The change:  Stop wishing thing were different

In my life it took me some time to be thankful for what I had.  I would go through life wishing for things that I did not have.    I might of visited a friend for the day and loved her enormous home and great “brand new” items.  When I came home I would look around and start feeling “sorry for myself” because I did not have what she had.

You might look at a person and see all the “freedoms” that they had in their life and “wish” that you had those freedoms too.  Maybe you  might wish you had a different husband—if you were going through a tough time.  There are so many things that we can covet and wish were different.    I could go on and on about things that I “coveted” in my lifetime.  Some you could agree with me that I had a right to have and other things you might think they were silly.

But that all changed.   Not that I gave up “dreaming.”  But I gave up on the idea of wishing for things that were not a part of my life and I started being thankful for the little things.

In our lives if we stop looking at what we don’t have, we might be surprised at what we do have.

What the Amish families taught me was to be content in my season of life.  What I noticed about the Amish families that we visited were that it didn’t matter what types of homes the people lived in, it was the hospitality that they showed that was inviting.  We did visit some homes that were quite extravagant but to be honest the fellowship was much sweeter in the homes that the home was not in a great standard of living.  I don’t mean that disrespectfully, the one home that we stayed in was in need of great repair, it had many things that I probably would be insistent that my husband fix immediately.  But it did not matter.  The wife was very content and kept her home as best as she could without feeling embarrassed by the looks of it. She portrayed a sense of humbleness that was inspiring.  It made me think twice before I complained about the things that I did not have.

Why make the change:

When we look at life wishing things were different we will constantly live with a sense of conflict.  When we have conflict it creates stress.  When we have stress it makes us agitated.  When we are agitated we usually are angry with those around us.  All that is never good.  We are wanting to simplify our lives.  We need to stop thinking about the physical things and the relationship things that we don’t have and just start living.  We need to focus our concentration on changing the things that we do have: whether that be a broken relationship, a home that is not so pretty, or a body that is in need of exercise.  All things in life take time and energy.  You need to start focusing on the right things instead of living life wishing things were different.

 

How do we do that:

Start today by making a list.  Make a list of all of the things that you wish you had different in your life.  Now this list might get quite long, depending on how content you are and that is okay.  The key is getting something of tangibleness that you can physically refer to and start making slow changes to achieving your contentedness. I made a sample list that you can view here:

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On my list were things–that I have already started working on to change.

When I started feeling the “woe is me” syndrome I had to jump out of that instantly.  I wrote everything down that I wanted changed in my life and then started devising a plan to change those things.

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I started the change with one item.  I did the weight loss issue.  After I felt like I could do more I started painting a room at a time in our home.  Sure it took forever, but I worked diligently through naptime and after the children went to bed and in a few months I finished my whole home.  I then started making things for my walls of my home.  I researched different inexpensive ideas and made some great photo collages to hang on my walls.  I then made some shelves to decorate our walls as well.

The list goes on and on…..

All these things take time, I did not do them all in one day, or even all in one week.  But I started with one and added as I could.  I had my list and started marking off the things that I wanted to improve upon in my life.
Contentment is influenced by external circumstances, but  it is an internal attitude and can be cultivated no matter what our situation in life is.  We need to stop wishing for things that we don’t have and focus our attention on making the things that we do have better.

How about you?  Are you content in your life?  Do you complain that you wish things were different without acting upon them?  Start today and stop wishing and start enjoying.

 

 

I wrote at the beginning of January on how I want to start feeding my family oatmeal each day instead of cold cereal and milk.  I thought I would share our transition to oatmeal for breakfast every day.

I did not grow up eating oatmeal.  The first time I had it, I almost vomited.  The texture was gross.  It took many breakfast’s of basically scooping it into my mouth and then swallowing it, until I learned to enjoy the taste and texture.  It started on my weight loss journey.

Since having so many little ones, my mornings became very chaotic.  The last thing I could think about doing was making breakfast, I needed to put something on the table instantly before the whole room was crying with hungry babies.  I resorted to feeding them Cheerios and milk.  Which is not a “bad” food to feed your children for breakfast.  I just know that there are “better” things to feed them.  We have chickens and I could make eggs for breakfast, but mornings are still pretty busy and I don’t want to make anything more stressful than I have to.  Oatmeal is something that requires boiling of water and mixing it up.  Simple and easy nourishment for my children.

The first time I made oatmeal this was the recipe I used:

• 3 c water
• 1 c oatmeal
• 1/2 c farina/cream of wheat
• 1/3 c honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 c milk
• 1 c fruit of your choice: blueberries, strawberry sauce or 1 T cocoa

Bring water to a boil.  If you are adding fruit or cocoa, add it to the boiling water.  Stir in honey, oatmeal, and farina.  Bring to a boiling stage.  Add 2 cups of milk;  allow to boil again.  Take off heat, put lid on and let set for 20 minutes.  Serve with milk.

 

This was the winner for my children’s transition to oatmeal.

I fed this to them for about a month—now they enjoy just a basic mix for oatmeal.

We like the old fashioned flakes—they are bigger and makes the oatmeal less mushy.  We buy it in 50 lb bags.  Store it in buckets in the basement.  I put the amount we need in a large glass bowl.  Add about 1/2 cup raw sugar and then boil water from my electric tea kettle and pour water enough to cover the oatmeal.  I let it sit for a few moments, while I am changing diapers and getting sippy cups and then cup back and give it a few stirs.  The water is absorbed and ready to scoop out.

Some children like it this way and others have grown fond of our strawberry jam that we made this summer.  They like to pour it over the oatmeal and since we make a low sugar recipe, I don’t mind them adding it to the oatmeal.

I tried just making the oatmeal with no raw sugar and having them pour sauce over it but it seems they left more of it in their bowls.  Maybe in time.

But as of now, my children all eat oatmeal for breakfast.  My rule is if you don’t eat it for breakfast then you eat it for lunch:)