Wednesday, March 2, 2011

WiP...What kind of Home do I have?

L-WiP (Life Work in Progress):
Is my apartment a peaceful home or a home of destruction?
Is my apartment a fun-loving home or more of an angry home?

These are the questions that have been running through my head this week.  I know what I want my home to be ~ that's a duh answer.  But, do I have it?  Sad to admit, but not so much, lately.  A few days ago I was reminded that I choose to be joyful and fun-loving. Or I choose to be angry and, well, not so loving.

Do I choose to yell when my daughter spills milk out of the fridge, or do I choose to take a deep breath and smile, remembering that it is just spilled milk. An easy clean up.  If you have children you know what I'm talking about.....
So, how do you keep a peaceful home? Here's some tips that I've come up with that helps me.
1. Play uplifting music. Most of the time, it's Christian music for me. But, there are times when I crank up some tunes and dance with the kids. They love that just as much as I do.
2. Spend time daily in God's Word. I have found this to be my daily anchor.
3. Journal.  Another anchor for me. When I don't write, I'm not the best mom or wife...ask the family.
4. Laugh and get the camera.  Laughter really is good medicine. I've taken pictures of the messes that my kids have made. Great paybacks for when they are teenagers *evil laugh*
Example of taking pictures. I have many, but this one was easy to find and makes me giggle because she was so proud of herself. *sigh*
This is when I found Jie Jie in the bathtub with conditioner
everywhere...on her clothes, in her hair. What a mess to clean
up, but it makes for a great laugh!


WiP (Work in Progress):
I feel like I've not accomplished much in the area of writing. I've not edited anymore of my novel. I haven't felt the creative juices flowing, so I've been reading some. I read More Writer's First Aid by Kristi Holl this past week. You can read my review here.  In the middle of the book I really started to feel like I could get back into this writing gig.  I wrote a little snippet for a book of short stories and submitted it this week. Writing that piece was healing and pushed me to start writing again. Today I feel those creative juices starting to stir a bit more. So, I'm sitting here at a coffee shop. I'm writing part of this blog post and then I'm going to edit. I'm not going to worry about how many pages I edit, just how much productive time I use to do that editing.

Another good point this week is that I am starting to get my writing organized. I joined organizedwriters.com. I started my 3-ring binder of writer-ly forms to help keep track of my manuscripts and help push me  forward in this publishing world.

**Note, I have to confess. I didn't get any editing done. But, I did finish writing a survey for an article that I wrote on TCK's. I hope to get the survey out there, so I can finish up that article with some good quotes, then submit it. So, it wasn't wasted time. =)

Q4U: What do you do to make your home peaceful?
If you are a writer, what have you accomplished this week?
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2 comments:

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Something I always remember when it comes to parenting is how much I yearned to have our daughter. We went through several years of infertility before we got pregant. So I remind myself of that when I get frustrated and then I remind myself that I only have a few years before she moves off to college. When she's having a bad day, even now, I'll pull out one of her favorite picture books and read it to her on the couch. We only have our kids for 18 years or so if we are lucky, we have to do our best to raise them so they can leave and make their mark on the world...When everything gets crazy just pull out a book or some drawing paper with the kiddos and just play together.

MaDonna Maurer said...

Great idea Sharon. They are probably craving the attention...