Teaching Your Children to Work is Hard Work!

This may sound crazy, but  teaching my children to work hard it is  hard work! In the end, you would think that it would lighten my load and make life easier on me, but I find that it is a continual effort on my part to have my children do work.  Let me explain with a story:
The other day, I decided that it was time to clean my oldest sons room thoroughly.  Now, I thought about going in and just tearing the room apart and putting it all back together myself, but realized that this was a great teaching opportunity.  So, I grabbed my son and said: "Let's work on your room together!"  Now, one of the areas that he needed some instruction in was putting away his laundry properly.  For a while now I have been giving him his clean, folded clothes (stacked in the same order as the drawers that they go in) and have had him put them away.  But recently, I have notices that his clothes have not been put into the proper drawers and they were not fitting in the drawers and some things were even ending up on the floor instead of in the drawers.  So, in order to get him to do things properly I had to make sure that he had been thoroughly instructed in the art of putting away laundry. 
The first step was to remove all of the clothing out of the drawer.  I could have done this rather quickly on my own, but I had my son do it all and I waited!  When he finally got all of the clothes put onto his bed, I had him separate everything into piles.  Pants, shirts, shorts, PJ's, etc.  Again, if I had been doing it on my own, I probably would have skipped this step all together, but for his sake I had him do it as I waited!  Next, we worked on folding.  If any of you have ever taught your children how to fold laundry you will know that this takes loads and loads of patience.  There were so many times that I wanted to just take an item from his hands and fold it myself, but how would that help him in the future, when he may be on his own, or his wife may need his help.  So, we painstakingly folded each article of clothing.  Then, I stacked the items, in much the same way that I would normally stack them after folding and I taught him how to separate the stack neatly (which ended with a few items needing to be refolded!) and put them away.  Again, I could have done this all so much faster!!! But, in the end, he learned so many important things. 
That was just one step of cleaning his room.  We also cleaned out his toy bin, sorted the toys, vacuumed, changed the sheets, made the bed.  Many of these things had to be taught.  Now, I had taught him some of these things in the past, but he got sloppy, or he forgot and had to be reminded.  As you can see, it was a very time consuming process.  So, why didn't I just do it myself?  Why would I force a CHILD to WORK? 
As I was teaching my son, I realized that what I was doing was exactly what God would have me to do.  It wasn't easy on me or him.  But, it was so necessary!  I had a long list of things that I needed to get accomplished that day, I didn't get everything crossed off of my list like I may have had I done every job on my own, but my son also would not be as equipped for life had I chosen the easy route.  If you asked my son if he felt that he had been treated unfairly or worked to hard, he might say yes and laugh (because he is a little joker), but if you asked him to answer seriously, he would tell you that he is enjoying his clean room and likes knowing how to better keep it that way!  I said all this to say that as parents, it is often so tempting to take the easy route and just clean up after the kids yourself, or cook supper without allowing them to enter the kitchen, or to stack the firewood without having to trip over a kid you didn't see underneath you.  But, in the long run, you are only hurting yourself and them!  In what area can you help your child learn today?  Will you take the time and extra effort to teach them?
Jacinda

Homemade Febreze

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick post today.  Thought I'd share something I found on Pinterest!  Over the last year or two I have been trying to make homemade cleaners and toiletries for my home.  I started with laundry detergent and I think I've found the perfect recipe for me (I will be sharing that recipe in the near future, but I need to do a bit more testing on it first).  Then, I started making my own dryer sheets, all purpose cleaner, window cleaner, and the list has expanded from there.  I recently found a recipe on Pinterest for homemade Febreze!  I love Febreze, and so I gave this recipe a try.  Here is the link to the recipe:

    http://starneslifefamilylove.blogspot.co.il/2012/06/homemade-febreze.html

I made mine using Gain Sunflower and Sunshine with Febreze Freshness (ironic, I know) fabric softener
You could use whatever fabric softener you have on hand, this was on sale last week, so it's what I had.

I also used an old cleaner bottle to put mine in.  I actually was so excited to make this that I took a cleaner that I never used anymore (because I make my own), and emptied out the cleaner and rinsed it REALLY well so that I could use the bottle!

Also, I did not have a funnel, so I just used a measuring cup.  I measured my fabric softener in the measuring cup and poured it into the bottle. Then I measured my baking soda and put it into my measuring cup.  Instead of using a funnel to pour the baking soda into the bottle, I added water to the baking soda in the measuring cup and stirred it just a bit, then poured it into the bottle.  I continued to fill my measuring cup with water and poured that water into my bottle.  This was so easy to make and I'm loving the savings!!!

Hope you all enjoy!

A Journal of God's Goodness

Wow!  It's been a really long time since I have posted anything on here.  I actually was beginning to think that I had bitten off more than I could chew, and that may still be true!  But, I'm going to try to get back at this again and see where it goes.  I have had so many things go through my mind that I wanted to post on here, but I did not always have access to a computer and I didn't even get my thoughts onto paper.  Thus, no posts! 
I have just started a personal journal and I do plan to keep my little journal on my person at all times, so when I have a thought I can write it down.  So, more than likely, in the near future some of these journal entries will make their way onto this blog.  That is exactly what I am doing in this post.  Please keep in mind that this is completely new to me and I may have to tweak some things as I go, but for tonight I am simply going to share with you what I have recorded in my journal tonight.  Hopefully it will be a blessing!  Here is my first entry in my journal:
"This journal will be filled with thoughts, sermons, songs, poems, quotes, etc. that will show some of God's goodness in my life!  There is no way I could record all of His goodness in my life and I may not even know all of the ways God has been good to me until I get to Heaven some day.  But, I hope as I look back on this journal I will see God's amazing work in my life and thus, His goodness to me.
This past week we were at Forest Glen Bible Camp for Family Camp.  Morris Gleiser (one of my favorite speakers) was this week's speaker and God used him to touch my heart in several areas.  Such as: Letting the Holy Spirit work in my heart and not quenching the Spirit; Asking, Seeking, Knocking, Praying Again - continually trusting by faith that God will send the answer to my prayer!  I even learned more ways in which to be a better wife and mother!
Well, when we returned home today, we got news that Genevieve Wagstaff (a dear, sweet lady who attends our church) had passed away suddenly of a heart attack.  My heart is broken and I have shed many tears this afternoon over this news!  But, it's amazing how God has worked in my life!  You see, things often get busy and crazy and often times tragedy or trials come just after we have been at camp.  In years past I have though:  "Oh great, now I'm going to be tested!"  But, this time was a little different.  God is changing my way of thinking. 
At first, I though this is a trial.  But, instead of being upset that I am being hit with something so quickly after getting home.  I am thankful that I am coming into it having just been refreshed and encouraged by the Lord this past week!  He is so good!  He will see us through!  Ryan's message he's preaching tomorrow is titled 'But God'. I can't wait to hear it!  He has asked me to sing the song: 'Lord Stay Close to Me' in the morning.  I know that by God's power I'll get through this song!
My heart is aching over the pain and heart ache that Gen's family is enduring tonight and I am continually lifting them up in prayer!  I am so glad that we have a God who is able to lift us up and encourage us like no one or nothing else can do!"

I know that this was a long post and it was a lot of garbled thoughts, but I hope that you can see, once again that God is working in my life to make it beautiful!

Jacinda