Take my little and make it enough

The thing about people is we make messes....a lot of them.  Somehow, when we added the third little one to our family, the laundry doubled and the dishes tripled. I don't know how, but somehow everything is dirty all the time.  I hate dishes. They are like weeds in the garden.....no matter how many you pull there are some more waving at you in a matter of hours.  I can never just mark it off the list, like I can vacuuming. Couple that with trying to keep the little ones healthy, fed, bathed, entertained, out of trouble, educated, and cuddled....and it feels like a lot.

One early morning, the baby decided that sleeping through the night wasn't fun anymore, so the two of us headed downstairs to find her milk and hopefully not disturb the sleeping family members (admittedly, I was jealous of them being able to sleep).  As I waited for her to eat, I started feeling the weight of raising these little ones and the work in caring for them. I knelt by my chair in the wee morning hours and told God I didn't have much to offer. Try as I might, I was not super-woman. No matter how much I got done, there was always at least one more chore begging for my attention.

God began to remind me that he is the master of taking little and making it enough. In the gospels, we read of the little boy who willingly gave his lunch to Jesus. Clearly, he didn't expect it to be sufficient to feed 5,000 people....but Jesus made it enough. (John 6)

In Luke, we read of the widow who gave a couple of coins while everyone else around her was giving bags of money.  Jesus said her gift was worth more than the rest because she gave all she had out of her poverty. It was her heart, not her amount.  Jesus made it enough. (Luke 21)

The prophet Elijah asked a widow for food during a famine, though she only had a little bit of flour and oil left for making their last meal. God blessed her offering, and neither the flour nor oil ran out during the whole famine. (1 Kings 17)  God made it enough.

In my 'to be read' pile, is a book by Sarah Mackenzie called "Teaching from Rest".  In her book, she talks about offering our 'little' like the small boy offered his little lunch. There's a lot of things I can't do, but I can bake bread, I can read to my kids, and I can send encouraging text messages. I can offer up my "little.

God makes it enough.

What 'little' do you have to offer? He is sufficient. The house will never be completely clean, there will always be more I could teach the kiddos, and even while I'm marking off projects, there is more being added to the list. But......He is sufficient. He takes the little I have to offer and makes it enough. 

Let's offer Him our little together.

Sojourning with you,

 Felicia

Living Holidays with intentionality and tomato soup

Here we are dealing with flooding and waiting for our yards to be filled with mud as we await the promise of spring. Spring's sunshine waves at us to tease us, then tosses more snow and ice our way. All this back and forth weather makes one want to huddle inside to finish a good book until the seasons finally make up their mind! 

Speaking of books, I just finished Sacred Holidays:Less Chaos, More Jesus by Becky Kiser.  In her book, Becky calls us into intentional living throughout the year by taking some time to think through the holidays. She offers a range of ideas from simple journaling and reflecting, to more complex neighborhood parties. Becky covers New Year's, Valentine's Day, Lent/Easter, Summer, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Advent/Christmas, and Birthdays. She also deals with the topics of personal expectations, family drama, budgets, grief and cultural expectations.  

I appreciated her pretty well rounded approach to each holiday, and how her main focus was on loving people well and taking time to be still and enjoy each season. This is written as a workbook, with plenty of space given to create a mission statement, answer reflection questions, and make a tentative plan or bucket list for each holiday. Becky encourages the reader to take baby steps and not try changing everything at once. 

This book is meant to be a resource guide, and not a how-to manual.  Since my kids are so young, they feel like it's a special day if we just play board games or go to the park.  The point isn't to 'do, do, do', or to have another thing to stress over.  Rather, the goal is to be intentional with our time so when the holiday/event is passed we can look back with fond memories at time well spent. 

As you read the book, you can pick and choose which ideas are good fits for your family.  I liked the ideas of helping kids set goals for the New Year, having a thankful tree at Thanksgiving, having a summer bucket list, and reading through certain Scriptures at Advent.  With Easter/Resurrection Sunday coming next, I made a list as I read through that chapter. My kiddos would love having a "He is Risen!" party, as they love anything with special food, streamers, and where we 'party'. :-) Time passes so fast, that Easter/Resurrection will be here before we know it!  

Along with reading books, we've tried some new recipes while we wait for the seasons to fight it out. Last night, my husband made a yummy pineapple smoothie!  I'm hoping tomorrow to experiment with another tomato soup recipe.  The last one tasted too acidic on it's own, but went well with mozzarella cheese. I'm hoping to try either this recipe or this recipe that calls for a bit of heavy cream. I have many canned tomatoes waiting to be experimented with.  Do you have any recommendations?  I'd love to learn to make a tomato soup that even my husband will eat. ;-) (He likes tomato soup, but homemade doesn't always taste as good as the canned kind). This fits into my goals of learning to make 'all the foods' and of using up my pantry/freezer ingredients.

Sojourning with you,

Felicia

PS. I was thankful to receive this book at no cost as part of the Bethany House Publishing book review program.  The review was my own reflections on the book.  

Finding your quiet place

The last last couple weeks, we've hunkered down to hibernate. With crazy cold temperatures and lots of snow, we settled in (to the dismay of my social daughter) to our warm-ish house.  Usually I'm running around for errands and play dates, so it was a bit of a change for me.  Honestly, there were times I felt a bit like a prisoner as I would view the forecast for the rest of the week. Thankfully spring is just around the corner....according to the calendar anyway.

During that time, something changed in my mindset. I began to treasure days at home, and to view this place as more than a landing spot after adventures or as a place to clean. One of my favorite Instagram ladies wrote in one of her posts of the need to create a life a life you don't want to run away from. That idea has echoed in my head over and over....creating a life you don't want to run away from. A dear friend was just sharing how she had the same mental transition after her third child was born.

As you create quiet, you begin to notice the beauty the ordinary moments of life. (also it's the name of one of my favorite podcasts "Out of the Ordinary") We've made forts, gone on imaginary trips to grandma's house with our 'dinner pail' (our new vocabulary word from our read aloud Farmer Boy) and made "monster fighters" (cardboard rolls decorated with flames so they could go hunt for monsters).  We made memories.

The other day, a former coworker came to visit, and complemented the small tree we have on the counter. She mentioned that she hadn't noticed that plant before. It's possible since this was only her 2nd recent visit to our house, that she simply hadn't noticed it. But more likely is that I recently cleared off that catch-all place on the counter so the plant and salt lamp could be decoratively displayed instead of being part of the pile.  When you quiet down the space, you can notice the beauty around you.

It is said that Susanna Wesley who taught her 10 children between 1700 and 1720 would pull her apron over her head to make a personal tent space for two hours each day so she could read her Bible and pray. I find it hard to find quiet time with my three children, let alone 10 children. But in that calm space under her apron, she found the beauty of Jesus.

Jesus also often withdrew to quiet places to pray (Mark 1) and he brought his disciples away from the crowds to get some rest  (Mark 6). He understands our limitations and our need for quiet spaces in order to refocus, gain perspective, and appreciate the beauty around us.

When we left to go meet up with friends today, my daughter paused half-way down the sidewalk..."It's so quiet.  I don't hear anything". So we listened together to the quietness of the winter wonderland.  Sometimes we are so used to the noise, that the quiet takes our breath away and makes us marvel.

This weekend, let's cultivate some moments of quietness by saying no to an unnecessary  commitment, quieting down a space so sentimental decor can be noticed again, making quiet places to sit with Jesus, and make memories with those important to you. Let's create a life that we 'don't want to run away from'.

Sojourning with you,
Felicia