1) Refresh Your Spirit
Begin your day with the Lord. Fix yourself a delicious hot drink and spend at least a few minutes praying, reading God's Word, and meditating on Scripture. Ask God to bless your day and to love through you. Find your joy and hope and strength in Him.
Did the Lord give you a special word of encouragement this morning?
Share it with us!
I wish I could say that I received a special word of encouragement, but I did not. I'm struggling right now due to our inability to conceive, and some days are more of a struggle than others. Most days I'm fine, I really do have complete faith that we will have children when and if God wills it, it's just some days (sad to say, usually when I hear news of another pregnancy among our family and friends) I despair that God's answer will be no for us.
2) Do Your Morning Routine
If you don't have a morning routine, take a moment to write down five things you'd like to accomplish in the same order every morning. And then get busy tackling them! Remember to keep it simple. It's better to plan a few things and get them done, than to write out an elaborate list and not do it.
Morning routine is done - weekdays I'm very good about accomplishing it. Weekends not always... ;)
3) Take Time to Plan
After your morning routine is finished, write out a short to-do for today (five items or less). Number the items in order of importance and start on number 1. Don't move on to number 2 until you've completed number 1.
What's on your to-do list today?
- Work
- Finish repairing kitchen from baking marathon yesterday
- Paperwork - pay bills and get rebate form for mixer filled out and ready to mail
- Play piano
- Box up package to get in mail
4) What's on the Menu for Dinner?
Take a moment to plan what you'll be having for dinner and then do as much of the prep work as possible before noon. Fix up a pot of soup, throw something in the crock pot, whip up a casserole, or pull something out of the freezer.
I recommend you have this dinner prep work as part of your morning routine or scheduled into your morning somewhere. Then you'll save yourself realizing it's five o'clock and you haven't a clue what to fix!
What are you serving for dinner?
No morning prep work for me, although I'd love to be able to do that.
Dinner will be macaroni and cheese (a new recipe I'm trying out) and a
salad. I love love love mac and cheese and it usually gives great
leftovers so that's always nice for lunches later.
Update: my husband went out for a nice lunch (celebrating a co-workers birthday) so he wasn't very hungry and certainly not hungry enough to want mac & cheese. He had leftover pizza, and I had a sandwich instead. Mac & cheese tomorrow!
5) Project of the Day
Turn some uplifting music on, light some candles, put an apron on, roll up your sleeves, and let's get busy!
Set your timer for five minutes and start at your front door again and quickly walk through the main living areas of your house straightening and picking up and putting away anything that's out of place. When the timer beeps, you're done, so work fast and don't get distracted.
Then, go to your kitchen (you knew we'd get there soon, didn't you?) and wash, dry, and put away any dirty dishes there are (or use the dishwasher) and then quickly straighten anything else that's out of place, wipe down your counters and cupboards, and replace your dish towels.
If you have a chance, take before and after pictures of your main living areas and kitchens and share them with us.
No pictures, but it is amazing what five minutes worth of pickup can do. The kitchen looks so much better too. I'd done all the dishes from the huge baking session I had yesterday, but there were still things out of place - cooling racks set out, baking items not put away (both ingredients and tools such as my cookie scoops). It took less than ten minutes but now the kitchen looks great and my table is clear again.
Update: Paperwork is semi-done: bills are paid and paperwork is sorted, but I still need to do some filing. Ugh. I think I'll take a quick break and come back and tackle the filing. I need to get away from my desk because the bill paying took much longer than I was expecting.
Update 2: Paperwork is now completely done. Filing it really didn't take that long, I think I spent more time dreading it than it took. I think I'm giving up on finishing my list and heading for bed. It'll be an early day tomorrow.
4 comments:
I'd just like to offer you prayer and hugs :) Believe me, I understand. I am so lucky and blessed to have two children...children that were (especially the second) a long challenge to conceive. We've been trying for almost a year for number 3. It's not the same as trying and not having ANY kids, but I do understand the fear, the pain, and the struggle. I pray that God gives you the desire of your heart VERY soon!
Sounds like you were productive, too, good job :D
Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate them. Yesterday was an especially tough day for me but what I do cherish from this time is how it has strengthened my relationship with God - I cry out to Him and pray more diligently than I ever did, and my faith has grown tremendously.
I pray that he gives us both the desires of our heart soon.
Hi Renee,
I found your blog from following the link from Crystals page, and just wanted to give you a hug re wanting children and not yet having them. We have been trying since Feb this year, and had a miscarriage at 7 weeks in June. Since that time, all three of my closest friends got pregnant, as well as Hubby's cousin. I know the pain that you feel, and yes, some days are harder than others. But I believe that God has us in his hands and that he sees our tears.
A thought that came to me a while ago as I was spending time with God was this 'why are we so afraid that God's will for us is not going to be the best for us?' as I too struggle with the 'what if He says we can't have any children?'. So I am hanging onto the fact that God's way is best, and that he loves me more than anyone else ever could and he would not withhold children just to make me sad.
Also (sorry this is so long!) I believe that God gives us the desires of our hearts - I take that to mean that he places desires upon our hearts, and that once our desires line up with his perfect will, then his will will be done. We have prayed so many times that if our desire for children is not God-given, that God would remove that desire from our hearts. Needless to say, the desire is still very much there!
Can I encourage you to read Psalm 37 esp these verses:
Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart
These verses speak to me time and time again. For me, it has taught me that God has to be the focus, and not a baby. And that is hard at times.
Anyway, enough rambling from me. Nice to meet you!
Love Di x
I don't know why, but I've never thought to pray that God would remove that desire from us if it was not in his will. I think I've just seen some people I'm close to have that desire and have the answer be no so I imagine it could happen to us as well.
Thank you both for your virtual hugs and prayers. I'm doing much better today. :)
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