Be Anxious For Nothing

As I am building my blog and combining Modern Mommy Mentor with Country Mama to Many I'm trying to come up with a plan for how I want to post and share my thoughts. After all life seems to run so much more smoothly when there's a plan, at least for me it typically does. 

I have so many thoughts and ideas I'd like to share, and I am excited to get them out there. I'm thrilled to finally be writing again, I didn't realize how much I had missed it. This blog is the perfect outlet for a woman who more often than not finds herself isolated with limited adult interaction. (I'm not begrudging it, it's simply my season of life right now. But, sometimes, I'm just lonely and have so much to say.)

While I don't want to live in bondage to a writing/posting plan, I do want to organize my posts so that folks can know when and what to expect. It doesn't mean I'm posting three times a week or only on those days, this is just a guideline to help me process my thoughts. So I'm thinking something along the lines of this pattern:

Matters of Faith Mondays

What Works for Me Wednesdays

Friday Fellowship

So with keeping to this plan I'd like to share on this fine Monday about a topic that I struggle with quite often: Anxiety. Despite knowing that anxiety is wrong in the eyes of God, I still often find myself over come with it throughout the difficult trial of life. 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

But with Christ I have the freedom to break free from this bondage of anxiety and to replace it with peace and acceptance in that whatever happens is God's perfect will.

"Whatever is lawful is legal. Therefore whatever is legal is lawful. 

Whatever is lawful is ethical. Therefore whatever is ethical is legal"

I recently watched a movie where these words were being recited, in the opening scene, over and over again. Apparently, a very successful finance man was trying to convince himself that the business deal he was in the process of making happen was indeed ethical ~ it wasn't. But, because what he was doing wasn't illegal he'd convinced himself it was indeed ethical. Sadly, he ended up losing his job and so much more from just this one deal. If only he'd listened to his conscious.

We are in the process of selling our house. Mercy what a long and painful story, that I most likely will share one day, but that day is not today. We currently have a tentative contract based on the buyer selling their current home. But, as is due process for the purchase to be finalized when they do sell their home we must have a home inspection. 

Today is our home inspection.

To say I'm nervous is an understatement! to say I'm anxious is an understatement! My current state of affairs is a pure hot mess of gut-wrenching-I-seriously-can-NOT-do-this crazed woman! But, we have no choice, it has to be done. 

The sell of our home is dependent on this one man inspecting it. To make matters worse our realtor has warned us that we got the 'bad luck of the drawl'. This specific inspector, coming to inspect our home, has been the cause of many deals gone 'south' for our realtor. (insert massive sigh and the onset of hysterical crying)

Thankfully I am a woman of faith and I've got this, or more likely God has got this! He knows all about our financial woes and our fears, struggles, and anxiety in regards to the NEED of us selling this house ASAP. Trust me The Good Lord has gotten an ear full every.single.day. for months from me in regards to the sell of this house! But, we all know God does things in His own timing. So, I must remain patient and trust that He has my good will in the forefront of all His doings and either the inspection will go well or it will not. Either way it will be God's will and He will carry us through.

Funny thing is our realtor made some suggestions for us to do in the hopes of making the inspection go more smoothly. Are you kidding me? Seriously, is this legal? Is this ethical? Why should anything I do effect the outcome of the inspection of my home? Is this really happening to me? Why is adulting so hard?

Then my thoughts rush to our home inspection. Did the same thing happen to them. Is that why so many things were not what they said they were to be once we took ownership of the home? Did they sway their inspector and that's why we suffered the consequences of a really bad deal? (Oh, but the difference from us to them is that we've fixed all those issues that were 'missed' during our home inspection!)

I'm finding that throughout this mess that if I keep my eyes on Christ and continuously lean upon His Holy Word; my fears are as water rushing under a bridge. But, I'm not going to lie, when I stop and think about anything other than those precious bible verses I've memorized the anxiety nearly over comes me making me vehemently ill and unable to catch my breath. 

"For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13

Lord willing at the close of this day our home will have passed inspection and we will be well on our way to finalizing the sell of our home. If not then it just wasn't meant to be and I'm sure the Lord has something else all the more better for our future. We just have to keep remembering that simple truth! 

We are His and He is ours!

(through the good times and the not so good times)

So, how do you handle anxiety and stress? What are your favorite bible verse to quote during times of overwhelming fear? 

With Love and Hope,

Jennifer

Ditching the Clutter: A Busy Mom's Guide to Home Organization

I truly believe organization is the key to productivity and lets face it wives and mothers are responsible for doing the impossible. Our proverbial plates are often spilling over with things we must get done. Here's a post I wrote for Modern Mommy Mentor for how I try to keep the clutter to a minimum....

For anyone who knows me or who has read any of my blog posts; knows that I have a very type-A personality. I thrive on planning, order, and structure. When I started having children I had to learn a whole new way of living. I’d much rather have my children than the cleanest, most organized home, but there are some bonuses to preferring a systematic way of handling life. I find that life just works so much better when our home is organized.

The scriptures tell us that even God prefers life to be handled with order and decency. Should order be achieved in lieu of serving God and our families, no, but the two should work harmoniously together. When our lives are organized it allow us to think and work more effectively. We must first acknowledge and accept our need for organization and structure. Second, organizing our homes must be a family effort. Mom cannot be the sole proprietor of keeping a home organized. Husbands and children play important roles for maintaining an organized home.

Getting every family member involved as active participants makes organization easily achievable.
After acknowledging a need for an organized home and convincing family members of their vital role in keeping a home organized, the most important key to organization is STOP BUYING! Before I buy something I pray about it and wait for God’s answer, no impulse buying for this family. You might be surprised at how God answers when you start praying about your spending habits. I often find that after a week or two I really didn’t need the stuff I thought was essential. It’s amazing how much of the clutter starts disappearing when you stop buying unnecessary products.

3 Easy Steps to Ditch the Clutter

• Simplify, consolidate, and eliminate: This pertains mostly to the kitchen and bathroom, but it could easily be applied to any room. Many products can be combined to do the same job. Such as using one all-purpose cleaner or using a bar soap to wash and shave with. The mainstream media and marketing gurus have convinced us to use a different product for every task which promotes unnecessary and excessive spending. When in reality many homemade, non-toxic products can be used for multiple jobs and work just as well. Many utensils and tools can be consolidated.
• Baskets, totes, and uniformity: Loose objects go perfect in baskets and totes. My cabinets are organized with baskets holding an assortment of loose items, such as lids, canning supplies, toilet paper, essential oils, medicine, etc. My basket system is purely a time-saving necessity. Everything has a specific location which allows me to spend my time actually doing the tasks at hand as opposed to searching for the tools required. Uniformity works great too. When things are done in a specific yet simple way, children can easily learn to be willing participants in keeping their home organized. For instance, we have an array of different blocks. Each type of block is kept in a tote and all totes are stored in one specific location. Yes, they can play with the blocks, but when they are finished playing, they know where and how to put them away.
• Purge: Before Christmas and all birthdays toys are purged. My reasoning with the children is; "To get new toys they must get rid of some of the old". We cannot keep every toy they receive. Any broken toys are thrown away immediately. Books and homeschooling materials are kept in one location and purged yearly too. As for clothes and shoes, we keep a pretty simple variety. Each child has an average of four sets of 'play clothes', three sets of 'good clothes', 2 pairs of night clothes, and a weeks worth of under clothes. Shoes are kind of iffy, truthfully each chid has one good and one play, but somehow there are always seems to be strays that need to be put away in storage.

Organizing a home should not be a burdensome task, it should be done as an extension from a desire to create a peaceful home environment. From my personal experience our home operates much better when everything is in its place. The heart of organization begins with Christ and ends with families joyfully working together to keep a home running in decency and in order.

With Love and Hope,
Jennifer

This is a picture of the kitchen in the big house we bought and sold. This is not a staged picture, it was exactly what it looked like after each meal. :)

Taking Back Your Evenings: Why We Do NOT Do Extracurricular Activities

Once folks find out that we purposefully do not do sports or other extracurricular activities I'm typically inundated with questions of curiosity. And then usually comes their defense as to why they choose to do them. I'm not here to convince you one way or the other, but I am here to share why we choose to do things counterculture. AND to let you know there is an alternative, you don't have to follow the 'crowd' - you CAN raise children unto the Lord without participating in extracurricular activities. So here's another post I wrote at Modern Mommy Mentor....

The family unit is a true gift from God. Our current culture makes it mighty difficult to cultivate healthy family relationships. Families barely see each other long enough each day to have a conversation much less build lasting relationships with those who should matter most. Parents both work outside the home, children are sent away all day to school, and then evenings are filled with a myriad of activities for all members of the family. With these types of schedules its no wonder the family unit is struggling.

There's a misconception these days, that extracurricular actives are necessary for raising well-rounded children. While children may be more adept to team work and nurturing a competitive nature; they're missing out on key skills to thrive in marriage and parenting. We all know children learn best by what they see and experience first hand. When a child witnesses the daily interaction between their parents, they are gleaning valuable resources for when they establish their own families. The more the family is separate from each other the harder it is to create those valuable teaching moments.

We knew when we began having children that we wanted something different for our family, especially for our children. We wanted to pursue a home life that enabled us to develop close relationships with our children. It was our hearts desire to give them adequate training in maintaining healthy family relations. Relationships that would go so much deeper than just 'folks who share a house'. We searched the scriptures and the wisdom of the few families we had encountered who were purposing to live counter-cultural to today's norms. As we prayed and studied God's word we realized there was so much more to choosing NOT to do extracurricular activities.

5 Reasons We Do NOT Do Extracurricular Activities

1. We financially could not afford the high costs of extracurricular activities for a large family. The costs of equipment and materials required to do most extracurricular activities is very costly and not conducive to a modest single income.
2. We wanted to eat our family dinners together every night. Eating meals together and sharing the events of our days is just something special we cherish and we don't want them interrupted by practices, games, lessons, etc.
3. We wanted to have family worship in the evenings. Teaching our children the word of God is the most important aspect in raising our children. To consistently join in family worship we knew we had to plan our evenings to where we were at home and not spread all over town in different directions.
4. We didn't want our children confused as to whom their authority belonged to. We are all ultimately accountable to Christ, but God places parents over their children. When we start adding in other adult authoritarian figures, confusion can easily become an issue. If a coach or instructor tells a child to do something that is against the parents teachings, the child is put in a difficult situation that could have been avoided.
5. We didn't want to undo the purposeful sheltering we were doing through homeschooling. We homeschool for many reasons, but one reason is to shelter our children from ungodly influences until they are more grounded in the faith to handle situations which are contrary to the teachings of Christ.

There are many defenses as to why children should participate in extracurricular activities, but for our family we believe there are far more negatives to separating our family in the evenings. We value the time we GET to spend together. We've found that simply replacing traditional extracurricular activities with intentional family adventures is sufficient in filling in the gaps of not doing sports and other lessons. We are a not against athletics, the arts, or other special interests that could fill our evenings. On the contrary we are a very active family and enjoy learning plenty of new and interesting recreational activities; we just prefer to keep our evenings as a special time for encouraging healthy family relationships.

With Love and Hope,
Jennifer

P.S. Picture is of my sweet Titus taken by me, we may be anti playing sports ~ but little baby boys in ball caps with a ball and glove is just too cute. :)

Faithfulness & Contentment

Most people don't do anything without a reason. We all have a reason why we wake up each day, go to our jobs, clean house, stay at home with the children, go to bed at night, etc., etc., etc.. Whatever it is that we are doing each and every moment of our lives: there is a reason why. Now I'll admit sometimes when we're in the throws of something we may not have a clue why we're doing it, but I believe if we stop and look hard enough we'll discover exactly why we're doing it.

I kind of have a reputation for being wishy-washy or even worse a flake. I have wavered in so many areas of my life that I wouldn't even want to start trying to tell y'all about them. For one I'd be embarrassed and for another I may actually lose any ounce of credibility I posses through telling you all my shortcomings. Sad thing is this is not the sort of reputation I want to have nor do I desire to pass these awful traits on to my children.

My husband is the polar opposite. He is grounded. He hardly ever sways in his convictions. He's a man you can count on regardless of the situation. He makes me want to be a better person. He keeps me grounded and often bursts my bubble at times just to keep me from floating off into Never Never Land. He truly is a good and godly man ~ a man I know I don't deserve, but thank God for every day.

So here's a major confession: I'm struggling with this website. Yes, I know I'm only a few days in ~ now y'all can see exactly where I can be a flake (insert groan). You ask why am I struggling? I'm sure y'all will find it quite humorous, really. Y'all see my last two websites were 'paid-for' websites. They were quite fancy with all the fun bells and whistles. And, well, Blogger for free is just very limiting. I don't want to share too much and seem ungrateful; because after all, it is a FREE blogging platform! I truly am thankful to be able to write and hopefully encourage other women on their walk with the Lord. But, I do want to be real and genuine as possible, sharing my struggles.

Funny thing is I can't even remotely validate a 'paid-for' website because I have zero intentions of trying to make a profit from my blogging. I'm over that garbage. It almost makes me angry just typing it ~ thinking about how nearly every blogger out there is simply waiting to market their next product and sucker you into buying it. Convincing you that your life will never be the same if you don't purchase whatever they're marketing. Chances are you'd be just fine, and most likely you could find the exact same information on another website for FREE. 

So as I struggle through this angst, I'm trying to remember what is my purpose of this blog. Why am I here? AND to give myself some goals and accountability in regards to this blog.

1. To encourage christian women on their journey of being a wife and mother. especially those who homeschool and homestead.
2. Keeping myself accountable in my journey of following Christ.
3. Sharing our family and lifestyle with those who are interested in the 'simple life' (specifically an alternative to social media - where I can no longer 'hang my hat')

Wow! And there you have it: my reasons why. My reasons why I'm choosing to blog at Country Mama to Many. None of these reasons are dependent on any special Theme or blogging layout, and for that I'm grateful. But these reasons ARE a perfect springboard to keep moving me forward, to not give up. To prove I can remain faithful and content where the Lord has me. And who knows maybe one day I might just find my self back at a 'paid-for' website with more flexibility. 

For now I will graciously be writing on my free Blogger blog and I will keep my reasons why in front of me as I purpose to be content. I will share my heart and do my best to honor God with what I write. Removing this negative flaky stigma that seems to over shadow my character is important to me and this I believe is a great place to prove I can change. After all change can be a good thing! Not to mention what a perfect life lesson to use to teach my children about faithfulness, contentment, and how to allow the Lord to use you wherever He plants you!

"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." Luke 16:10

With Love and Hope,
Jennifer

P.S. Picture is courtesy of Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. I'm still under the old adage that every blog post needs an image, lol, and I just happen to think this one was pretty. :)