What does your Sabbath look like?

As I seek to live more and more as God would have me and my family live, the more amazed (stunned, fascinated, shocked?) I am at how far Christianity today has come down the wrong pathways. To be a Christian is to be Christ-like or followers of Christ, yes?

Jesus said that if we love him we will obey his commands, his teachings.

Many Christians are of the (convenient?) belief that the New Testament frees us from keeping a Sabbath. Interesting. Does that mean that we are also freed from the commandments that follow 'Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy'; that it's now okay to lie, murder steal? or the ones the precede it? It's okay to have other gods and make images of them to worship?

I think not.

I don't believe the New Testament frees us from this command. To me it's best summed up in this sentence I found in an article on God's Law in New Testament Ethical Times
"If the stature of Christ is our moral standard, then the Old Testament law must be kept in Christian ethics"

"But Jesus healed on the Sabbath" I hear too often. Sure - but He didn't live against the Sabbath. He remembered the Sabbath and kept it holy. His only variation being when LOVE dictated a change of habit.

Oh, and the things we use to justify that what we're doing is okay on our Sabbath because it's 'different' from what we do the rest of the week so therefore it's not our usual work.
Legalistic to the nth degree, just on the other side of the fence!

So as I nut through all this for our family I'm quite interested in what other people do to 'Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy'.

So far for us it means
-church
-limiting household chores. Tidy up what is being done but don't spend time working. E.g. make beds, clean the kitchen table - necessary basics
-cooking a meal the day before for Sunday lunch
-not shopping
-spending time with family; more reading, playing games and watching appropriate movies together
-house cleaned the day before (during Saturday); Our day is much more enjoyable when in a clean and tidy environment!

These things enable us to have a more God focused day and a day of rest from our usual rush and bustle of life. I believe God created us with a physical, emotional and spiritual need for a day of rest.

Would I break Sabbath? Sure, when love requires it. When someone's hour of need is on the Sabbath, the needs must still be met, as best we're able.

Oh, and our Sabbath is from Saturday evening till Sunday evening - yes, I know others have Saturday as their sabbath and that's fine - they could probably even prove it legalistically as being the exact correct day... I though, am fully convinced in my own mind that the day does not matter. Having a Sabbath does.

More Planning Required

We've been back at our bookwork for a week now, which has been great as it's showing me the 'holes' I need to work on! Well, one actually. I need to do more planning. On a daily basis.

See the picture above? Guess which day was more productive and smooth and the least stressful? Yes - the one with more planning done first!
The left hand column is the most important. That's where I estimate our time usage for the day and it keeps us on track but is loose enough that we're not rushed as we go about the day. Sooo much time is wasted when I don't do this. Some may be able to function productively without this sort of planning, but I am NOT one of them!

So from now, I commit to planning daily, preferably the night before. This will increase our productivity and decrease stress. Not to forget of course, that it's also good stewardship of the time my Lord has given me!

What about you? I'd love to hear how you manage time - are you one of the lucky ones who just manages to fulfill all responsibilities each day or do you need to list and/or schedule? What works best for you?

Our Vegie Patch at the Community Garden

Weeding first


Nathaniel divided one half into 6 mini plots which will determine where different things get planted. Today we put in cherry tomatoes and beetroot. More beetroot will be added tomorrow and in a couple of weeks well add cucumber seedlings which we're caring for at home while they're tiny.
Need to decide on a couple of other things to grow here too as we have more room that we first thought, which is nice!


Other peoples' vegie gardens in the background


This will be a whole other home ed subject! Covering maths, science, life skills and more :o)

Paper Week - Day One

When thinking about a week of 'Paper', yesterday... I thought 30mins a day - no problem!
Well, it's gone 7pm and I'm yet to do my half hour *blush*
I guess that's why it's a problem!

I will get my 30minutes done before I go to bed tonight!

What will I work on?

The pile to the right of the computer - on the blue drawers... should only take 10mins?
The pile to my left, under my open diary... yes, probably another 10 minutes?
Then the remaining minutes will be about setting up some sort of paper system to help prevent this sort of madness in the future!

I will be back to report :o)
**Back - Got it 1/2 done! Blue drawers done and some setting up of systems i.e. organising the paper that needs to be kept.

I don't have a clutter problem, I have a paper problem

What is it with paper that causes it to breed so?

Personal computers creating a paperless world is obviously just a myth, or wishful thinking on part of the trees.

Once I conquer paper organisation, I will be so much better equipped to handle all else that life throws my way. Paper clutter, clutters the mind; takes up head space that could be put to much better us.

But what to do about it? Stop procrastinating I think. Maybe? *grin* Yes!!

So - and join me if you will - The week ahead is a Paper Week.
30 minutes EVERY day
More done, doesn't count towards the next day... that'd be cheating
The key here is consistency
Why not 15minutes?
Because it takes almost that to get your head in the right place to deal with the paper!!!

Loving the bills!

On arriving home from holidays there was the inevitable pile of mail to go through, including 2 bills.

I am thrilled to announce that neither were scary and one was a YIPPEE

Phone bill (includes home, 2 x mobile and internet) just as budgeted for... I aim for it to be $16__'something' and it was $167.93.
This represents a savings of about $50 a month on our old plans.

The YIPPEE award goes to the GAS BILL.
We've been extra careful here with heating and this bill came in at an average of $3.42 per day. I wasn't overly thrilled with that till I dug out a bill for the same period in another year. When we were averaging $6.02 PER DAY for gas.
On this one bill that's a savings of $158.00 and there will be one more in the same season... so we're looking at saving over $300 in the year on our gas bill alone.

This little chickadee is happy to have the heating off at night and put up with cooler days if that's what it turns into!

On those two bills alone, we are $900 tax free dollars ahead each year! That's like getting a $1200 pay rise. Gotta love when simplifying life has such measurable results.

(Having said that, the warmer weather in Qld was wonderful and I am going to have to force myself to wear extra clothes and keep the heating low tomorrow!!)

Worn Out - and Celebrating!

Hubby's pants have gone to the bin. 2 pairs - and we're thrilled.
We have vowed in our efforts to simplify that no more clothes will go to the op shop. We will own few enough that they WEAR out.
So with 2 to the bin, another will be repaired with material from a bin pair - and that pair then continues to be his 'yucky-work' pants. We bought a new best pair and he has 2 nice looking but older pants, for every day.
We will win this war!

Good bye door bell

In our effort to simplify, our doorbell is going. No - we didn't look to do that LOL
When the batteries etc died again and it looks like the whole thing needs replacing - it is about 9 years old... I said: 'duh' doorbells are a modern inconvenience!
We may well get a 'knocker' but in the meantime, a note that says 'please knock' will suffice.
In my work, I go to too many homes where the doorbell doesn't work. Very frustrating... I politely ring it and wait, then ring again, pressing a little harder. After a good 5 minutes in the cold I decide it's not working, knock on the door and voila!, someone comes to the door!
So... by no door bell, we don't have to think about whether or not it's working and we don't have to keep paying for batteries.
I love a simplified life!

The bread I've been baking