The Internal Struggle of Homemaking

Okay. Don't pass out. Yes, I realize it has been since last September that I posted at this blog. Oh, I wish I could promise more, but alas, life is full ... and pulling me in new and beautiful directions.

But, I just had to share this post with my WorthWalkingToward subscribers. It is a post I wrote over at my new and bustling-busy blog: Fieldstone Hill Design. I really think it will bless you, if you have ever struggled with the balance between making a home, and helping others who don't even have a home!!!

Here is just a part of the post. I invite you to click over to the actual post here, and you might even want to subscribe so that you can follow along with the series.

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I am so excited to dive into my new series: "Overcoming Decorating Paralysis." You can read all about the concepts I will be tackling in the intro post here. I think we are going to learn a lot from each other!

This one is wordy. Bear with me as I hash this out...

Before I go on.

I have something I want to share that I don't want to dance around:

I want to tell you what I really truly think about decorating.

1. I love it with a passion. So much so that I write about it and work on it almost every day.

and, also:

2. It is a totally unnecessary luxury, one with which me must strive to seek careful balance.

there.

For two solid years I wrestled with God about even writing this blog and sharing my business with "the world" {*smile* that's you!}.

Why the struggle?

For one, I have seen desperate poverty with my own eyes. Fed people under bridges. Stared in the eyes of begging children. Heard from orphans. Seen small children walk through sewage and live in filth. And even here, in America. And through God's grace, He has not allowed me to forget a single one of these things. I know, from the depths of my being, how insignificant home decorating is in the grandest scheme of things.

And secondly, I believe to my core, and daily hope to live, these things:

"Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred." - {from the Bible, Proverbs 15:17}

"“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - {from the Bible, Matthew 6:19-21}

I don't believe we should live casually by these truths, but deeply and intentionally.

Hence, my wrestle... Would Fieldstone Hill be glorifying the very things that moth and rust destroy? The answer is: it could. It certainly could. And on some days... it probably does. And worse. It has probably discouraged someone. Or frustrated someone. Or defeated someone.


To read the rest of this post, please click HERE.

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just one second can save her. really.

our daily schedule

Today we started First grade and Prek4!!!!!!!
I started early so that I could take more breaks :)

Here is a pic of the boys in front of our new black board. First Day!:

I have been so anxious about starting this year, mostly because I am now balancing home-schooling AND  a home based business. I am happy to report that our first day went SO well! And I can attribute that to two things:

1. God laid it on my heart that I needed to buckle down, and respond to His call to have more Self-Control and Self-Discipline, and
2. Sticking like a stickler to our schedule:

I wanted to share a pic of our daily schedule that we are following, and that I have posted everywhere. In the places where you see play time and/or quiet time, that is when I work on my Interior Design Business.

Can you tell that I had a little too much fun making this schedule??

Now you see why I need a schedule! I tend to get carried away!! :)

Why I {still} homeschool

My dear friend Edie has written THE. MOST. BEAUTIFUL. post about why she still home-schools.

after reading her words, I shared this story with her, and wanted to share it here as well.

All of us who scoop up our children in this way are home-schooling!

oh, love! I am bawling. Just last night at VBS, I scooped up some kids who were in their pj's at church, and I told their mom, half-jokingly, "THIS is why I homeschool. It is all about PJ's and Snuggling!!"... then a moment after I said it, I realized, it was not a joke at all. It is in the PJ's and in the snuggling that we share our love and pass on our heritage from the Lord. The truest learning. The only kind that matters...How I loved this post, my sweet friend.

How blessed and privileged I am to get to do it every day!

I hope that you will read Edie's post. Not only will you love her words, you will love her heart.

Kickin it old school

We have VBS this week, and I could not resist sharing the awesome lyrics to our theme song, by Go Fish.
I wonder.... are you kickin' it old school??????

(We kick it old school)
(5x)

Come on, come on
Don't miss the latest craze
Hit it for a minute
Then it's on to the next phase

Easy come, easy go
The markers will mark it
The only change that comes
Winds up in a pocket

Hop on the wagon
Drive the heavy thing
All the while we're missing
All the joy that God can bring

You can take the new stuff
You can keep the fluff
The Bible is our tool
And we're here to kick it old school

Here we go
You know we're going retro
We're cool as a rule
Yeah, we kick it old school

We kick it old school

(We kick it old school)

Brother, we're emerging
Like a moldy piece of bread
We have to see if
The holy word of God is all but dead

All we need to know
Is right there on the pages
Why are we obsessed
With who the guy on stage is?

Dance the hottest dance
Get the latest buzzy
We're gonna find out
Jesus wasn't very fuzzy
Was He?

You can take the new stuff
You can keep the fluff
The Bible is our tool
And we're here to kick it old school

Here we go
You know we're going retro
We're cool as a rule
Yeah, we kick it old school

We kick it old school

(We kick it old school)

(We kick it old school)
(2x)

If you believe the Bible's true
(You're kicking it old school)
And life's not all about You
(You're kicking it old school)
If you know you're in a bad spot
(You're kicking it old school)
And you need the grace that God's got
(You're kicking it old school)

You pray to God on your knees
(You're kicking it old school)
You're making no apologies
(For kicking it old school)
There's one more thing to say
(If you're kicking it old school)
Jesus is the only way...

(We kick it old school!)

You can take the new stuff
You can keep the fluff
The Bible is our tool
And we're here to kick it old school

Here we go
You know we're going retro
We're cool as a rule
Yeah, we kick it old school

You can say we're strange
But we're never gonna change
The Bible is our tool
And we're here to kick it old school

Get the crowd jumpin'
We're Bible thumpin'
God still rules
We kick it old school

We kick it old school

(We kick it old school)

We kick it old school

(We kick it old school)

my current favorite song

I can't stop listening to this song.
It makes me dance all around my kitchen.

get out your clogs, people.