Wrapping Up the Year and I Can't Even!

 

Logged into my blog to make sure I'm ready to start blogging in the new year. Found many random images from my posts suddenly missing (showing as broken images in the edit mode) from the posts themselves, the blog view, and from the archive. Uggggggh this is so frustrating! Looked up a bunch of helps that didn't work, and the screen shot feature is not working in Blogger help. So, I have no idea what to do. For now, I think I'm just going to say oh, well, even though it was a lot of time and effort transferring them over here from my now deleted other blog. I may just leave them and continue on "fresh," or maybe in my slow clean-up I will find and add new images or the few archived images that appear to be left. I have some on my laptop, but most of them are on the old one that is no longer in service. Anyway. For me, this is just the cherry on top to 2021.

There, I've had my vent and I will now let it go. (I think.) Going into 2022 doesn't feel like a clean slate, just like going into 2021. But, I still like to try. So I will (hopefully) relax this evening, have a fun day tomorrow, and get back to it on Monday while trying to conjure a fresh start. OK, maybe not so much conjuring, but I have a feeling this next year is going to need a lot of prayer from the Lord's saints.

Besides being in the Word every day, my first mini-goal for 2022 will be getting back to menu planning. 2 weeks at a time, and maybe I'll work my way up to a month. I would love to see any goals you have in the comments!

Have a fun, safe night everyone! Happy New Year!

Cleaning Up the Blog

Now that I have all my posts here in one place, it's time to putter around the blog and clean up! Not going to stress about this. I'm just starting at the beginning and "polish up" my older posts, fixing broken emojis, and labeling everything. That way, everything looks nicer and the label section in the sidebar will be a little easier to navigate. Plus, it's a wonderful trip down memory lane! I started blogging in December 2005 WAY back on a site that was called Homeschool Blogger. Eventually, I went to Xanga, then a free Wordpress blog, then here. Then, 3 years ago for my birthday, Hubby bought me a hosting service and domain name because there was a great deal I had found. At that time, it was hard to find a free site where there wasn't a limit on pictures and media, and so that was the trouble I was running into and was willing to open up a site I had to pay for. Now, the 3 years is up and the deal? Not so great anymore. Couldn't justify it. Thankfully, this site has improved so that I've been able to transfer all my posts, pictures, media, and all, and it's no problem! Sure, the format is more simple and not as "pretty," but I'm more than okay with that now that I've experienced the other side of it. I like simple.

Anyway, all the different blogs I've had over the years are all here, and that makes me happy! It's fun to go back and not only relive those memories, but also to see how my writing and blogging style has evolved over the years. And I'm excited to write more now that the process is simplified once again.

In the meantime, there's plenty of content to explore if you feel like looking around a bit. I know I will be. 😉 Thanks for reading, and I hope you all are having a healthy, wonderful weekend!

Feeling Lighter

 

Hello and welcome to MamaWit Haven! If you are here from my old blog, it is so good to see you again! If you are new, welcome! Either way, if you like the content I would love for you to follow me. Just scroll down the sidebar a bit and hit the Follow button.

I know it may seem insignificant to some, but I am feeling a lot lighter now that I have all my posts from the other blog transferred here. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, with the different block formats, and making sure all the links to posts within the blog were re-linked correctly. It was a lot of work that I had put into many of those posts, and I didn't want to lose them! I was worried I wasn't going to have time to get them all before I lost access, but I have finally made it with a little over a week to spare! I am celebrating with an extra cup of coffee.

With the other blog, I think it's a tad obvious, I got burnt out big time. I started feeling too obligated to keep it up, and that's never good. I had started out just wanting it to be what it was...a way to share my life a little bit with anyone who could be inspired by what I wrote. I love writing. I also love Jesus, homemaking, homeschooling, being a wife and a mother. So why not tie it all together in a little corner of my own? Then I suddenly found myself in a few groups with collabs and deadlines. Now don't get me wrong! There is nothing wrong with those groups, and I really got to love some of the ladies I came to know through them. Those groups are really good for those who have a focus on where they want their site to go and want it to grow. And I got caught up in that for awhile. But, that wasn't really the intended purpose of my blog. I just wanted to write from the heart how and when I felt like it. To share my thoughts and share the little bit that I know. And definitely have fun doing it. Now that I'm back to a more "basic" blog, all those things are exactly what I intend to get back to.

So, yes, I am SO HAPPY that I have that final obligation behind me. And I can't wait to get back to blogging MY WAY. But, for this week, I am going to enjoy my family and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I pray you are all well and doing the same. Merry Christmas!

Welcome Back!

Hey, everyone!

Just wanted to put out a quick new post for anyone new or coming over from my MamaWit Haven blog that will be closing next month. I will be blogging once again over here on blogger.

I do have a lot of updating and cleaning up to do here, so bear with me. I just back-published my first post from MamaWit Haven to this blog, and it looks like it was a success! It's going to take some work, but I hope to be able to get everything from MamaWit over here before it closes.

See you soon!

Lisa

A Fresh New Year?

 

It's the first Monday of a new year! I'm not sure about anyone else, but to me, this does NOT feel like the usual clean slate. Not after last year. In some ways, it seems there will be more of the same. But, while I am paying attention to what's going on "out there," I'm not going to talk about that here. As much as I don't really feel that "clean slate" feeling right now, I am determined to MAKE one. For myself, my home, and my family. What I want to do this year, more than ever before, is to focus on GOD, family, and home.

:: I Need My Eyes On Jesus! ::

In times such as these, it is so easy to get swept up in the goings-on of the world and get overwhelmed. VERY overwhelmed. So much fear, worry, and panic is absolutely vying for our attention. Demanding our focus. I spent a good chunk of time last year entertaining them. NO MORE! The only thing I want to be overwhelmed by is the peace that passes all understanding (Phillipians 4:7) and the liberty of Christ (Galatians 5:1). Keeping my focus on Jesus is my number one priority. Spending time with God, studying His Word, spending time in prayer, praise, and worship.

With my relationship with Christ as my foundation, I can then make myself (as a wife and mother) and my home a refuge and a haven for my family. Which brings me to my number two priority...being intentional about pointing my family to Jesus in every circumstance. Being a Christian homeschooling family, yes, of course we are learning about Jesus, reading our Bibles, and praying. But there's definitely room for improvement. Not only in doing those things, but also in connecting them to every-day, moment-by-moment life. I'm asking God to remind me when all those little opportunities arise.

:: Prioritizing Family and Home ::

One thing that hasn't changed for me with the New Year is feeling the need to refocus on taking care of my family and home. Not that I ever really lost focus of that, per se. Things just need some readjustment. As with everyone, the chaos of last year stomped its way in and made us lose focus at times. Some things were shoved out of the way. It's time to pick up the pieces, bring back those things we want to keep, toss what we realized we really didn't need, add some new things we've learned, and gird ourselves against those things the enemy uses to destroy.

With those "pieces," I mean both spiritual AND physical. As we learn to keep our eyes on Jesus, I am confident He will purge us of those things unneeded in our life and spirit. At the same time, I want to also go through and purge our home of those things that are not edifying or useful.

:: Learning From 2020 ::

As bad as 2020 was, I can definitely say my family has learned some useful things! I'm not going to go into specifics in this post, as I really don't want my first post of the year to be a novel. Suffice it to say that 2020 has really cleared up some fog, and has shown us what is truly important to our family and what was a waste of time and energy other things were. And I hope to take those lessons into 2021.

For Such a Time as This

 

Hi all! It's been awhile. I am realizing that, even in the midst of the chaos that is our world right now, making our homes a haven is more important than ever! And that waiting for things to "settle down" in life is just not an option. Once the holidays are past, I plan on blogging regularly once again.

For now, I will leave you with this short, sweet, and to-the-point Bible verse that's been weighing on me lately, and is for ALL of us living during this weird time in history:

"For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" ~Esther 4:14

He is Risen!

 

Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.  But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.  Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,  saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’”

 And they remembered His words.  Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.  It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.  And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.  But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.
~Luke 24:1-12

Hallelujah!!! Christ is risen indeed!!!

No matter what is going on in this world, no one will be able to take away the fact that our Lord and Savior, King Jesus, has risen from the dead! The Living God is on His throne. Amen!!! 🙌

I hope this post finds you in good health and rejoicing spirit! Have a blessed Easter, everyone!

When Life Ain't Perfect

 

Hello and welcome! I realize I have been on a long blogging hiatus. After a lot of busyness on the home front, I struggled for quite awhile with my old friend Perfectionism. I could say I had writer's block. But really, I didn't feel like I had that perfect thing to share with anyone. Then I had hiccups with my camera, so I couldn't, you know, take that perfect picture if I ever did come up with a post. But I've missed writing and interacting with you all, and have been feeling a stronger and stronger tug on my heart to just. start. up. again. already! So, here I am! If you are new here, welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here at my little corner of the internet. If you do, please consider hitting the Follow button over on the sidebar. If you are a returning visitor, welcome back! And thank you for your patience with me. 😉

A world of chaos?

I also realize I've returned to blogging in the middle of a world-wide pandemic. I pray you are all doing well! Please let me know if you have any prayer requests in the comments below. I would be happy to pray for you, and I would love it if we could all pray for each other!

There have been quite a few changes around my home. My oldest has temporarily moved back in until things have leveled off. My Hubby is an essential employee at both his full-time and part-time jobs, one being a first responder. That in itself presents a whole new level of precautions and prayers in our home. Especially since I myself am in what is considered the "high risk" category, being diabetic and having an autoimmune disease.

It has not been easy, but I have found a few ways to find peace in the midst of all of this chaos.

How I make my home a haven for my family in the midst of a troubled time

• Prioritize your focus! I'm not gonna lie. Last month, I started losing my focus on Jesus. There was so much going on, so much information (and disinformation) coming in, so many things to do, adjustments to make. I started losing sight of the One that was needed more than anything else. While I was keeping up on my Bible schedule, I came to realize that that's pretty much all I was doing. Keeping up. Checking it off the list. So I could move on to the next thing. I became weary, exhausted, both in body and spirit. When I realized (finally!) what was happening, I asked the Lord to help me bring back my focus to where it needs to be. I now wake up in the morning excited again to spend time with my Father. And I am definitely feeling His peace again.
  
• Love on and care for my Hubby. His already hefty jobs just got heftier. Plus, with my being high risk, he has taken on the task of going out to get things when we need them. I always try and make sure I'm taking care of our home and family in a way that will lighten his load, while making sure I still have more than enough energy for him when he finally walks in the door at night. Now, I'm trying to be even more diligent. I'm definitely not perfect, but I'm keeping GRACE in my mind and on my heart.
  
• Routines! Oh, these are so, so important right now! I think it was a little before Christmas or Thanksgiving of last year that I jumped back in hard core to the Flylady method. And I am still going! Not 100% perfect at being consistent, but most of my morning and evening routines are automatic by now. Which is great, because it brings a sense of stability to our home life. Even though we are in a time where we can't have guests into our home, I still try to keep things "guest ready." Except now, I say that it's "family ready!" With my routines on autopilot, I do it without even thinking about it.

Make your haven a place to relax!

With the exception of not being able to go places, not much has changed in our homeschool. I do relax on it at times right now, however. Some days, we all have the energy to speed along. Other days, it's more like we have to chip away at it. And some days, we just plain need a brain break. I really think God is using this time to show me that our homeschool doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing thing. There's a flow that is unique to each family, and it is GOOD to go with it!

Besides school, it seems like everyone in my family is really learning more to enjoy each other's company. And at the same time, respect each other's space when it's needed. I really believe these times are also making us more thankful for so many things we have previously taken for granted.

How are YOU doing?

I would love to hear below some good things happening in your life, in general, or maybe specifically because of having to shelter in place. I also welcome prayer requests and I would love us all to be praying for each other!

Thank you, friends, for stopping by and reading! I hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend!

Back to Basics After a Season of Chaos

 

Hello everyone! Yep, it's been awhile. We had so many things going on the last few months that something had to get pushed aside. A few somethings. Blogging was one of them. Illness, including a couple of big scares that ended up turning out alright; a wedding in which both myself and my Hubby were participants; a new school year with new curriculum; and my first birdie getting ready to fly the nest. It's been a whirlwind, definitely super stressful at times. And I am SO READY for routine. For calm.

That being said, the next month or so will be all about pulling back and getting back to the basics. My oldest will be moving out at the end of this week, so we still have some not normal stuff left. But in order to keep the transition as smooth as possible on both ends, I'm trying to get back into a modified routine this week.

::God::

First order of business. I need to get back into regular, daily Bible study. I have been slacking on this lately, and I gotta say, I can feel it both mentally and physically. This needs to happen in the morning right when I get up. The two that I'm homeschooling will also wake up before chores and breakfast and separately do their own Bible study. My 13-year-old son has an independent study he's doing for school, and my 10-year-old will just read out of his own Bible while myself and his brother are doing ours. He does enjoy journaling while he reads, so he will have those supplies on hand.

::Sleep::

On top of everything else going on, Hubby has had some weird work schedules lately and both my and his sleep have been sorely lacking the last couple of months. I've been relying entirely too much on coffee during the daytime hours to keep me spinning and it is catching up! Getting back into the habit of having a decent bedtime is going to be essential now.

::Food::

Confession time. I have not been eating the best at all lately. In the beginning of all the busyness, I made sure to prep. Toward the end, I started slacking. I have not fallen off the Trim Healthy Mama wagon altogether, but there's been quite a bit of off-plan food slipping through the proverbial cracks around here. It hasn't gotten to the point where the scale or my clothes have been affected. But again, it's catching up with me and I am REALLY feeling it. Between this and my sleep situation, my energy is running on fumes.

So, I'm bringing back the mentality I started a little over a year ago when I was first diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Eating off plan is simply not an option. As I type, I have my Instant Pot and Crock Pot going, getting on-plan food prepped for the week. I have finished restocking my pantry with THM-friendly foods, and am currently working on my freezer.

::Movement::

This goes right along with the food. My workouts have pretty much stopped these last couple of months. This is another factor in my waning energy and mood swings, feeling bloated, and rising blood pressure. I want that feeling back that I am getting strong! Since the weather is getting colder, I have my stack of preferred DVD workouts. To keep it from getting boring, I'm changing it up every day. On the nice days we still have left, my workout will be bike riding with my boys.

::Basic Daily Routines::

A couple of weeks ago, I had this notion that I was going to do a massive Fall cleaning and decluttering. Well, that fizzled out pretty quickly, as most would understand with everything else. Now? Nope. Taking it way back to basics and just having Flylady tell me what to do! It's so much more simpler than when I try my own perfectionist methods. And ironically, it gets more done!

::Homeschool::

Our homeschool over this busy season certainly hasn't gotten shoved aside completely, but out of necessity it had to be moved down on the priority list a few notches. Starting last week, it got moved back up to one of the top priorities in our home. And we are on an awesome track! It helps that we all absolutely adore our new curriculum. Stay tuned for posts about that in the coming months!

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Hmm, seems like a lot doesn't it? These were all in place before the whirlwind, so believe me it is SO NICE to get back to it! Obviously, I am slowly getting back to blogging as well! I also enjoy YouTube, both making my own and watching the videos of others. I haven't done either one lately. I definitely want to get back to watching and supporting my friends! And I'm sure I'll eventually get back to making videos, but that can't be my priority quite yet.

Thank you all for reading! It's nice to be back. If you would, I would so appreciate your prayers for this mama heart and my family as we navigate this time of transition in our lives.

Have a great week!

Digging Into the Word: Proverbs 3:9-10

 

It's Sunday! I hope you're all having a blessed August so far! Once again, it's time to take a look at the next few verses in Proverbs. If you're new here, this is my Proverbs study. I'm slowly working through the book of Proverbs. I share a few verses at a time, as well as my thoughts. If you're interested in checking out past Proverbs studies, see their links at the end of this post. Let's dig in, shall we?

Honor the Lord with your possessions,

And with the firstfruits of all your increase;

So your barns will be filled with plenty,

And your vats will overflow with new wine.

~Proverbs 3:9-10

How Do We Handle Possessions?

Everything we own should be used to honor the Lord. After all, everything we own is actually His, is it not? Psalm 24:1, as well as many other verses, tells us this. I could go into a whole separate blog post about decluttering those things that aren't being used for anything honorable. But I won't. I think you see where I'm going with this one.

Also, give to God first of your increase. This means not giving Him what you may have left, after using what you "need" first. Give to God first, and then trust that He will provide for all of your needs. This can be very hard for some people to do. And I get it. My family has seen some pretty tough financial times. Many, many others have seen far worse. So I can't speak for everyone, and no one can speak for me. Ah, but see what happens when we look at others instead of Jesus? What does God say? Just look at the above 2 verses! If we honor Him and trust Him with all we have, "our barns will be filled with plenty, and our vats will overflow with new wine." To me, that says that not only will God provide all of our needs, we will have an abundance! Perhaps this includes not only needs, but some of our desires also.

Getting Practical

How can we apply this to our lives? I always say, first you need to pray! Look at verse 9. Is there anything you own that is dishonoring to God? Is there any way that you can use it to honor Him instead? If not, it likely needs to go! How can you honor God with the "firstfruits of your increase?" Again, pray! It is between you and God what you give and who you give it to, in order to serve Him.

Finally, how can we trust God to provide for our needs? I think you know what I'm going to say. If you first need to pray for God to increase your faith and trust in Him, do that. He honors the honest prayers of those truly seeking Him.

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I apologize if it seems like I'm being a bit vague here. I don't really feel like I can give you a specific to-do list for this topic! Since I depend on prayer and communicating with God through His Word, I want to encourage you to do the same! Pray, read God's Word, and pray for answers.

I would love for you to add to the discussion, though, and share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks for reading everyone, and I hope you all have a blessed week!

1-Proverbs 1:1-7
2-Proverbs 1:8-9
3-Proverbs 1:10-19
4-Proverbs 1:20-27
5-Proverbs 1:28-33
6-Proverbs 2:1-9
7-Proverbs 2:10-22
8- Proverbs 3:1-2
9-Proverbs 3:3-4
10-Proverbs 3:5-6
11-Proverbs 3:7-8