With Copper working a crazy amount of overtime, and baseball practices ramping up in preparation for the start of the season, life in my house has become busier than normal. Toss in the daily requirements of running a homeschooling household and keeping our orchards, vineyards, berries, etc. irrigated during this dry winter, and our days are full to the brim.
I know the old saying “When it rains, it pours”, but I think that the little extras that come our way in life only seem bigger and worse when we are already stretched thin. For example, after dropping my car off for some warranty/recall type repairs last night, Will’s coach emailed to schedule a special batting practice for today. When the phone rang this morning, calling Copper in for overtime, the day suddenly seemed impossible. I prayed. Friends prayed for us. My car was ready by noon and the dealer was kind enough to send his shuttle van all the way out into the boondocks to pick me up so I would have my car for the rest of the day. That “pouring” rain, was once again just a gentle sprinkle, and I know in my heart that it was God who calmed the storm of my day.
As I set goals for myself for this year, I included some quilting goals and some family goals, both concerning my grandchildren. With my youngest son only three years older than my oldest grandchild, I really can’t wait until my own nest is empty before doing things for, and spending special time with, my grandbabies. With that in mind, I set goals this year to begin making each of my grand babies a small, fun-size quilt and to plan at least one non-birthday outing with each of the children old enough to be away from mama for a few hours.
I’m still a very, very novice quilter, but decided I might as well practice and develop my skills on quilts for the grandkids. These aren’t meant to be heirloom quilts, but just fun, drag around and wrap up in, quilts. My oldest grandson, who just turned ten, will get the first such quilt. He chose the colors red and blue, but indicating that he wanted mostly red.
I’ve been purchasing fabric for his quilt since fall, and final began cutting it yesterday. I had just finished cutting the last of the squares today when the shuttle driver arrived to pick me up.
Measuring and cutting the strips and squares for my grandson’s quilt has been a nice diversion from the hectic pace that we’re keeping these days. I’m so thankful that the Lord led me to set those goals in January, before I knew how busy the year would become. If those goals were not already in place, I’d allow the “crazy-busy” season that we are now in to convince me that there isn’t time to start a quilt or to plan an outing with a grandchild or two. Having pre-determined goals reminds me of the things that are important to me, like finally getting the quilts for my grand babies started, and simultaneously brings some order and calm to my chaos.
Oh, and tomorrow Will, my two oldest grandsons, and I are headed out for an adventure at a hands on science museum, right in the heart of a “crazy-busy” week. Knowing what my goals are actually makes the outing a sweet, calm respite in the midst of chaos, and is another way that I can look well to the ways of my household.
Today was a puttering kind of day. No big, exciting projects were undertaken. No earth-shaking cooking going on. Today was a day to just tend to the everyday things that not only make a house a home, but help keep it that way.
The daily chores and all of the weekly chores for Wednesday were accomplished. Scrubbing bathrooms is not one of my favorite jobs, but I do love the look of a sparkling, clean bathroom and the lemon-fresh scent of the cleansers that linger for awhile. It’s not exciting, but it’s necessary and there is a delight in having it done.
Our winter has been very, very dry, and so I’ve been having to irrigate and water for the last couple of weeks. The weather today was sunny and warm which made being outside very pleasant.
In fact, I took the mending that needed to be done outside and enjoyed the warm sunshine while I worked. Not exciting, but working outdoors made it enjoyable.
While Aaron’s school work continued through the afternoon (I don’t remember Geometry being this much fun, do you?), Will finished up before 2:00. He was a bit disappointed when I gave him some outside work to do before he could enjoy free time.
Pulling weeds out of the berry vines is certainly not exciting. However, if we want to enjoy juicy, sweet berries in June, the vines must have plenty of sunlight and water. The tall weeds have to go.
Little weeds, just sprouting in the flower beds were taken care of today, too. Whenever I can’t find Dani in the house, I know she’s found something to do outside. Dani also made cupcakes because Corin and the grandbabies will be out for a visit tomorrow. Tomorrow is my oldest grandson’s tenth birthday! Now that IS exciting!
The day-to-day tasks that keep our homes functioning well may not be exciting, but I believe that we can make them enjoyable. Concentrate on doing your work with the end result in mind. Hum a perky tune or spend the time praising God in prayer. Take a sedentary task, like mending, to a bright, sunny window or outdoors, if the weather permits. Listen to a podcast while you work, or just enjoy the sounds of life around you. I enjoyed the cries of the Canadian Geese that were flying overhead today while I sat on the porch sewing. Make an everyday dinner special by lighting candles on the dinner table, or serving your meal on the “good” dishes. Light a scented candle in the middle of the day and enjoy its fragrance as evening falls.
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
Colossians 3:23-24
Think about the ways that you can make the not always exciting day-to-day work of home life a treat rather than a burden, and share your ideas in the comments.
Since today was a holiday, Will’s coach called a preseason practice for any of the kids who could make it out for the afternoon. I’m thankful for dedicated coaches who are focused on skill development and safety and who give up their own holidays to work with the kids.
Good men. Good kids.
Will has never played before, and he has a long way to go. The coaches gave him lots of help and tons of encouragement and his improvement is noticeable.
Copper was called in for overtime around 8:30 this morning, so he missed practice. I took along my crochet project, but it was so cold that I ended up just keeping my hands in the pockets of my hoodie and shivering uncontrollably.
My cup of coffee didn’t last nearly long enough. Brrrr.
How did you spend your President’s Day holiday?
Last week I featured three recipes from SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue . The Tortellini Soup has been a favorite since I made it the first time more than a year ago. The Panko Peanut Crusted Pork Chops were new to us, but they were absolutely delicious. The third recipe, the Cassoulet, was missed as we found ourselves in town from early afternoon through late evening that day. We packed sandwiches and took them with us to avoid eating out while we were gone.
Because we’ve enjoyed almost every single recipe we’ve tried from SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue, I’ve put four new-to-us recipes from the book on the menu for the coming week. The French Cassoulet we missed last week, two quick and easy chicken dishes, and a slow, simmering beef stew with a southwestern twist. To liven things up even more, Dani is going to make Pioneer Woman’s Pork Chops with Garlic and Wine for us on Monday. The whole week will be a yummy feast!
This is the last week before baseball season begins in earnest for us. I’m hoping to have a practice and game schedule in hand by week’s end so I can plan next week’s menu accordingly. Books like SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue help keep well balanced, delicious, family-friendly meals on the table without my needing to spend a lot of time in the kitchen prepping and/or cooking dinner.
Here’s our menu for the coming week. Please click on over to Laura’s site to see many, many more menus posted for Menu Plan Monday.
MONDAY:
Breakfast – Waffles
Lunch – Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Chips
Dinner – Pioneer Woman’s Pork Chops with Garlic & Wine, Roasted Potatoes and Carrots, Green Salad
TUESDAY:
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – Canned Soup, Crackers
Dinner – Pineapple Chicken Stir Fry (Recipe found in this cookbook.), Basmati Brown Rice, Ambrosia Salad
WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast – Scrambled Eggs & Cinnamon Raisin Toast
Lunch – Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Chips
Dinner – Santa Fe Style Beef Stew (Recipe found in this cookbook.), Candied Carrots, Bread & Butter
THURSDAY:
Breakfast – Scottish Oatmeal
Lunch – Mac & Cheese, Fruit
Dinner – French Cassoulet with White Beans & Sausage (Recipe found in this cookbook.), Gnocchi, Veggies Normandy
FRIDAY:
Breakfast – Pancakes
Lunch – Bean & Cheese Quesadillas, Fruit
Dinner – Chicken Milanesa (Recipe found in this cookbook.), Boiled Red Potatoes, Green Salad with Fresh Pear, Pecans & Parmesan
SATURDAY:
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – Chef Dani’s Choice
Dinner – Nachos & Lost
SUNDAY:
Breakfast – Sour Cream Coffeecake
Lunch – Out After Church
Dinner - Wild Dinner
Need help menu planning? Maybe my Menu Planning Series can help.
The S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Acrostic.
The week as captured in eight photos and eight words, in an acrostic format.
Sewing
Athletic
Tune-up
Uniform
Roses
Driving
Ability-building
YNAB
If you’d like to post your own Saturday Acrostic, you’re welcome to do so! Choose eight photographs that depict the week in review, or just your special Saturday. Then, use one word to caption each photo using the letters S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y. Let us know that you’ve posted your own Saturday Acrostic by linking to your Saturday Acrostic post in the comments below. Please do me the favor of including a link to link to my Saturday Acrostic in the post on your blog. Thanks! Have fun!
The Saturday Acrostic copyright Cheryl Linebarger 2010, 2011, 2012
I’ve always enjoyed Nancy Wilson’s writing. I’m a somewhat consistent reader of her blog, and I’ve also enjoyed several of her books, including Building Her House: Commonsensical Wisdom for Christian Women . Mrs. Wilson writes with the kindness, yet firmness, of a wise older friend. The book’s promise to deliver “commonsensical wisdom” is fulfilled.
Building Her House is a compilation of articles, all penned by Mrs. Wilson, that originally appeared in Credenda/Agenda magazine. The book is divided into five parts, with a few of the original articles making up the chapters for each part. The sections, in order, are: Service, Family Relationships, Marriage, Mothering, and Attitudes. While some of Mrs. Wilson’s articles might cause us to feel unduly burdened to do as she does (hosting a weekly Sabbath Feast for the entire family), she is quick to remind her readers that even she started slowly and on a more modest scale than what she is now able to handle. She’ll even tell you how to make great Macaroni & Cheese with Velveeta. How down to earth is that?
Mrs. Wilson is at her best in counseling the younger, stay-at-home wives. She has a sharp insight into the difficulties of those early years of married life and/or motherhood, and her counsel has been honed over years of experience with her own grown up children and with the young women in her husband’s church. The articles for these women are found in all five parts of the book, but “Young Wives”, “Your Baby Has a Soul”, and “Rainy-Day Blues” are all wonderful for the young wife and mother.
I was especially blessed by her article, “Sons and Sports” where Mrs. Wilson extols the virtues of what team sports can do for our boys. Having, for years, heard that team sports were “bad” for boys, and having watched as other moms allowed their well-meant, but overbearing, compassion to weaken their sons’ masculinity, this article was a huge breath of fresh air.
“First of all, the way I see it, boys need to learn how to take a hit. Christian men need to be fighters. After all, in Christendom there is a battle going on. Young boys need to be trained in many areas beyond academics if they are going to be skilled in battle. For starters, they need to be tough – not whiners, moaners, wimps, or shirkers. In sports they learn to take a hit.”
Nancy Wilson
Building Her House is a good read for women in all stages of life. She addresses the unmarried gals in “Courtship Blues” and we older gals in “Mother-in-Law”, with something for every other gal in between.
Each article is just a few pages long, making this a nice take along book for the waiting room, or one that’s easy to pick up when you have just a minute or two to read. Remember, I think it’s vitally important that you are always reading something! Nancy Wilson’s Building Her House: Commonsensical Wisdom for Christian Women is a good place to start for those of you who are pressed for time to read or who feel guilty reading for pleasure.
I didn’t grow up knowing about gardening and growing food. My parents were both adults during The Great Depression, and my mom was raised as the daughter of a farmer who never owned his own land. The idea of having to garden, or grow your own food out of necessity, was something they never wanted to do again. I cannot fault them for that.
When I was about twelve, or so, my parents allowed some Youngberry vines to come up, under the fence, from the neighbor’s yard into our backyard. Over the course of the next several years, my dad carefully cultivated those berry vines. He would dig up the new canes as they emerged and replant them in neat rows in the backyard. He trimmed out the old, spent canes every fall, and trained the tender new vines onto the support system he built for them. My girls grew up enjoying Granddad’s Berries every June, and eating countless pieces of Memom’s Berry Pie! We have taken starts from those original Youngberry vines with us every time we have moved.
Copper’s grandmother, on the other hand, was quite the gardener. That woman had the quintessential green thumb! Grandma’s Raspberries were always a favorite. For the last several years, I’ve wanted to plant Raspberries of my own. Last week, when we picked up Dani’s seed potatoes and other garden supplies, we made the spontaneous decision to buy bare root Raspberry canes.
Aaron broke ground and made a dozen or so passes with the rototiller on Saturday. The soil was beautiful! By mid-afternoon that same day, all ten canes were in the ground.
Bare root fruit trees and vines look lifeless. The raspberry canes I planted looked like dead sticks with spidery roots on one end. Though they don’t look like much now, leaves will soon emerge from their now tightly closed buds. If the weather cooperates, we may even enjoy a few juicy, sweet raspberries this first summer.
What a wonderful promise of summer in the very heart of winter!
We began building a few new guardrails in our home today, and rebuilding some that have fallen into disrepair.
Guardrails = A system to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous or off limits areas
(from a sermon series at church)
I like the visual that definition provides.
 - Photo by Scott Patterson/courtesy of photoxpress.com
We’ve allowed some of the “guardrails” in our home to fall into disrepair, resulting in too much time being wasted following worthless, and potentially harmful, pursuits. Today those guardrails were rebuilt governing the amount of time our boys spend online and redirecting them back onto the highway toward success.
We all need guardrails, don’t we? I sure do! I am so thankful to be able to open my Bible and see the loving way that God has provided guardrails for us as we follow Him.
Guardrails aren’t restrictive. They’re only installed along the dangerous bits of roadway. They don’t obstruct our view, but they clearly mark the place where the edge of the pavement ends and the cliff begins. As the pastor said Sunday, we really don’t appreciate those guardrails until we need them.
Some touch up painting was taken care of today, too! So thankful for a husband who works hard on his day off!
We’re ramping up for the start of baseball season. This is the first time, ever, that I’ve had a child participating in team sports. Our weekday evenings will be busy with practices and games, but I want to preserve the family dinner hour as many nights a week as possible. To make that happen, it’s time to start thinking about make ahead meals, crockpot dinners and quick-to-fix family favorites.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be pulling out some of my favorite sources for dinners that can either be prepped and made ahead or put together quickly just before meal time. The first such favorite is Aviva Goldfarb’s SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue: Earth-Friendly, Kid-Pleasing Dinners for Busy Families. Over the last year or so, I’ve tried a dozen or more recipes from this cookbook, and they’ve all been hits. Every recipe includes the prep and cooking times, as well as suggested quick-to-fix side dishes to complement the main dish. Most recipes are ready in about thirty – forty-five minutes, start to finish, making them perfect for hectic evenings.
You can read even more about this fantastic cookbook in my review.
Here’s our menu for the coming week, including three recipes from SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble. For even more menus, be sure and visit this week’s Menu Plan Monday at I’m An Organizing Junkie.
Monday:
Breakfast – Waffles
Lunch – Turkey Sandwiches, Chips
Dinner – Bourbon Street Chicken, Rice, Veggies Normandy
Tuesday:
Breakfast – Cold Cereal
Lunch – Black Bean, Corn, Tomato & Cheese Tostadas
Dinner – Tortellini Soup (from SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue), Garlic Bread
Wednesday:
Breakfast – Bacon, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Burritos
Lunch – Left over Tortellini Soup, Bread
Dinner – Panko Peanut Crusted Pork Chops (from SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue), Green Salad with Cranberries & Parmesan Cheese, Whole Wheat Bread & Butter
Thursday:
Breakfast – Baked Oatmeal
Lunch – Grilled Cheese on Rosemary Sourdough, Fruit
Treat – Valentine Cupcakes
Dinner – French Cassoulet (from SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue), French Bread
Friday:
Breakfast – Pancakes
Lunch – Boys on their own, Dani & I in town
Dinner – Sub-sandwich from the grocery store deli
Saturday:
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – Dani’s Choice
Dinner – Nachos & Lost
Sunday:
Breakfast – Yogurt Cranberry Coffeecake
Lunch – Out After Church
Dinner – Wild Dinner
What resources do you find helpful for making dinner on busy nights?
The S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Acrostic.
The week as captured in eight photos and eight words, in an acrostic format.
Spuds
Anteroom
Two-wheeling
Unending
Rodent-damage
Downloading
Anticipating
Yearning
If you’d like to do your own Saturday Acrostic, you’re welcome to do so! Use eight photographs that depict the week in review, or just Saturday, and use one word to caption each photo using the letters S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y. Leave the link to your Saturday Acrostic post in the comments below, and please be sure to link to this original post, too.
The Saturday Acrostic copyright Cheryl Linebarger 2010, 2011, 2012
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About Cheryl 
I'm Cheryl. I've been Copper's wife for 33 years. We have two grown daughters, two teen sons, a wonderful son-in-love and six grandbabies. Copperswife is a place to find encouragement as you joyfully look well to the ways of your own household. Subscribe – Connect – Contact
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In My Reading Basket or On The Kindle Right now
2012 – Books Read This Year
The First Five Years of Copperswife
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