Wordless Wednesday - Face Pin in Progress

Me All Over Again

I wrote in one of my last posts about wanting to be a better wife and mother.  As a Christian, I am using the verses of Proverbs 31 from the Bible as a guide on my way.

It is my sincere hope and intention that people of other faiths or belief systems will feel welcome on the Back Porch at all times.  I try to present my beliefs respectfully and hope that anyone reading my blog would feel free to express themselves (in a family-friendly way) as well.

So, my first nugget comes from Proverbs 31:10-12 (KJV):

• Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

Dictionary.com defines "virtuous" as "conforming to moral and ethical principles".  While I like to think I am a good person, there is always room for improvement.  I certainly don't feel like my worth is "far above rubies"...yet. :)

• The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

To me, this verse means that I am my husband's reliable partner.  I use my skills to make our lives better and continually "upgrade" those skills.  Well, folks, I have not done a very good job in this of late.  So my goal for the next month is to do a better job.  The one area that jumps out at me and SCREAMS for attention is my rusty old broken down domestic engineering abilities.

The first, or one of the first ideas that hit me when I thought of this goal is to get out of  C.H.A.O.S.  (Anyone familiar with the FlyLady will know that this means "Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome".  Part of the problem is that we have 2 adults, 2 teens, 1 tween, 1 cat, 1 dog and 6 puppies in our 3-br apartment.  Part of the problem is our conspicuous lack of storage areas.  Here are some of my smaller goals designed to correct the part of the problem that is in my control:

1. By Tuesday, 8 January, 2013, we will be able to invite people into the living room.
2. By Tuesday, 15 January, 2013, we will be able to invite people into the kitchen.
3. By Tuesday, 22 January, 2013, the nickel tour will include the "master bedroom".
4. By Tuesday, 29 January, 2013, the laundry nook, bathroom and front porch will be presentable.

• She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. 

IMO, this verse has to do more with the things I think and feel concerning my marriage, rather than the things I do.  Overall, I have positive feelings and thoughts about my husband and our marriage.  There are little things that get under my skin about him (and his skin about me) every now and again, but marriage was not meant to be a non-stop party.  Every once in a while, you need to clean up.

So don't be surprised if a little "what a guy" statements make it into the blog every once in a while.  For instance, my husband went back to college last fall after a 20 +/- year break.  He got all A's in his classes.  I am so proud of him!  I told his mother and her husband, his father and his wife, my brother, people at church ... basically anyone who sat still for any length of time. :O)

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How are your goals going?  Are they big enough to hold your attention?  Are they broken down into manageable bites to help you remain motivated?  Let me know!  I'd love to provide encouragement on your journey!!!


I wrote this post  to help fulfill my own Christmas wish to be a better wife and mother.  I wanted to link it to the "One Word 2013 Blog Hop" at my friend's blog "Create With Joy" because she is the source of a lot of good information and connections.

The Wheel Rolls On

Please join my friends at "Inspire Me Monday", hosted by Create With Joy.  I guarantee you will find inspiration!
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Here is the original picture of my polymer clay creation from my last "Wordless Wednesday" post:

And here is its evolution since then:

The gold and silver is from metallic powders brushed onto the unbaked clay.  The piece in the middle is a cane slice designed to look like agate that happened to match the color scheme of the project.  The little bits of color around the spokes are four different clay colors mixed with some translucent clay.  Each original ball was then separated into 3 balls and 25 pct of the original was marbled with its neighbor on either side and the mix placed between the two "primary" colors.  I hope that made sense.  
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What is feeding your creative soul today?  I'd love to hear!

Friendship Friday - Resolutions

     
My husband asked me (on a day I was not feeling overly capable) what I wanted for Christmas, to which I replied, "To be a better wife and mother".  Yeah, it was that kind of day. So when I started to think of resolutions, that idea popped up again.  I'm not saying I'm hopeless at wife- and motherhood, but I won't be writing textbooks on the subject anytime soon either.  This idea brought me to the Bible verses I memorized some time ago (but have since partly forgotten) about the "Proverbs 31 Woman".  That seems to be a good place to start for me. Each month I will focus on an idea from the verses in Proverbs 31:10-31 and work to incorporate it into my life. I will never be "perfect"...AND THAT IS OK!  But by putting one foot in front of the other, hour after hour, day after day ... by the end of the year I'll be a darn sight better than I have been this past year ... AND THAT IS GREAT! Feel free to join me on this journey.  Also I'd love to hear your resolution/s for 2013.  By clicking the above button, you can read the ideas others have had and maybe share your own! Happy Birthday to my brother today (12/29) and Happy New Year to you all!

Wordless Wednesday - Work in Progress

T Minus 20 Minutes

That's how long I have to get in a blog post today, because it is 11:40 (ish) pm where I live.  Trying to get it in because of the NoBloPoMo.  Yes, I regret taking so long to get to the posting today.  And I sure could have done a better job, but it is what it is.  This reminds me of my 11th grade English teacher.  When we were studying poetry, she said, "For every line of good poetry you write, you will write one line of bad poetry."

I'll do a full update in the morning.

The Hectic Month of November

Why hectic, you might ask?  Sure, there is Thanksgiving (in the US) at the end of the month ... but that's about all, isn't it?

Well...that's true; at least it used to be true.  But that was before the advent of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month).  To add to the fun this year, I found   another gem to add to my collection:  The 21-day Self-Discipline Challenge, hosted by Serving Joyfully and Super Sweet Life.

You see, I haven't been disciplined enough in previous years to complete either NaNoWriMo, nor NaBloPoMo.  This year I am hoping to change that.  This year I am planning on changing that.  This year I am going to change that.

So, settling down to the Self-Discipline Challenge, for the first day we are to pick a small project that has been left undone.  I am rather spoiled for choice here, as there are so-o-o-o many around our apartment.  I chose my craft/computer table, over and under, which is placed in a corner of our living room by a window.  And, our dog Sneakers just had puppies (9 of them) starting shortly after midnight on Halloween, and we are going to move the little "puppy pen" out of the bedroom and under that table.

Shoot.  I was going to post a "before" picture, but am having trouble getting the picture from my phone to the computer.  I'll ask hubby when he gets up, as he is the computer whiz in the family.  And, as I've already started working on the mini-project, I will post before/after pics tomorrow.  It'll be the first time I've ever done that, because, let's face it, I am domestically challenged.

Picking a mega-project was hard for me.  There seems to be so many things in my life that need change:  making the choice to (and actually) stop smoking; completing NaNoWriMo; complete a full month of NaBloPoMo; organize our apartment sufficiently that we can actually have people in, set up an Etsy shop for my polymer clay beads and doodads, to name but a very few.

I'm going to stretch the concept a little.  What I mean is that cutting back on my smoking will be my main mega-project and if the self-discipline I develop during the course of the challenge happens to spill over into other projects, so much the better.  If that's the only project that gets completed in the 21 days, I'll be better off than I am now.

For today, I am just keeping track of how many cigarettes I smoke.  Since midnight, I have smoked 10 cigarettes.  As it is but 6:16 pm where I live, I know that total will increase.  My plan is to cut back by one cigarette per day until I no longer smoke.  Tomorrow I will come up with a list of other activities I can do instead of smoking.

One thing I have noticed today, is that a lot of time, my desire to smoke will increase when I am bored or stressed, with a heavy emphasis on the latter.  If anyone has any good stress-reduction tips, I could sure use them; feel free to comment below with something that works to reduce your stress.

Happy trails!