Do you know?

. . . that I've been procrastinating all day. I really need to do my lesson plans for school next week, but . . . well . . . you know. . . I'm procrastinating. :-)

. . . that I have a stack of books I want to be reading . . . but because I'm supposed to be doing my lesson plans, I'm not reading, which leads me back to point number one. I'm procrastinating.

. . . so do you want to read the list of titles that I want to be reading right now? Sure you do, cuz you're procrastinating about something too, or else you wouldn't be reading this silly post! :-)

My list of To Reads:
1. To finish: "The Little Prince" by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
2. "The Gift of Peace" by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
3. "Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods" by Suzanne Collins (this is the series that Abiel and I enjoying!)
4. "Gregor and the Marks of Secret" by Suzanne Collins
5. "Son of Hamas" by Mosab Hassan Yousef (Heath read this and said it's an excellent, thought provoking book on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from an insiders perspective.)
6. "Life and Holiness" by Thomas Merton
7. To finish: " Qualities of a Spiritual Warrior" by Graham Cooke
8. " The Maker's Diet" by Jordan Rubin (I need to keep reminding myself why I want to be making healthy choices for my family in the way we eat. It keeps slipping my mind!)

Ahhh, here I go. I'm really going to hit the books now!

Do you know?

Do you know what silly thing I wish? I really, really wish that childhood was not so inextricably linked to adulthood. I wish that at 19 or 20, a person could hit a button that would let them "be free" of all the negative things that would follow them into adulthood. I wish they could retain only the good and helpful and beautiful things. That would take a whole lotta pressure off my parenting skills! :-)
Hmmm, but I haven't found any genies lately that grant silly wishes. So further up and further in . . . and only by God's mercy and empowering Presence do I continue to do all that I can to make the childhood of 4 little people as whole and healthy as possible. JESUS HELP!

Control Issues . . . Ahem, I'm learning what to control. . . myself!

As I have shared in the past, I have some control freakish tendencies! I know, shocking! I've been praying about them for years and have gained a considerable amount of victory in some areas of this battle, particularly within my marriage (not perfection, just growth). The Lord is targeting my controlling tendencies now within the realm of my parenting. Danny Silk's book, "Loving Our Kids On Purpose," continues to be a spotlight on my weaknesses all the while nudging me down a different path. Here is a paragraph that hit me between the eyes yesterday. It's no brainer stuff, but nevertheless, I'm back to working through no brainer issues!

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"What you do control - on a good day, remember - is you. You want to feel powerful? Tell your bones where to go, how long to stay there, what to put in your mouth and what not to let out of your mouth. If you want to feel powerless, try telling other people what to do. Try to get other people to do what you want them to do so you can be OK. Give them all the power over your well being. That is the recipe for a bad day. A great way to set healthy limits in our relationships is to get good at telling other people what we are going to do, and then letting them decide how they want to deal with that."
~pg 110 of "Loving Our Kids on Purpose"

Do you know?

~ I absolutely love the sound of frogs croaking in the darkness and catching glimpses of dragonflies flitting through the sunlight?

~ the moon is one of my very favorite parts of nature and I could sit for hours by a river?

~ all of creation displays the glory of my beautiful Creator?

Do you know?

Do you know why I love going to bed at night? So I can get up and have my cup of coffee!! :-)