Well, maybe he's not ready yet.

I didn't marry my husband for his vast theological library. I really didn't. But I do love reading. I get really absorbed in whatever I'm reading. That statement is true almost without exception. I've been known to get fascinated with the back of a cereal box if it's got a catchy introduction. I plow through books, determined to get to the end, wrap it up in my mind, and move on to the next one.

Enter Baby. Enough said.

So, now I've got a new favorite thing. My MP3 player. I gave up trying to get a good picture of it, but you all know what one looks like. I load stuff on there, hook it up to these cheap speakers we bought at Ross, put the whole get-up on top of the fridge, and I've got a home audio system that fills the entire kitchen with the sound of educational literature . . . if the dishwasher isn't making too much noise.

I've listened to sermon series my pastor preached before I began attending. (His sermons are available here, by the way.) I've listened to some seminary courses available for free download at various evangelical schools. And I've gotten several things from librivox.org. What a great idea. Someday, when I'm not planning my day's activities around naps, I'm going to volunteer for this organization. These people volunteer to record public-domain books and upload them to this site. So people like me can pick what we'd like to "read" and hear it broadcast on our refrigerators.

It's a great set-up. I used to think it would somehow have an educational effect on my 17-month-old, but those delusions were shot down yesterday. I was multitasking in the kitchen--figuring out how to cut up a chicken while getting caught up on the Battle of Sedgemoor from The History of England from the Accession of James II. Wouldn't it be great, thought I, if British history becomes a passion for this little guy as a result of hearing this entire multi-volume work read by dedicated Libravox volunteers? Then reality struck, as I looked up to see whether he was taking notes, and discovered, to my dismay, the following sight.



Ah well. Maybe we'll try something more on his age level next. I wonder if Libravox does Dr. Seuss.

On Poverty

Throughout history, let's face it, every period has had its "haves" and its "have nots." Sometimes some "haves" let the "have nots" have it. I'm not saying that being a "have" makes a person rude, cruel, arrogant, elitist, or whatever scathing epithets economic philosophers have hurled at them for generations. But if a rude, arrogant, cruel elitist happened to be a "have" in most historical epochs, woe be to the "have nots" under his control. Scorn and ridicule toward the "have nots" peppered the conversation of the "haves" if they discussed them at all.

Well, times have changed. They have improved for the most part. If you live in this country, you're a "have." No questions asked. But if you isolate the US, you'll find "haves" and "have nots" here to.

Where am I going with this? Here's my thesis: Frugal "have nots" must take care not to think and behave with the snobbishness so detested in the worst of the "haves."

Huh? Okay, here's the background. Yesterday, my husband comes home from his job holding a printout of his W-2. It's tax time, and it turns out that the government isn't going to keep any of the money they had withheld from his paycheck throughout the year. That must mean we fall below some line they've set.

I started thinking that this isn't exactly what I think of when I picture poverty. Granted, we don't have cable, but we've got high speed internet, 2 vehicles, a house, a kid, a stay-at-home mom, 7 bags of Hersheys Bliss in the cabinet, and a box of this expensive Barbour Foods frozen chicken Parmesan in the freezer.

How do I respond to this? I experienced a moment of gratitude for all the Lord has blessed us with. We don't feel impoverished by any means. And I realized that part of what He has used to make our income accomplish so much is the generosity of our wonderful family.

But then, I lapsed into snobbishness. I began thinking of the calls that are broadcast on the Dave Ramsey radio show. "Hi, I only make $4,000 a month, and my wife brings in like $2,500, and we'd love for her to stay home with the baby that's on the way, but I don't know if we can make it happen." I feel like calling myself and saying, "Let me introduce you to a coupon." But that's kind of sarcastic, isn't it?

I've spent some time on money-saving blogs, and one thing that kind of nebulously made me uncomfortable in the comments and occasionally the posts I finally put my finger on. The "have nots" can sometimes look with condescending haughtiness on the "haves" who don't carefully save and economize. "Look how much stuff I have on such a small income!" And the inference is, "What's your problem?"

The bottom line is we don't know other people's situations. We do better to thank God for His faithfulness in providing our needs. And should He choose to send prosperity above and beyond what we can use ourselves, let's look for ways to share with "have less-es" in our lives . . . or maybe even with "haves mores" who may just need some kindness rather than condescension.

Routine Take 2

Now, about the green marker. As you can see, "Write a blog post" has not been markered lately. But for those of you still hanging in, here's the promised Green Marker System detailed for your edification.

I have this small white board with magnets stuck to my fridge. On top of the fridge (among other things, ahee) is a green dry erase marker we got when Office either Depot or Max was offering a full rebate on a pack of dry erase markers. The others are still in a drawer. For some reason we started with green.

So anyhow, here's the innovative plan. I take a couple of minutes at the beginning of the day listing on the white board the stuff I want to do that day. The official rule is "You have to finish it that day if it's on the board." The real rule is "You may not erase it until it's done, even it takes all week to get to it." Either way, the stuff usually gets done, because who wants a green testimony to her procrastination staring her in the face every time she goes to get the milk?

That's what I do. And I find that just having a basic idea of where I'd like the house and life in general to be at the end of the day contributes significantly to accomplishing more and staying on task. And erasing stuff is way fun.

Routine

Can't live with it; can't live without it. When I coast, I long for it; when I'm in a rut, I seek to cast it off. It's what we strive for until we actually attain it. How many more pithy cliches can I use?

I got to thinking about my routine when I read this post yesterday. [Side note] I know people don't mean it this way, but when someone says, "I'm a little unconventional," I hear, "I'm more innovative than you." So, I'm not going to say that. I'm going to say that no one will write a book about the way I structure my days. It's probably very conventional, actually. It's just that no one talks about it because it's not the way in which organized people recommend the rest of us live.

So, maybe you're the "Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday" type. I thought I was until I became a stay-at-homer. Then it's like, "But I washed last Monday. . . and Thursday and Saturday. There's not enough to wash today. But I never did iron on Tuesday. But the baby will pull the cord and kill himself by dragging a heavy piece of searing hot metal on his head. I have to wait until he's asleep. I've been here all day. Can't we get out of the house and take a walk or something? I feel like the little guy is all trapped. Besides, there's that stuff at CVS that would be free after extra bucks. My day would go so much smoother if I had a routine. But if I had a routine, stuff would be monotonous." I sound like Charlie Brown.

So, the best routine for me is more like this:
Get up
Have a time in the Word while drinking a hot beverage
Take a shower
Prepare breakfast/pack a lunch
Do anything that requires Paul be asleep
Get Paul up, changed, dressed
Feed him breakfast
Go from there

Now, it's the "go from there" that's flexible. That's where the green marker (free after rebate) comes in. But I've got to have material for later, so that's when we'll explain the green marker system of organization.

Conserving the Necessary

"Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching . . . has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her" Luke 10:39, 42.

One of the things we are eager to conserve is time. This was a topic for our retreat. But what do we do with all that time we save? What gets left out? Too often, we concluded, the one necessary thing is neglected. Sitting at Jesus's feet is either cut short, hurried through, or skipped altogether.

Why does this happen? We discussed a number of motivations that drive our decisions. Ultimately, people do what is important to them. Claiming to value doing something is empty unless the thing is done. These heart issues must be confronted and corrected if the one needful thing is to be done in our day.

Practically, though, why do we fail to spend time in communion with our God every day? A very simple, obvious, but talked-around reason is that we don't get up early enough in the morning to do all that must be done. No one at work will ask my husband, "So, did you pray this morning?" But if he's not wearing a tie or his hair isn't combed, people will know. There are days that, quite frankly, no one would know the difference if I stayed in my PJs until I went to bed again, but there are pressing things to be done, and I've got to make the most of this time of sleeping crib confinement.

So, readership. I'll let you in on our decision. We've decided to try out for membership in the 5:15 club. We made it up (Well, actually, we just renamed it; the idea is heavily plagiarized from this blog.), so you wouldn't think it would be hard to gain charter membership. Well, it is. You can't be a member unless you actually get up at 5:15. We're still auditioning.

The encouraging news is that 1) though it's a little sporadic, we've not slipped backward every day, 2) though we've not yet hit the 5:15 mark, we've been able to have a time in the Word and in prayer in the mornings (but we'd like to do some more other stuff too).

It seems like everyone agrees--the first few hours of the day are the most strategic. They contain the best time for personal devotion as well as some key crib time. By God's grace we plan to keep striving to reclaim some more early morning hours for profitable use.

Pausing to Savor What is Lasting

On a blog dedicated to conserving what is valuable, I believe this post about a most precious resource is fitting. But first some background.

Last weekend we spent away, just the two of us, in Galax, VA. What is there to see in Galax? Well, with no offense at all intended to the Galaxians, I can confidently say that we didn't go there to see the Galaxical sights, and we were not disappointed. We got a book at a nice little shop on Main Street, and we enjoyed the local Applebee's, but, despite the fact that Galax can boast of being the "World Capital of Old Time Gospel Music," the town's major source of revenue is likely not tourism. . . unless we missed something. Which is possible, because we didn't venture out of our cabin much. The point of our getaway was not to drink in local flavor.

We mapped out our own version of a couple retreat. I've seen this kind of thing promoted some since we've come back, but until then I thought it was an original idea. We came up with our own program.

It was a very refreshing time to cherish what we love most on earth--God's Word and each other. We blocked out an hour at a time to talk through our goals for this year and assess our past progress in several areas of life. We even had a session on finances and were amazed really at the way the Lord has provided for us. It was amusing (and encouraging) to see how drastically our grocery bills had been reduced since I started looking at "my blogs." But most of all, we were eager to begin 2009 as more aggressive givers after seeing the abundance with which the Lord has blessed us.

As fun as the financial session was--that one was my job, and I indulged myself by providing a brief PowerPoint show replete with charts and pictures--we both greatly needed and greatly benefited from the times of intense spiritual discussion. "Let's do this for a while every week," was a unanimous decision. While for most of life it is profitable to savor fleeting moments and make the most of conserving the valuable "as you go," it is also profitable, at times, to devote yourself to intentionally savoring what will last forever.

*Special thanks to my in-laws. This whole thing really must be attributed to their consistent and urgent injunctions dating all the way back to before Paul had stopped nursing to "Go someplace and let us keep Paul." But seriously, Paul had a great time drinking all his milk with chocolate and being dragged around in his new waggon every time he so much as looked its direction. Thanks, guys! We couldn't have done it without you.

Clean Day

We're not overly ambitious on Clean Day. As you can see, we had some challenges to begin with.


(By the way, this is the "Making your Home a Haven Challenge" for those of you just tuning in.) I called it "Vacuum and Mop Day" thinking that would make my 15-month-old more into it. Since mopping is his favorite pastime. No seriously. It really is. See?





So anyway, it was a grouch morning for him, despite all the mopping and vacuuming and playing of Baby Einstein peppy music and my serenading him with today's variation on the well-known Hoops and Yoyo anthem "Happy Sunny Day."

Though not what I would describe as dripping profundity, the song has the advantage of being an easy text to memorize, and it is adaptable to any weather I've tried it out on. For example. Today is one of those gloriously rainy, cool-leafy-colored fall days that invites one to enjoy home and family. So the song goes:
"It's a happy rainy day, happy rainy day, happy rainy day (ad infinitum)
And we're playing the accordion!"
Again the subtle brilliance of the song is that one need not actually be playing the accordion to enjoy the happiness of the rainy . . . or sunny, or cloudy, or windy, or whatever day one is currently experiencing. Incidentally, if one has never seen the e-card, one is quite mystified, I have no doubt.

But I digress. So it's only (much needed) morning nap time, and we've already done three-fifths of the list items. The other ones I must needs begin anon as Paul is unable to assist in coupon filing or list/menu making. Hmm. There's bound to be something else to clean. . .

Home a Haven

Here's a time- and sanity-conserving week of workouts I decided to participate in. (I'm a couple of days behind, and I probably won't have many pictures, but you can look at other people's.)

The "Making your Home a Haven" challenge is going on at The Homespun Heart. This blogger makes me feel like a neanderthal house-keeper (in a very gentle, loving way). To call her Martha Stewart appears to be something of an insult. But we'll never grow if we don't challenge ourselves, so I've subscribed to her feed to see if I can learn something. (Currently, I have curtains on exactly one window in my home; Monica makes her own decorations for the music stand of her piano.)

This particular challenge caught my attention, and I decided to join in. Today for me was "Tidy Day." With a little help from Paul, I bulldozed through my list by lunch-time. Well, I have one computer thing left to do and the laundry to fold, but after that I have the afternoon to add to the Tidy List and maybe start on the Clean List. But I'd also like to take a walk with Paul. We'll see how things go.

So, I'd encourage you to hop over to Monica's blog, and see how her week of Home-Haven making is going. I love haven-like homes, and I know it's worth the effort!