Snow! and pictures

Today's Bible Study- Exodus 4- What's in Your Hand
and Romans 3


Today's Hymn 
And there’s a nice youngster of excellent pith,— Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith; But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,— Just read on his medal, ‘‘My country, of thee!’’ - Oliver Wendel Holmes

5284 steps yesterday, if the app is working right. We walked around the block yesterday.

We woke up to 7 inches of snow and still falling.

Hubby's footprints

Joe standing by the snowman is 6'4"

 And since it's still snowing, the snowman is still growing...

We did go to lunch with Dad. He came into our town and met us at the closest fast food. This way my two boys who work evening could take us in their cars.

Didn't get a lot else done, besides school.

We will likely put the grocery shopping off until tomorrow. We are a bit short of fresh fruit and veggies, but we have plenty of the rest of food we will need for today. So, meh, why challenge the snow?


I am switching our "school year" planning from "our school year starts at tax time" to "Your school year starts at your birthday." I will spend some time working on that today, and should have both more cleaning time and more time for my business lessons.

Still on schedule for this week:

• Mount Never Rest (laundry)
• Decide on events for both the church and my business.  (:-) found some Facebook pages that will help this! May have one lined up for June 9)
• List some more books.
• Everything that needs listing on craigslist is outside, so not doing that today.
• Need to mop the kitchen. The kids have this as part of their chores, but once in a while it just needs mom's attention.
• The kitchen cupboards need straightening out. This will take half an hour to an hour.

When you can't afford to be a good mother
This hits so many cords. BTDT

Simplifying the Little Areas of Life

I have been grieved by several letters directed to Doctor Newton

Birth choices and their price 
I think most would be horrified to know how little true information is given to moms about birth, or how little of what we do with birth in the US is backed by science. This article was written by a lovely lady in Israel, but the situation is much the same.

Flexi of the Day:  

LillaRose.biz/BeSTclips

For my routines, see the sidebar.

Monthly Habit we are building:

Get dressed every morning to the shoes.

Flylady began working with mostly stay at home moms. We SAHM often have the problem with this (I never have, but I understand why others do). It really does make a difference to get dressed each day.

(I am not going to wear shoes. I'm just not. Call me a rebel. I will wear socks when it is cold.)

Weekly zone focus:  

East end of the house (kids rooms and their bathroom.) Flylady calls this zone "main bathroom plus one other room" telling us this week to focus on stash-and-dash rooms/places. For me, that's the outside storage that needs listing on craigslist and ebay.

(This is the zone we are tackling all our monthly and less often chores in this week) 

Today's Meals:

• Jon (19) has decided to cook us all breakfast. Eggs and taters.
• SOS
• Stew

FlyLady Daily Mission

• Mop the bathroom floor. (I did this Monday)
• Spend 5 minutes decluttering the stash-and-dash rooms/places
• Give yourself a spa day

And Flylady's essay for the day;

Dear Friends,

Several years ago when I began to mentor women on the internet I wanted to help them gain control of their homes and lives. My mentoring was not to teach them how to nag their husbands to help them around the house.

Many have complained that I don't understand that husbands and wives have an equal responsibility in keeping the home working. YES, I do know this. But unless your husband or wife is a part of our group, I can't help them. I can only help you. I don't expect you to do it all, but you can and many have. What about the single moms or widows that have to do it all by themselves? They don't have husbands to help. They have to take care of the whole home alone. Oh and I almost forgot the members, whose spouse is in the military and away from home for months at a time; Also the spouses that have to travel a lot with their jobs. The spouse left behind has the responsibility for the entire home on their shoulders.

What I have noticed, is that when the member of our group, albeit the husband or the wife, gets their routines in place and the clutter in the home is decreased, that they have found that the other spouse comes around and starts to help, so do the children. They start to clean up their "off limits" HOT SPOTS! You know the ones that if you even touch, will get you in HOT WATER!

Marriage is not a 50/50 proposition, as many of you think. I believe that this perception is hurting many families. Here is why. When we feel we are doing our half of the work, we automatically feel slighted because we don't feel our mate is doing his or her fair share. So we pout, fuss, or even go on strike. This is so silly.

Marriage is a 100%/100% proposition; Each person giving their all to the family.

When you do all that you can, you have done your best. When you sit at the computer all day, don't get dressed, and don't hit a lick at a snake (Southern for just do something), you are not spending your time wisely. All because your perception is, "Why should I clean up, it is just going to get messed up again!" or "He won't even help, this isn't my entire job! If he won't help then it can just stay this way, I didn't make the mess, so why should I clean it!"

There are many reasons our members to not get up and move. Most are just excuses. We all have the same number of hours in each day. Even members with several children are seeing progress. There are members with sickness that are doing well and there are members that work, either at home or away from home, that are seeing great progress.

So what is your excuse? Are you sitting pouting 'cause your spouse does not do his or her fair share? You can only change yourself and your own attitude. Get the mote out of your eye first. We don't give you permission to declutter your husband or wives things. Quit nagging and set the example by taking care of your own clutter first. As you set the example, by getting your HOT SPOTS clean, you are going to be so surprised at the changes in your family.

Are you ready to FLY?

FlyLady

Tami's assignments (Tami is a homeschooling mom of 6 who is a partner of FlyLady):

• Clean the tub/shower
  

"To take the first step in faith, you don't have to see the whole staircase: just take the first step." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This applies to a clean house, too.

"Anything worth doing is worth doing Imperfectly" - Flylady

"Baby Steps."

"You can do anything for 15 minutes." 

"You are not behind. Just jump in where you are."

"Your house didn't get this way overnight. It won't get under control in a day. It takes time."

How about you? What's on your list today?

Have a great day!

I highly recommend Flylady.com