Having a Martha House the Mary Way

I think I'm breaking records today! Two posts in one day and four posts published in less than two weeks :). But I'm nothing if not kind and although most of my readers (all 5 of you, or so ;) ) are likely already aware of what book I was referring to in my previous post, I thought it may be cruel to make anyone wait until tomorrow. Besides, I'm ready to get this show on the road !

Without further ado, the eBook that I'm reading and working from, "31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary Way", by Sarah Mae, blogger and author.

What I've come up with thus far, having completed Day 1 and started Day 2, is a very basic principle which I knew but was having trouble applying: Work from the inside out. The reason, the true reason, FlyLady hasn't been working for me is because I've been trying to fix what is external in hopes of repairing the internal. Not sure about you, but that doesn't really work too well. What we feel tends to lend itself to how we behave, in other words, our lives and homes reflect what is inside our hearts. If we are confused, lost and broken in our hearts, no matter how hard we try to hide it from others, it invariably comes out in our actions and how we approach the world around us.

When this finally hit home for me I realised that I cannot fix what is outside: my family, my home, my body, my health, if I am broken on the inside. Any attempt to fix what is external will be undermined by what resides in my heart. Please feel free to join me, with God as our pilot, to put our hearts and our homes in order.

In Day 1 Sarah asks us the question, "Why Clean?" So I completed the page she obligingly included to help determine this and I came up with not just a Mission Statement, as she suggests, but also a purpose and vision. I'm sure it will be revised over time, but it's definitely a start in the right direction.


Purpose: To provide, for my boys and I, a home of abundant love & joy, where God's grace flourishes.

Vision: To create a home and family life where we find peace and strength, where we lift each other up with words of encouragement.

Mission Statement: To have a home where each of us can feel safe, an oasis from the harsh world, a place where we can be our creative selves. A home where we learn & grow, where mistakes are met with understanding, graciousness and hope, without judgement.

I had more to say, but truthfully I can't recall it right now, so I'll just leave it at that. Here I am at the beginning of yet another chapter and prayerfully hope that I can follow through and find peace of mind and of heart. Please, feel free to share where you're at in your journey. What does it mean to you to have a peaceful heart?

Until next time, May the Lord bless you and keep you! *HUGS*

~ Shannon *Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ*

Life is NOT a Dress Rehearsal!

Cue sound effect: *tires squealing* I slam on the brakes and pull a full 180° U-Turn. I've been going about this all wrong!! What exactly do I mean by, "this" you ask? To put it bluntly, pulling my head out of the sand and getting my life together! This is not a dress rehearsal Shannon, this is the real thing!

Over and over, God has revealed to me that He does have a plan for me. I see it, I point out the reveal, then I continue my merry way trying to do things by MY rules. Here's a big surprise, it's NOT working ! Yesterday I hit a pretty big low, I spent most of my day either on the verge of, suppressing or just full out tears. I was teetering on the edge of a severe breakdown, so I did what any girl would do, I called my mom and sobbed, "I need my mommy". And I do, it's no lie, I need her love, her support and her respect. But what I didn't initially hear in my despair was I also need my daddy. My Abba Father. I know I love Him, that I don't doubt, but I've not been very good about calling Him and letting Him know that. (Hmmm sounds like a familiar complaint I have). But of course, like all parents, He was waiting for my call. Cue God's timing and a simple post by a friend on facebook. "Check out this eBook, it's on sale, today & tomorrow only". One review on the book's web site and I was sold, because it spoke volumes to me.

“Sarah, thank you, from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful resource! God bless Flylady – she’s a tough cookie – but I just cannot keep up with her, and I cannot find motivation in her methods. This book, however, with the Mary and Martha approach, gives me not only motivation to clean my home, but also to haul out my Bible and spend time in the Word, searching out scripture to go with the daily devotional… My mother and I are doing this book together. She lives 8 hours away from me, and we’ve found this to be something to do together. We can challenge and encourage each other in this area, and your book is a wonderful guide for us.

Thank you, once again, for your obedience in writing this book! God bless you!” -Val, Amazon Review

I love the FlyLady, don't get me wrong, I think she rocks it out for teaching and encouraging women of all ages and situations, but after I don't know how many years now, 6? 7? I'm not sure, I've yet to get airborne for more than a few days. I flap, I flutter.... and I flop, every, single, time. I've read her book, I've started at page one, "shine your sink" so many times, I've lost count. I wake up to a shiny kitchen, and then I lose motivation. And I blame myself, "this works for everyone else??", "I must be doing something wrong", or the humdinger, "It's my fault, I'm a failure, I just CAN'T". The tapes in my head play over and over. "I wrecked my marriage", "I'm fat", "I'm lazy","I'm broken, my health issues prevent me from doing what I can/want". You get the idea I'm sure. Good grief, I've been taught extensively how bad those tapes are but still they play on like a broken record, over and over again.

So, I paid a whopping $2.48 CDN, downloaded the book and I figured out how to read pdf files on my iPhone. I went to bed and started to read my new eBook. I read and read until my body demanded sleep, and then I got up this morning, and I read some more. And then I completed Day 1 and moved to Day 2. And I read some inspirational stories and methods and I figured it out, the reason FlyLady isn't working...

There are plenty of bloggers out there that have jumped on the bandwagon of this particular book. Since I'm not much of one for joining someone else's bandwagon, with God as my pilot, I will co-pilot another wagon right here. Feel free to join me or just follow along. With prayer, hope, grace and loving support of friends & family, I can complete something I start.

I'm hoping by now that I've captured your curiousity and you're sitting there thinking, "What book????"  Well, to keep my posts not too longish, I'll share that info with you in my next post ;).... Join me in my journey as I seek to renew my heart, my heart for Jesus, my heart for self, and my heart for my family.

Wishing you a glorious day, filled with grace and joy!

~ Shannon *Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ*

Day 3!

Holy Dinah! Has it really been this long since I posted?? Goodness gracious and even a good golly! To be honest with you though, I didn't really feel I had anything interesting to say and I've been feeling the pressure of not writing in another blog that I've made a commitment to. Anyway, whichever, it's not the end of the world, the long cold winter is finally relenting to something resembling spring, I'm ready to shake off the cobwebs and do something productive, anything.

I've talked in the past about the right way to eat and take care of our health, or rather my take on the right way, but I'm afraid I've been great at dishing out the advice, but when it's time to take it myself I smother it with chocolate sauce and whip cream. Technically the advice was for myself, but more often than not I'm just not so great on the follow through. But there comes a point where we hit the proverbial wall. I've hit the fat wall, I'm tired of being fat and tired of being tired and I'm ready to do something about it.

On Tuesday, I walked two miles and on Wednesday I walked two more miles and I did it three minutes faster than the first day. Good start even if I still ate some junk food, it's still four miles of exercise I did that I didn't do the day before, or the week before, or even the month before. Then last night I had this epiphany! I realised something, that nearly every other time I lost weight, I didn't give up a darn thing at first, I just moved more. I started by exercising, as I exercised my metabolism increased, as my metabolism increased I lost weight, as I lost weight my cravings switched from junk food to healthy food and guess what?? You got it, I lost more weight! I've always kind of marched to the beat of my own drummer, it just never occurred to me that the way I lose weight and improve my health could be bass ackwards too ;).

I hope all that clarifies why this is Day 3, and not Day 1. I won't be blogging every day, no need to bore everyone to tears, but I will blog a couple times a week. Today is rest day and I took that a little too literal, having been ridiculously unproductive but here it goes. I'll outline my plan in the next blog posting and if you're interested I'd love to have you join me, the more the merrier and the more people I'm accountable to, including myself and family, the more likely I am to "get 'er done".

How have you been procrastinating getting on the health bandwagon? Do you know what's holding you back? Please feel free to share! I'd love to hear your stories :).

Until next time, I bid you adieu and God bless!

     ~ Shannon *Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ*

tackle it Tuesday...

Ok, so here is my attempt at "tackle it Tuesday"... no before and after pics but as I was supposed to go out today, I guess this is better than nothing. The weather, as always when it gets stormy, brought me a big ol' case of the blahs, so I basically started my day snoozing once I got the boys on the bus. The joys of being a human barometer... anyway, I digress.

Well once I woke and started moving, albeit slowly, I found I was just in time to listen to Amy Hagberg's interview with Natalie Grant on blogtalkradio. This really could be listed as one of the items I tackled today as I've been planning to start listening to her show "God Unplugged" for some time now. That was a eye opening and informative interview that I highly recommend checking out.

So, prior to the show I had also decided to deal with my laundry issues today. I really didn't have the energy to do much else nor was my sore and aching body willing to move enough to take on any other projects... so, I managed to tackle the laundry at least. I have washed, folded and put away 5 loads of laundry (ok, not ALL are put away, but most of it :D ). Now that just puts a dent in what I need to do, but... "Keep in mind, you are not behind: you are just getting started: babysteps", ~FlyLady. Now on to better things, spending time watching a movie with my sweet boys... have a great day!