The March Woods (Poem)

 The March Woods

By Henry Beer

Come out into the woods,

And leave your cares behind.

The trees and flowers there

Will cheer the heart and mind.

There's beauty in the woods,

Though strong the March wind blows.

The sap from maple trees

Into the buckets flows.

The trees as sentinels

All leafless there they stand;

The budding trees foretell

That spring is nigh at hand.

Come out into the woods,

And see along the stream

The pussy-willows fair

With robes of silver sheen.

The violets budding forth,

Beneath the leaves are seen.

The mosses and the ferns

Are robed in vivid green.

Come out into the woods,

This anxious life forsake.

And here in God's great realm,

New friendships you shall make.

Have I Found The Key To Laundry?

 

Am I so presumptuous to claim that I have found the key to the looming task that is LAUNDRY? Du...Du....Dah... (Dramatic music)

Perhaps not everyone loathes laundry as much as I do. (as much as I did) I used to say many times a week, "I hate laundry. I hate folding clothes!" 

It dawned on me in back in December that chanting, "I hate laundry. I hate folding clothes!" probably wasn't a healthy habit. I was reenforcing and entrenching a pathway of thinking that was unhelpful to me. The more I said it the more it became true.

My Grandma told a story of how that when she was a little girl she hated Ox Tail Soup. She had the poor judgment to say out loud how much she hated Ox Tail Soup when it was served to her one supper time. Her Daddy said, "There are staving children around the world who would be happy to eat Ox Tail Soup." She had a smart alec retort: "Well then send it to them!" Her Daddy made her say, "I love Ox Tail Soup." every time she took a bite. And every time Ox Tail Soup was served she had to say, "I love Ox Tail Soup." And Ox Tail Soup became her favorite soup. Right up to old age she said Ox Tail Soup was one of her favorites.

I experienced something similar with eating tomatoes. When I was a girl I hated tomatoes. They made my stomach turn. When that slimy gel surrounding the seeds in a tomato hit my tongue it made me gag and want to puke. They were acidic gross little fruits not meant for human consumption in my opinion. When I was 10 I decided that I was too old to be a picky eater anymore. I made a resolution to like tomatoes. My rule for myself was that every time tomatoes were available I would take one on my plate and eat it. Cherry tomatoes in salads and vegetable trays, sliced tomatoes on sandwiches and just as a side I now took every opportunity to eat. Before long I got accustomed to the texture and flavor and eventually learned to like tomatoes. Today I love tomatoes!

These stories testify that you can change your feelings towards things. Your mind is in control of your feelings. 

The Psalms show this too. How often does the psalmist say, 

"I will rejoice," 

"I will praise," 

"I will declare," 

"I will not fear," 

"I will offer," 

"I will sing," 

"I will arise," 

"I will be glad," 

"I will give thanks," 

"I will trust,"

"I will hope,"

.......?

There is no mention of being filled with joy prior to the declaration, "I will rejoice." The goodness of God is the only fact that precedes this rejoicing, or gladness, or praise, or trust, or hope. No feelings are mentioned, only a declaration of an action that the psalmist will take: 

"I will rejoice."

"I will praise."

"I will declare."

"I will not fear."

"I will offer."

"I will sing."

"I will arise."

"I will be glad."

"I will give thanks."

"I will trust."

"I will hope."

I was in the midst of a smoldering depression one time when I read Psalm 28:7

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him."

And I thought, "I can't rejoice." "I can't praise." This verse is not for me now.

Then I read Psalm 70:4

"Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified."

I began to realize the ball was in my court. It was up to me to rejoice. It was up to me to change my feelings. One of the key factors to changing your feelings, based on these and other verses, seems to be changing your words.

Now we are getting back around to the laundry topic...... My feelings towards laundry needed to change. To rephrase that, I needed to change my feelings towards my job of laundry. I decided to start with the words coming out of my mouth. I made two rules: 1) no saying, "I hate laundry," and 2) everytime I fold a piece of laundry I would say, "I love folding (insert child's name) pants." "I love folding so and so's shirts." And so on and so forth.

Everytime I say, "I love folding Mr. In The Mid-west's t-shirts," or, "I love folding the baby's onesies," my heart warms a little. A surge of satisfaction with my own work wells up inside of me. I hear my family members names and I am reminded of how much I love each of them. I am forced to recognize what a rich life I am blessed to be living. Slowly, I am learning to like folding laundry. Forbidding spoken complaints and instead requiring spoken gratitude has led my feelings. I am changing my mind by changing my language. And that is the key to laundry for me. I have been able to conquer the laundry mountain and keep it in check since implementing this technique. This is a huge victory for me! Perhaps you will be intrigued to give this method a try in any areas that you are struggling to overcome.

Proverbs 15:23
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth:
 and a word spoken in due season, 
how good is it! 

Keep The Love Kindled

 At our Church sometimes people donate stuff to pass out among the members. In February a lady brought whole boxes of brand new, never used Valentine cards. I had this idea come into my mind, "What if I get a bunch of these Valentine cards and put one into Mr. In The Mid-west's lunch box every day?" He was about to start a new job and I was so excited for him! I wanted to show my support and do as much as I could to boost his confidence.

As wives we all have to know our own man. It takes some time and studying. But, year after year you learn and get to know him better and better. 

I am married to a sensitive soul and I knew he would feel so special to get a card in his lunch box every day. I had almost enough cards to send him one everyday for his first 3 weeks on the new job. I had to make a couple hand made cards to finish out the week.

Here is the art I made for one of his cards.

Speaking of art, this is a cartoon I drew for one of my boys birthday card this month. This idea is not original to me. I was inspired by a cartoon I saw on Pinterest. 

My 7 year old drew a version, too:

His dragon is so darling! I think his drawing is adorable! These are the kinds of things that make mothering fun.

Easy Simple Experiment

 My son enjoyed this experiment today. 

You take a penny and coat it in ketchup. Let it sit for a few minutes (maybe 15 minutes).

Before:

After:

Isn't that fun!

He a did an experiment of soaking the pennies in vinegar, but the ketchup did a better job of cleaning the pennies.

Fun Pretzels!

 I made pretzels with my children yesterday.

When I was a little girl my mother let us make pretzels one time. And she let us use food coloring to color the pretzels!

I wanted to give my children the same experience.

I told my children, "Now you have to say that I am a fun Mom."  Haha! 

I sprinkled some food coloring on their individual chunks of dough. (This was natural food coloring so it took a lot, and even then it didn't make a bold color.)

They mixed in the color.

Then they had to make long snakes of dough.

Roll, roll, roll.

The shaping of the pretzels was a little tricky for the children. I did the shaping for the most part. My oldest son was able to learn the right moves to shape his own pretzels after a couple tries.

The pretzels had to be boiled in baking soda water for 20 seconds.

The pretzels were finished by baking in the oven.

Violá!

Tie Die Pretzels for lunch and fun points for Mother!

The recipe that we used is from Sally's Baking Addiction. If you are looking for something fun to do with your children, I recommend that you make pretzels! This was an easy project and the memories that we made will last a long time! :-)

Praise!

 Hebrews 13:15
By him therefore let us offer 
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, 
that is, the fruit of our lips 
giving thanks to his name.

This phrase stood out to me, "sacrifice of praise." Praising God is a New Testament sacrifice. Does that not give so much more purpose and meaning to singing hymns of praise?

I love music and I love to sing. In some ways I have wondered if I should feel any kind of guilt for the attention I receive for really putting my all into the singing service at Church. It does stroke my ego to hear compliments and that can lead to a pride problem. So I had this moral dilemma on my hands. Should I hold back so that I don't draw attention? 

This verse set me free. I am bringing a sacrifice to God with my singing. It is for the Lord and I am going to offer him by best. I sing whole heartedly with gusto and joy! 

Ecclesiastes 9:10a  

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,

 do it with thy might;

Have you ever wanted to offer something really special to the Lord? Look no further! If you have a voice, you can offer the Lord a sacrifice; the sacrifice of praise. 

The part of the verse that says, "the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." makes me think of the many instances that the firstfruits were offered to the Lord in the Old Testament.

Exodus 23:19a

The first of the firstfruits of thy land 

thou shalt bring into the house of 

 the LORD thy God. 

Proverbs 3:9

Honour the LORD with thy substance, 

and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

Giving thanks is the fruit of our lips. Let us offer to God the firstfruits. In the morning why not let the first thing I say be praise to the Lord? I can wake up with a song on my lips. 

I just want to encourage you all to praise the Lord. We know He is worthy!

Not only is He our Creator and Sustainor, He is our Saviour! He is God Almighty holding the Universe in His hand and yet He cares for us and loved us enough to die in our place! 

I have a home in Heaven and that right there should keep me singing as the days go by. Amen!

Progress!

 On this last day of January,

I am happy to report progress on the project front!

These two dolls have been sitting in my project bag for months. The faces were done. The arms and legs were stuffed. One doll was stuffed.

This month my jobs were:

• sew legs onto the already stuffed doll, stuff the other doll and sew legs onto her, too. 

• stitch the hair on for both dolls and put it into braids.

I have sewn for 20 minutes on many days. Every day? No, but I am getting there. I definitely sewed more than I would have had I not had a goal.

My goal is to sew 20 minutes every day. 

In the month of February I will be working towards getting these girls dresses. 

How about you? Do you have goals that are helping you to achieve your dreams? How has the first month of 2023 gone for you? 

Homeschool Break Sewing Time!

 I am so happy that I was able to do a sewing project from start to finish last week! 

I sewed this little dress for my new niece. I was excited to get to meet her! I wanted to sew a dress for her to bring as a gift when we met her. I didn't have much time. Thankfully, we are on homeschool break and I had more time to dedicate to this sewing project.

One thing that made this project go quickly was the fact that it is a large version of my doll dress pattern. I have sewn dozens of these dresses. The construction process has become second nature for me. I don't have to spend any mental energy figuring out the directions because I know them by heart.

In this new year I want to be able to sew more. I am going to give myself 20 minutes of sewing time each day. 20 minutes doesn't sound like much time to me, but after 3 days that's an hour, and after a month (excluding Sunday) that's 8 hours and 40 minutes! Wow! I didn't realize how many sewing hours 20 minutes each day would give me until I did the math right now for this blog post! I am really excited! I'll be finishing a project every month, at the least.

I hope you all are having a great start to your new year!