I realized recently that I've been writing this blog for about a year and a half, and I don't know if I've ever really explained what I believe or how I got started.
In 1999 I began writing for magazines. My children were babies, and I wanted something to do that required adult thought, but I didn't want to work outside the home. From those articles came my first book, To Love, Honor and Vacuum: When you feel more like a maid than a wife and a mother.
It was born out of an experience I had with two women who were quite close to me at the time. They, like me, had young children, and they, like me, were frequently tired. Motherhood is difficult! But instead of focusing on how they could change their lives and make motherhood and marriage satisfying, they seemed dragged down by the problems in their marriage and the pressures of running a home.
And it seemed to me that their priorities were out of whack.
So I wrote this book to help women stuck in this trap where they start to feel more like maids than wives and mothers.
This week I dug out an old interview did with 100 Huntley Street on precisely that topic, and edited it down. Here's my philosophy in just a few minutes:
Basically, if you want to change, you've got to take the initiative. Don't sit there and wonder why you're so tired and why your life turned out this way. God has so much more for you, but it comes when we stop feeling guilty about all the things we aren't doing, stop feeling angry at our husbands, and start getting our priorities straight! It's not as hard as it sounds, and God's there to help you.
I hope that my posts over the last few years have shown that. And I'll continue to write about this, although if you want to read more, you really should get the book! But I thought it was about time I showed my heart. Besides, I really like the lipstick shade they gave me in this clip. I've tried to mimic it since, but I've never been able to :).
We brought this up in our moms group just this past Tuesday. So often we get focused on self and that drags us down. If we can figure out how to focus on others then the energy seems to come more naturally.
Thanks for this website, your book and all that you do. My philosophy is find the good, the positive and the uplifting and then live a life that shares it.
Sheila! Thanks for the twitter link that directed me here. This was the first time I've actually heard you speak (other than a few mini-clips n your speaker-teacher blog). I so enjoyed hearing both your heart and your advice. What a great opportunity to be able to share on this program. You did a fabulous job. I'm honored to be one of your followers and facebook-twitter-homeschool-speaker friends. Thanks!! ~Ann
This sounds so sensible. Keeping the focus on something we can control -- our own choices -- frees us from anxiety and depression over our situation.
It always helps me to remember the difference between what God can do, what I can do, and what some one else can do. I can trust God to cause all things to work together for good and to answer my prayers. I can concentrate on a proper attitude and on making good choices. The rest of it is not a helpful focus. It doesn't make anything better.
I agree ... get the book! There is only one thing that I didn't agree with in the book (stay at home dads while moms work). Other than that, it's a gold mine of applicable helpers!
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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We brought this up in our moms group just this past Tuesday. So often we get focused on self and that drags us down. If we can figure out how to focus on others then the energy seems to come more naturally.
Thanks for this website, your book and all that you do. My philosophy is find the good, the positive and the uplifting and then live a life that shares it.