Holidays Archives - Page 3 of 5

Why is Keeping Commitments So Hard?

January 16, 2011 by Painter Mommy 4 Comments

In honor of this new year, and resolutions and all that good stuff, I want to share about the importance of keeping commitments. It seems like it is one of the things that can be super difficult for us, no matter what the commitment is.

I know God is very serious about letting your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No” be “No”. I have always been very nervous about giving my word and making sure that my Word stays true. I want to be a women of my word. I really do!

Right now, in our church we are doing a corporate fast for 21 days. Everyone choose one thing to fast many do 1 meal per day, and others fast sweets or TV. I did not take part in it the year before, so I decided to try to do it this year. I cannot fast food because of a medication I am not, so I decided that I would fast TV in the evenings for 30 minutes to an hour and during that time spend time with God and in prayer. I did not fully commit to this, but I told God I would really try my best. My intentions were good.

Well, I did great for about a week and then my husband went out of town and I was on my own with the kids for a whole week. By the end of the day, I was totally exhausted and by the time I put the kids to bed, all I could do was fall into my own bed and watch a little TV before I went to sleep myself.

So, there it is….. lack of commitment. Yes, I feel pretty bad about it. I really wanted to fast and be in unity with my church, but I failed. 🙁 No wonder I was afraid to actually COMMIT to God on the whole “fasting” thing. But the thing is, He knows and I am sure He still loves me. Thank God He is super patient with us.

Then I thought about how hard it is to keep a commitment in this day and age OUTSIDE of the already crazy busy schedules we have on a daily basis. Then add multiple children into the mix and fulltime jobs and meals and….. on and on! LOL There will always be something that comes up to try and break our commitments. Yes, God is patient, but that does not give us the right to be the type of people whose word cannot be trusted.

I run a Mom’s group at my church and we meet once a month on Saturday. We have quite a bit of moms of small children who attend our church but we usually have only a handful of ladies who show up to our meeting. It gets discouraging sometimes because my partner and I pour our hearts into being there and preparing lessons, etc. We often have people SAY they are coming and then they don’t come. It is frustrating sometimes. But who am I to judge? Who says I would not do the same?

In sharing on this subject, I decide to do a little of my usual research and I found a few good articles. One from EzineArticles.com talked about ways to KEEP commitments that you make. Here are a few:

Be Careful What You Agree To: Many people find it easier to say yes instead of no. It is far better to agree to what you can do, than saying yes to please someone at the moment and later fail your commitment because of being over-committed or because you have difficulty saying no.

Manage Your Commitments: Keep a log of your commitments – Write them down. You may have great intentions, but if you forget to do what you agreed to do, the result is the same as your ‘Choosing’ not to keep your commitment.

Renegotiate When You Are Unable to Keep Your Commitment: When you discover you are unable or unwilling to complete an agreement, go to the other party/parties and renegotiate – explain why, etc. Connect – Don’t ignore.

Manage By Agreement: Instead of TELLING someone to do something, ASK if they would agree to doing it. You have a greater chance it will get done if you ask rather than tell

Those are some good ideas. Sharing this has really put things into perspective for me. And again, as in any other thing that we may struggle with – BALANCE is key.

One of the things that God has been speaking to my heart about is being Committed to my family. As many of you know, I am a work at home mom. I run a Graphic Design business called DPK Graphic Design. I have an enormous amount of work coming in and it has been really hard for me to stay in balance. My work time is limited because of the kids and I really only have a few hours each day (usually during naptime). I squeeze time in between, but there are so many distractions and I wind up getting upset more often than not. I really don’t want to live that way (being frustrated all the time).

I enjoy what I do very much, but it can be tedious. I am totally committed to my work and my clients, but it can cause a battle between the time with my family. For a long time I have felt that God has been wanting me to create a work schedule that would help alleviate the stress that I get under and at the same time give more back to my family.

When my 2 older ones get home from school, I do get off the computer and prepare dinner and do homework, but I am always sneaking a few minutes here and there to check email or finalize a graphic, etc. So my time is divided and I know it has an affect on my kids and my husband.

I have 2 options and I am just not sure which to choose just yet. I can either take one or 2 evenings totally off from my work and spend it with my family. I mean computer is totally shut down for those evenings. Or I can make sure that I don’t work for a couple hours every evening and then work later on once the kids are settled (dinner finished, kitchen cleaned, homework done, etc).

I don’t know why I am so afraid to commit to this. I guess I feel like I will fail and then beat myself up. But in my heart, I feel like God is urging me to make some decisions and I also have peace that He will work out the rest.

What are your thoughts on this? Are any of you WAHM’s? What type of schedule do you keep? How do you keep balance between work and family? What kind of schedule are you keeping? Are you able to stay committed to it? What do you think about this whole “trouble with commitment thing”? I always love hearing from my readers!

God bless you guys! And remember… KEEPING COMMITMENTS ARE IMPORTANT!

And finally, here are a couple funny cartoons I found about New Year’s resolutions. Cute…

Shopping Online for Christmas Gifts

December 23, 2010 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

I did most of my Christmas shopping online this year. It beats having to drag all the kids out of the house in the cold and deal with the crowds. But there are both positives and negatives to Online Shopping.

Positives:

Ability to price-compare on various stores
Avoid the hassle of going out, finding parking, and dealing with crowded stores
Less chance of other impulsive purchases
Shipping right to your door
Access to unique items that others may not have or buy already

Negatives:

Items may get back-ordered and you may be scrambling for a gift last minute
Sales may be better in the stores and not reflected online
You don’t get to physically see or touch the product
Product may arrive damaged during shipping and leave you in a hurry to replace it
If you get gift-wrapping option you don’t even get to see the product as it will already be wrapped when it’s delivered to you
Can be more costly on delivery charges, especially if you buy from many online stores

Yes, Online Shopping is definitely easier in a lot of ways, but you have to realize that you may need to deal with the above list of negatives as well.

I ordered a few things for myself and for my husband, but never received what I ordered. One of the orders was from Amazon (my husband’s Christmas gift – a nice wallet – shhhhh don’t tell him… I am hoping to still get it eventually 🙂 ) well, they contacted me a few days ago to let me know that the order was never processed. They instructed me to respond to the email that they sent and it would go to the vendor. I did that and never got a response. So, I am up a creek with that one.

I also ordered a couple pairs of shoes for myself. I did a lot of research to find the perfect pair of grey birkenstocks. They are usually around $100, but I found a company who had them for only $49. They had my exact size and I placed my order. I realized today that I never got any email from them letting me know that the order was being shipped. I checked back into my email and went on their site to track the package. And I saw a little note that said “Out of Stock” UGH! They could’ve emailed me or something, right?

I also ordered a pair of crocs from Amazon for a great deal and they were shipped ON TIME. I opened the box very excited to put my new shoes on…. and guess what? THEY WERE TOO SMALL! I ordered a size 8 (even though I am a 7 1/2). The shoes were obviously defective because how could an 8 be too small? Craziness! So now I have to ship them back within 30 days – another THING to add to my to do list. Yuk!

I wound up having to do my online shoe shopping research all over again! See? I went back for more! Thank God I did find a couple alternatives for an even cheaper price, but now I have to wait even longer to get them.

But even with all of that I still enjoy being able to hop on my computer and shop without having to leave my house. I can research ideas and compare prices. And in spite of not always getting what I want, when I want – I still prefer shopping online instead of shopping in stores.

I am the type of person who gets overwhelmed in crowds of people. And I wind up over-buying somehow. Does that ever happen to you? What do you think about shopping online? Which do you prefer and why? Would love to hear from you!

The Importance of Sending Christmas Cards

December 5, 2010 by Painter Mommy 7 Comments

I have always enjoyed sending and receiving Christmas cards. I feel like it is something special that I can do to be able to connect with friends, family, and even those who I am acquainted with in business. I have connections in all different parts of the world and I don’t always get to stay connected throughout the year. But when it comes to Christmas, I always like to keep everyone up to date by sending a photo Christmas card of me and my family.

A photo card is great because everyone can see what we look like and how much our children have grown, especially those who don’t get to see us in person on a regular basis.

This year I ordered from Shutterfly.com. They had a sale going on over the Black friday weekend for discounts up to 30% plus free shipping. I was able to order 125 photo Christmas cards for only $65.00. Each card wound up being .52 cents each and they come with envelopes with is a plus.

I got my cards in the mail the other day and they came out great! I adress my envelopes by hand, but I am really beginning to think that I need to come up with a labels list next year to make things easier on me.

What do you think about Christmas cards? Do you send them? How many do you send? Do you use photo cards? Do you hand write the addresses or use labels?

Saving Time and Money During the Busy Holiday Season

November 30, 2009 by Painter Mommy 2 Comments

Twittermoms and Staples are having a contest. They want us Bloggers to post about our Savvy Shopping Tips, Money Saving Ideas, Top Gift Ideas and Time Saving Tips. I decided to join in and so can you! You might just win some great prizes!

I decided to write about “Saving Time and Money during the Busy Holiday Season”. Here are a few tips that have helped make things a little easier for me concerning the Christmas holiday.

1. Christmas Gift List. Asking your friends and family for a list of what they might want for Christmas will help take the guess work out of shopping. Some people are more difficult to buy for than others. So, a list to refer to can help so you are not walking around the store or surfing the web aimlessly.

2. Shop Online. This is a great way to save time. You do have to pay for shipping, but if you are like me and most stores take about 20 or 30 minutes to get to – you still wind up having to pay for gas, so the shipping may not be as big of deal. I also like to find online coupon codes for the different stores I am shopping at. You can often find coupons for free shipping or 10% off. I actually posted recently on this very subject – check it out: Save Money by using Coupon Codes when Ordering Online.

3. Order Photo Christmas Cards Online. This is a great gift which I always do each year. We try to take a really nice family picture and then I upload it online to whatever company has the best deal at the time. I have a large list of people that usually is around 100. I used to do all the cards by hand – shopping for the perfect card, printing the pictures, writing inside the card, hand writing each address, putting the postal stamp, and licking the envelope. This was a LOT of work and extremely time consuming. So, a few years back, I decided to save myself time and money and go with the cards that could be ordered online. Another great way to save time is to create a labels list for all of your addresses so that instead of hand writing them, you just print them out and stick them on. I really need to stop procrastinating and do that!

4. Watch the Christmas Movies on TV. I am not sure if you would consider this saving money, but in my home, we are big movie renters. We also LOVE Christmas movies. But the great thing about the holidays is that most of the great Christmas movies will show on TV at some time or another. I was thinking how neat it would be to use our new recorder device to actually record some of the movies and put them on cd. I would have to edit out the annoying commercials of course, but it is something that would be great so that we could watch the movies anytime. (No we don’t have Tivo yet). 🙂 Oh, and we still need to go to Radio Shack and pick up this adapter cord to even use out video recorder machine. Will have to get on hubby about that. 🙂

Well, those are just a few things that I can think of that might help someone time and money during this Christmas season. Be sure to stop by Twitter Moms to check out more great ideas and even enter a post of your own!

Deals for Busy Moms This Holiday Season

Check out This Week’s Deals!

About this TwitterMoms Blogging Program

Being Thankful Everyday, not just on Thanksgiving

November 25, 2009 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

happy-thanksgiving

Being thankful and grateful is something that I try to practice on a daily basis. It is so easy to lose focus especially when life throws those curve balls at us at the most inopportune times. There will always be something that we can complain about. But in spit of life’s ups and downs, it is important to turn our focus from the negative over to the positive. Yes, we have had a rough week, but thank God we still have food to eat. Yes, our car broke down, but thank God we are still healthy.

We have to remember that our children are always watching us. They soak in every little word we say and every attitude that we show. If we are speaking negatively in front of them about the things that we are going through, then they may unconsciously take on that negative spirit. It is hard work sometimes choosing to be positive when that is the last thing you FEEL like doing. But it will have a tremendous impact on our kids. I am not saying that we should hide the difficult things from them and pretend that our lives are all peachy. But we can express our struggles open and honestly without getting angry and without complaining.

So, on this Thanksgiving, even though it has been a tough few weeks – I still have so much to be thankful for. Check out my video blog to see exactly what those things are!