#1 Start your Friday night off right! When you get home set a timer for 15 minutes and straighten up your living room( or whatever room you plan to chill in for the evening). This will give you a tidy room to put your feet up in tonight. When my kidos are with me Friday nights are our night to relax at home. Movies, popcorn, ice cream the works! Friday night is family night. And I live for those nights. If your kids are home, make sure they help tidy a different room while the timer is going. After the timer goes off there is to be no more chores done that night! #2 Sit down with your feet up ( in your tidy living room) and make a To-Do List. Be realistic with the list, putting the most important tasks first. If the kids are home,ask your kidos what they think needs to be done this weekend around the house. You might be surprised at what they are willing to work on if they think its their own idea ;) This list should include all around the house things that need doing, errands, and dont forget to add the "fun stuff" such as movie night and picnics! #3 I can not stress this enough! Make meals simple...all weekend long! There seems to be some notion that Sunday breakfast & dinner needs to be the biggest most elaborate meal of the week. Trust me, the pop tarts that are reserved for a rushed Monday morning will taste just as good on a lazy Saturday morning AND will allow you more time for relaxing or preparing for the week ahead. Pizza and PB&J are your friend! Use the time you've saved to spend an hour making meals for the week ahead to reheat later! #4 Your home is your peaceful place...A haven that you want to look forward to being in. It should not be a stressed place. Decide what you need to feel peaceful in your home and make sure those things make the To-Do List. I like clear surfaces in my living & dinning room. This makes me feel relaxed no matter what the rest of my house looks like. Some weekends all I have time for is throwing all the accumulated living room/dinning room clutter into a basket to be sorted later or adding wax to my wax pot so that my home is wonderfully fragrant. And if that's all I get done, then so be it ! I know that what I've done will help me feel peaceful and happy throughout the week each time I walk in the door. #5 Get your timer out again :) Take 15 mins to look over your schedule for the week. I use a dry erase calendar to write down all practices, games, events or activities through the coming week. Seeing what each day holds in black and white makes it easier to keep everyone's schedule straight! I have another dry erase that lists all the meals we have on hand in the house. When you don't get home till late and everyone is tired this saves a lot of time from having to think to much regarding food prep. Sunday night is also my night to take care of me. After my sweet kidos are have gone to bed I make it a priority to do my nails, give myself a facial, read a magazine...anything that contributes to my mind, body and spirit. Remember that your time with your kids is fleeting. Take time to enjoy your weekend. Don't slave over the things that don't matter. Accomplish what you can, and be content with what you get done. Enjoy your kids, take the time to take care of yourself, and be happy :)
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This is a subject heavy on my heart. How do you run a christian household as a Single Mama? In a perfect world my home would all follow the biblical teachings regarding household management and families. God clearly set up for the family unit to consist of husband ( head of the home) wife( helper to the husband) and their children (gifts from God). But our world is far from perfect. There are plenty of examples in the bible on husbands being the head of the home, the spiritual guide, the wife being the helper to the husband. But how does this household work for us Single Mamas? In my home, there is no husband. In my home I am in the role of both husband and wife. Sometimes I let myself become overwhelmed & exhausted with trying to be everything that I feel I need to be in each role. So what does God say to us then? After wrestling with this question for some time I'll admit I kinda had a "Shoulda had a V8 " moment. Its so simple and our God is AMAZING! Even from the time of creation in the garden He knew that one day there would be a Single Mama who would desperately need to know how to be the head of a husbandless home. So he gave us His Word as instruction. Isaiah 54:5 says : Your real husband is the one who made you. His name is the Lord All-Powerful. The Holy One of Israel is your Protector, and he is the God of all the earth! Wow! If you are at all like me I am in awe of this verse! Your real husband...is the one who made you. Again...WOW! All this time I have struggled to know my place as the head of a Single Mama household and God has already set that up. He had a plan for those of us whom he knew in advance would one day have a home without a husband. Psalm 32:8 also says: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Just think about how amazing this truly is... As a Single Mama I blessed with a unique opportunity to allow Christ, my Heavenly Father to be the head of my home. Putting Christ as the head allows me to take my place as His helper in raising my sweet kidos and having a heart to serve and share with others. I can have peace in knowing that I am not on my own, God is working behind the scenes in my home, in my kids, in our lives and in our hearts. He promises to teach, instruct and guide us all the way...if you choose to give your heart to him. I recently spent an AMAZING weekend with some AWESOME ladies at a retreat.
And let me just say...if you have never been on a ladies retreat it should be on every woman's bucket list! The love, laugher and friendship that builds from it is astounding. If you'd like to know a good one to go to contact me and I'll hook you up! I had been on retreats before so I pretty much knew what to expect. I knew that when I got home the devil would be waiting on my door step, waiting to break me, waiting for me to doubt and fear, waiting for me to back down from the commitments Id just made to my Heavenly Father. But I wont back down. God is moving in my home, I feel it in my heart and I see it in both of my sweet kids. He is here and He is teaching my family how to show & share His love. The kids had also just got back from an event called CIY Believe....another bucket list MUST if you haven't attended already :) I guarantee it will bless your socks off! And like I said when we got home I knew we would be challenged to keep the fire we had each felt over the weekend going & growing. But I didn't care! Because the one thing that I knew beyond a doubt was that when I got back home....nothing would have changed. That's right! We came home to the same circumstances we had left. Actually we came home to smellier circumstances because my son( Lord bless him ) had forgotten to take the trash out the morning we left. 4 days old and in a warm house does not a pleasant homecoming make. Eew! So why was I happy to get home to our same, but now very smelly life? My life did not change....But my heart did. My home did not change...But my heart did. My bills did not change....But my heart did. My troubles did not change...But my heart did. I didn't care what I was walking into when I got back. I knew everything would be the same as I left it, except the Hope which I hold in my heart is so strong I can feel My Savior walking every step with me. |
AuthorI'm a single mama of 2 great kidos seeking and searching for Gods will in our lives :) Archives
December 2017
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