What Women Can Learn From Men

Doug and I woke up one morning and had a small disagreement before he went to work.  After he left, I spent the next hour FeeLiNg horrible in my responses to our conversation.  I felt insensitive and unsupportive.  No matter what I did to distract my thoughts I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened and how gUiLty I felt.

Source

So…I sent him a text that SAID:  “Honey I am SO sorry about this morning.  I will try harder. Please forgive me.”

In the text back, HE SAID:  “Oh, what are you upset about?  Whatever happened, I already forgot about it.  Have a good day!”

Men.  Aren’t they amazing how quickly they “move on” after a fight and don’t consume their entire day analyzing arguments?  I have found that if I apologize quickly or improve my mood when conversations start off on the wrong foot, he is already way ahead of me!

I challenge you to try this!  When you get in an argument, be the “MAN” in the relationship.  Despite how difficult, improve your mood and MOVE ON.  If you do, most likely they will too.  Don’t waste endless hours replaying the fight in your mind and use that time doing better things with the ones you love.

~Lara

The Green-Eyed Monster Called Jealousy

Do you begrudge other’s SuCcEsSeS?  Do you secretly wish for others to fail?  If so,  jealousy may be an issue for you.

Jealousy stems from a mindset that believes there’s only a limited amount of success and good fortune and if someone finds success/good, it means your chances have decreased.    This is a scarcity mindset.  Contrast that with an AbUnDaNcE mindset – one that believes there is an endless supply of success/good to go around.

One thing I believe is that God is big enough to bless others and at the same time bless me.  And if for some reason someone finds good while I am waiting for my blessing I can rejoice with them knowing that my PaYdAy is coming.

If you struggle with jealousy, but want to develop an attitude that sincerely wishes good for others here’s something that might help.  Nothing seems to disarm the temptation of jealousy as much as celebrating others’ BleSsiNgs.  This can be a pat on the back, telling someone “Good job!”, or some other gesture to let others know that you are happy about their success.  When you do, you’re putting that green-eyed monster to bed and making way for GoOd to come to you!

:)

Robynn~

It’s Never Too Late

Well, we are over half way through Lent and I wish I could tell you that this year’s experience was the best one ever. Unfortunately I’ve struggled a bit this year, and to be honest, there is no good excuse why. I always have GOOD intentions throughout the day but life seems to be too big of a distraction to F O C U S on God. How sad is that!? It’s easy to feel guilty for not spending enough time with God and not giving Him the thanks He deserves, for my bLeSSinGs are plentiful. At this point it would be easy to pack it in this spring and try again this Christmas…

LUCKLY, God knows our hearts and if we are paying attention, he will give us the MoTiVaTiOn we need to keep going. Doug and I were reading our nightly “Word Among Us” meditations and the reading couldn’t have spoken more directly to me.

“…we can begin to experience God’s presence and grace as a tiny trickle that grows wider and deeper as we yield to it. As we wade more deeply into his life, we can experience God nourishing us and healing us…We will prosper in this river, for it promotes and supports every sort of life, even lives like ours! …Why not step into the river today? Ask Jesus to lead you. He will start you gently, in the shallow end, where the water is ankle deep. And every day he will take you one step further, bringing you into ever-deepening waters that can HEAL, empower, forgive, and restore you. Just follow his lead each day and soon enough, you’ll be swimming!”

No matter how fast Easter is approaching, it isn’t too late to start wading in the water. Come and join me at the river—

~Lara

Kid Stuff Clean Up

Are the piles of toys in your house getting too big for the bins that you bought to store them in?  If you’re thinking “YES THEY ARE!”…join the club!  I was so tired of my kids taking their puzzles and games out of their boxes and leaving the pieces all over the place that I decided to get rid of the bulky boxes all together.  Check out my space-saving system.

Puzzle boxes, card games, and memory.
Storage bags and a box to hold everything.
Cut out the picture of the puzzle from the box and store it in the bag with the puzzle pieces!
Much better!

EnJoY!

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

What’s the Point?

I don’t know about you, but after I clean up around the house for the hundredth time each day, I start asking myself, “What’s the point?!”  I begin to wOnDer if keeping up with the laundry and vacuuming up kiddo crumbs makes any difference at all.  I mean, does it?  They are just going to make a mess again later!

We all know that the answer is YES.  What we do does make a diffEreNce.   But knowing this doesn’t seem to make cleaning any more enjoyable does it?

House work is like any other essential part of living.  Take eating for example.  No matter how often do it, we will eventually get hungry.  Food is what our body needs to survive.  Unfortunately the same goes for keeping up with laundry and a clean house.  No matter how often we tidy up, there will always more to do.  It’s just another rEsuLt of living.

My inspirational conclusion?  Well, I don’t really have one.  Just remember that cleaning up daily will help avoid a greater amount of misery down the road.  I always feel better once everything is back in its place and I can wake up each morning with a fresh start.  That in itself is worth it.

More importantly, remember that you are nEvEr alone.  As you are frustratingly trying to keep up with housework, know that I am on the other side of the computer doing the exact same thing.  :)

Happy Cleaning….ha ;)

~Lara

{Sittin’ On A Gold Mine}

When it comes to potential, we all are sittin’ on a GoLdMiNe.  God has placed incredible potential in every single one of us.  Don’t believe me?  Then you probably haven’t dug deep enough.  Because trust me, it’s there.

I think most of us know this is true.  If that is the case, then why are so many people not developing their potential and mining their ReSoUrCeS?  I may be wrong, but I think one of the #1 reasons people don’t develop their potential is because they wish they were sittin’ on someone else’s goldmine.  They wished they had the resources that somebody else possessed:  looks, talents, gifts, personality, disposoition, life circumstances, etc.

In elementary school they have a saying, “You GeT what you GeT and you don’t throw a fit.”  Well, that saying can apply to us grown up folk, as well.  It is what it is.  You’ve got what you’ve got.  Now, what are you gonna do with it?

:)

Robynn~

My First Pinterest Project

It’s been about four months since I first joined Pinterest and boy has it changed my life for the BeTtEr!  The ideas just keep coming and I can’t get enough of them!  The first project that I tried from Pinterest was this simple fingerpaint technique shared by .

  • Use blue painters tape to spell your child’s name on fingerpainting paper.
  • Let them fingerpaint over the tape.
  • Once the paint has dried remove the tape to reveal their name in white!

My daughter's first fingerpaint creation!

EnJoY!

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

{When Life Hands You a Lemon, Make Memories}

Don’t you hate the 24-hour bug?   Especially when it falls on a really important day, like ChRiStmAs!  Well, that was the case with my husband this past Christmas.  I felt so bad for him because I know how much he enjoys spending time with family, as well as being with our kids on Christmas morning to see their excitement and delight as they come down the stairs to discover what surprises SaNtA has left for them.

I was determined that I would spend that day doing something my girls and I would remember for years to come.  Early that morning, my brother had sent me an e-Christmas card.  When I opened it, it had elves DaNciNg with his family’s individual faces superimposed on each elf.  It was hystical!  So, I began to make my family’s Christmas card using these cute elf dances and pics from my computer of each person in my family.  I’m not all that computer-savvy, however, it only took a few minutes and was super-easy.  Then I called the girls and they were able to watch our family do a variety of elf dances, from country to HiP-HoP, to disco.  My girls lauged hysterically for hours {well, not exactly hours, but defintely many minutes}.

Then we got out their new chairs that Santa had brought them, sat down and played BeAuTy SaLoN as I gave them each {and Walter, our chocolate lab} a manicure and pedicure.  I have always enjoyed our Christmas’ but to be honest, because we basically always do the same thing {I love tradition}, they all kinda run together.  But not this year.

Later on that day when my husband was feeling a tad bit better, we took the labtop to “sick bay” and let him watch the videos we had created.  He had heard all the laugher earlier that day and said he wondered what was so funny.  Although he still wasn’t feeling  all that great, he was well enough to get to enjoy the videos as once again our girls began laughing HyStEriCallY.

I learned a good LeSsOn that day.  Sometimes life’s most funny moments are those spontaneous times when life hands you the lemon.  You didn’t expect it.  You really didn’t even initially like it, but you roll with it and as a result you just got some pretty good MeMoRiEs.

:)

Robynn~

When All Else Fails…Tell The Truth

Since school started in September we’ve been driving past the same crossing guard four mornings a week on our way to my son’s school.  About a month ago my son decided he was going to start waving good morning to this man on our way to nursery school.  So I’m driving my bright-eyed, excited, 4 1/2 year old waving and shouting “Good morning” through my mini-van window and to my surprise he received absolutely NO response.  Nicholas turned to me and grumbled, “Mommy he didn’t wave back to me.”  I thought fast and replied, “Well maybe he didn’t see you today, you can try again tomorrow.”

After days and weeks went by with no waves being returned I was out of diplomatic responses.  I had already used up…

“Maybe his glasses are so dark that he couldn’t see you.”

“Maybe he was too cold to lift his arm.”

“Maybe he was too busy talking on his phone.”

What I ReAlLy wanted to say was, “Maybe he’s just not a nice person and can’t take two seconds to wave back to a 4 year old!”

OK Robyn…deep breath and pull it together!

I finally decided that instead of making up silly excuses for this man who I don’t even know, I was going to be honest with Nicholas.  On the next drive to school when the crossing guard didn’t wave back to Nicholas, I didn’t make up my usual white lie.  Instead I explained that there are all different kinds of people in the world with lots of different personalities just like the seven dwarfs in Snow White.  I told him that he was like the dwarf named Happy and the crossing guard was like the dwarf name Grumpy.  Nicholas started naming all of the other dwarfs and we talked more about different kinds of people.  I told Nicholas that it made me happy that he wanted to wave good morning to a stranger even if that person didn’t wave back in return and that I hope he stays as friendly as he is now….AlWaYs.