Doodle Acres

This morning we had the privilege of worshiping at St. Mary’s in Middlebury, VT.  And what makes participating in the mass at a parish other than our own so special?  It’s the continuity.    I love that going to one Novus Ordum mass is much like going to another.  And while we usually attend the Extraordinary form of the Mass (Traditional Latin Mass) back home, it is so comforting to know that we can find the mass (in some form - NO or TLM) just about anywhere we go, even in Protestant-dominated Vermont.  God is good!!!

OK, I admit it.  The last couple of months have been a wonderfully crazy blur, full of many blessed events (hence the reason that I have been blogging so infrequently and also the reason that I encouraged you to add me to your Blogreader —Bloglines is my personal favorite).  While wonderful, these last few months have left me feeling a bit out of sorts with our lack of a real daily schedule and our overstuffed house, which never seems to stay picked up for more than 5 minutes!!!  In fact I feel as if my head has been spinning and in danger of falling off altogether!!!

Needless to say, I really needed this vacation!!!  Vermont is always a place where I find inspiration and peace.  Being here in God’s beautiful nature show always makes me long for simplicity and order in my life and the life of my family.  Being among the trees and on the lake seem to give me clarity of vision that I can lose at home, if I’m not careful.

Having just recently finished Shopping for Time, I have been enjoying “sitting at Jesus’ feet” these last three or four mornings before my family has arisen from their blessed slumber.  This has meant getting up at 6 a.m. while on vacation (I know, I know, I can hear you groaning!!!).  I consider this preparation for when I get home and push up my wake up time to 5 a.m. (Now I hear you really moaning!!!).  This time away and my early mornings spent at Jesus’ feet have made my path clear to me.

Like it or not, 5 a.m. is a necessary evil.  It is the only way that I can have my quiet time, get my housework back on track, and still find time for exercise which is a must for getting off / reducing my blood pressure medication.  These are all things that I used to do thanks to Flylady but have lost sight of in the recent past.  I am grateful for the Control Journal that I put together a while back which makes it easier to get back on the straight and narrow. 

I have spent a couple of hours over the last few days working on a schedule to fulfill all my goals.  I know it will need some tweaking and I will need some patience as I put the plan into action.  Something that I have been learning over these last several months is that when I stumble, I need to just brush myself off and begin again.  Sometimes this means asking the Lord’s forgiveness and forgiving myself.  But when all is said and done, I need to get up and try again (preferably without beating myself up too severely).  So in this spirit I continue this blessed journey.  Now without further adieu, here it is:

Morning Routine 

5 am     Get up

            Make bed

            Go to bathroom

            Vitamins/Medication

            SITTING AT JESUS’ FEET

5:45     Brush teeth

            Apply moisturizer

            Dress

            Hair

            Make-up

6:00     Empty dishwasher, if necessary

            Breakfast, newspaper

            Diet Center food planning

            Daily planning, check calendar, update “to do” list, plan day/errands/goals

            Menu planning, grocery shopping planning

            Puzzles, clip for later

7:00     Defrost meat for dinner, dinner prep

            Breakfast prep for children (CHILDREN”S BREAKFAST at 7:30)

            Put out hotspots

            Wash breakfast dishes

            Shine sink

            27 Fling Boogie, time permitting

7:30     Walk, while children have Breakfast

8:00     Heather & children: Daily jobs

Monday: Change sheets, vacuum and dust bedrooms

Tuesday:  Dust downstairs, vacuum upstairs hallway, vacuum thoroughly downstairs

Wednesday:  Blue bathroom

Thursday:  Upstairs bathroom

Friday:  Kitchen

Daily: 27 Fling Boogie and Zone work, time permitting

8:30     Children’s Individual Chores while I check email, read, blog, correspondence

9:30     Rosary & Beginner’s Bible

10:00   Basic School plan with children

12 pm  Lunch prep

12:30   Lunch

I ask for your prayers as I put this into action next week. 

Happy Lent!!! I said that to my husband on Wednesday and he said it was an oxymoron.  I don’t know about that.  I think that there is happiness in turning more fully to God.  One of the things I love about being Catholic (I converted 10 years ago this Easter) is that the Church takes these special times/seasons to reflect, refocus, and draw closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.

So that being said, I need to pull away from my blog for these special weeks in order to draw closer to my Saviour.  Please feel free to contact me (just click on the “contact me” under my picture) if you’d like to “talk” or share your Lenten journey with me.  May the Lord bless you and I look forward to reconnecting with you after Easter.

Love,

Heather

P.S. For those of you who have been wondering, our sewing business (Lilies of Hope) has been thriving locally.  We hope to have our online store up in March.  This is all dependent on my husband having time to work on our site.  Your prayers would be appreciated!!!

In my continuing journey through How Did I Get So Busy?: The 28-day Plan to Free Your Time, Reclaim Your Schedule, and Reconnect with What Matters Most , I was asked to write down my 5 most important priorities.  These priorities are meant to guide me as I evaluate my activities as well as the items I put on my “To Do List”.  Here is my list in no particular order:

• Educating my children
• Spiritual growth of my family and I
• Clean yet friendly home for my family
• Strong marriage
• Living a financially responsible life

Please pray for me as I attempt to align my life with my priorities!!! 

I am continuing my journey through How Did I Get So Busy? by Valorie Burton.  She says that “if you are going to overcome busyness and embrace a self-care lifestyle, you must gain control of your technology habits now.”  Well this is definitely an area in which I struggle. 

So reluctantly, I have put most of my yahoo group subscriptions on “no email” and made a decision to stay off the computer from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Ugh!!! Can you hear my heart breaking?  Well that is too strong a sentiment but it was VERY difficult to keep from checking my email throughout the day today.  This, of course, demonstrates the reason that I need to make this change.

On a positive note, I did feel less distracted today.  As things came to mind, I made myself a list of all that I needed to do online when my self-imposed banishment was over for the day.  This helped to keep me focused when I did go on the computer. 

I’m a little bit like Ado Annie in Oklahoma -”With me, it’s all or nothin’.  It’s all or nothin’ with me”.  Moderation can be difficult for me.  Historically, I have had trouble striking a balance in several areas of my life.  Please pray for my resolve to get this monster under control. 

Today I had a laugh at the supermarket and it wasn’t over the ridiculous price of milk or eggs.  I was picking up the loss leader sale items (about a dozen) at a local store.   As the nice young man (yes, I know that makes me sound so old to call an eighteen year old boy, a “nice young man”) scanned my groceries, he noticed that I opted to not use any shopping bags, paper or plastic.  I have a very large collection of plastic grocery bags at home and thought I’d skip them for today.  Well as I loaded my purchases into my cart, this nice young man looked at me like I had three heads and says, “That’s harsh!!!” 

I wanted to laugh and begin a lecture on the real world and the real definition of “harsh”.  Of course, I just smiled and thought to myself, “Boy, do you have a lot to learn about the real world.  Harsh is when you don’t have enough money to buy groceries, or when you have to walk to the store in the snow.  Harsh is being homeless, alone, or forgotten.  Harsh is being sick with no one to care for you or pray for you.  Harsh is NOT making the choice to not use grocery bags.”

Well that’s the end of my rant - you may return to enjoying the blessings of the life God has given you!!!

How Did I Get So Busy?  That’s the name of a book that I stumbled on at the library the other day.  The subtitle is “The 28-Day Plan to Free Your Time, Reclaim Your Schedule, and Reconnect with What Matters Most.”  (The funny thing is that it’s a 14 day book because it’s new - not quite sure how they expect me to get through a 28 day book in 14 days!!! LOL) 

Well today is Day 2.  The author, Valorie Burton, shares a Japanese proverb that I think hits the nail on the head:

“Vision without action is a daydream.  Action without vision is a nightmare.”

This book is challenging me to take a long hard look at my life and our current level of busyness.  I am seeking to fine tune my “vision” and to be sure that our activities and routines reflect that “vision”.  

Today’s assignment asked me to describe an ideal day:

• Peacefully taking care of my home and family (including homeschooling) with few interruptions from the outside world
• TV, computer, phone calls limited to specific times of the day (use timer)
• Purposeful activity fills our day without the rushing around
• Outside activities OK but not too many
• More reading to children, reading by children, and reading myself
• Improved bedtime routines and times
• Daily time for Len and me to reconnect
• Peaceful, unrushed meal times with more meals together

Well I haven’t gotten to the part of the book that tells me how to make this happen; but I am determined to take these next 26 days to try and reach toward this ideal.

While vacationing in Vermont, I finally got the chance to write our annual Christmas letter. Here it is:

Dec. 31, 2007
Vermont

Dear Friends and Family:
Well Advent has come and gone, and we are enjoying the season of Christmas while we vacation in beautiful Vermont. It is my hope that our “Christmas” letter will be in the mail by the end of the Christmas season on January 6^th, the Epiphany. However, I am not optimistic as we haven’t even taken our family photo yet!!! Regardless of when this letter arrives, I hope it finds you well.

2007 has been a busy year, aren’t they all? We continue to live in our home in — which Len and I have enjoyed together for all of our 18 years of marriage. So many happy years shared together, where does the time go?

Hope is now a lovely young woman of fifteen and will be eligible to get her driver’s permit on her 16^th birthday in May. This has been a great year for her as we’ve gotten involved in a new Catholic home-school group. This has been an answer to our prayers for like-minded friends. The Citizenship group and Girls Latin Choir to which she belongs have been particularly wonderful. She continues to work at the local sewing shop helping with the children’s classes and has begun working as a clerk in the store.

Our big news is that Hope and I have started a sewing business, Lilies of Hope, focusing on alterations, sewing classes, and custom sewing. Len is in the process of designing our website which should be up in late January or early February. So we expect all you local folks to bring your alterations and sewing projects to us!!! And I’ll send out an email announcement when the website is up and running.

Lenny (12) continues to be my athlete playing travel soccer, Little League, and travel basketball. His favorite Christmas present this year was his new Ipod Nano. We’ve downloaded a whole bunch of audio-books and it’s been difficult to disconnect him from it!!!

Lily (7) is enjoying her studies – particularly her reading. She loves to play on a free reading website called starfall.com and is forever writing stories and letters to her cousin, Eve. She tried horseback riding this year but decided that she’d rather swim with dolphins. I told her not to hold her breath on that one!!!

Peter (3) is a joyful bundle of energy and motion. His parents, however, are an exasperated exhausted pair of forty plus year olds who are feeling a bit tired of the chase and at the same time are enjoying the magic of seeing the world through the eyes of a toddler.

Len’s company was bought by — and we are happy that he has survived the many layoffs that have taken place since the acquisition. He and Hope continue to do dog agility weekly with Dakota and Tobey, respectively. This year Len had one of his photographs published in an online guide to NYC.

I am busy with home-schooling the children and sewing for the family and our business. I enjoy being a homemaker and have worked on improving my homemaking skills. It’s taken 18 years but I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of this homemaking stuff!!! I’m a quick study, aren’t I? I thank God for a patient husband!!!

Well that’s all the news that’s fit to print…

Love,
Heather, Len, Hope, Lenny, Lily, Mary, and Peter

P.S. We have migrated over my blog, Doodle Acres (http://www.liliesofhope.com/doodleacres), to our website. Please come and check it out!!! Leave a comment and I’ll add you to my will!!!

I just read a beautiful post by Cay Gibson over at Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks.  I think it is particularly appropriate during this Christmas season when I can feel squeezed and the “victims” of those stressed feelings are those that I love the most on God’s green earth - my husband and children.  Cay asks the question, “Do I treat my family as lovingly and kindly as I would a stranger on the street?”.  Good question, Cay!  I need to take these feelings of conviction and turn them into action!!!

Thinking I wasn’t going out today except to drop my daughter at her part-time job, I opted for wool socks and slippers this morning.  It was not until I was entering the front door of our local library that I realized that I had neglected to change out of my favorite footwear.  And wouldn’t you know it, I ran into an old friend of my mother who I haven’t seen in years!!!  Oh well,  it’s just another lesson in humility!!!