Crying is Good

I've been away from my blog posting for awhile and I apologize. Between dealing with family issues, several losses in our church the weirdness of new Blogger ( which has gotten weirder since my last post) and the troubles in our nation I've had some depression. I don't like being depressed because I don't like to cry. I hadn't always allowed myself to cry. I did when we were in lockdown because everything was just so overwhelming. Last week was very bad because of a disaster that happened back in March with a family member who will remain unidentified. I will just say she is believing many of the world's ideas though she says she hasn't lost her faith. So last week I spent a good portion of the week crying or had teary eyes but crying was good for me. I was able let go of the bottled up feelings I was holding on to for months. I've been spending much time reading God's Word, listening and singing hymns and of course praying. One of my favorite hymns is Great is Thy Faithfulness. I was listening to it last week and someone shared on her blog the same hymn. That was a blessing from God. Please keep our family in prayer. I truly desire for each of my daughters to embrace a Biblical worldview and not the lies that the world and carnal Christians are believing. On a more positive note, September is National Sewing Month and I'm so excited. I'll share more about that tomorrow. Until then...

This and That

I'm sorry for the absence but I'm having issues with the new Blogger. I'm not a fan. I would be tempted to switch to Wordpress but that would require my reader friends to create an account there. I had to do that a few years ago when I wanted to comment on a WordPress blog. So anyway, I will just try to get used to the changes. I've been teaching myself to sew which has been fun but at the same time frustrating because I seem to spend more time ripping out seams than I do getting things sewn. I hope somewhere below is a jumper dress made last week with help from my daughter. I've some bloggers are having issues with photos. Its a The Kings Daughters and its the Laura Jumper. I bought the pattern at www.candleonthehill.net

As far as my decluttering confess I haven't done anything. I still have a ton of stuff I really should take to the thrift store. I don't enjoy holding yard sales so thrift store they go. Thankfully my sewist daughter is teaching herself to knit and crochet and is taking some of my extra yarn. I'm crocheting a prayer shawl for a friend who lost her husband and I'll post a picture when it's done. Well that's about it for now. I hope you all continue to stay well and let's be careful out there.

Using Descretion With Social Media

In my last post I mentioned I signed up for Instagram. When I first signed up not knowing how it works, I immediately disabled my account because in the recommended sites to follow there were all these yucky celebrities.  I'm think ewwww gross I don't want to follow those icky people!

However, my daughters told me you get recommend sites based on who you follow and who follows you so I enabled my account and the rest is history. 

As I learn( and still learning) how Instagram works I want to share the following advice and caution for having any of the popular social media sites for all of us who are new to these sites. These are the things I've observed on Instagram as I know nothing about the other social media sites.

1. Be mindful of who you follow particularly if they claim to be Christian. I've noticed there is a lot of false teaching out there.

2. Use caution when receiving a "Follow" request. Check their site for information about them. Some accounts are private but they will have a small bio in the introduction. If it doesn't seem right then just delete the request. There are some that create accounts for the purpose of spamming users.

3. I highly recommend you set your account to private so  you approve or delete  follow requests.   I don't know if they will receive a notice it was deleted. I highly doubt it. This way only your followers can see and comment on your page.

4. Guard your time. I'm having fun I must admit and it's been a joy connecting again with old friends from my old homeschool group and MOPS group ( Mothers of Preschoolers) in California.  But too much time on social media can better be spent reading God's Word and in prayer.

  

Online Clutter

I had planned on writing about social media clutter but I realize just whole online experience can be a problem for many of us so I'm just going to share my experiences.

I will divide into categories my online clutter

Email and Email Newsletters:

When I got my first email address back in probably 1997, I was on cloud nine. I felt like we had finally caught with the 20th century! Back then we had dial- up internet and what a pain that was. For you young whipper snappers who don't know what dial up is, you had to use your phone line and there were phone numbers your internet provider supplied to connect to the internet.  Our was America Online now known  as AOL . Back then America Online would send you a free disk to download to your computer and then sign up for their service.The problem though because you had to use your phone line, people couldn't get a hold of you because your line was busy. 

 Anyhow as I was learning more about how the internet works I found several free email account services so I was signing up for no reason other than to have fun user names like tea4two, crochetmama and threegirls4god just to name a few. Before I knew it, I had so many email addresses on so many sites, I couldn't keep track of them all.

I eventually deleted most of my accounts though I'm sure there are some still out there collecting spam.

So now I still have four email addresses but they each serve a purpose.

There is also the problem of those email newsletters.  I can't even tell you how many newsletters I'm subscribed to and I ask myself why. Why am I letting all this clutter flood my inbox?

Last week I decided to unsubscribe from Bed, Bath and Beyond, Walgreens, Sally Beauty and more. I don't know when or if I will shop these stores it's silly for me to have the newsletters coming to my inbox when all they want is for me to buy, buy, buy.

My next topic is social media which I will include blogs and popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

a. Blogs- Can I tell you how much I love reading Blogs? Not just the ones I'm subscribed to but the random blogs I'm come across while surfing the net. Most of them are faith based but sometimes I come across a blog that people have left rude comments or spam and I want to "put them in their place" by pointing out how wrong they are.

So, I've made a conscious effort to follow the advice in this verse " Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him. (Proverbs 26:4 KJV)

b. Social Media Sites (Facebook,  Twitter, Instagram etc)  I told myself I would never ever get Facebook, Twitter and the like because there is just too much drama.  Enter stay at home order  in our state in March and boredom.  Then  at the end  of a sewing newsletter I get  had these four words "Follow us on Instagram".   Words I've seen on almost all my newsletter. Went to the site and the next thing I knew I had created an account. Now you see another reason not to have so many newsletters . 

I admit I do like Instagram and I thought it would be safer than other sites as far as drama is concerned.  Well I was wrong and once again I found myself arguing with someone on a friend's site or are they are called pages?

As I learn more about how Instagram works (thanks to all my daughters and their expertise, I'm  seeing how it can become a true time waster.  It's so easy to get caught up in multiple Instagram stories, click  the "Follow"  button on a recommended site or engage in an argument with a commenter  on a friend's site/page.

I realize this post is getting a little long so I  want to talk a little bit more about popular social media sites and some words of caution on my very next post.

 

To Be Young Again-FMF

Today writing prompt for Five Minute Friday is Young

https://fiveminutefriday.com/2020/07/23/fmf-writing-prompt-link-up-young/

I can't remember if I explained what Five Minute Friday is. 

Each week we get a writing prompt via email  and we write for five minutes only. Its rather fun.

Click on the link above for more information. 

I'm also working( in my head) a post on social media clutter but I keep deleting in my brain .

My five minutes start now.

There was a time when I really wanted to be young again. To be a child playing and enjoying being a child.

But then I also wanted to be a young mom again and go back and fix mistakes I made when they were growing up.

But I wouldn't want to be a child and a young mom in these troubling times. People have turned away from God and have called what is sin, the most awesome thing in the world.

Things when I was growing up people would frown upon such as immodesty, same sex relationships, blasphemy against our Lord.

No I wouldn't want to be young again. It's too scary!

Timer beeped. Five minutes are done.

Bonus extra one minute sentence-

The photo above was taken so long ago when I was sort of young but not really.

And the Winner Is

Drum roll please..... Becky! Congratulations.  I will be in touch to get your mailing address so that Cheryl can mail your book.

If you didn't win, you can order her book through Amazon in the link from my giveaway post.

My next post I hope to talk about social media  "clutter".

Our Moving to AZ Experience and Biblical Minimalism Giveaway Date Extended

First off I will say preparing to move was on of the most stressful experiences of our lives. We sold Tim's childhood home and it held so many memories not just of his childhood but our girls grew up there too.

The process of  going through stuff and trying to decide what to keep and what to donate began. There were sixty years worth of things to go through. Things that belonged to his parents, things that belonged to him not to mention my stuff and the girls.

Can I tell you all how hard it was to give up things like my Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit book that I got as a baby shower gift when I was having my first baby( she is now 25) and so many other books from when my girls were little? There was vintage Christmas decorations that belonged to my in-laws, items Tim's maternal uncle sent his mom from when he was in World War II, old dishes and more. We even found an old rationing card that belong to his mom which is also from World War II.

  When were going through all the items in the house we were just couldn't believe we had so much (for lack of a better word) junk. We rented those U-haul pod things that you pack and U-haul comes and and takes them away and drives them to your destination. Since we didn't have a home to move to when we left California we used U-haul storage. We rented about three pods(we all couldn't fit in a moving truck) plus a large trailer. We also rented a large dumpster for things that were either too worn out or broken.

We got rid a lot of things we didn't need but it was very difficult. What's even more is we were still packing and loading pods the week we were moving. Actually the day escrow closed and we were supposed to be out of the house we were still packing and loading pods. We  were even  stuffing  things into our car which at the time was a Mountaineer.

 We had so much stuff we weren't willing to let go of  we ran out of room in the pods and trailer. Now this is the shameful confession. As a result there were many items that got left. Things like a large toaster/convection oven, my microwave oven, artwork on the walls and some furniture and who knows what else.

Now sitting in our garage in our current home there are boxes and bins in the garage that I have never unpacked that will probably never make it into the house such as my porcelain dolls I got when I used to sell Avon back in the late 1990s. As I type this I'm looking at all the stuff we brought to our new home and I ask myself "Why did we bring that?"

So now after reading Biblical Minimalism, I realize  we really need to rethink our "stuff".  I have to ask myself "Why do I need to hold on to all the Keepers at Home magazines or An Encouraging Word magazines?" "Do I really need all those teacups?" And don't get me started on the bags of yarn and fabric AND sewing patterns I will never use.

Does any of this stuff glorify God?  Can I bless someone else with some of this? Oh and did I mention  duplicate kitchen utensils? 😮

I'm learning that none of this "junk" is important when it comes to eternity. We can't take any of these things to heaven. And besides who wants to be tripping over a bunch of useless items in heaven anyway.

I think I've rambled long enough. I just want to share my story and I hope it will serve as a warning to me and anyone who may be struggling with excess.

I'm extending the giveaway to Wednesday.  There's much going on with my family and church family  so I haven't had time to collect names.  If  you'd would like to have a chance to be entered to win a signed copy of Cheryl Smith's book Biblical Minimalism enter here 

https://coveredwifeoftim.blogspot.com/2020/07/book-review-biblical-minimalism-by.html

Apologies if this post is disjointed and subjects are out of order. As a former homeschool mom, If I were turning this in for a grade I'd give myself a C or possible a D.