Wednesday – Freebies

Freebie #1 – Freshbooks.com

Use their free version to help you track and manage one of your most precious resources — your time.

Freebie #2 – ConnectWorkTasks.com

Visit my new Virtual Assistant site and let me help you free-up more of your most precious resource so that you can do the life-giving things that are most important to you. 20% through August 31, 2021.

Freebie #3 – Tip for managing your most precious resource

Start your day the night before; before the day’s end review tomorrow’s tasks and meetings so that you have a mental framework of tomorrow. Then, if you want to take it to the next level, decide one small next step for each task. Finally, sleep peacefully.

Freebie #4 – Giants will Fall, Bill Johnson message from August 15, notes

Defeating giants is a theme I am hearing from many voices these past two weeks. Below are the notes I banged out while listening to the podcast for a third time. (The link will take you to a website; the podcast is also available wherever you usually listen as Bethel Sermon of the Week). Enjoy!!!

Giants will Fall, Bill Johnson, August 15, 2021

Jesus came to earth commissioned by God 1 Jn. 3-8
Righteous anger should be taking you to intercession on behalf of. . .
Identify with the person we would be most angry with and plead their case before God, asking for mercy.

Numbers 14, Matthew 6, Psalm 23

Numbers 14 – Israel given a promise; the promises of God guarantee a fight between the promise and the fulfillment. 10 said we are like grasshoppers.
Caleb and Joshua said this is a setup by God. The 10 said let’s choose wisdom. Same facts, but different perspective. If you move in fear, you will be called wise, but you won’t move mountains. C & J chose to not rebel against God by failing to step into a promise.
The giant is our “bread.” v. 9

Matthew 6:11 give us this day our daily bread

Psalm 23 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Certain spiritual nourishment you cannot get except in a battle with a giant. My strength comes from the battle.
C & J are not impressed by the size of the giants. Do not loose sight over the size of our God and the truth of our promise. Changing perspective according to what God said. This land of giants — that’s lunch. When through with lunch, we will move onto dinner.

Psalm 23 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies – richest most glorious food that you will ever eat in your life. Interaction, fellowship and the most delicious food. Jesus is at the table and we have a life-giving encounter with Him at this table in the presence of the enemy.

All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

God puts in the giant the food you need for the next season.

Joshua 1:5 As I was with Jesus, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. All those who come under your influence fall under this.
If you want to impact what you think about, change what you talk about.
You will make your way prosperous; many believers waiting on the Lord to make their way prosperous.
Manifestation of the Presence of God is to equip and enable me to confront things that Jesus would confront if He was in my shoes.
Be strong and courageous is something I can will my way into; if God is commanding me to do something, then He will help me do it. Keep eyes on Him. Stop being impressed by the size of my problem.
Your giant is your next meal. Give us this day our daily bread. God create the table in such a way that I am so overwhelmed by who’s at the table and what you put there for me to eat that I never again become impressed with the enemy who is watching.

Acts 10:38 God annointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God
was with Him.

God is looking for a generation who will look at the giant and say “You are my dinner.”

Pray for:

Supernatural gift of courage
Supernatural gift of perception where we see things as You see them.
We want to see the impossibilites of this life bow to the authority of Jesus, and we pray for this.
Ask for an unusual ability to recognize giant = dinner; to interpret when the enemy surrounds me, there must be a meal somewhere.
Holy Spirit rest on each of us so that we never again become impressed with the size of our problem.

Start the way you mean to go

Dear hubbie and I joined a “small group” that was geographically close to our home and was attended by some of our friends and aquaintances. When first we attended, we did not know the leaders except by sight. The Man and Woman leaders were welcoming and authentic people – nothing especially “charismatic” about either one, except that they genuinely seemed to care about me/us. The Man was a dad, high school science teacher, skilled musician, whole-hearted worshipper and home school parent (did you see that coming?). The Woman was a mom, skilled musician, whole-hearted worshipper and home school parent. And their family was our introduction to Home Education.

As I spent time with the Woman and watched her interact with their five kids and watched their five kids interact with each other, I recognized a tug on my heart; it was one of those “I think I found my tribe” moments in my life. Ya know what I mean?

Their kids were normal kids – they liked to play, to eat, to laugh, to talk, to bug each other. But they were also loving and respectful to each other and to their parents. The family had a shared sense of humor and seemed genuinely close to each other. Bright eyes, bright smiles and kids that talked with anyone and everyone in our Small Group captured my attention. And these kids loved to read books — the ones that were old enough; the younger ones loved to have books read to them. We babysat for this family multiple times, and I fell more and more in love with those kids.

That’s how I want our kids to be. And dear hubbie agreed.

So, we hid those things in our hearts, so to speak. Our firstborn was just a baby when we had this revelation. It was exciting and kind of overwhelming to think about. Over the years before our son turned 4, I had lots of conversations with home school moms who were already in the process or who had finished their race. At that time the church we attended had a decent nucleus of families who were Home Educating; most of those families were using a variety of different approaches and curriculums, which made it easy to do firsthand “research.” I listened to their stories and then “tried on” mentally what it would be like to do home education that way. God knew exactly how to help me move forward. And He guided me every step of the way, my hand in His.

You may be under a time crunch at this point in your journey, especially is you have just recently decided to home educate. It’s ok. Here’s what I recommend you do:

Think about your core values and why you want to do this; write it all down.

Think about each child individually and what you know about how they learn; there’s a great book which changed my life called “The Way They Learn.”

Then start shopping for the books and/or curriculum that you think will work best for you and for your child.

Just start the way that you mean to go. You can always adjust your course along the way. One last resource I recommend is what I used for keeping track of attendance and for planning out lessons. I used one of Donna Young’s v-Planners for years and years; check it out and check out the rest of her resources. I invested time before the school year started (actually, I often started planning for the fall semester during February) planning everything out. I never regretted that investment of time.

If you have any questions or want to talk with me about home schooling, please contact me at connectworktasks@gmail.com. I would love to walk alongside you in your journey.

~thankful for my blessed life, on the Indiana prairie

So you are considering Home Education?

Whatever your reasons for considering the option of Home Education, you are not alone in the process, literally or figuratively. The NHERI (National Home Educators Research Institute), asserts, “Homeschooling – home education or home-based education – has grown from nearly extinct in the United States in the 1970s to over 2.5 million school-age students.”

Wherever you are on your journey, two things you should do if you have not already done so is to understand what Home Education is/isn’t and to find a state and/or local Home Education Organization. The IAHE, Indiana Home Educators Association, states,”We define home education as parent-directed, home-based, privately-funded education.” In addition to understanding the definition of home schooling in your state, you must also understand the law in your state. I strongly suggest that you become a member of HSLDA, Home School Legal Defence Association. They provide many free resources as well as links to Homeschool Organizations on their website.

If you want to talk about your options or ask questions about the practical side of home education, feel free to reach out to me at demossfam@gmail.com.

And good for you for taking responsibility for your child’s education by investigating the amazing opportunity of home schooling!

living free, on the Indiana Prairie

A Woman’s Inner Journey Through COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Order

I am supposed to be writing, but I keep finding other things to do. I have had a task in my Bullet Journal to write for an hour every day this week, but did not follow through.

So after I wrote that last sentence, I got up to make coffee. . . CRACK ON!!!

For fun food for my mind, I have been reading a mystery series set in a small town in MN, centering around a woman who owns a bakery specializing in cookies, at this point in the series. She has a married sister who lives in the town; the sister’s husband is local law enforcement. Her mom also lives in town. Currently she has two love interests who are both very different from each other.

I really like that setting and the clean storyline AND that she sprinkles cookie recipes into her stories, also.

For this trying-to-be-low-carb-and-hoping-to-some-day-be-keto woman, those cookie recipes present a slight problem with cravings. I have noticed however the keto items I have been baking/ making lately, taste pretty good these days. Cutting way back on sugar and on carbs that come from junk food, breads, grains, etc., has its benefits.

The COVID-19 Pandemic is disruptive to a measure, but I am still able to work part time and hubby is also working per usual. I make it a point to watch the Taskforce updates so that I can hear the truth and the facts directly from the “experts.” Otherwise, I listen to an AM Radio station out of Chicago for political commentary from an admittedly conservative viewpoint.

Because I have been working remotely for a few years now, though not exclusively, I am familiar with and comfortable with the tools required for that. A bit of a challenge and a new learning adventure is an add-in we are implementing. Should be fun getting it up and running. And who would have ever suspected that I would be THE IT department anywhere besides my home school Kingdom. All those times when I was troubleshooting my own issues at home have paid off in helping me to be more confident than I would be about tackling some minor IT issues.

I am sad about the cancelled and postponed events, especially for high school and college seniors. Such a bummer to invest so much time and not have the gratification of walking the walk.

This just in, I was just browsing Facebook instead of writing. . .how easily I am distracted.

I. NEVER. BROWSE. FACEBOOK. INSTAGRAM – YES. FACEBOOK, NOT REALLY. EVER.

LOL. Word just tried to add numbering formatting to this document because of my use of periods above. And I think I will title this “A Woman’s Inner Journey Through COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Order.” Is it truth or fiction? Only my hairdresser knows. No wait. . . she doesn’t know because I cannot go to her and have her wash my hair and trim me up and coif me beyond recognition, but in a way that is definitely attractive (thanks, Rainman). But I digress.

About my inner world, which I should probably write about if I want my title to be legit – it is in a peaceful and calm state and has been almost the entire time. It has been ruffled by thoughts about people rioting and looting at grocery stores – TP, eggs, milk, and every item that I really, really, really need; by actually being in the grocery store and seeing some bare shelves; by wondering if people are listening to the completely false information out there and acting on that information; and finally by the unknown about how long we have to stay-at-home and what our country will be like when we arrive at that point.

The rest of the time, I keep turning to God in prayer and reminding myself of the things that I absolutely know about Him and His character that are true. I suppose it’s a good thing that we (He and I) have been working these past few months on confronting my extreme aversion to pain and suffering. Ya know — when you get right down to the question of “will I still view God as good, as loving, as kind in the midst of pain and suffering?” I don’t like to go there in my thoughts, but I feel myself surrendering more and more to surrender and to believing that yes, He is the same no matter what the circumstances, and that WHEN I go through pain and suffering, He will be the same.

I just used the feature in Word where you can magnify/zoom in. What a blessing that feature it to my old eyes.

Anyhoo, I think this C-19 Pandemic keeps the reality that other than controlling myself (on a good day, as Danny Silk says), everything else is out of my control. So I get to moment by moment, almost, relax my grip and just try to enjoy the adventure of this historic time in which we are living.

I also believe it would be best to dream and to plan for a better future; I so appreciate Cy Wakeman’s “Ditch the Drama” strategy of if you are going to imagine an outcome/make up a narrative, why not imagine an amazing and fantastic one? That allows you to keep your peace, to keep your love turned on and to look for creative solutions.

Another way of thinking about it is to be thankful for what I do have instead of complaining, arguing, panicking, negatively reacting about what I do not have. Pollyanna had it right, actually. And personally I would rather spend my time full of hope and expectation of good for the future than the alternative.

Just had a funny short conversation with someone here in my hunker-down spot. I said, “my biggest fear is that you will forget that you have borrowed my cell phone charging cord and take it with you to work, leaving me without one at all.” Hyperbole, much? That is most definitely not my biggest fear (we covered that above) nor is it really a fear. What I should have said is that I am a selfish person who does not want you to borrow my cell phone charging cord because it might inconvenience me at some point. Wow, let it go, girl. [figuratively prying my fingers off of my cell phone charging cord]

I have easily surpassed the hour goal I set for myself for writing. Look at that. It has been fun and quite easy, as it turns out. I may not be interesting, but that was not part of my goal.

 

~prying my fingers loose, on the Indiana prairie

 

Core Values for a Meaningful and Fulfilling Life, or How to be a Super Star Volunteer

I need these reminders as we head into Tech week.

And now, in no particular order:

• Your real life is your own to guard and to steward intentionally and purposefully. Even though you might not realize it just yet, in retrospect you will not want to leave a trail behind you full of details and photos for the whole world to view at the convenience of a search and a click. Because you cannot see the end from the beginning, wisdom says remember that not everything or even most things belong on social media.
• It. Is. Never. Ever. Ever. About. You. Never. Ever.
• That being said, remember that you do get to control someone. Actually is it your responsibility. Wait for it. . . on a good day, the person that you get to control is y. o. u. And only YOU.
•  The good news is that you are a powerful person. So get rid of the lies that you believe about being a victim. You always get to choose how you respond – always. Monitor you own emotions, thoughts and actions. Whatever is true. . . think on those things.
• While you are controlling you, include time to renew yourself. If you do not take care of you, you will be unable to help others.
• Know yourself. You are a special and unique person. When you begin to know yourself, who you really are, you will realize the importance and value of the one in front of you becoming who he/she really is.
• Always choose to go lower. Ask “how can I help?” Recognize and value the privilege of embracing the cross is saying “no” to what you would naturally do, so that the one in front of you can do what he/she would naturally do. Never reject the opportunity to die to self; you will only feel pain in the places where you are not already dead.
• God first. Others second. Self third. Be third.
•  Be quick to forgive, to ask for forgiveness, to apologize, to clean up your mess.
• Choose your ‘tude. Choose positivity. Find the gold worth fighting for in the one in front of you.
• Practice faithfulness.
• Listen > talk. Ask questions for clarity. When you speak, speak the truth in love.
• Think critically. Think like the leader. Ask yourself, “how can I make this situation better?” Then, lend a hand.
• Get outside your silo and discover the bigger picture.
• Find something no one else wants to do and own it.
• Find ways to serve; take initiative.
• Don’t go boneless; reject passivity.
• Ask yourself, “who is wearing the hat now?” Then be an exemplary follower.
• Plan a solution. Plan time in your calendar to plan. Hold your plans loosely.
• Pray and rely on God’s strength.
• Adventure = Faith. Faith = Risk.
• Be “famous” for love. Love looks like something.
• Honor, respect and love, especially when you disagree.
• With each person, seek peace always. The one in front of you cannot be your enemy unless you choose for them to be. And even if they were your enemy, love your enemy and everyone else.

Been there done that

I had what I thought was a great idea for a blog post.

So I’ve been reminding myself of it for over 24 hours.

Moments ago I researched a bit and discovered that someone had already done the work I was planning to do. LOL.

That being said, I want to point you to some resources out there which are superb.

“Don’t believe everything you think.” One of many of my fave Cy Wakeman quotes.

Visit her web site and her You Tube channel for leadership tools which actually work.

But wait there’s more. Access the extras from Cy here.

Ditch the drama and equip yourself with leadership skills that will benefit you and others around you, whether you are “in charge” or not.

 

~ it’s a rope, not a snake

Freebie from me

After handing over my phone to the delightful young woman at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store so that she could scan my coupons, a “Monk” thought slapped me upside my head.

“WHAT IF SHE IS SICK AND/OR CARRYING SOME KIND OF INFECTIOUS GERMS ON HER HAND?!!!”

This morning I have been researching how to disinfect my smartphone screen PLUS have disinfected all the other parts of my smartphone that are not the screen.

Here’s your freebie — check your user’s manual for what your phone’s manufacturer recommends.  Mine says to wipe it with a soft cloth slightly dampened in a mild soap-and-water solution. BAM!!!

Do not try this at home without consulting your user’s manual.

(I’ve had colds go away and come back repeatedly this winter so far, which is not the norm for me.  I am intentionally seeking places to do battle with the germs because I want to be fully well!)

You’re welcome!

~fighting the good fight, on the Indiana prairie