by Alaina | Oct 16, 2022 | Sunday Scripture
For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
It was summer and to be honest it had been a long summer and not necessarily a good one. Stressor on top of stressor had led to me feeling run down and a bit burnt out. It wasn’t just the stressors but also the fact that I had been planning to take it easier that summer. I had planned to lighten my workload and spend more time enjoying the summer weather but, as so often happens, life’s circumstances had gotten in the way and there I was working long hard hours wishing I could just be on a beach somewhere—just for a little bit.
Amidst feeling sorry for myself, a thought came to me—what if we just took off and went to a beach somewhere. Both my husband and I set our own schedule so it really wasn’t impossible… If we could find a cheap Airbnb, we could take a few days off, drive to the beach and just relax. No, I thought to myself, that takes planning. We’d have to make arrangements for the dog, I’d have to let clients know I’d be off, making adjustments to my calendar, my husband adjusting his—certainly we couldn’t just leave. I wanted to go so badly—I finally decided to float the idea passed my husband. What if we left two days later, at the beginning of the weekend?
My husband said no, he had a big meeting on Tuesday that he didn’t want and really couldn’t reschedule. If we left on Saturday he wouldn’t be able to keep that commitment so we couldn’t leave that weekend but we could leave Tuesday night after the meeting! When we came home from work that night, we poured through Airbnb listings trying to find one with a beach-front view, one that was cheap—very cheap—and we found one!
Five days after the crazy idea had entered my head, we were sitting on a beach-—me with a good book in my hand. Our dog was at my parents’ house, my clients had understood, our schedules had been adjusted and I rested and relaxed that week like I hadn’t done for a very long time.
So often we tell ourselves that we can’t, that it just wouldn’t work, that we shouldn’t do it. But we just did it and you know what? Nothing bad happened. None of our clients dropped us, our dog didn’t die, our house didn’t burn down, and we had one of the best little vacations we’ve ever had.
God didn’t create us to live in fear and bondage. Yes, we need to be responsible; we don’t always want to take off work with short notice, but once in a while it really is okay. God has blessed us (I mean this collectively as a first world country) and these blessings are not meant to be burdens. We are meant to use the resources and blessings He has given us to bless others and, yes, to enjoy them.
The next time you are feeling bogged down with the commitments of life, I hope you are able to pause and decipher what things in life are shoulds and what are have-tos, what things are non-negotiables, and what things you can actually flex for your benefit. I want to stop viewing everything as a have-to and a can’t, but as a get-to! I want to stop living with a spirit of fear—how about you?
by Alaina | Oct 13, 2022 | Homemaking
“I love fall best of all,” and quotes like “I am so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers,” the latter being a quote from Anne of Green Gables, permeate this time of year. I love the thought of fall—I love pulling out my cozy sweaters; I love the warm salted caramel hot chocolates, and Chai tea lattes that become readily available this time of year. I love the thought of curling up in front of the fire with a mystery story that has just enough spookiness and suspense to make my spine tingle and make me jump at the climax. Unfortunately though, I live in Pennsylvania. The weather this time of year can be undependable at best and miserable at worst. We have plunged from 80 degree weather down to highs in the low 60s with no balmy 70 degree days to ease us out of one season and into the other. For this reason it is very easy to get grumpy with fall and blame it for the very long winter stretching ahead of us. In fact, it is so easy to get lost in our crankiness with this unpredictable season that we end up not taking advantage of some of the fun things there are to enjoy this time of year.
I should mention that my family is not a big fan of Halloween—Harvest yes, Halloween no. Frankly, I get more than a little disgusted by all the death and macabre things that appear this time of year. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why we celebrate death, not only death but also decay, at this time of year, when at any other time of year we are busy acting like death is something that will never affect us? It boggles my mind!
I have been hearing lots of fall bucket lists, and I couldn’t help but think about some of the things that always sound fun to do this time of year. We may not get to do all these things this year but maybe you can enjoy a few of them for me!
A Corn Maze
Not a scary one but just a nice friendly corn maze that is fun for the whole family. A corn maze is also a good learning experience for kids who don’t learn to use maps like older generations did.
Apple Picking
Many local orchards have apple-picking days. It is a great way to enjoy the fall season. A lot of orchards will even press your apples into cider for you.
Fall Festivals
In the northeastern part of the country, this is the prime season for festivals. There are many crafts shows and festivals that feature local and independent artisans. These festivals not only help the artisans but also help the local economy! Look to see if there are any events in your surrounding counties and check them out!
Have a Campfire
My grandmother always talked about how, at the end of the harvest season, her school would have a campfire and they would roast hotdogs and sing and tell ghost stories as one last hoorah before the cold winter weather set in. While having a campfire may sound like more of a summer thing, fall is the perfect time to grab an old poufy blanket and some marshmallows and head outside to enjoy the weather before it gets too cold.
A Favorite Drink
When I think of cozy and warm, I think about drinking something hot and comforting. How fun would it be to pick a fall drink and perfect the making of it throughout the fall season? Do you like hot chocolate? What about making it from scratch? What about tea—Chai tea? Look in a cookbook or on Pinterest for a fun decadent spin on some of your favorite standby drinks!
Read
To so many of us curling up with a good book and a warm drink sounds like the perfect way to enjoy the season, but do we make time for it? Try to schedule in some reading time just as you would schedule in time to go to the pumpkin patch or any other fall activity.
Pumpkins
Speaking of pumpkins—what about a trip to your local pumpkin patch? Pumpkin patches these days can range from a stand alongside the road selling a few pumpkins to a large activity center with hay rides and all sorts of fall activities. Either way, there is something fun about picking out a pumpkin, bringing it home, carving it, and then roasting the seeds. Try it!
Light the Candles
One of the things I see all the time are candles that aren’t burnt. I see candles that people are “saving” but what are they saving them for? I know I have had many things over the years that I have saved only for them to go bad and then thrown out. If you have a special fall candle or something of that nature, why not pull it out now and use it.
A Train Ride
There is a state park not too far from us that has a train that will take passengers for a short ride. The scenery this time of year is gorgeous and going on a train ride is a fun way to enjoy it. Young kids especially enjoy it! If you don’t have a train near you, what about a boat or ferry? Look for unique ways to experience the beauty of fall!
I hope this will help encourage and give you ideas about how to enjoy the fall season. As always, I would love to hear from you about how you most enjoy this time of year! Connect with me on Instagram @essentiallyemmamarie! And if you know someone who might enjoy this post—please share!
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
How to Create a Fall Vignette
How to Add That Cozy Fall Feel to Your Home
Fall Centerpiece Ideas
by Alaina | Oct 9, 2022 | Sunday Scripture
You have said, “Seek my face. “My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
Psalm 27:8 ESV
I mentioned in my post The Interest of Others of the day my son was born. That little baby has grown over these past few months to be an alert, slightly nosy, little baby! He is interested in everything! I will sit him in his bouncer seat (which he loves!) then walk around, completing various tasks that I can’t do with a baby in my arms. One of my favorite things is that amidst his bouncing and waving of his arms and legs, he keeps an eye on me. I’ll walk around behind him and I’ll see him looking, a bit like an owl trying to swivel his head, to see where I have gone. I’ll stick my head over the top of the bouncer and he cranes his head back looking at me, then breaks into one of those gorgeous baby smiles as he spots me!
This is quite a switch for me—I believe I have mentioned that I have cats? Well, the thing about cats is they kind of don’t care about you… I know that sounds harsh and I definitely don’t mean to be disparaging to the cat population but (at least my cats) fully believe that we humans were put on this earth to please them. When they want to be petted—we better be available. When they desire to curl up next to us, we must remain seated until they decide it’s okay for us to move. When we walk around, our cats cannot be bothered to wonder where we are going or what we are doing, unless they hear the treat bag or food-can rattle!
This reminds me of the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. There they were in a perfect paradise, truly not knowing how great they had it when they blew it—they ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked. Suddenly they knew right and wrong. And they knew that they had sinned. So what did they do? They tried to hide from God. They made clothes out of leaves and then tried to stay away from God. But God came looking anyway. He asked where they were. God sought them out. The creator of the universe cared about these little creatures He had made and who existed to love and serve Him.
As a whole, we act a lot more like my cats than my son when it comes to how we treat God. We act largely unconcerned about His whereabouts until we need something, then we come slinking up to Him, asking for whatever we find ourselves needing at that time.
How much better if we were to act as little children as Jesus commands us to in Matthew 18:3 where He says, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”(NKJV) Just as my son keeps an eye on me at all times, smiling when I talk to him face to face, how rich and fulfilled our lives would be if we kept our eyes always trained on Him, craning our necks when He seems just out of reach, and taking time to invest in our relationship with Him.
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
Obedience
Hidden in Plain Sight
A Gentle Answer
by Alaina | Oct 2, 2022 | Sunday Scripture
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:22 ESV
We have reached the time of year where, especially around here, the leaves are starting to blaze bright with different colors along the hillside. The leaves, which seem like they just burst forth, are now withering and starting to fade away; the grass, which had been lush and green, is starting to turn brown. Things are coming to a close. That is the thing about fall; it’s not quite the end. Winter is the end… but fall… Fall is the beginning of the end. The leaves are starting to turn but still hanging on. The nice days are getting fewer and farther between but still coming. The days getting shorter but not too short yet. It’s a season of almost rest, but not quite time to rest.
Every year I feel the desire to rest hard this time of year. To take long slow walks admiring the landscape as the colors vary week to week. It is also a time of clearing out clutter and paring down. In summer I spend every spare minute outside and when I am forced to be indoor more than I am out of doors, I find myself wanting to pare down, clean up, and clear out—I am in a state of preparation, trying to make my dwelling as homey as possible for the months that we will soon be spending inside our house.
Fall is a season for me of everything coming full circle. Everything that was starting a few months ago, is now ending—yet ending only for a few months, then the cycle will restart. Back in Jesus day, they viewed years as more of a circle than something linear linking one after each other as we view our years, and I like that. I like the thought of interlocking circles like a chain that causally link one after the other, rather than a bunch of rulers, each with a harsh end point lined up, one after each other, measuring out the time of our lives insisting that we not waste one minute because the end is already insight. I like the chain better, with its gentle twists and turns that life takes us on.
When we are in a fall season of our lives it can be hard to think that life will ever be green and full of life again. I think of Job—he had a wonderful life. Job had grown wealthy and prosperous. He had a large family, and his children were grown—he seemed to be in the latter years of his life. Then disaster strikes. Satan asks God to challenge Job’s faith and God agrees and then ensues the roughest patch of life Job has yet seen. All of children—dead. His wealth? Destroyed. His good health? That too was taken away. Yet, Job keeps his faith. He asks God some tough questions and gets a little indignant, and God calls Job out for these things… but again Job keeps his faith. And God rewards him, giving him back his wealth and riches, and blessing him with more children!
Things don’t always work out like that, but so often there is new life buried underneath all the hard stuff we have to persevere through to get there. There is fall and there is winter in our lives, but there is always a spring too! Life always comes full circle sooner or later, and for believers there is always new, and eternal life awaiting us in Heaven.
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
Grateful in Everything
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
The Refining Fire
by Alaina | Oct 1, 2022 | Cleaning, Homemaking
Having been in the house cleaning industry for a while now, I’m always surprised by some of the mistakes I see people making in their cleaning. What really surprises me is that it wasn’t oh so long ago that I was making these same mistakes! Luckily, I have learned and improved my cleaning and you can improve yours too! Here’s how:
Cleaning In The Wrong Order
If you are doing a whole-house cleaning, the order in which you clean will affect the outcome of how your home looks when you are done. For instance, I see many people vacuum their floors just to go back through and, for example, clean their kitchen, knocking lots of crumbs on the floor they just vacuumed! Always start high and work your way down. Dust the high areas, moving to lower surfaces, wipe off counters, vacuum and then mop. If your baseboards are dirty, vacuum them, wipe them and then pull out your mop.
Missing Things
If I go into a home, I can usually tell what kind of a housekeeper they are by looking at the bottom of their toilet. Just about everyone will scrub their toilet bowl. A lot of people wipe down the outside of the toilet, but hardly ever do people wipe the very base of the toilet—the flat part that screws onto the floor. Make sure you hit that and you will be doing better than most!
Cleaning With The Wrong Products
Do you pay attention to the back label of your cleaning product that says what its uses are? A lot of people don’t. They think it won’t matter if you use something differently than what’s intended once or twice. Usually that’s right, but not always! Repeated use of an incorrect cleanser will break down the surface it’s being used on and lead to unalterable damage. What are a few of the common ones?
- Windex on shower doors—don’t do it! Try distilled vinegar mixed 50/50 with water instead.
- Hard cleaners on granite. You need your cleanser to be gentle—and pH neutral. Try sticking with simple dish soap and water!
- Polish on surfaces that don’t need it. It is okay to occasionally wax or polish your real wood floors, but surfaces, like a dresser or china cabinet, don’t need to be polished regularly if you are not constantly using them to wear down the polish. Repeated waxing of a seldom-used surface, or using a real wood floor wax on faux wood floors will build up overtime leaving surfaces dull, and sticky in some instances.
Lazy Vacuuming
What is the number one thing people skip when they are vacuuming in a hurry? The edges. Especially on carpet. But the edges are where most of the dirt hangs out! For hard floors, vacuum the entire floor, then take your crevice tool around the edges. For carpet, get all the dirt out of the corners first by using the crevice tool then vacuum the main carpet area.
Skipping Dusting
It may be true that the dust doesn’t really accumulate (all that quickly) but it still will accumulate! This is especially true of furniture near a door that you use frequently and also if you have pets. You can get away with taking a quick pass with a Swiffer duster every other week or even monthly but if you try to stretch it out much longer than that, you are increasing the amount you will have to do later—and remember, if some surfaces get too dirty, they will never come as clean as you want them!
I hope this helps!
Disclaimer: All of these cleaning tips have come from my personal experience and that of the clients whom I serve. While the information here should be applicable and safe in most circumstances if you have any doubts be sure to check with the manufacturer for the product which you are cleaning and always test a cleaning product or procedure in an inconspicuous area first!
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
