Do Everything

So, in my travels around blogdom, I've been seeing links to Spiritual Sundays posts all over the place. I finally made my way to the website this weekend, and decided that it was high time to join in!

My first thought was to blog about this morning's sermon at church. We've been studying the book of Romans for a while now, and I've learned so much about grace, salvation, sin, obedience... Today, the narrower topic was "Winning the War Inside Me." As believers, we have opposing natures that are always at war within us - our original, sinful nature (our "default" setting) and the new nature that is created in when we are saved. However, just being saved doesn't automatically make us perfect - as any Christian very well knows. We still have to fight that default setting and strive to let the more perfect nature shine through. Not always easy, is it? I am so thankful for a Savior that helps me whenever I call on him.

And even though that's a perfectly wonderful topic to blog about, something else struck me this evening instead.

The children had just headed off to bed, and Gene was on the couch watching TV (which is his personal default setting.) Not wanting to watch what he was watching, I figured it was as good a time as any to tackle some housework.

Sunday night has become the new Monday morning for me. I rather dread them. Sunday night nearly always means grocery shopping, so that particular trip won't interrupt our homeschool routine on Monday. Other plans for tomorrow have tossed our routine to the wind anyway, so I decided to postpone the groceries until then. A small reprieve for my evening.

But there was still the little matter of the kitchen to clean up. Not such a little matter, actually. There were still dishes in the sink from breakfast (had to hurry to church!) and from lunch (naptime!) and now from dinner too. Exacerbating the issue was the fact that Gene had cooked dinner - a task for which I am very grateful. However, the man is capable of utterly destroying the kitchen in mere minutes. He had made hamburgers on the griddle, so there was grease splattered for at least four square feet to clean up. Every remaining clean dish was now dirtied and piled precariously in the sink. Leftover lettuce and tomato was still piled on the cutting board. Cheese wrappers. Bread crumbs. The mayonnaise that didn't make it back into the fridge. It was actually a little amusing in its atrocity. I'm not sure I could make a mess like that if I'd tried - and certainly not as quickly!

So I cleaned all of that up. Gathered up the scattered remains of the morning newspaper from the table. Swept the floor. Folded the laundry that was waiting in the dryer, so I could dry the load waiting in the washer.

It was in the middle of all of this, as I wiped down the table, that I started to mentally grumble. Why was I doing all the work while he sat on his butt and watched TV? Sure, he has to get up early in the morning and go to work, but it's not like I have an easy day ahead of me either. Homeschooling while babysitting, visiting my mother-in-law in the hospital, and grocery shopping with what will certainly be tired and hungry children by the time we get there. Oh, and I have to get gas first, since he parked the van with the gas light on after church today. Not to mention the emotional aspect of my day tomorrow (please, if you're reading this, pray for my dear and hurting friend...)

No, my day will not a piece of cake, but I'm expected to "do it all" anyway. Why isn't he helping? Why does everything fall on me? Can't I be tired too? Can't I have a break? Whine, moan, complain.

Then, I happened to remember a song that I heard on the radio earlier today. I've heard it before (and love it), and I'm thankful that it came back just when I needed it. It's called Do Everything, by Steven Curtis Chapman, and it could easily be a full-time mom's anthem. The very first words are: "You're picking up toys on the living room floor for the fifteenth time today; matching up socks and sweeping up lost Cheerios that got away."

Oh yes, this is a song for me.

But the ultimate point of the song is not lamenting the role of the mom (or student, or businessman, or burger flipper) - it's remembering why it is that we do what we do. Check out the chorus:

Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you

'Cause He made you

To do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face

And tell the story of grace with every move that you make

And every little thing that you do.

I so needed that tonight. And as I hummed it, I felt so much better about the "little" chores, the "meaningless" tasks, the "thankless" jobs. Turns out it's all about perspective, and they only seemed little and meaningless to me.

Thank you, Lord, for a home to keep and a family to care for. And not necessarily in that order.

Here's the (really cute and very creative) video for Do Everything - take just a couple of minutes to watch it, and I bet it'll bring a smile to your face too!

Question #8

#8: Short term goals for this month and why...

I have several goals for this month - survival being foremost among them. With one child just back to (home)school and a 2-year-old to keep busy/entertained/alive in the meantime, "stressed" is my usual operating mode. But I do have goals beyond mere survival, and here they are.

a) Keep the housework under control. At the moment, my house is cleaner than usual, thanks to a recent visit from the in-laws. My goal is to keep it that way. However, the whole point of this blog is that I'm no June Cleaver around the house - rather, I would let it fall apart around me while I do schoolwork and fun things with the girls. Must...find...balance. My friend Brittany over at Short Change posts daily cleaning lists that I'm trying to adhere to...mostly. Days like yesterday really throw me for a loop, when we have plans all morning and then come home just in time to do a little bit of schoolwork, get showers and dressed, throw some food down our throats and run back out the door to church. Who has time to clean on those days?! I managed to wash the dishes and clear some clutter off of the kitchen table, and that just had to suffice.

b) Be a more patient mommy. Patience just is not my strong suit, especially when I have two children simultaneously screaming/crying/nagging/acting like little neanderthals. I just started a Wednesday night class at a nearby church (that I absolutely love) called My Bathtub Is Overflowing, But I Feel Drained. It's a small group comprised solely of moms, and is based on the book by the same name, which I already love even though I'm only three chapters in. Surely some fellowship time with other moms will help me to adjust my mommy attitudes a bit!

c) August was a slow month for my Scentsy biz, so my goal is to pick it up this month! (Actually, it's picked up quite nicely on its own, thanks to the new fall/winter scents. I've sold more in the past day and a half than I did in the whole month of August - WOOHOO!!) My goal for September is to maintain my Lead Consultant title...and who knows, maybe even move up another level. At any rate, the "work" I do this month will pay for our family's weekend beach getaway in October - and I'm soooo looking forward to it. Have I mentioned how much I love Scentsy?!

My Pitiful June Rating

It's been a while since I touched on the inspiration for my blog name, and today I stumbled across an old blog post at the Babs Blog (which turned out to be a very cool blog that I had to follow) titled "Why We Love June Cleaver". So I thought...hmm, why do I love June Cleaver? She's an impossible ideal in mommy-dom, and makes my futile attempts at homemaking look pretty pathetic in comparison. Here's what TBB had to say:

"She kept an immaculate house, baked the best cookies, always had dinner on the table, was quick with a hug for her boys, always treated her hubby Ward with respect, was dedicated to her church, helped her neighbors out...and she did it in pearls and heels! My, that June...she sure was something! (We think that June Cleaver could definitely teach "modern" women a thing or two...)"

Okay, so how do I stack up?

• Immaculate house - FAIL. There was already 20+ of family dirt in this house by the time we moved in. The fireplace is perched on top of a giant rock, there are rough wood beams every fifteen feet or so, and logs line the ceiling. There is no making this house immaculate. Even if it was a possibility, I would still fail, because a) I hate folding laundry, and b) we just have way too much junk.
• Bakes the best cookies - FAIL. Well, I'm okay with Pillsbury Break & Bake. My homemade cookies tend to taste okay, but look like a gloppy, bubbly mess. Except for sugar cookies, at which I just fail on all counts.
  
• Always has dinner on the table - FAIL. Well, there's nearly always food forthcoming, but it's rarely on the table when the hubby actually gets home from work. About half of the time, it's either still cooking, or I've just been entirely unable to force myself into the kitchen to cook.
• Quick with hugs - YES! I can claim this one! My girls are very, very hugged. They're both big huggers, and we always have time for more. Score!
• Always treats hubby with respect - FAIL. I know. I know.
• Dedicated to her church - well. I won't say "fail", as I generally do what's asked of me, or step in when I see that something needs to be done. There's room for improvement. There are also issues that I'll save for another time. I'll give myself about a HALF on this one.
• Helps neighbors out - I try! If a friend asks me for help, I'm there. It's not that often that they ask, though. In a way, I wish some would ask more - it's nice to feel helpful and needed. :) On the other hand, I'm very much a homebody and prefer to expend most of my energy on my own home and kids, but I do think that's pretty normal. Our actual neighbors (as in, adjacent and nearby housese) are pretty stand-offish, with the exception of the nice old couple just next door - and we do like to stop by to say hello or drop off a surprise plate of cookies now and then. So okay, I'll claim this one too.
• Pearls and heels - FAIL. I can't even tell you the last time I wore heels. Okay, it was probably last winter, to church, before warmer weather led me to ditch them in favor of flip flops, sandals and slides. I can't wear much of a heel anyway, since they make me taller than Gene and gives him a bit of a complex. I'm pretty sure I wore pearls on my wedding day. Hmm, maybe time to look into something a little more updated...they are my birthstone (stone? pearls aren't stones!) after all.

Okay, to recap...out of eight June-ish qualities, I fail miserably at five at them and halfway at another. So I have a 2.5 out of 8 June rating. OUCH!

So, which one to work on first? :p