Nudge Me Not

I like to journal. I guess that is no surprise as I enjoy words. I like to write, I like to take notes, I like to make lists, and I like to put my prayers on paper. I've noticed a theme with my words as I look at my written prayer requests and think about my desires of not being so focused on my to-do list, and I thought I'd share.

I don't like to be busy. I LOVE to get out of the house each day but nothing stresses me out more than having a full calendar when I don't have at least one night where I know my whole family will be able to enjoy each others company. I know this about myself, and I joke that I have a fear of commitment because I hate booking things. When the day comes for said commitment all I want to do is sit and watch Netflix with my husband, or go on a walk with my kids. Clearly, I have issues. That 'maybe' button on electronic RSVP's was made for people like me. "Are you coming to the party?""maybe" if I feel like it that day or something better doesn't come up - seriously, what is wrong with me?

My desire to have community conflicts with that desire to get things done. But God has been teaching me slowly I've been learning slowly that God has been there the whole time trying to drill into my head to stop focusing on what needs to get done. Be Mary (read more about Mary and Martha Here), take the time to be in relationships instead of doing, doing, doing.

What is SO cool about this, is when you pray and ask God to help you see the needs around you He delivers. So I recently prayed (like I have in the past) to be nudged, for the Holy Spirit to help me see where I can be helping those around me. Help me prioritize, if you will, what really needs to get done. Can I just say, when you listen to those nudges, VERY rarely do things go wrong? In my experience I am yet to be nothing but overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by how God is working all around me.

My mom read an excerpt from a book and I know I'm going to misquote it but it said something along this:

Listen to your nudges. Say you are nudged to make a pound cake for a friend. Make it. What if you make that pound cake and deliver it to your friend and she isn't have a rough day after all?

And THEN your friend tells you she is no longer eating sugar. 
You can sit in your car and laugh with God about it and enjoy every bite of that pound cake. No reason to fret if things don't go as planned.

What if YOU don't listen to those nudges though friends? The majority of the time I have listened, something miraculous has happened. I've had a few flops, where I just had to sit back and laugh. But nothing feels worse then not listening to 'the nudge' and wondering 'what if?'




'What is my calling? What is your will for my life? Where is my community?'

Are you so focused on what you should be doing, your endless lists, comparing your life to other people's that you forget to take action?

St. Patrick's Day Activities

Saint Patrick's Day Activities

I have to admit I haven't been focusing too much on Saint Patrick's Day, but as we've done a few activities I am trying to answer questions about why/what is Saint Patrick's Day. I found a few fun facts along the way. And this was from some online searches, so some of these may not be 100% accurate but I still found it interesting.

Who? Saint Patrick - born in Britain, captured into Slavery and taken to Ireland, escaped and converted to Christianity. Moved back to Ireland to be a missionary.  After his death he was named Ireland's Patron Saint. (There are some fun books out there that if we have time I'll try and grab at the Library to explain this more in detail)

Why a Shamrock? Some say that St. Patrick used the 3 leaf clover (shamrock) to explain the Trinity.

Why Corned Beef and Cabbage? Some say that many of the Irish immigrants couldn't afford certain meals so for the holiday of St. Patrick's day, the best they could do was beef and cabbage. 

Fun things we've done the last 2 weeks:

Made Green Jello Play dough 

Made Green Slime 

(using the recipe from the link, but instead of Valentine's used green food coloring) 

This is the slime. My daughter loves to put her plastic animals in the slime and play dough. 

Made this cool rainbow craft, thanks to our local Library's story time! 

For this activity you just need thin strips of each color of paper,  and then the black paper for the pot. They had cut out the gold with a sparkly cardstock. Lucy liked this craft, but really I was assembling as she used the glue stick. 

And today I decided to cut up a green pepper to try and look like a Shamrock - thank you Pinterest!

On Pinterest I had seen something similar to this but then adding a stem with a another piece of pepper. I just wanted to throw this in with her PB&J lunch quickly for fun. I honestly don't think she cared but I liked it! 

I used the same play dough and slime recipe that I had used for Valentine's Day, I just used lime jello for the play dough and green food coloring for the slime instead of red.