Observations of the Substitute Homemaker

• Small, do-able to-do lists make me feel better than long, impossible lists. I actually get more done if I'm not trying to do it all.
• Coffee grounds take away the not-wash-away-able manure smell.
• It is possible to almost fall asleep while scrubbing a toilet.
• My patience is shorter than my fingernails.
• I can't stop eating nuts.
• Doing the dishes can always be interrupted for kisses and computer time can be interrupted to dance to Fever with Elsie.
• Turns out taking the kids to the park can be the most relaxing part of a day.
• Dieting isn't as bad as people make it out to be.
• CCM is my hour-by-hour encouragement.
• Stomach flues are so unfair. 
• You do not suddenly gain habits like perseverance or virtues like cheerfulness when you're handed responsibility. Being in charge does nothing, means nothing, if you don't have the will to carry it out.
• Laziness does nothing, achieves nothing. Hurts everyone in the long run.
• Unkind words do nothing, achieve nothing. 
• Read the Word. Live the Word. 
• Oswald Chambers wrote something along the lines of, "God is always calling us higher- calling us to a higher plain. Just when we think we've reached the highest, we are told to go higher, higher, higher!" And we're uncomfortable up there, thinking it'll just get steeper and steeper, harder to stand. But instead, there are wide plateaus and fields up there, where we are free and comfortable. We think we've grown when we haven't backslidden. We think we've achieved excellence when we haven't recoiled or become our old selves for a while. Instead, we're only growing when we climb higher, as we're called, when we're called. This is such a lesson for the homemaker. 
•  A clean kitchen really can be the happiest sight in the world. :)