Families Dusting Together

Have you been busy with summer fun or work, when all of sudden you realized it has been three or four weeks since you last dusted?   Can you write in the dust?

Oops!  I can.  No excuses are necessary.  We make choices about how we are going to spend our time and energy.  Sometimes, the house suffers:  well, actually--the house doesn't care, but we do.  Therefore, I am sending out a dusting challenge this week.  Let's dust and vacuum at least one room a day.  Here are some choices of how to do that.  Dust with a throw away Swiffer duster or a Microfiber Dust Rag.  My mother always used the vacuum cleaner brush and sucked up that dirt and hair.

1. We are dusting, not polishing, unless you just prefer to spray and wipe.
2. Choices of how to do this job are:

• Dust and vacuum one room a day.  Or
• Dust all your rooms in one day--perfection is not the objective here.
• Vacuum the centers of the rooms, not every little corner, or under everything.  Break this job into increments of time you are able to accomplish or let someone else do it for you. 
• Option for mothers and fathers with children at home:  hand each child a dust rag and set the timer.  Give them specific areas to dust  and turn on some music.  You can make this a family affair, working in one room at a time or let them do their own rooms. If your child needs hands on attention for this job:  stick to doing one room together.  Make it fun with a treat at the end, such as reading a book or watching a DVD.

Parents, children need to learn to work at home.  It is a necessary part of their training, or they are liable to expect someone else to do it their whole lives.  If they need supervision, remember they will probably not do the job as well as you;  however, it is still important they do it.  Do not frustrate your children by constantly comparing how they do their chores with other members of the household.  Do not heap your perfectionism on them.  Be matter of fact:  "Today we are going to dust.  We will start in the ________.  You work in this section of the room.  Your sister will work in that section of the room, and I will work in this section."

Do the children want to do something later, such as going to a friend's house, swimming, or playing in the sprinkler?  Tell them that none of these things are going to happen, until together you dust a certain number of rooms.  STICK TO YOUR GUNS!  This is training time that will benefit them the rest of their lives.

We did it!
Image Courtesy of [Ambro]
/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Back to Vacuuming

When you dust, you should vacuum if you can.  These two jobs go hand in hand.  However, use your best judgement.  You can only do what you can do, and you may have to find creative ways to get the job done.  However, I would not wait more than one day to vacuum each room you dust.  What is on the floor will eventually manage to find it's way to the furniture.  Moreover, if you have not vacuumed and dusted for a while, you might want to change your filter for your air conditioner.  A clean filter will help keep your house clean longer.

Note:  If you are going to have to declutter tabletops, because you have let things accumulate on them, you will want to do that a different day than the day you dust;  unless, you are so impressed with clean tabletops, you cannot help yourself.  If you just have to dust after you pick up and put away what is on the tables, the  one room a day method is best

Have a great week, and remember:  when you can write in the dust, your house looks dirty, even when it is decluttered.  

Love,

Deborah

Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Camera Gone?

When will I learn this lesson?  I am sure it's in a safe place.  You would think after all these years and all this decluttering, I would learn to always put my camera in the same place.  Nope!  Still working on it.

When Your Body Gives You Another Day or Hour of Betrayal

The truth is, I think I have been managing better;  although, my life is not the optimum life I would have expected at 62.  Considering I have several illness, as well as FM and CFS, I guess I am still doing better than some people are.  At least, I do not spend every day in pain that refuses to be shut out.

However, there are moments when the pain or the weird sensations that seem to be part of the FM patient's plight get me down -- way down.  If there was no medicine to take and the pain and weird sensations did not stop, I think they could drive a person mad.  Also, I get deeply tired of the fatigue -- tired of being tired is how I put it earlier this afternoon.

Sometimes, the tears and fog come with the icky tingles and the anxiety.  I start to remember how long I have had this and wonder how I could bear it another second.  But I do.  I have even sometimes asked God why He does not let me die.  However, I know He has a purpose for my life, so I keep on hoping.  I lie down in my bed to try to quiet what is going on, pray, say the 23 Psalm among other scriptures, and I cry.

Then, I usually get up to do something else after that.  Today, I went out on the porch so I could watch the breeze go through the trees and feel the outdoor heat.  I was cold.  Today was a hard to regulate my bodily temperature day, and I have been feeling chilled in air conditioning.

I want you to know you are not alone.  Everybody does not have hunky-dory lives all the time.  Just because someone sounds cheerful does not mean they are not carrying a burden.  Sometimes, I write, and I am afraid you think I can get everything done on my Weekly Schedule.  I don't.  It's a guideline for when I am asking myself what to do next.  I use to say to myself to stop being lazy, but now I realize I am not a lazy person, because I cannot always get things done that I think needs doing.  That is not laziness, it is illness.

I encourage you to hold on to hope.  Look for the good moments, the restful moments, and the memorable moments.  Smell the roses.  And, when those blah days come, remember life is not like this all the time.  This too shall pass.  

Thinking of you often and praying,
Deborah

My Ultimate Comfort in Good Times and Bad

I have written two things here:  how I have felt since yesterday, which could be chalked up to how the brain chemicals work in those of us who have FM and CFS.  However, there is a comfort that underlies everything in my life, which I feel I must share.  Why?  Because, I care about what happens to you.  I cannot be there or carry everyone's load;  however, there is someone who can.

I would love to have you join my friends at Holley Gerth's (holleygerth.com) for our Wednesday link-up. There is lots of super encouragement for everyone.

June is here:  four days into it already.  Have you been planning how you can manage through the hot weather and vacations?  Or, maybe this is the time of year, family comes to visit you.  There are so many things to think about.

The last couple of days I have felt this little underlying frisson of anxiety.  Healthcare is becoming more difficult, because it seems the people we pay want me to jump through more hoops to satisfy their requirements.  That gets to me;  and if I were a doctor or one of his assistants that call these things in or send them in, I would probably not appreciate the extra work.

Moreover, I am thinking of the things I want to do and have not gotten to.  Who and when will we visit certain people, or when will they visit us?  And. then there are the things I want to do around here:  projects inside and outside.

However, when one slows down and thinks of what really matters.  First, he or she needs to realize anxiety can be quelled.  One of my favorite Bible verses is Philippians 4:6-7.

 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (NIV)   

The truth is I have not been spending enough time doing exactly what this verse says.  I also find I am calmer when I spend time reading God's word, the Bible, as well as praying.   

 I know some of you may not believe as I do;  and, that is something you are free to do -- to not believe.  God does not force any of us to believe in Him or His Son;  however, He is waiting.  The door is open for all who believe that Jesus died on the cross, paid for their sins, and He arose from the dead.  I guess you are surprised to hear such an open invitation.  And that is because I feel I would be remiss if I did not openly share  the door that opens to God and Heaven.  Someday, that is something we all face -- just as we are born into this world, we go out of this world.  There is no fear for the faithful, for those that truly know Jesus.  It has nothing to do with us doing good deeds or being good enough.  None of us can be good enough. 

I just read a wonderful article from The Word Is Near You by  Anastasios Kioulachoglou:

"His Word is not a puzzle. They didn’t [ You don't] have to go up to the heaven or over the sea to find it. They didn’t [ you don't ]  have to become ponderous or professors of theology to understand it. It was very close, in their mouth and heart. And these are the words, the Spirit of God uses to speak about the faith in the incarnate Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not need to turn heaven and earth upside down to find the salvation. You do not need to go over the sea. You do not need to become heavy with much knowledge in order to understand what you should do. The Word of God is near you. In your mouth and in your heart. And this is summed up in the following phrase: 'that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved' The word of salvation is simple, as simple as the above phrase. There is no need for heavy studies, for pursuits in theology and religions. There is no need of knowledge of special things for which only some have the key and you have to go out and search for them. None of this is needed. It is simply you and God. God has called you. He has called you to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that He has raised Him from the dead. You now have to make a decision whether you will follow, you will believe, this so near word of faith. These are not things far or difficult or mysterious. They are very near you. The salvation is so near you as your heart for the faith and your mouth for the confession. And as the Word of God exhorts: II Corinthians 6:2"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.' " 

After Eight plus Two

Getting cuddled and "doctored" at the same time.

Last night, after all 8 + 2 of my daughter's and son-in-law's large family left, I decided to play a computer game.  Only, I fell asleep in the middle of it.  At 9 p.m., I went to bed and did not wake up until 10:30 or 11 a.m.  I slept over 12 hours last night.  Amazing!

If you feel shaky in the morning after a busy weekend of holding children and babies, as well as all the commotion you are not used to, don't be surprised.  Even with all the wonderful help my daughter and son-in-law gave in taking over the kitchen on Saturday, I had plenty of other input.

I am so proud of my grandson, who has autism.  He wanted to make pancakes, so he and his grandfather made breakfast on Saturday.  He is 14,  and it brings tears of pride thinking of them standing side by side,  Grandpa doing the bacon and Grandson doing the pancakes.  Grandson  is almost as tall as Grandpa and very thin like Grandpa was when he was young.  Their body build is so similar.  I never knew that would make me feel so sappy.

I am so happy, because I managed to balance just fine for the weekend.  I took a long nap, while they went on an outing, which I would have loved to have joined on Saturday.  They told me all about it, and I think that was almost as fun for them.  Also, I had listened to all my friends and readers, who told me to clean after they came.  I did some organizing, and I listened about the cleaning.  Since I have been keeping the house clean, it looked fine.  And now, I really need to clean.

Oh dear, I woke up with numb fingers this morning, so my typing is over.  I just wanted you to know how wonderful this weekend was, that I was able to enjoy and not feel overwhelmed.

Love, Deborah