Once the Super Bowl started on Sunday, I knew I'd be sitting for the next few hours with the exception of taking a break during the halftime program. Why you ask? Because I really do enjoy watching football and I didn't want to leave when the infamous commercials were on. It was great not to be disappointed in either manner. The game was close for the most part and the commercials brought a chuckle.
But the commercial that caught my eye was the one announcing a new season of The Amazing Race. We tend to be sporadic watchers of that show because of when it is typically shown and our general forgetfulness to remember when it is on, but it is fun to watch.
And I can't help but think every single time I watch it that my oldest daughter and one of my sons should have entered to be a team. They would be an amazing team! They are athletic, creative, crafty, competitive, feisty, and each love a good challenge. Plus they would love flying all over the world. They have always gotten along well together and could work well at a team using their individual talents. It would have been cool, although I suppose God spared me the heart pitter pattering that would have taken place as I wondered where they were flying and whether or not they were okay as they took on the challenges of The Amazing Race.
But alas, I don't see this happening in the future as life goes on and the older ones have followed their individual paths which don't include television adventure game shows. Nope. They are instead using all those same wonderful God given characteristics as they tackle life in professions which they love. As a parent, could there be anything more amazing?
My hope for each one as they leave the nest is that they go with a heart that will love and serve God wherever they are and that they will have a profession or role that they will enjoy as it stretches them. So far so good.
But there's still five here who are learning and growing and maturing. How important it is to continue praying for their futures!
And how important it is for me to remind those of you with little ones at your feet to stretch your prayers from asking the Lord to just get you through the day to asking the Lord to help you guide your children and encourage them in areas of their life that will be a vital part of their futures. To pray that their childlike faith of today will grow into a maturing faith of tomorrow. To pray that their gifts and talents will be encouraged to grow to be used in their futures. To pray that your mother's love and care of today will lead them to more fully understand God's unconditional love and care for all their days.
Amazing prayers which will carry our children through lives which have the potential of being amazing as they love and serve God through the paths He takes them on.
May you look further down your garden path and cover your children with amazing prayers!
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
Tuesday, February 9
Monday, February 8
Simple Woman's Daybook for February 8
For today February 8
Outside my window.....it's cloudy with a chance of snow later today.
I am thinking.....about how quickly my February calendar filled up despite my best efforts for that NOT to happen.
I am wearing.....my flannel bathrobe since it's chilly in the house and I'm not brave enough to jump into the shower yet....brrr!
I am hearing.....my husband talking to his phone again as he tries to figure out its features.
I am creating.....a thread jar.
I am going.....to enjoy some fun and fellowship this morning.
I am praying.....for the continued relief efforts in Haiti.
I am remembering.....some of the music that came from the days of my youth after listening to the Who last night during the Super Bowl halftime while I folded laundry in the other room.
I am hoping.....that I can continue crossing things off my list and stay on task.
On my mind.....is how perfectly God designed our bodies to work and wondering why He didn't figure out a smoother hormone plan for women as they transition into menopause.
From the learning rooms....we'll see if a daughter will be more willing to work with her mama this week.
Noticing that....the dog's back is sore again after a day of playing, running, and jumping with kids over the weekend.
Pondering these words....."It is not great talents that God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus." ~ Robert Murray McCheyne
From the kitchen.....our frig is full of leftovers, so you know what we'll be eating for a couple of days!
Around the house.....are my quilting supplies. I need to get the quilt off the frames, the items put back into their places, and fold the quilt up for hemming later.
One of my favorite things.....is seeing the cat curled up by a sunny window in the afternoon.
A few plans for the rest of the week.....are a valentines party this morning for my younger ones, a surprise party later for an older one, sending off valentines in the mail, a women's ministry meeting, early morning women's Bible study at church plus hosting Bible study midweek, a bridal shower later in the week, and finishing up this quilt.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you....
Thank you for stopping and visiting my daybook on this day. If you'd like to visit others who are participating or write a journal yourself, please stop over at Peggy's at Simple Woman's Daybook
Enjoy your February day!
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
Saturday, February 6
catching a quilt
Some things in life are taught, some things are caught.
My love for quilting was definitely a caught kind of thing. I grew up playing under my grandmother's quilt frame while she and my mom were tying a quilt. When I became a mom myself, soon I found myself tying quilts with my mom at her house. The day I received my own set of crib sized quilt frames made by my step-dad was one of great joy since I wouldn't have to keep borrowing my mom's all the time. When she passed away, I then inherited her large quilt frames. So my older children grew up under my mom's quilt frames - and she often let them help a little bit - and my younger children have grown up under my quilt frames.
Although there's been times women have asked to watch a quilt come together and be put on the frames, I hesitate to share this craft for I really have no idea "how" to really do a quilt. I've only learned by watching and catching what my grandma and mom have done. Someday I'd love to take quilting classes and see how much of my knowledge is accurate and how much more I could learn to make my quilting perhaps easier.
It was recently a surprise to hear my oldest daughter tell me about her first quilting adventure. She had wanted a throw quilt for their living room couch and made her way to the fabric store to pick out a combination of fabrics she loved. Throughout the project she'd call for a tip or two and off she went learning as she sewed, tying her quilt in a unique manner (she has no frames), then sewing the hem.
I could not help but smile when she sent me a picture of the final product! I'm so proud of her! And the tradition of caught not taught quilting has continued within my family.
Perhaps this is on my mind as I put a quilt onto my smaller frames this morning. It will primarily be tied with a little hand quilting and shouldn't take long to do. The hem will be hand sewn and should be a nice thing to work on over the weekend. There's nothing like hand hemming a quilt as it keeps your lap warm on cold winter days!
May the children in your garden catch relaxing hobbies that you enjoy!
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
My love for quilting was definitely a caught kind of thing. I grew up playing under my grandmother's quilt frame while she and my mom were tying a quilt. When I became a mom myself, soon I found myself tying quilts with my mom at her house. The day I received my own set of crib sized quilt frames made by my step-dad was one of great joy since I wouldn't have to keep borrowing my mom's all the time. When she passed away, I then inherited her large quilt frames. So my older children grew up under my mom's quilt frames - and she often let them help a little bit - and my younger children have grown up under my quilt frames.
Although there's been times women have asked to watch a quilt come together and be put on the frames, I hesitate to share this craft for I really have no idea "how" to really do a quilt. I've only learned by watching and catching what my grandma and mom have done. Someday I'd love to take quilting classes and see how much of my knowledge is accurate and how much more I could learn to make my quilting perhaps easier.
It was recently a surprise to hear my oldest daughter tell me about her first quilting adventure. She had wanted a throw quilt for their living room couch and made her way to the fabric store to pick out a combination of fabrics she loved. Throughout the project she'd call for a tip or two and off she went learning as she sewed, tying her quilt in a unique manner (she has no frames), then sewing the hem.
I could not help but smile when she sent me a picture of the final product! I'm so proud of her! And the tradition of caught not taught quilting has continued within my family.
Perhaps this is on my mind as I put a quilt onto my smaller frames this morning. It will primarily be tied with a little hand quilting and shouldn't take long to do. The hem will be hand sewn and should be a nice thing to work on over the weekend. There's nothing like hand hemming a quilt as it keeps your lap warm on cold winter days!
May the children in your garden catch relaxing hobbies that you enjoy!
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
Friday, February 5
missing moments
As I sat down to write this morning, I do what I often do to help me gear up for the day ahead. I glanced up at my wall calendar to check the date.
The little red heart drawn next to the number 5 on this month of February immediately caught my eye. Then it caught my heart.
Plans of what I was going to write about vanished. Instead I pulled my quotes journal off the top of my desk and paged through looking for one that would be appropriate for the day. It didn't take long to realize I could not use a single word written about mothers because they all made me cry.
Typically my heart is prepared for various dates that are filled with memories, but not today. I don't know if it's from an accumulation of recent struggles. I don't know if it's from an accumulation of messed up hormones. I don't know if it's from an accumulation of desiring wisdom from the person whom I trusted completely, knew loved me unconditionally, and who for so many years was only a phone call away. I don't know....
All I do know is that my mom passed away early on this morning five years ago today and I'm missing her like crazy at the moment.
And if your mom is only a phone call away, give her a call today. For me.
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
The little red heart drawn next to the number 5 on this month of February immediately caught my eye. Then it caught my heart.
Plans of what I was going to write about vanished. Instead I pulled my quotes journal off the top of my desk and paged through looking for one that would be appropriate for the day. It didn't take long to realize I could not use a single word written about mothers because they all made me cry.
Typically my heart is prepared for various dates that are filled with memories, but not today. I don't know if it's from an accumulation of recent struggles. I don't know if it's from an accumulation of messed up hormones. I don't know if it's from an accumulation of desiring wisdom from the person whom I trusted completely, knew loved me unconditionally, and who for so many years was only a phone call away. I don't know....
All I do know is that my mom passed away early on this morning five years ago today and I'm missing her like crazy at the moment.
And if your mom is only a phone call away, give her a call today. For me.
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
Thursday, February 4
inside the cows?
My younger girls frequently *ice skate* on our kitchen's tile floor as there is an open area that leads to the rest of the house. And they don't just *ice skate* as there is typically music playing that they *ice skate* to while they glide and spin and listen to their mother say things like....."You had better be careful or else you are going to fall and crack your head open."
The *ice skating* music tends to be of the classical type or something like Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra, but yesterday they were listening to an old Disney princess CD left behind by their oldest sister which was a bit livelier. However, I had to stop and ask them what the words were that they were singing as the words didn't make sense to me from what I knew of the song. Surprisingly, I was hearing correctly.
"It's what's inside the cows!"
WHAT?!
And I couldn't help but burst out in laughter!
They replayed the part again and I guess it kind of did sound like that was what they were singing on the CD, but certainly wouldn't have made sense if you listened to all the words in the song.
The correct phrase that should have been sung from their mouths?
"It's what's inside that counts!"
Communication. How important it is to be a good precise listener! And of all the arts that have gone by the wayside, the art of listening seems to be one that is disappearing. Why? Perhaps because it takes time. It takes effort. It takes concentration. It takes complete focus on another person and away from self. It's an art that can't be rushed. And honestly, it's hard to do any or all of those tasks in the world of hurry and rush we live in. But, ohhhh, what a treasured art listening is especially in relationship building!
It's critical as a parent when dealing with children, as a wife dealing with a husband, as a friend dealing with a distraught friend, as a business person listening to a customer's complaint. Because if you aren't really listening, you can't truly discern what you are hearing and you may not catch something that specifically doesn't make sense with rest of what is being said. Like with the girls song.
That perhaps comes in most importantly when listening to man's teaching about God's Word. Listen carefully and do hold up what is being said to make certain it is consistent with what God's actual word says.
That very thing came up last night as I was in the beginning pages of a free book that I just picked up. I was humming along thinking that much of it made sense yet there was something that felt a bit like a "tickling of my ears" (Second Timothy 4:3-4). As I read a bit further, the author mentioned the name of a pastor who had influenced her by his teaching and suddenly the tickling stopped and was replaced by alarm bells. I knew of this person's teachings and do not agree with the majority of his interpretations. So, I set the book aside. Now to decide if I want to continue to read this book and take what is consistent with Scripture to apply in my life or not waste my time wading through it with discernment since I know there are bound to be major areas of disagreement.
Yes, listening is more than something we do with our ears. It is something that we do with our eyes through reading. But we also listen with our eyes as we watch. A perfect example of that comes from my birth doula work. A mom can be saying "ouch" as she is in labor, but my eyes scan her body to look for signs of how serious that "ouch" may be. Are her hands clenched or relaxed? Is her face strained or calm? Is she swaying or locked into a position? This same type of watchfulness can be applied whenever we are are avidly listening to another person as their body language speaks to us.
Listen. Listen well. Develop the art. If you feel you aren't a good listener, pick one aspect at a time to work on in your life. Maybe focus on stopping what you are doing when someone is talking to you (how often do moms stay on a task while their child or spouse approach them in conversation?). Maybe focus on checking body language while listening - their eyes, their hands, their movements. Maybe slow down your own thoughts to just listen and not focus on your response. Maybe pray that the Lord places a love for others on your heart that sparks the desire to want to hear what another is saying. And maybe others reading this have other thoughts on tips to help become a better listener.
Listen. Listen well. Develop the art. Because what's inside does count!
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
The *ice skating* music tends to be of the classical type or something like Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra, but yesterday they were listening to an old Disney princess CD left behind by their oldest sister which was a bit livelier. However, I had to stop and ask them what the words were that they were singing as the words didn't make sense to me from what I knew of the song. Surprisingly, I was hearing correctly.
"It's what's inside the cows!"
WHAT?!
And I couldn't help but burst out in laughter!
They replayed the part again and I guess it kind of did sound like that was what they were singing on the CD, but certainly wouldn't have made sense if you listened to all the words in the song.
The correct phrase that should have been sung from their mouths?
"It's what's inside that counts!"
Communication. How important it is to be a good precise listener! And of all the arts that have gone by the wayside, the art of listening seems to be one that is disappearing. Why? Perhaps because it takes time. It takes effort. It takes concentration. It takes complete focus on another person and away from self. It's an art that can't be rushed. And honestly, it's hard to do any or all of those tasks in the world of hurry and rush we live in. But, ohhhh, what a treasured art listening is especially in relationship building!
It's critical as a parent when dealing with children, as a wife dealing with a husband, as a friend dealing with a distraught friend, as a business person listening to a customer's complaint. Because if you aren't really listening, you can't truly discern what you are hearing and you may not catch something that specifically doesn't make sense with rest of what is being said. Like with the girls song.
That perhaps comes in most importantly when listening to man's teaching about God's Word. Listen carefully and do hold up what is being said to make certain it is consistent with what God's actual word says.
That very thing came up last night as I was in the beginning pages of a free book that I just picked up. I was humming along thinking that much of it made sense yet there was something that felt a bit like a "tickling of my ears" (Second Timothy 4:3-4). As I read a bit further, the author mentioned the name of a pastor who had influenced her by his teaching and suddenly the tickling stopped and was replaced by alarm bells. I knew of this person's teachings and do not agree with the majority of his interpretations. So, I set the book aside. Now to decide if I want to continue to read this book and take what is consistent with Scripture to apply in my life or not waste my time wading through it with discernment since I know there are bound to be major areas of disagreement.
Yes, listening is more than something we do with our ears. It is something that we do with our eyes through reading. But we also listen with our eyes as we watch. A perfect example of that comes from my birth doula work. A mom can be saying "ouch" as she is in labor, but my eyes scan her body to look for signs of how serious that "ouch" may be. Are her hands clenched or relaxed? Is her face strained or calm? Is she swaying or locked into a position? This same type of watchfulness can be applied whenever we are are avidly listening to another person as their body language speaks to us.
Listen. Listen well. Develop the art. If you feel you aren't a good listener, pick one aspect at a time to work on in your life. Maybe focus on stopping what you are doing when someone is talking to you (how often do moms stay on a task while their child or spouse approach them in conversation?). Maybe focus on checking body language while listening - their eyes, their hands, their movements. Maybe slow down your own thoughts to just listen and not focus on your response. Maybe pray that the Lord places a love for others on your heart that sparks the desire to want to hear what another is saying. And maybe others reading this have other thoughts on tips to help become a better listener.
Listen. Listen well. Develop the art. Because what's inside does count!
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
Wednesday, February 3
the good and pleasant part
"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!" ~ Psalm 133:1
There are days and then THERE ARE DAYS!
Monday was one of THOSE DAYS when the girls could not get along with one another no matter what and neither could the boys. I had things I had to focus on and instead I seemed to constantly be putting on my mother's judge hat.....grrrrrrrr!
Yesterday was a bit better, but there was still a bit of fractiousness leftover that gave me a minor grrr.
Right now two of the girls are sitting at the kitchen peninsula doing their schooling and SINGING together. The littlest is busy happily typing on the old manual typewriter. The boys are busy working on their schooling in their rooms.
Of course, I'm not foolish enough to think it will last all day knowing a squabble could break out before I even finish typing up this post. However, at this moment in time I would like to shout....
"HOW GOOD AND PLEASANT IT IS WHEN BROTHERS (AND SISTERS) DWELL IN UNITY!"
Whew! Thank you for letting me shout that while the moment lasted!
Okay, now back to the regularly scheduled day in your garden :-)
Blessings,Tammy ~@~
There are days and then THERE ARE DAYS!
Monday was one of THOSE DAYS when the girls could not get along with one another no matter what and neither could the boys. I had things I had to focus on and instead I seemed to constantly be putting on my mother's judge hat.....grrrrrrrr!
Yesterday was a bit better, but there was still a bit of fractiousness leftover that gave me a minor grrr.
Right now two of the girls are sitting at the kitchen peninsula doing their schooling and SINGING together. The littlest is busy happily typing on the old manual typewriter. The boys are busy working on their schooling in their rooms.
Of course, I'm not foolish enough to think it will last all day knowing a squabble could break out before I even finish typing up this post. However, at this moment in time I would like to shout....
"HOW GOOD AND PLEASANT IT IS WHEN BROTHERS (AND SISTERS) DWELL IN UNITY!"
Whew! Thank you for letting me shout that while the moment lasted!
Okay, now back to the regularly scheduled day in your garden :-)
Blessings,Tammy ~@~
Tuesday, February 2
it's short
January, which is typically such a long month, is now over and we've moved on to the shortest month of the year. Dear beloved February.
Although I knew the month would be starting out with a bang, I've been so so SO looking forward to a quieter month ahead. And then a friend gently shook her head at me while telling me that the month was bound to fill up with activity and now I'm shaking my head as I find it to be true! Suddenly there are several activities inviting me to attend and how did I forget that there are not one, not two, but THREE family birthdays this month?!
Oh dear.
This short dear beloved February may go by much quicker than expected!
Guess I had better get busy! What are your special plans for this month?
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
Oh dear.
This short dear beloved February may go by much quicker than expected!
Guess I had better get busy! What are your special plans for this month?
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
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