-7 NLT

Sadly, I didn't have this Scripture close enough to my heart in the moment. I kept calm in the store, but my afternoon kind of spiralled down into thinking critically about things and people around me, some harsh words, and frustrating thoughts. Oh, I keep doing what I don't want to do and don't do what I know I want to do.

Of course this is a small crisis in the grand scheme of life. Perhaps it should not even be mentioned. But I find, it's these small seemingly insignificant problems that tend to bring out heart issues. The nitty-gritty of the daily grind reveal much! Giant problems in life aren't necessary to reveal the sin that remains inside of me. This smaller thing came on the heals of a bigger one a couple of weeks ago, where I was driving in town with my window down and my cell phone was snatched out of my car. Gone. New cell phone recently purchased in Canada... stolen. Maybe a story for another time. But I'm thinking God wants my attention in the big and the little. In the tough and even the not-so-tough. I forget so quickly that I must be praying on all occasions. My dialogue with the Lord mustn't cease. I must not try and "go at it alone," on my own strength.

School

At the beginning of the school year, I created this timetable for myself: My responsibilities listed on the left, and the kids' on the right. I've discovered that my brain can feel pretty overwhelmed with all of the "To-Do's" if I leave it all up there in my head. But if I can write lists, schedules, or a calendar, prioritizing tasks can happen. And I can see that there is time to get the essentials covered. The non-essentials are labelled as such, and we can re-evaluate later on.

This timetable helps keep me on track with the kids who tend to doddle on certain subjects, thus keeping me busy longer than I can really spend on school work. There are tasks where the kids need me, and then there's more independent work they can do. During the first part of the day, we work on all of the subjects they need my direct involvement on. If the kids are taking longer than a reasonable amount of time on a task, I have no problem asking them to put it aside while I work on an assignment with them where they need me. Work they aren't able to complete during the first half of the day is saved for after lunch during the homework time slot. This is really only necessary if there's been an excessive amount of procrastination, or if we've had an unforeseen interruption in our morning, or if we've agreed to change that day's schedule around a bit.

Having our day written out like this isn't the law, but it does help serve me as a framework to help me know there's an end to our workday. The really important things aren't going to be forgotten. And there's room for play and leisure.

In My Garden