The subtle slide into laziness and a free pattern...

November has been a real challenge with migraines most days due to our weather. The cloud cover is almost constant, but though just a few kilometres up the road rain has fallen on nearby suburbs, or further north, the clouds refuse to drop the water from heaven on our area. 

Barometric migraines are the worst ones for me because I cannot control them by eliminating the food, light or weariness triggers of my other migraines. That blanket of cloud feels like a vice I am trapped in, and the only relief is when they burst forth with rain - and when that happens the pain just disappears in minutes. So we are praying for rain even more than usual. This time of year in our tropics is the wet season, but so far it's started around us but not on us. Never mind, all challenges teach us something, and this recent challenge has taught me to examine how easily a bad habit can be formed during these longer than usual seasons of migraine. What is that habit you ask? Laziness.

After seven babies (with migraine through all of them) my pain tolerance is quite high, so I am still able to function at a slower, quieter pace around the home when the pain is severe. During this current bout of migraine I began crochet edging, firstly on runners for the home, and then on to new tea towels for Christmas gifts and to restock my own supply in the New Year as is my custom. 

It is such a calming, simple pastime, and as I crocheted I would listen to sermons, watch episodes of The Waltons, or historical documentaries on YouTube. I did still need to water the gardens but resorted to the sprinkler most afternoons as being outside just made my head worse. I still did the washing, prepared meals (especially a very healthy breakfast for my husband and I) and did a general tidy...but the regular afternoon rest time I've always adhered to became longer and longer. On days when I was free of pain you'd think that I would get in and do a jolly good scrub around the home, but I found myself having fallen into the distraction of spending long hours at crochet each afternoon just as on the days of pain, until it was time to begin our evening meal and fold the washing.

Well, that new 'habit' continued for about twelve days, and then I listened to a young mother of six in her mid-30's, and she spoke straight out of God's Word and into my heart. Older ladies, never turn your ears from listening to younger homemakers, for often they will point out things we may have missed or have 'slipped' away from. 

Obviously I'm not proud of my subtle slide into laziness, but I felt impressed to share it with you because so often, especially in times of illness or prolonged pain, we can slide into routines and habits that are not productive in the long term. On my really bad days I shall still sit quietly, but on the not so bad ones and the days when I am pain free, it's back to living my wonderfully gentle domestic life, embracing all the Lord has put before me, for they are great blessings!

Once I had woken up to the subtleness of my slide into long lazy afternoons, I wrote down a list of things which needed to be done around home, and depending on how I felt each day, I completed those tasks over the course of this past week. The linen cupboard was a dreadful mess. It's not on my list of important tasks, but on the seasonal list - and being that we are about to welcome summer in a few days, this big seasonal task had to be tackled. I thoroughly enjoyed bringing everything out in to the living room and going through it! I was able to donate about one quarter of what was in there, mostly items kept for the grandchildren, but which they no longer use or had grown out of. We do not have much storage in our modest home so their spare clothes, toys and games are kept there, you see. Plus there were old ratty towels and similar items which my husband can use for rags in his workshop out back. 

Grain was milled, fresh flour baked into delicious bread. Before and after...

Nutritious evening meals, like this yummy lentil curry with brown rice, were made...

Treats were baked for the grandchildren...

...and both fridges were given a thorough clean out. I also rearranged the living/dining area and scrubbed everything there as well. 

Fresh roses picked from the garden are popped here and there in vases around the house and add the most delightful scent. 

On my list of tasks to accomplish, I included fun things too, like putting aside some of the crochet and getting back to work on Blossom's 30th birthday quilt (she will be 30 next May). Now that I've returned to my hour of handwork after lunch each day (a little longer if it's a migraine day), I'm enjoying the making of Dresden fan blocks in her requested 1930's style fabric prints. I need sixteen blocks and have completed seven so far since June, the last two this past week. 

It's very relaxing to make the individual fans in the evening when my husband is home and we're sitting together watching a good sermon, or a documentary. I stitch slow because there's no rush, and because I do most things slowly these days out of choice. Why rush, rush, through the day when it is such a precious gift to be savoured? 

I have spent most of my life powering through the days God gave me, but since about 2015 I have gradually (very gradually) retrained my mind to slow, to notice what's around me, to be fully present in the day as it is given. Jesus told us to focus on today, not to faint over what tomorrow may hold because it may come with troubles, and worrying about the 'what ifs' robs us of His peace today. 

So what I have learned through November is to be watchful of subtle lazy habits which are easy to fall into, especially when pain is dominating my days. Getting up and moving through my normal gentle homemaker rhythms and routines as best I can, with a bit more gusto on really good days, is very important, more that I first imagined, because its the reason I love this gentle domestic life. Within the pain and the long lazy afternoons (there were some lazy morning too, and my floors could attest to that) I began to feel something wasn't right, like a loss of something meaningful, but I was so absorbed in the crochet distraction (even on days when pain wasn't bad) that I was blind to the new problem I had created. Praise God this only lasted a couple of weeks! Imagine if I'd kept going along that path? 

This home my husband and I share is our sanctuary, it is a God-gifted anchor to our life, a place where we are always welcome, always able to relax and unwind from the chaos of the world around us. But a sanctuary must be cultivated, loved, and thoughtfully maintained to reflect the lives of those who dwell within. It is made beautiful when purposefully crafted with generosity, compassion, kindness, hospitality and time - and it is doubly blessed by the precious voices of praise and prayer which fill each room.

As we move closer to year's end, I plan on recommitting my homemaker intentions to the Lord, to seek His will moving forward, and to let go of those habits or pursuits which He sees as a hindrance to the higher calling He has put on my life. That calling? Loving wife, mother, grandmother...devoted homemaker. Praise Him for opening my eyes quickly to that slide down Lazy Lane. May He open my eyes to every path which draws me away from His best in my life. 

FREE pattern...

I love this prayer, and think it's really worthwhile to have it hanging in our homes as a reminder that those daily chores which sometimes seem endless and boring and exhausting, are evidence of great blessings.

Use the link below to download this free pattern. 

DOWNLOAD The Kitchen Prayer pattern

God bless you, keep you safe, fill your heart with hope and joy, and gently direct you along the blessed path He created for your precious and very unique life. 

Till next time, hugs...

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Bubbling over...

Two punnets of strawberries had been waiting patiently in the fridge for a week to be made into jam.

For various reasons I'd not made time to follow through on that plan until Wednesday evening. With a chicken curry simmering away on the stove top, rice steaming and chapati bread being cooked one by one on the piping hot griddle, I thought to myself this would be the perfect time to get that strawberry jam going. 

Oh silly, overconfident me.

I did finely chop the strawberries, did put berries, sugar, lemon and dab of pectin in the saucepan, did bring it to the boil, did lower the gas flame to a simmer...and did walk away forgetting to remove the lid from the saucepan.

Too many things happening at once, and then I was distracted by a text from Blossom which triggered a series of back and forth messages. Oblivious to what was happening on the stove top we discussed the pros and cons of a rental home she and Ross had gone to see that day.

Then the smell of burning sweetness wafted past my nose and a light bulb came on in my head - the jam!! 

Cleaning a gas stove top is not my favourite chore but it's also not a hard one and can be done quickly every day or so. But a gas stove top which now holds a soup of bubbled over strawberry jam is not quite so easily brought back to it's shimmering stainless steel glory. 

Serving dinner, intent on ignoring the jam which was gradually cooling to a sticky red gel under the gas jets, I thought "this is like my life". 

Too many distractions, no clear cut plan most days, too many ideas often put into play at not the right time, and then everything bubbles over and becomes a mess which takes even more of my time to clean up and put back in order. 

I called this the strawberry jam lesson on life.

Fortunately I salvaged the jam which remained in the saucepan, a mere half pot, but jam nonetheless and though it's not as thick as I'd normally make it, it tastes good. Especially when it drips off your toast and you need to catch it on your tongue before it hits your blouse.

Earlier that day a parcel had arrived with my new day planner. I really like the one I began in January and it has truly helped to keep my business and some household things ticking over nicely, at least until the "house hunting in earnest" began and the pneumonia set in. Since then it has barely been opened.

So I ordered another one, but this time it's an 18 month planner which runs through to the end of 2019, and I'm keeping it open on my desk all the time. Regardless of this season of life with it's distractions and all the comings and goings from open houses or private viewings, if I want to avoid a bubbling over mess from too many distractions and hands that are over-full, it is vitally important that I look at each day as having 24 precious hours, and allow those hours to be considerately filled with sleep, homemaking, design work, book work, relationships, God and free time.

I'm a visual learner, hands on, who writes a lot of lists, but my lists would too often be on scraps of paper that got lost or put somewhere I later forgot. Slowly this year I had been training myself not to do that. Slowly I had learned to keep one 'to do' list on the kitchen bench and one in my planner.

But then the house thing, ill health, and a few other family matters which took time and energy.

And then the jam mess.

I was off track again and it was obvious, so unpacking the new planner I set it out on my desk, replaced the to-do list on my kitchen bench and bought myself a pot of lavender because lavender never causes stress...

The table on our enclosed verandah is now my permanent space for quiet Bible study, prayer, tea and cake and I've even made sure that time is written in my planner...

A new book is speaking to my heart during afternoon rest time...

...and Honey Murcott mandarins are my simple go-to snack.

Slowing down, pulling back, not over-planning, removing physical and mental clutter, simplifying - this could be a recipe for avoiding the mess of a bubbling over life, I think?

On another note, with great rejoicing and a little push from God, I have closed my 'Jenny of Elefantz' Facebook business page. It was a romping success, but I don't much like the way Facebook is going and the insistent push for business pages to buy advertising or be punished by your posts barely being seen by about ten percent of followers.

Nope, don't need that. Mental clutter gone. Burden gone. Stressful manipulation gone.

I still have the Gentle Domesticity Group on FB but may also make changes with that later in the year to a message board format. For now that's an idea, but it needs a lot of prayer and some time to create. God will guide me if it's the way to go.

How are you going with de-cluttering your life?

What have you let go of recently?

What do you find difficult to let go of?

I'd love to hear from you, to know this bubbling over life isn't just exclusive to me, and also to hear how you've been able to make changes for the better. 

hugs

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