The Simple Life at Home

Can I please ask for prayers for a sweet kid here in Doha? His name is Micah and he's Emily's age. He's been very sick for several days now and has now been hospitalized. They believe it may be Dengue Fever (which he may have contracted on a recent trip to Malaysia). According to his mom, he will be one sick cookie for a week or so - high fevers and vomiting, so he's very dehydrated.

Micah is a great kid - funny and smart and dead-on in his relationship with God. If you wouldn't mind offering up a prayer for him and his family, I'd really appreciate it!

I am a big, fat liar.


I know that I said I would do the No Regrets posts every day.


I know I promised a few days ago that I would post the next segment that day.


Didn't happen.


What can I say? Life intervened and between a sick child, being swamped with homework for the first time ever, a migraine, and various activities in-between I just haven't been able to get to the post.


So let's look at it now. As I mentioned, this day was about taking care of yourself. The title of the chapter was "Oxygen Mask" in reference to the airplane announcement to put the oxygen mask on yourself before helping other people.


Question: How would you rate your health in each of these four areas - spiritual, physical, emotional and relational - from one (terrible) to ten (fantastic)? What's the greatest challenge to improving your health in these areas? What can you work on to work through this challenge?


Spiritual - Rating: 4

I have to admit that I am seriously lacking in my daily walk with God. Well, in the disciplines of that walk anyways. While I feel I do pretty well at keeping a constant conversation with God throughout my day, I still feel that I am not drinking at the well of the Word enough. Nor do I have really deep, long times of prayer. I am empty most of the time, spiritually speaking. I'm not getting the nourishment I need. It's like living on a diet of candy bars and soda. This results in my not having an even-keel and losing my temper and getting easily frustrated. During this challenge time, I would like to spend more time in the Word. I think that would be a major factor. Also, I need to practice being still and being in God's presence.


Physical - Rating: 4

Not doing too well in this area either. I've fallen into the trap that many mothers do, paying so much attention to everyone else at the expense of taking care of myself. As my lack of attention to my own needs has decreased, my weight has increased, my lack of energy has has increased, my self-esteem has plummeted and my general well-being has suffered. I've not been eating right (either in what I'm eating or how much I'm eating). I've been exercising, but only minimally. I don't get enough sleep. During this challenge, I want to up my exercise level (both in time and intensity), start eating better and drinking more water, and get to sleep by 11:00, instead of 1 or so. I also plan to make an appointment for a general check-up.


Emotional - Rating: 6

Well, I am very in touch with my emotions, that's for sure. However, I tend to be over-emotional, wearing my heart on my sleeve. I have gotten better at flying off the handle over the years (although having a teenager in the house is putting that to the test!!), but still occasionally do. However, I think the test of having moved to a very different culture in a foreign land has helped me to see that I'm stronger than I gave myself credit for previously. During this challenge, I would like to practice walking away and taking a breath when I feel myself at the verge of an outburst.

Relational - 8

This is an area where I would say I do better than others. While it has been difficult to leave my very well-established social circle back in Miami, I think I'm well on my way to building up a new network here in Doha. I've begun to connect more and more with women here. With regards to my marriage, I think that Hubby and I are in a pretty good place right now. There are some issues, as always, but in general we seem to be connecting pretty well and on the same page most of the time. During this challenge I want to step out in faith and invite another couple over for dinner to continue to build friendships and go on two dates with Hubby.

So there you have it. I'm blessed that my husband is encouraging me to put myself on the front burner for a while and take care of myself. I have a lot of work to do, but I don't want to give up in my efforts to improve in every area of my life.

Well there have been some big changes in our home since my last Thankful Thursday post. For the first time ever, my children are enrolled in a traditional school setting. Also, I've begun to serve on the Women's Ministry Leadership Team for our church. As well, Emily is preparing to go on an outreach trip to Jordan in April over spring break. These things have kept us hopping.

I have a lot to be thankful for. Here's a few things that are on my mind today.

• I'm thankful that my children both got a place in the school of our choice. Schools here generally tend to be packed and it's not uncommon to have children at home for months while you wait for a place to become available for them. It was totally God's hand at work.
• I'm thankful that Emily seems to be thriving. She's coming home every day happy and bubbling about all that happened that day. (On a side note, Daniel is NOT adjusting so well, so prayers for him would be appreciated. He's just finding the transition from the laidback style of homeschooling to the structure of a traditional school setting frustrating. Yesterday he was complaining that he had to keep his head up ALL day and his neck was sore because there were no headrests. ROFL!!!! He's used to chilling on the couch while he does his schoolwork.)
• I'm thankful for the group of women in my Esther study's small group. They are an amazing group of women with wonderful insight whom I've really gotten to enjoy getting to know.
• I'm thankful for my husband and the care he takes of me. He's told me that I need to place myself above other priorities for now and not to worry about the house and all that it demands, but to make sure that I get to the gym regularly, go the doctor for a long overdue check-up and just tend to myself. Sometimes it's easy to get bogged down in all we have to do as stay-at-home moms, but it's good to be given the blessing to be a little selfish sometimes. (Incidentally, this will be the topic of my next No Regrets post, which is a couple of days overdue as I've just been overwhelmed with homework and not feeling well to boot. I'll get it up later today.)
• I'm thankful for the amazing weather we've been having here in Doha. Cool in the evenings and highs of about 75. Perfect!!! (Must remember this in July when it's 120 degrees!!!)
• I'm thankful for God having His hand over every aspect of my life. Through this study of Esther, I'm realizing more and more how nothing is coincidence and it's all part of His plan.

Ok, that's it for today. I'm off to the gym to work out and then to the grocery store and home to laundry and cleaning. I want to give big kudos to those non-homeschooling moms out there who do homework with their kids every night. Trust me, this is MUCH harder than homeschooling!! At least when you are the teacher you know what the assignment is!!

For more Thankful Thursday posts, be sure to stop by Grace Alone!

Question: What are the current barriers to spiritual health in your life? In other words, what keeps you from connecting to God as your primary source of spiritual life?

Gosh, this is a hard one to answer. I guess I have periods where I am feeling like a spiritual giant and very, very close to God and then I have periods where I feel so very far away from Him. Of course, I know that He is still there, right there with me, but I have tuned Him out. I think the biggest barrier to my spiritual health is related to yesterday's question. I just keep my mind too busy, too amused, to spend time with Him.

I'm the kind of person who hates quiet. I turn on the radio as soon as I get in the car. I turn on the tv, even if I have no intention of watching it, just for the noise. And yet I know that we are called to be still. How else can I know my God if I don't spend time with Him? How can I have a conversation with Him if there is always something else taking up my attention? I keep my mind so busy with noise that there is no opportunity for His still, small voice to get my attention.

I'm working on it. I really want to live my life intentionally - working towards prioritizing those things which are really important to me (my walk with God, my family, my health), instead of allowing those things which are merely easy to be my focus. I think that by consistently reminding myself of what is really important, I can manage to tune out that which is merely there and available. Sometimes it's hard to dig through all the nonsense our world fills us up with, but it's necessary to get down to the treasures which lie hidden.

Back to menu planning!!! I don't know about you all, but I thrive on list-making. I love the feeling of knowing what I am doing, what I need, what's next. Even though it sounds as though you are being constrained, in reality I find it very freeing. Having a plan allows me to accomplish my goals in a timely fashion and move on to more spontaneous things, while still feeling good that those "must-do's" are already done.

Here's our menu for this week:

Sunday - Country Corn Chowder (recipe below), cheese biscuits

Monday - Seared salmon with garlic aioli, brussel sprouts, couscous and a tossed salad

Tuesday - Koosa mahshi (stuffed squash) and a chopped salad

Wednesday - Roasted Chicken, BLT potatoes, garlic green beans and a tossed salad

Thursday - Hamburgers, potato salad and chips

Friday - Tuna Casserole and a tossed salad

Saturday - Homemade pizza

Country Corn Chowder

• 4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 cups water
• 2 vegetable boullion cubes (chicken is ok too!)
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 1/2 t. sage
• 1/2 t. oregano
• 1/2 t. thyme
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 3-4 cups corn
• 1 T. butter
• 1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped

Bring water to boil and add potatoes, onions, celery and onions. Add seasonings and let simmer until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, saute peppers and scallions in the butter. Set aside. Once potatoes are tender, remove about 2 cups of the vegetables from the soup. Puree what's left (a stick blender is great for this!) and then add back in the vegetables you removed. Add the corn and the sauteed peppers and scallions. Allow to simmer, stirring often, until corn is heated through.

* * * * * * *

So that's it around here. Simple, good food. Yum!!

In other news, after starting school last week, the kids have now been on a four day weekend. Not bad, huh? 4 days last week of camp-like fun, a four day weekend and when they go back tomorrow they will only have a three day week! A pretty nice introduction to school, I'd say!!

I'm off to start my "list" that I mentioned in yesterday's No Regrets post. No more computer for me till it's done!!

Question: What was the bigger time waster in your past week? What was the payoff for you? Did it distract you, entertain you, allow you to avoid someone? Is there a way to use your time differently and have a greater, more significant impact? Maybe you need to watch less television and to read more, or perhaps instead of surfing the Internet, you could go for a walk or get some other exercise. Come up with a short list of alternate activities you can pursue the next time you are tempted to waste time by default.

Not surprisingly, my two biggest timewasters are the ones mentioned above - tv and the Internet. Both of these suck me in and cause me to waste away hours every day. I would wager to say that my payoff is in the fact that I just don't like doing the things that require effort on my part - cleaning the toilets, hanging laundry, exercising, even reading the Bible as it requires thought and concentration.

Honestly, I prefer to be amused. Jess over at Making Home wrote an excellent post on how our modern day amusements are dulling our minds. It's a very thought-provoking piece that I've been mulling over. Here's one of the best parts:

We are in danger of being lulled to sleep, mentally, emotionally, culturally, and SPIRITUALLY-- by our amusements. When our days and nights are filled with technology, news, and fantasy games, and our homes, garages, and storage buildings are filled with toys, electronics, appliances, decorations, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff..., our minds are in danger of being overtaken, not only by our stuff (although I would argue that most Americans are indeed fixated on stuff), and not only by our amusements (although I would argue that most Americans are indeed fixated on amusements), but also by a creeping indifference to the dying, the poor, the uneducated, the spiritually dead people around the world.

When I think back to the "olden days," I think that an entirely different mindst was in place. People worked hard and took satisfaction in a job well-done. Entertainment options were limited, at best, and often consisted of a family sitting together at night reading aloud or playing music together. Yes, the work was back-breaking and time-consuming. But the family worked together and it wasn't an option. Survival often relied upon it.

Now obviously we can't go back in time. But I can try to adopt a similar mindset of work before play. I can take pride in my work and in accomplishing my goals. In order to try to escape from the mindless drivel that often occupies much of my day I want to establish a habit of making my list of goals for the day (including exercise and time with God, as well as homemaking responsibilities and enrichment activities - reading, etc.). My goals is to refrain from using both the television and computer until after I've completed those tasks.

I want to keep my mind, body and soul engaged with what I'm doing. I want to focus on the things that matter to me.

The hours and minutes I waste can never be regained.