Okay, here is a wonderful little tool I thought I would share with you in case you are finding your head swimming, trying to keep track of everyone's schedules. We all have our systems, unfortunately the "system" in my house was to just ask Mom what events were coming up, I seemed to be the only one who knew. There would be tension in the house because I got super tired of everyone asking ME...I'm not a computer for goodness sakes!! So here is a great resource one of my friends suggested and I wanted to pass it along to you. This is a free online calendar and mobile app called Cozi: http://www.cozi.com/ Just click on the link and you can set up this free application that your whole family will have access to through their mobile devices or computer. My kids have Ipods and my husband and I have smartphones so it is perfect for everyone to view and add their events to, but you can also use your computer. Cozi will generate email reminders if you want it to, for each member that has an email address. How sweet is that?? I especially love this tool because I can create shopping lists for each store we visit and then I just text my husband to stop by a particular store on his way home, he accesses the store shopping list and voila', we have communicated very efficiently!! It has also created a more peaceful and harmonious home for us in that, now when I am asked "What's our schedule look like?" I simply reply: "Did you check our calendar?" Yay, Mom is way less stressed and everyone can take responsibility for their own schedules!! I LOVE THIS APP!! Thank goodness for technology!
There is a lot of pressure to be successful. According to the worlds standards, being successful is about the car we drive, the house we live in, the "toys" we possess and the job we work at. I have had family members comment on our decision for me to stay home and not use my college degree. I was asked one day, "Don't you think you wasted your time in college getting a degree you will never use". Okay, that's an interesting perspective! Dave and I were talking about the idea of success and making a mark in this world the other day. It is funny how the world can distract us from our original goals. When we decided I would quit my job and "sacrifice" the monetary rewards that come from both of us working, we had other goals in mind. Our goal was to raise up kids that would be strong, confident, have a heart for God and be influential in impacting others for Christ. Seemed like a simple enough goal, but little did we realize the challenge we would be up against. Each decision was a personal one, for our family alone. I never thought...oh, everyone should do what we are doing. That is the cool thing about God, he is a very personal, individual God, who wants us to pursue Him the way we were designed to, with our own gifts and talents. In the course of parenting our three really great kids, I have, at times, lost sight of our original goal; to raise up kids who are strong, confident, have a heart for God and will be influential in impacting others for Christ. It isn't about the material, they will not be able to take it with them nor will a new car or bigger house help them to influence others for Christ. Those things are the distraction in so many ways. What got us talking, was Dave realizing he had become distracted from our original goal by the lure of climbing the corporate ladder at his job, he realized that by pursuing other positions within his company, he could possibly be sacrificing what he had set out as a goal...influencing and coaching our kids. Now, don't get me wrong, getting a better job or changing jobs or better pay is nice and helpful in this economy. But for us, it became a distraction, the new job could potentially take Dave away from home more often and for longer periods of time. In this season of parenting, the kids still need us, our time and attention, our coaching and guidance, it is very different than when they were younger, but they still need us. So for now, the mark we are making may not seem very glamorous, but Dave and I need to keep our eye on our original goal, we need to be content with where God has us and content with the path God has us on in this parenting journey. Who knows what the future will look like, but if our mark is 3 kids that go out and influence and change their corner of the world, that is going to be an incredible ripple effect to be sure! Just more thoughts on this thing called parenting!
I thought it might be fun to post my garden periodically with pictures and to share some fun tips and may be even encourage you if you are thinking about gardening but are a little intimidated. So here are some of the first pictures of my garden so far. I decided to try something a little different this year, we planted a lot of our crop in hay bales. We decided to try this out because we have really terrible soil, very clay like and no matter how much compost we have added, the drainage is awful. Bale gardening is not a new concept to be sure, and I heard of the idea from a friend who shared some links with me. Here are a few of the links in case you are interested: http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/straw-bale-gardening.html http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march06guide/straw.html#intro http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/8453/video-make-a-straw-bale-garden-bed, Now this info may be too late for some of your crops, but it would be ideal for any late Summer or Fall crops you may be considering. So far it has been so much fun trying something new in the garden, not to mention the fact that many of my plants are easily accessible, I won't have to bend down or squat nearly as much. The beauty of this way of gardening is that in the Fall, we can spread the straw out over the soil and it will help keep the weeds down as well as add some much needed compost. I will continue to post pictures as the season progresses and share any information or tips I think might be useful. I would love to know what you think if you try this!Happy Gardening!
