Category Archives: Sacred Mundane

 Today we have the joy of talking beauty over with Caila. You all remember her, our beloved guest poster? Well she’s doing a fabulous REAListic fitness and beauty challenge, helping REAL women embrace REAL beauty. I love her heart and vision for this project, so head on over there with me today and enjoy this little excerpt from Sacred Mundane. And while you’re there, check out her life and sewing adventures. She’s a gal worth following … thanks for reading.

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Every experience of beauty points to eternity.

-Hans Urs von Balthasar

We all want to be beautiful women. We might shun cosmetics and hate high-heels—and that’s fine—but no matter what our dress or sense of style, we all want to be beautiful. We want to be pleasing to God and others. How? … {Read the rest here}

I was so frustrated.

I’d been obeying God, getting up early, trying to finish the book. That was the command and I was trying to follow through. Just one problem. He wasn’t telling me what to write! Everyday I would sit in front of my computer and wait. And wait and wait and wait. On Monday my dad came in to watch the kids. I sat in front of my computer for four hours straight without writing a word. I wanted to scream. I only have so much time to work on this, Lord! Do you understand?

Also please understand, I can’t write by myself. I cannot write anything worthwhile without God’s gracious Spirit. So it wasn’t as if I just needed to “try harder”… I was trying to obey and He wouldn’t tell me what to write! Also understand–for me, writing is like breathing. If I can’t write it feels like i’m choking. I write to think, write to process, write to hear from God.

So finally I tried to just pound out some sentences as best as I could. I didn’t like any of them, but I had to do something, right? I couldn’t just sit there and wait and wait and wait! There are things to do!

So I tried to just keep moving. And while it’s true that I did spend time just sitting and waiting, I began to just do my best trudging forward. I didn’t really like anything I wrote, but eventually at the end of the agonizing two weeks I had 5,000 words, almost an entire chapter completed.

Then Friday came. Jeff had the kids. I sneaked away to write. I got down on my face to pray, ask God for direction. And He gave it:

Delete it.

Excuse me?  Delete what?

The chapter. The whole thing. Delete the whole thing and start over. 

What?!  It has taken me two agonizing weeks to choke out all those words! I have a big speaking engagement around the corner and two more chapters to write, Bible study to do, I don’t have time to start over!!  

Delete it and start over. 

I just laid there. I couldn’t believe it. Although, in a way I knew. This chapter is on Time, and what better way to learn about our sacred mundane use of time than to trust Him with it in this crazy way?

Ok, I’ll start over.

I deleted the old chapter, opened a new document. Would it take another two weeks to complete? Stared at the blank screen. Prayed.

By 4pm it was done. 

The whole chapter. Completely re-written. He gave every single word in one gracious download. I even had time afterwards to make dinner for the Patterson-Seifers and join them as we sod-cut the ground for our family garden!

God holds our times. He is not limited by our time constraints. God can make something out of nothing. And when God says, Delete! we had better obey. He has something better to give us.

Also this week I had a God-ordained meeting with a dear girl in the middle of a struggle. It became clear as we talked that God was giving her a huge Delete! command in her own life. A life-changing Delete command. Would she do it? It was huge, would require major life adjustments. Would she obey?

She did. Haleljujah! 

And later, as she followed through on the delete, God too blessed her with more than before.

His ways are not our ways. We think when we delete something we lose. But when God deletes something, we gain. 

{Is there anything God is asking you to delete today? Trust Him and do it! Thanks for reading.}

• Last mentor meeting. So grateful for these seven beautiful girls and for growing together.
• Old books.
• Like-minded friends.
• Sun-dried tomatoes.
• Plant starts poking up their tiny green heads.
• Breaking ground on the garden.
• Four kids bent low gathering up cut sod.
• Sunshine for just enough hours.
• Good tired.
• Finishing Chapter 9! God’s crazy-amazing faithfulness.
• Deleting.
• Starting over.
• Obeying.
• Candles glowing.
• Making more room at the table…
• His Words that never fail.
• Possibilities.
• Snuggling my girl, oh she is too sweet for words.
• Gathering them up. Time slow down!!
• Family snuggle.
• Dutch & Hannah running through the fields.
• Getting dirty.
• Nearly 70 people at Dad’s 70th birthday party! Wow! An amazing night, so grateful, so blessed.
• Smiles, hugs, laughter.
• Kids’ frosting faces.
• Looking forward.
• Full days, glad for them!
• God’s divine timing.
• A sister’s willingness to change.
• Not giving up.
• Clean.
• When things have a place.
• 25 lb.s of carrots.
• Juicer.
• Spicer Brothers.
• Raw honey.
• Apples, apples, and more apples.
• God’s abundance!
• WCC.
• Amazing Easter. Best ever. Come Lord Jesus!
• Overhearing Dutch preach to Heidi: “Heidi, when we are weak he is strong because He is God, the Rescuer. He teaches you how to live. You have to like Him! If you become a bad person, you will die. But you can go to heavenand be with Jesus forever! But Jesus is right here with us all the time, even though you can’t see him. He’s everywhere at the same time. Isn’t that amazing? He’s invisible so you can’t run into Him. See! (As he runs around the room) No matter where I go He’s still with me.” Amen, Dutch
• My children’s prayers. Oh Lord, capture their hearts!

Have a blessed weekend. Thanks for reading.

I was a freshman in college when I first discovered garbage service and garbage disposals. I stood, mouth open in wonder, as the truck pulled up, dumped the bin, and drove away. They do that every week? I asked, amazed. I was even more amazed when I watched someone stick food scraps down the sink (Isn’t that going to clog?!!) then click a light-switch and watch as the sink roared to life, grinding and growling and gobbling up that garbage.

Yes, I’ll admit: I grew up in the sticks. We never had garbage service or a garbage disposal. How? you ask.

Well, we separated our trash just like the city folk, except we didn’t have tin/glass/plastic, ours was morel ike: Burnable,  Non-burnable, and Slop bucket.

The burnable stuff, we burned. The non-burnable stuff … well, you know, I’m not sure what we did with it. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to know. But the slop-bucket, well that’s where you put all your food scraps, then you toss it all out into a pile of dirt to work into the ground and enrich your garden soil. There wasn’t a name for it, it’s just called dumping-the-slop-bucket.

But that sounds terribly hick-like, so now it’s called Composting and it’s wildly popular. (And I’m glad.)

So yes, we compost. 

It’s easy now on our little 2.5 acre faux-farm, but even on our old postage-stamp lot we enjoyed composting as well.  In fact, there we had the perfect set-up: Jeff built the composting bin right outside the kitchen window. I removed the screen. “Composting” involved opening the window and throwing food down the side of the house. LOVED THAT. I did that here but our kitchen window is not-quite-new and started breaking off the hinges. So now we have a little slop bucket and it’s our 5-year-old’s job to take it out to the compost bin each morning. LOVE THAT.

So, all this talk: Why compost? Obviously the main purpose is to get rich soil and better growing veggies. But honestly? Even if you don’t garden I still think composting is just a great way to get rid of garbage! You’ll end up with rich, dark, soil you can use for potted plants, flowerbeds, or a really awesome White Elephant gift next Christmas.

::How to make a compost bin::

We’ve done both of these kinds. Both have pros depending upon your digs and what you have on hand. Both are easy to make and inexpensive. (We never spent a dime on either one.)

1. Garbage-Can Bin (better for neighborhoods)

2. Wooden-Pallet Bin (great in the country)

If you’re gung ho and would like more information, I asked my friend Candi (From Candi’s 35 ways to save), who is my resident gardening-homesteading expert, to share her two cents on the subject. Happy Friday and thanks for reading, now go play in the dirt!

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::Composting with Candi::

Why compost?

The reason I compost is because I’ll do anything to be more frugal, organic, and more self sustainable. Composting saves on my garbage bill because I’m not throwing away hardly any yard debris (unless you have a weed patch), and I’m throwing a whole lot less food scraps in the trash. Composting saves me money when I garden because I use compost rather than buying, fertilizer or plant food and I don’t have to worry about my kids eating the ferilizer in the lawn. All the while I am relying less on the fuel burning, monthly bill of the trash man and I’m giving less money to all those crazy garden products, thus more self sustainable.

What makes up good compost?

You need a bit of everything, yard debris, food scraps, and “bedding.” Yard debris can be anything from your yard. You have to be weary of weeds or pesky plants you don’t want coming back. We had some crazy elm I didn’t want coming back in our last yard that I never put in the compost pile. Grass clippings, as long as they’re chemical free. Fallen leaves are awesome! Things that are hardier like sticks, twigs, and limbs will compost slower, but can still be used. Great yard debris ingredients is your garden when it stops producing fruit, just use all those dying plants as compost. We have had many volunteer plants grow out of the previous year’s compost. Such as a random tomato plant in the zucchini patch or a cucumber plant that comes up amongst the beets. Food scraps are the part of your compost that is really packed with nutrients. All fruit and vegetable scraps are great as well as egg shells (although, I’ve found egg shells compost slower). I’ve always been told to steer clear of animal products and oily things like cheeses etc. These items especially meat are more potent for pests such as raccoons to sniff out and wind up rummaging through your pile also animal products (like bones) tend to decompose much slower. I have heard good things about using chicken manure, but just as a rule would steer clear of all other types of manure as they can carry nasty diseases (ie. Ecoli). “Bedding” is primarily a term used in worm composting, but this is how I started and so I have grown a custom to adding some of it to my compost. Shredded newspapers and brown paper bags are best. I like what this does to control the moisture levels in your compost. I find that if your compost stays a bit moist (like a squeezed out sponge) it decomposes faster.

How long does it take to be usable soil?

Without worms compost can turn and be ready for use in my own experience once every six months to a year depending on your climate. Compost turns faster and is ready for use in warmer climates so long as it is kept moist. With the help of vermicompost worms or “red wrigglers” your compost can turn in half the time! We tried worm composting in a 32 gallon tub for a year. This was fun and especially interesting to watch those crazy worms multiply! We started with 50ish worms and in a year had well over 1,000! The gross part about this method was to get your ready compost out you had to sort through your old trash and worms. It was at this time that we were given a state of the art 3 level worm composter where the worms are supposed to eat the food on the bottom layer and work their way to the top so that once a month or so you would have an entire layer of worm free composted matter on the bottom of your composter. It didn’t work that way. This was great for separating done compost from not done compost, but we still had to sort out the worms. Just so you understand why this is so gross. Vermicompost is made when the worms eat your kitchen scraps and then poop it out. You are literally sorting through worm poop! To be honest sorting through worm poop didn’t really gross me out, I’m just lazy and grew tired of sorting out the worms. It can be a tedious task!

All this to say I find myself as a lazy composter. I still save just as much money, I think. My ideal vision of composting is to start a compost pile when you start your garden in spring, add to it and turn it all year round, and then each spring rototiller it into to your garden soil.

What do you use as a compost-container?

There a lot of fancy compost systems and containers that can cost you a lot of money. I prefer a large pile at the back of my property. We had a lot that was just 6000 sf (small sized city lot) and kept our compost in the back corner of our yard with no problems of smell or animals. The reason I have gone away from a fancy composter (after my fancy worm composter) is because I find we can produce a lot more compost materials than one of those expensive containers can hold. I also like to have a large garden (400 sq ft) and find one of these products, full doesn’t do a ton for my garden. One accompaniment to my large pile has been a kitchen bucket with a lid (the lid is necessary to avoid fruit flies) that I can add to daily. That way I only have to trek out to the far corner of the yard once a week or so. Even better is your kitchen window idea, where you can just pitch the compost straight outside!

All in all composting exists on many levels. From using worms to compost and using science to check the PH levels of your soil, or just pitching your scraps and yard debris in as I do. Or on an even smaller scale if you use a bag less lawnmower all those lawn clippings left out on the grass sink back down into the soil putting nutrients back into the soil; you’re composting too!

• Hilarious kids.
• Blessed breakthrough day after feeling a few blah weeks.
• Prayer.
• Amazing sisters.
• The treat of a Starbucks coffee.
• My man up with me early.
• Quiet time under a quilt.
• Clean house.
• De-cluttering.
• Heidi graduating from her little potty to the big potty. Big girl!
• Our Thursday night dance party.
• Heidi doing “‘nastics class”: somersaults and twirls, she’s quite the dancer!
• Dreaming of summer.
• Envisioning the garden.
• Laundry room filled with starts.
• Sunday night with Seifers, around the table, kids asleep.
• All the lovely photos Lacey took! So grateful!
• Last week’s buds are this week’s blossoms!
• Community Group.
• An unexpected night at home.
• Legos.
• Molly, my little Mommy’s Helper. What a gift!
• Tinkerbell.
• Dress-up clothes.
• Clean sheets.
• Heavy comforter and quilt.
• Rattling windows in the storm, so grateful for warm, dry shelter!
• Mouse-traps.
• Perfectly timed provision.
• Others’ amazing generosity.
• Reaching the $1,000 goal for a Jesus Well! Thank you to all who contributed, supported, and prayed for this!
• Family day.
• Homemade bread.
• Roasted yams and beets.
• Making Brita’s yam, bacon and egg hash. Whoa yummy!
• Water to drink.
• The cabin, to write.
• Chapter 8 finished!
• Seven little girls … and Dutch. 
• The precious 3-year-old girl who may become Mrs. Patterson some day. 🙂
• Resting in Him.
• Trusting Him.
• Looking ahead to Passion Week.
• Preparing our hearts.
• Looking to Him.
• Wanting to love Him more, myself less.
• A Saturday at home.

I looked at the clock this morning. Shoot, I overslept. Way overslept. Overslept by 1 1/2 hours. Oh well, better late than never, I slid off the bed.

It was 5:30am. It’s still funny that that’s oversleeping for me these days.

I can’t say that I love getting up at 4am. But I love having gotten up at 4am.  And just like the obeying/modifying issue with Heidi, for now I believe these early mornings are an issue of obedience for me. Some days, obviously, I hopelessly oversleep. But you know what I love about the ridiculously-early morning routine? Way oversleeping still gives me a 5:30am jump on my day!

So, I admit: I’m becoming a crazy early-morning advocate. Now, “early” means different things to different people. Aaron & Candi, who live downstairs part-time, have different work-schedules so he doesn’t get home until nearly midnight each night. “Early” for him is going to be much different from “early” for me–a stay-at-home-mom who has the freedom to hit the hay by 9pm.

So for this “bite” here’s what I mean by “early”:

A time which enables you to be up and complete your morning routine before you “start” your day.  That might mean before your children arise, or before your husband leaves for work, or before 8am breakfast-time. Basically whenever that “start” time is for your family, work your way back to find the good time that will allow plenty of space for you to fill your cup each morning.

Now, I say allow plenty because things never go as planned. Kids wake up early, unexpected emails flood in, you oversleep by a bit. Give yourself some buffer in the morning so that even if a few things go “wrong” you’ve still given yourself plenty of time.

Now the real question: How? 

Two answers: Tsh Oxenreider suggests kaizen, basically the Japanese word for baby-steps. If you want to wake up one hour earlier, you simply set your alarm 2 minutes earlier, every day for a month, after a month you’re up an hour earlier and haven’t noticed at all. This is a great plan, and you can translate it to many different areas. I’m using it in other areas of my life as well.

Second, which sounds silly or obvious, perhaps, is pray. God cares about every single detail of your life (sacred mundane!), so ask Him what time He wants you to rise each day. Wait and listen for Him. Ask Him for specifics. He can speak! And then, when He shows you,confidently ask Him to enable you to get up at that time.  He won’t ask you to do anything which He will not enable you to do. Of course you won’t do it perfectly, but continue, persevere, ask Him for grace.

I must say that since starting this early-morning routine things have been SO much easier. Way more time in the Word, way more time for prayer, more time for exercise, house kept cleaner, to-do list kept shorter. I feel like I’m ready for the kids when they get up.

So what will this look like for you? Whatever time you decide and whatever method you choose, seek God and ask Him for His power each morning. As we devote the first moments of our day to Him we begin to see His presence more and more throughout our day. Since every day belongs to Him, let’s ask Him what time He wants us to begin each one.

Thanks for reading.

I was first introduced to reader Sharon via her “faithsgramma” email. I asked her to share what it’s like to embrace the Sacred Mundane as a grandparent. Enjoy her words today on being a godly “grand.”

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The day I became a grandmother my heart was a mixture of deep prayer and joy along with love on a level I never thought possible.

The call came telling me our daughter was in premature labor 7 weeks early, that life or death issues determined the baby needed to be born too soon for the safety of both of them. It was scary and gut-wrenching.

All I could do was pray.

Faith Elizabeth arrived weighing 2 pounds 11 ounces. She was a precious beautiful miracle baby. I remember standing over her neonatal bed thinking to myself, this is a sacred, holy moment.

On this day a grandma, a mom and a new baby, three generations huddle close to each other celebrating life and every breath. 

{… he commanded our fathers so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commandments.} Psalm 78:6, 7

 As I watched that tiny little baby sleep surrounded by IV tubes and buzzers I determined in my mind this grandma would share with her ways of God and the words of his truth any opportunity I could.

[These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.] Deut 6: 6, 7

Because she was a strong, healthy little baby Faith was released to go home early weighing only 3 lbs. 9 oz at 4 weeks. When our daughter had to return to work I made the choice to quit my job and stay home with Faith so she could get a good start in a protected environment.

Life as a stay at home grandma is not too different than a stay at home mom.

At times it was a bit boring, doing laundry and washing bottles, the day-to-day things that surround the care of a little baby.

It was in those moments I would continue to believe in this sacred duty. Every time I picked that tiny bundle up and held her close to me I was making memories and creating a safe place that only a grandma could do. It didn’t matter if fatigue was near or frustration walking close, what mattered was the attitude of my heart to be the spiritual grandma who told stories of Jesus and the faithfulness of our God who kept her tiny heartbeat strong.

I stayed home with her till she was age three and as time passed she has grown into a beautiful 12 year old. We have five other grandchildren now, and at times watching them is not always easy or exciting but the calling on my heart is to be a grandma who shares the love of God to each and every one of them.

I want them to know without a shadow of a doubt God is near and he loves them. I am honored to be their grandma, and pray they will love and serve God faithfully.

I am a grandmother embracing the Sacred Mundane.

{Thanks for reading.} 

Running the Shufflin’ for Shawna 10K race today with my sweet husband.

Kids running the 1K kids’ run. Hilarious.

Both kids got too tired so Jeff carried them both on his back, then put them down and let them race through the finish line.

They were so proud of racing!! Hysterical.

What an amazing day.

Truly one of the most perfect family days we’ve ever had. Sunny beautiful running weather, tons of old friends from our Corvallis days, laughter, fun, sweet Shawna.

What a day!!  Feel so full, and SO tired. Off to bed.

Thanks to those of you who pray for Shawna and prayed for me today!

Love you … Happy weekend!