One Step Report #1

Well, it’s day #10 of the year 2010, and I’m happy to report that it’s been a great ten days.

Never before have I so completely turned the tables on my critical, perfectionist self.  I haven’t made a single list of things to do all week, but instead have listed all the things that were done.  So far I’ve taken 50 small steps to improve life.  That’s an average of 5 per day, and I feel good about that.  To celebrate, I’m sharing another photo of my toddler’s feet.  This is her new life, standing on tippy toes to get into things.

toddler feet tippy toes

It’s been very healthy to record my small victories or tasks, and I’ve also been writing which category it falls under next to every entry.  This is helping me to see where I need to plan more consciously for improvement.

I want to share a couple of highlights.

So far, my three daughters (ages 7, 5, and 2) have managed (with my help and prodding) to keep their room clean for a full week.  I should have taken a before picture, but if you’ve been to my home and we trust you enough to let you go upstairs, you’ve probably seen a room that was completely covered with clothing.  Now it has looked like this for 9 days.

bed with vintage quilt

The other morning I walked past their door while they were gone at school and the simple beauty and soft light made me pause in wonder that such an unexpected pleasure was right there, in my own home, and in THAT room!  I’d forgotten how much I love the old grandmother’s flower garden quilts that lay at the foot of their beds.

vintage grandmother's flower garden quilt

I had also forgotten how beautiful and peaceful my bedroom is, because I’d let it become the clean laundry pile room.  I managed to stay completely caught up on laundry this week, without letting any of it pile up.  Unexpected benefit:  I have my bedroom back!

bedroom

These things are small, indeed, but they help us all feel more relaxed in our home.  And if it takes 30 days to form new habits, then I figure we’re 25% of the way there.  Organization is a wonderful thing, and I’m convinced that 75% of it is self-discipline.

I think that perhaps the most important steps have been taken this week in relationships and responses to people.  I’m not proud of this, but a week ago I discovered that my little girls had been breaking jewelry for no good reason.  My 5 year old had asked for a treasure box full of jewels for Christmas.  I put a lot of time and effort into gathering these materials, and to find them broken just for the sake of breaking them was upsetting.  I’m ashamed to say it, but I yelled at my two little daughters for it.  And then, after yelling, I took a good look at them and saw quivering lips and eyes welling up with tears.  I thought to myself, “Here I am, seeking to have LOVE be the guiding force behind our growth, and I just broke the hearts of my sweet, innocent daughters over a broken necklace.  A broken heart over a broken THING.”  I was disgusted with myself.  I gathered them into my arms, asked for their forgiveness, and then spent some time alone in my room praying, asking forgiveness from my Heavenly Father for treating his little ones so harshly.

That necklace has sat on my desk ever since, my reminder to myself of what really matters.  It is not ok to be destructive, but I can teach that principle with love instead of anger.

necklace

Fast forward to two days ago when my son decided to move some furniture around in our family room.  My coffee table that looked like this:


now looks like this:


I confess that I did ask him why that particular 1/4 inch piece of wood looked like a sturdy handle, but I didn’t yell, and I didn’t get angry.  I remembered the necklace.  I put my arm around him, told him I was disappointed but that my disappointment wasn’t a reflection of my love for him or my approval of him.  I think it worked out.  (I still need to fix the table, but at least I don’t need to fix my son’s heart.)

And so, I feel content with my One Step progress so far.  I’m excited for what the next week holds!

Chicken Rollups

My mom used to make these sometimes when I was growing up.

One thing I love about this recipe is that it requires only 3 ingredients; five if you wish to add salt and pepper.  The list consists of:  chicken tenders, sour cream and Corn Flakes Crumbs.


I guess it’s not much of a recipe in some ways, as you just use what you need of the 3 ingredients, so no real measurements are involved.  I prefer to make these roll-ups with chicken tenders, as they are smaller, cook faster, and don’t seem to dry out much.  So, figure out how many chicken tenders your family needs, and flatten each of them by placing the chicken inside a ziploc bag and pounding on the chicken with a mallet until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

flattened chicken

Now, get a shallow cereal bowl and pour about 1 cup of Corn Flakes Crumbs into it.  (You can crush your own corn flakes if you’d like, but I prefer to just keep a box of the crumbs on hand so my kids don’t eat my ingredients without realizing.)  Lay a flattened piece of chicken in the bowl.


Now take a spoon and scoop some sour cream into another small bowl.  This is because you don’t want the spoon that touches the raw meat to go in and out of your sour cream container.  Take about a tablespoon of sour cream and spread it over the top of the chicken.


If you want to, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over the sour cream.


Now start at the widest end of the piece of chicken and roll it up, securing it with a toothpick.


Place your roll-up on a baking sheet and repeat with your remaining chicken until all the pieces are prepared.


Now bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, then check for doneness.   This isn’t something you want to overcook.

chicken rollups

TaDa!  Simple, pretty and actually quite yummy.  My kids like these a lot, and people are always surprised that it’s only sour cream rolled up inside the chicken.  It’s one of those deceptively simple recipes.

Enjoy!

Last Look at the Manger

It wasn’t very hard for me to say goodbye to Christmas and pack up the decorations… until it came to the manger.

empty manger

My heart lingered here, reluctant to carry it to the basement.  I realized that this was probably my last Christmas to lay my own baby in the manger for our annual re-enactment of the nativity.  The realization made my heart ache.

baby wrapped in white blanket

In an effort to appreciate the wonder of this stage in life while it is still mine, I dressed my infant in white and carefully laid her in our own little manger for some photos.

baby in white blanket

Gratefully, I was able to capture it in a way I feel pleased with.  I love the way the light was shining on her face.  It reminds me how much light is in her, how much light she has brought into my heart and into our family.


The words of a favorite song kept running through my mind, “dressed in white, filled with light, what wonder did I see?”


The next lyrics say, “What I feel, what I know, leads my heart to sing, ‘I will praise thy name, praise thy name from day to day.”  As my own heart was weeping a little at the idea of moving past this moment, it hit me how very blessed I am, to have experienced this wonder EIGHT times!  I realized that instead of weeping, I should joyfully praise my Heavenly Father for sharing this with me.


In the above picture, she is playing with her oldest brother.  How marvelous it is to watch your older children bask in the wonder of a baby.  In the photo below, I love the bokeh of the white lights on the tree behind her.

baby smiling in front of Christmas tree

Again, I LOVE the light.  The white is so white, her smile so pure, her eyes so clear.


Years ago I read a line in one of Sara Teasdale’s poems, which says “children’s faces looking up, holding wonder like a cup.”  For many years now I have wanted to capture the feeling of that line in a photograph of one of my children.  In this setting, I feel like I did, as my baby gazed up in wonder at all the world around her.


And because I’ve never been in love with a baby’s feet like I have with these little ones, I took a few of her toes for good measure.



baby feet


baby feet

Sigh.  How glad I am that I listened to my mother’s heart that morning, and captured a moment I don’t ever want to forget.   It made me think a little of Mary, the mother of Jesus.  I wonder how she felt when they left the stable, if her feelings were bittersweet.  I’ve never thought of it before.  We spend a month at Christmas celebrating the manger, yet it was a dirty place where animals lived.  Surely she was a little bit relieved to put it behind her, and somewhat overwhelmed by the many physical needs that both she and the baby had.  Yet if she realized that prophecy had been fulfilled in that dirty place, then part of her must have paused to mark the moment, to hold it in her heart for future reference.  I wonder how many mothers throughout history have stood on the threshold of time, anxious to move on but reluctant to leave.  I wonder what Mary thought as they left the stable.  I wonder if any of her feelings paralleled my own.

baby in manger

A stable moment.  My grateful heart sings.

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