Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Priorities (again) and being pleasing

Is wanting to please your husband part of making him a priority?

Is it possible to have your husband be your second priority (after God) . . . and forget about trying to please him?

If I make a list of things that are important to my husband and then try to do those in an effort to make him a priority . . .

would a list of things I could do to please him be different?

Things I am mulling over today.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

My New Links (Blogs and Groups) or, Time Spent on the Computer

I just updated the "Blogs I read" and added "Groups I like" and I think I have discovered why some things are not getting done around here! (Actually, I knew why, but I wasn't willing to admit it.)

Funny how this follows my post about my priorities.

I am spending too much time on the computer.

Know how some older time management books talk about not spending too much time on the phone? or watching television? Well, those are no problem for me, but the internet/computer is.

It is also funny how, now that I have set up this blog, I feel compelled to make a daily (or frequent) entry. It was just supposed to be a place for me to gather thoughts or resources. Now, I am interested in readers! Is that pride rearing its ugly head again?

I believe it is. I want to be important, helpful, a connection, an authority of some sort.

But the other side of this is that I really do get good help about spirituality, home and homeschooling from these blogs and groups. I just need to keep my time on the computer within reason.

I will be working on this.

Now, I don't think I have any readers, but if I do, any ideas?

Husbands as a priority

Well, I have gotten the message. Now, the trick is to make a real change in my life.

My priorities should be, God first, husband second, kids third.

Although I knew this, I wasn't practicing it.

I'm not doing right by my husband.

I've had the book, A Woman after God's Heart by Elizabeth George for a long time. I think it is a deceiving book, in that it is easy to read and as I read it, I kept saying to myself, "of course!' But there is real depth there. Getting the intellectual knowledge down from my head and into my heart has been another matter.

I picked it up recently and read a part about priorities and I realized that I have not made my husband a priority. He is so good and does so much for the family and seems so completely self-sufficient, that I have put the kids ahead of him in many ways.

I'm hoping to make a real change. Let me rephrase that: I am praying that God will help me make a real change.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Bible Reading Plans, Part 1

I think it is good to have a systematic way to read through the Bible. And, as it had been my desire for a long time to read the whole Bible, I have collected Bible reading plans.

There are individual reading plans and Bible studies that take you through scripture in a systematic way.

Bible Studies
These methodical Bible studies are different from topical Bible studies. In a topical Bible study, you might, for example, study the fruit of the spirit or a person in the Bible. I much prefer Bible studies based on a book (or books) of the Bible. I recently read Honey for a Woman's Heart (or here) by Gladys Hunt and saw that she said something similar.

Individual Reading Plans
For the individual plans, there are read-the-Bible-in-one-year plans, read-the-Bible-in-more-than-one-year plans and read-the-Bible-in-less-than-one-year plans. (I guess that is a case of stating the obvious!) These "plans" include Bibles specially arranged for daily readings!

Bible Studies
Here are some of my favorite Bible studies.

Disciple Bible Studies. The first one I did was Disciple I. This program ran from September through May and if you read all the assignments, you read about 70% of the Bible. A wonderful overview to the whole book! This was my first Bible study ever and it is the one I remember most fondly. (The other Disciple Bible studies focus on a more limited portion of scripture. They are good, too!)

Bible Study Fellowship (or BSF). Another nine-month Bible study that follows the school year (August or September through May). There are seven classes: And there are recommended readings for the summer. I don't know how much of the Bible you would read if you did all the classes and the summer readings, but you would have an excellent foundation in Bible study.

Another Bible study is a radio Bible study called Thru the Bible. It is broadcast Monday through Friday. As their website says:
Thru the Bible takes the listener through the entire Bible in just five years, threading back and forth between the Old and New Testaments. Because we start over again with Genesis after we've concluded Revelation, you can "get aboard the Bible bus" at any time. If you stay with us for five years you won't miss any part of the Bible.
Notes: 1) these were recorded in the late 1960's and early 1970's and 2) Dr. McGee has a thick Texas accent. I like it, but I am sure it drives others crazy!

And one for the home: Bible Study Guide for All Ages. I really like this program, too. How long it takes you to get through the whole Bible depends on how many lessons you do a week. There are four units and each unit has 102 lessons. At the rate of two lessons a week, you finish the unit in one year. This is what you cover.

Part 2, coming sometime soon but not necessarily right away, will be about individual reading plans.




Monday, May 19, 2008

Migraine

I got clobbered with a migraine this weekend. I've got what I call a migraine hangover today. The pain sure takes a lot out of me!

When I get a migraine, it reminds me to be grateful for all the days I don't get one. Well, sometimes it does. I remembered yesterday.

A little over a year ago I was getting a lot of migraines; so many that it was really affecting our lives. I did a lot of things to try to get through that period, but I think the most effective was asking for prayer.

Here are some things that I think are true for me:

Triggers:
Tension can trigger migraines (even though tension headaches are different from migraine headaches)
Not enough water
Not enough rest
Chocolate
Caffeine (too much or not enough--I am sensitive to it so I have to have my usual amount)
Over-the-counter migraine medicine (it will help, but then I may have a rebound headache a few days later)
The day before my cycle begins
Getting angry

Helps to prevent:
Well, the opposite of the triggers! Enough water, rest, relaxation. Good food. Practicing gratitude (helps with stress, which helps with anger).
I need to remember to relax my shoulders.
Pacing myself.

Helps during a migraine:
Cold compress (I own two, kept in the freezer, so I can use one and then trade it for the other one when it warms up).
Lying down (with the cold compress).
Water (one book said to drink two glasses of water right away).

Two things that I know have helped (but also know that they do not help every time) are hot and sour soup with the red hot paste/sauce and exercises from a book called Pain Free.

The hot and sour soup idea was one I read about from The People's Pharmacy (which is a newspaper column and a website). I can't find the original article, but the one I linked has the information.

I also read on that site about cayenne pepper -- just a minuscule amount, really only a few specks -- in the nose. The authors of The People's Pharmacy said they couldn't recommend it, but I have tried it. Apparently, researches are experimenting with a cayenne or capsicum nasal spray, which gave a reader the idea to try the direct application. It made me sneeze, and it may have kept the migraine at bay.

Here's another one from them: vitamin B2. I keep forgetting about that one.

The only time in my life where I felt the pain leave was after doing the exercises for headaches in Pain Free. At four in the morning, after having suffered most of the night.

I'd had the book a long time, but could never get past the long introduction, which the author insisted that I read. It was boring and full of evolutionary stuff, so I never got to the exercises. It just sat on my shelf. Until that early morning when I decided that I had to do something. I got up to write a list of my options and my eyes fell on the book. I did the exercises and felt the pain leave. It was amazing and I believe, an answer to prayer.

So, why don't I do the exercises every morning as a preventative? Good question. I was, for a while. Then I got busy and complacent. Also, I gave the book to my father-in-law, so the visual reminder was gone, too. In any case, I plan to start back on them.

Another thing that helps is doing the neck and shoulder stretches from Stretching.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Some of what I am reading these days

The Bible, in a whole year, using this plan from Discipleship Journal. I am behind. I've done this one other time and I found this time of year the hardest to keep up.

The Original Homeschooling Series by Charlotte Mason, Volume 6. There is a yahoo group called CMSeries that is doing this. It helps to have some accountability. I am a little behind here and I skipped some, but without the group, I would have given up altogether.

And while I am not reading it word for word, front to back, I am reading the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Boswick Comstock regularly, as I really try to make nature study a regular part of our homeschooling week. I have a yahoo group for this, too. Using the Handbook of Nature Study's purpose is to encourage each other in nature study, but also to provide updated or appropriate regional information.

My yahoo group, Home Comforts Home, has just begun reading through Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson. We are not going to read front to back, but skip around. This book is somewhat like an encyclopedia.

And I am praying my way through The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle. This is a new discipline for me and some days are better than others. But what a difference when I do take the time to pray the hours!

I have the book The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord with Reflections by Phyllis Tickle and have read some of it, but I have put it aside while I try to catch up with my other reading.

I have some blogs I read, too, and I just subscribed to Google Reader so that I could see them all in one place! I need to add more of the blogs I read to the sidebar.

I am trying to make my reading purposeful. My focus these days seems to be on my spiritual life, household and homeschooling.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Gratitude

1. Girls had good lessons.

2. Birds, bird calls and migration.

3. Hearing my teenage son's gentle, "Hi" directed to the dog.

4. Taste of green tea and the fact it is my preference these days.

5. A fun dinner at IHOP with the kids. We laughed together.

6. Kitchen cleaned nicely by one of the kids.

7. Kids' smiles.

8. Helping my son with English homework and noticing how big he is.

9. Baseball season has begun.

10. Rain.

11. Grace, which comes from God.

12. Most important gift, that of salvation, from my Lord, Jesus Christ.

Joining many others, I am writing my list of gifts.