Take Hold!

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Part of the “growing up” that we are all trying to do, is learning to move our minds in the direction we need them to go.

Case in point: When you have a big day ahead of you, is your automatic or untrained way of thinking, to move into stress and fear and anxiety?

Or how about when you are feeling pulled too many different directions at once?

Or when you have a new challenge or assignment?

What are you in the habit of thinking?


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How frightening it is? How overwhelmed you are? How you wish it would go away and leave you able to stay the way you are?

I can relate to all of those thoughts!

But I don’t want to invite them in for tea! Our children desperately need us to lead out by continuing our own growth!

The sooner we recognize negative or backward thinking for what it is, the sooner and more easily we can replace it with thoughts that will serve us and move us forward! Awareness is crucial!

This is also why having declarations written ahead of time is so valuable! You can immediately tell the fearful, whining, childish {not childlike, there is a big difference!} I’d-rather-do-anything-than-change thoughts to be gone!

And then replace them, w i t h o u t d e l a y, with your declarations that are full of faith and strength and courage! Shout them if you need to! Be fierce in the way that being fierce makes the biggest difference–that is, in your own mind!

“With God’s help, I can be successful in this new challenge.”

“I am made equal to the challenges in my life by asking for Divine help.”

“I am energetic.”

“I am fiercely determined to grow to my full potential.”

“I am living my mission.”

“I am full of gratitude.”

I am full of gratitude for you today.

Be well.

“The mission of Lioness at the Door is to uplift, strengthen and encourage women of all ages to magnify health, hope and happiness at home. We do so boldly, with humility and gratitude for the opportunity.”

The Cream of the Cream

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I was thinking about you today.

And the more I thought, the more it sunk home to me how wonderful you are!

You are the best of the best.

You are hard-working and loyal.


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You are kind, gentle, respectful and FIRM.

You are willing to say you are sorry and start over.

You forgive quickly and receive forgiveness graciously.

You are generous with your time and attention.

You never give up! {Even when you are sleep deprived for years!}

You are fun and charismatic!

You are beautiful, inside and out.

I hope you know that you are loved and appreciated, even if by chance, no one mentioned that today.

It’s still true.

Love, love, love,

“The mission of Lioness at the Door is to uplift, strengthen and encourage women of all ages to magnify health, hope and happiness at home. We do so boldly, with humility and gratitude for the opportunity.”

What They Really Need

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When our children were small, we opted not to have t.v. reception. It was always interesting to me to see the difference in our kids when we were staying for a short time anyplace there was a lot of t.v. watching. All of a sudden, they were preoccupied with what they now knew they needed! The latest game or toy or movie. Funny, that had they not watched those commercials, they never would have felt deprived at all!

Being submersed in affluence is mind altering.

And since this is all many of us have known, we don’t register the many ways our collective thinking is distorted!

Except we get a glimpse of that distortion, when we see children needing their parents, when the parents are otherwise occupied– sure that they must provide, what turns out to be luxuries for their children, even if the expense to provide them is being separated from their children day in and week out.

Is part of the problem that we’re so used to possessing things that we’ve turned children into objects?

Thinking that we want them so that we can possess them, and on our sometimes misguided terms?

Truth is, our children aren’t our possessions. And they don’t need more possessions.

They generally don’t even need more lessons or opportunities.

Parents and children actually need more daily, committed, loving and trustworthy connections. {The ten o’clock news confirms this observation.}

I wonder how long it is going to take our culture to stop looking for the next government-funded program to rescue our nation’s children; to recognize that the only real rescue is to provide a home, with parents and siblings who want to spend the time making the connections that all human beings need?

And, while we’re doing our best to give our children what they really need, adults have the opportunity to be nurtured and taught as well. What parent hasn’t learned great life lessons from their toddler who forgives instantly or simply from the growth {motivated by love} they require to continue to lead?

People need food and shelter, chances for learning and developing gifts are great too. Beyond that, people need to be cared for by people. And the best people to give what the next generation needs, are those who have sacrificed to bring them here and love them enough to sacrifice whatever else isn’t necessary, for their good.

Maybe if we regularly turn off the bombardment of social and advertising media, we’d be able to clear our thoughts, take a deep breath and just be. Just be together.

I hope you are well and living the real dream. The dream of family.

Love,

“The mission of Lioness at the Door is to uplift, strengthen and encourage women of all ages to magnify health, hope and happiness at home. We do so boldly with humility and gratitude for the opportunity.”

Make Pudding Not Proof

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Kind of like saying, make love not war!

Only, we don’t really plan to create war when we think we have to prove ourselves to others. But that thinking does create contention, by inevitably, creating competitive situations with everyone around us.

Today though, I’d like to challenge you to stop competing with your spouse.


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Think about it for a minute. Are there ways that you have set yourself up to prove to him that you are smarter or more frugal or savvy….or, uh hem, righteous than he is?

Guess what?

Competition kills when it comes to creating a loving relationship.

Instead of trying to see who’s best, be on the look out for ways that you can compliment his efforts with yours; ways you can genuinely build him and stabilize his world.

You want an equal partner? Treat him like gold, be yourself, do your best to hold up your side of the partnership and he will do all he can to support you too.

Why do I say this with confidence?

Because men aren’t as complicated as we are! They want to be needed and appreciated and loved (kind of like what we want, right?) and they respond to sincerity and loving behavior quickly and happily.

Don’t make this anymore complex than it needs to be.

Drop the proving and competing and, well, make some pudding instead.

Seriously! Here’s a little recipe I use.


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It is my mother-in-law’s pie filling, and it is lovely.

I tweaked it just a little substituting sugar for a natural sweetener.

2 cups milk (I use all kinds, mostly rice and coconut, but of course whole dairy is lovely if you can handle it!)
2 Tbs cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4-1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, heat milk until it is warm. In a mixing bowl, mix honey, starch and salt with the eggs and then add egg mixture to warmed milk in the saucepan. Cook and stir until thick. Makes one pie or about 5 small dishes of pudding.
I often add 1 Tbs cocoa to the egg mixture, and garnish with shaved dark chocolate and or freshly whipped cream.

Get creative– and whether you make vanilla or chocolate pudding, see what variations you can create! Strawberries with maple syrup, blueberries with coconut, peaches and nutmeg, chocolate pudding with slivered almonds or peanut butter or bananas whatever you can dream up!

Be well!

Love,

“The mission of Lioness at the Door is to uplift, strengthen and encourage women of all ages to magnify health, hope and happiness at home. We do so boldly, with humility and gratitude for the opportunity.”

Peace

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To quote my daughter,

“There is peace in decision.”

And it’s true isn’t it?


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When I find places for things that have been sitting around without a home; when I make a plan with a friend; when I decide what I’m cooking for the week; when I take action and move my thrift store donations to the box in the garage; when I throw away something that is broken or beyond repair; when I move through the laundry at the appointed time; when I decide to leave the house a little earlier than usual so I don’t need to rush; when I get ready for the day before life is in full swing…

It is peaceful.

And my peace spreads through our house and my people feel it, and they spread peace as they go throughout their day and on it goes.

I hope your decisions will fill you with peace and the enjoyment of knowing that your thoughts, turned to actions are rippling out to better the world.

Much love,

“The mission of Lioness at the Door is to uplift, strengthen and encourage women of all ages to magnify health, hope and happiness at home. We do so boldly with humility and gratitude for the opportunity.”