tina's snippets!

Movin' into my new blog home...

I love this blog, but I need to save some $$ each month and I am moving over to blogspot.

The new hang out is:

http://queenbusick.blogspot.com/

Thanks for keeping up with me here and check out the new digs as I get settled and move in!

ps..don't forget to update your bookmarks and bloglines!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Keeping It Simple

I have been thinking a lot about simplicity in my life. I have really embraced running my home and family. In order to be an effective leader (yes, even at home I am a leader - once a leader always a leader regardless of the task!) I have been simplifying various areas of our home and lives.

Recently a new blog friend - Lori - blogged about progress she was making with this idea in her life. I was inspired by some of her ideas and it has  been making me think!

Here are some areas where I've simplified our lives:

Housecleaning - I have established routines for cleaning and home care now. Here's is my simple weekly schedule:

Monday – Laundry Day

Tuesday – Marketing, Bills

Wednesday – General Cleaning

Thursday – Mini Laundry & Cleaning

Friday – Special Projects

Saturday – Daily Care

Sunday – Day Off

**yes, I take this day off completely. 

I adapted this from the amazing and truly inspirational book Home Comforts. I really needed some sort of organization to not feel completely overwhelmed by the home, especially since we are currently selling our home. What has been an amazing transformation is that after a month, you can see the difference!

In the laundry area, we just had tons of it all the time. It seemed like the piles were never decreased and eagerly more clothes added to the piles. I took a Monday and got it all done. Then a few days later, evaluated how large of loads I had - a complete load of darks and not really that many whites - so I did a load of darks and left the whites until the big laundry day - Monday.

While this sounds so simple, the emotional results are very freeing! I feel a great sense of accomplishment and satisfied that the laundry is done. I don't leave the house with a weighed down feeling of what I am walking back into - this needs done and that needs done - will it ever end? Hmmm do you know that feeling? I do and I was tired of it.

The other thing that makes this work so well is that it creates boundaries. I have boundaries with my different areas of the home. I needed this because I am a kitchen cleaning nut - food safety nazi - I couldn't do anything in the house until the kitchen was perfectly spotless. So you guessed it I had a beautifully clean kitchen but the rest of the home was CRAP! Now I can walk by the kitchen on say - Wednesday and go 'Nope I have general cleaning today, it's not kitchen time, toilets are waiting!' Then I walk away from my sparkling bowls and say 'ahhhhh' that boundary felt good!

My other boundary is truly simple. I caught myself in the cycle of 'I never have a day off' syndrome. I have worked outside the home since I was a child. I did not learn home care naturally. So when I had a day off from work outside the home. I had a place to go that wasn't work. Well, being home FT, I have no where to go for my day off or feel like I have a day off - I was still at HOME!

My solution was simple for me. At the end of each work day say 4:00 pm, I stop the cleaning & care for the day. My job is over for that day. I cannot keep working. I step back and think 'did I get the job done?' Sometimes yes and sometimes no, but the point is that I worked on the daily task and I am calling it quits for the day. And what I accomplish is good. Then I mentally clock myself out of that day, refresh my mental health and focus on the evening ahead with my family. Yes, I still have to cook dinner, but my focus isn't on cooking, it's on the idea that soon my family will gather around and look at each other maybe for the first time that day. It's time to connect.

Also, I have found I am able to fully concentrate on the relationship with my husband Larry when he comes home. I can communicate and LISTEN WELL to his day.  Frequently,  he shares about a leadership struggle at work. We work through the issue and I am able to counsel him well. If you know me, I thrive on counseling through an issue. Currently, we have been working on recognizing our stressors and really trying to understand if it is something to truly be stressed about - is this someone else's stress being put on us unknowingly or is this really our problem to solve. It's been amazing in evaluating this area how much of our stress really doesn't belong to either one of us.

Sorry about moving off topic a little with that - but I wanted you to see the results this simple little boundary with home care has moved into freeing relationships! Now I am inspired to write some more about the boundaries with home care and marriage - yep that could be another long one, but it's really good!

So, what have you done to simplify lately? Feel free to grab the image up above to decorate your post and link up below..we can visit each other's blogs to see the great ideas of simplicity!

Hotel Frederick

Link: Hotel Frederick -

Larry & I spent the night here last week. I will be back later to write more. I've been busy since then being the mommy chauffeur - school starts next week and we will be returning to our regularly scheduled family life. Looking forward to it!

I am causing trouble!

I know this will not come as a shock to many. But I am causing trouble in the bloggy world.

What else may surprise you is that I am loving it!

Here's the scoop:

I stumbled onto this blog a few days ago with the posters - I thought they were supporting the emergent church and then I backed up a few pages and left thinking they were produced as satire. Then I was just left with the 'yuck' in my spirit. Again, followers criticizing followers. Again, my theology is right and should be your theology.

Now keep in mind, there is BAD theology and BAD Christian practices.

But I am a follower of Christ who is sick and fed up with the rhetoric and desperately seeking a faith that is full of grace and application of Christ's truths. I left the blog and my distaste for what the theology bashing causes in everyday followers. I am talking about everyday followers being intelligent, hard working individuals who are looking to their church leaders to lead them well. Yet, in my ministry experiences, I have seen and worked with these folks who were truly mistreated by their churches.

I am an adult follower of Christ. I did not grow up in a church. I used to think that meant I was somewhat handicapped or retarded in comparison to other Christians who grew up in the faith, went to church camps and knew hymns (which I love hymns when sung and read with the deep meaning and love they convey). But over the last year, I've been challenged completely the opposite. I feel that I have a clear picture of who Christ is and what he was about. I do not have to sift through wads of rhetoric to understand theological concepts or as I read various theologians, I can see where & why their images of Christ were accurate or skewed a certain direction.

Honestly, it all comes back into alignment with Scripture. Has the piece of Scripture in question been dealt with accurately, thoroughly and whole - listically (i.e. not taken out of context). So what does all that have to do with trouble in the bloggy world? I commented that right now my theological view of Christianity is slanted like this:

“you like Jesus - me too - share with me what you know and I will share with you”.

Which began the post - I heart Jesus

Which left me feeling like that handicapped retarded Christian again and I couldn't swallow the commentary humbly. So I embraced it in my response and thought you would like to see a little piece of bloggy world that isn't just all about sunshine and flowers. Conflict is good, have some!