I want to give a shout out to those of you joining us today by way of the Encouragement for Today devotion I have up over at Crosswalk.com and on our site at Proverbs 31.org. If you haven’t read it yet and watch to catch up with the rest of us, click here to do so. Don’t forget to come back and enter the giveaway!

Speaking of giveaway….let me tell you about it first. It is an organizational ‘basket-in-a-box’ centered around my book The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized. In addition to the book, it includes:

* A 13 pocket, expandable accordion file

*Some funky, swirly, colorful, large paper clips

*A magnetic ‘to-do’ list pad

*A set of fun file folders to organize your papers

* A way cool plastic “tall grass” holder for your desk top designed to hold pens, pencils, scissors, etc

*And two packets of premium flavored hot cocoa–one chocolate hazelnut and one cinnamon chocolate– to sip and savor while you read and organize

Just click on the form below to leave a comment on this post and you’ll be entered in the drawing. The winner will be announced Monday. Now……

To multi-task or not to multi-task?

That is the question.

The answer?

Yes.

And no.

We women are experts at multi-tasking. We can be talking on the phone, French braiding hair, cooking supper, helping a child with homework and nursing a baby….all at once.

Men?

They can change a light bulb.

But don’t you dare ask them a question while they are in the middle of changing that light bulb because they’ll have to stop their twisting motion in order to answer you!

(Okay….maybe I exaggerate just a little…)

A woman’s ability to multi-task can be both a blessing and a curse.

It can be beneficial during on those days we need to get more done in less time. And it can be detrimental when it detracts from something important that requires our focused attention.

For example….being on hold with the insurance company while sorting laundry?

Good.

Trying to paint your nails while a crying teen pours her heart out to you about a friend who hurt her?

Not so good.

Cleaning the bathroom while you supervise your toddler as he plays and splashes in the tub?

Good.

Typing away on the computer and checking email while your friend on the other end of the phone tells you her husband is divorcing her?

Not so good.

Yep, multi-tasking can be great! (And let’s see if any of you can beat one of my friend’s best records. One day I called her and discovered she was talking on the phone to me, bleaching her teeth, giving her son a spelling test and bouncing on the mini-tramp for exercise all at once!)

But multi-tasking is not wise when there are actual living, breathing people who need our attention. People with needs. And feelings.

At those times, perhaps we should fight that innate urge to multi-task.

And, on a grander scale, we must fight the urge to multi-task by taking on too many responsibilities outside of our four walls; by saying ‘yes’ to numerous commitments we really don’t feel called to but are afraid to say no to; by wearing too many hats at church, school or in the community in an attempt to be the 2010 version of Super Woman.

Nearly did me in a few years ago.

Then I heard a few statements that helped me to sort through my over-committed schedule and scrape off my too-full plate. They are:

1. Beware of the barrenness of a busy life.
2. Don’t take on more than you can pray for.
3. If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.

The first comment I read in a book over 20 years ago, although I don’t remember which book! I actually have that phrase printed above the signature line of our checks as a constant reminder. The busy life isn’t full and rewarding. It is barren. Empty.

The second comment was spoken by my friend Becky Glenn at a Hearts at Home conference many years ago. So wise! If you can’t commit to praying for the all of the responsibilities, situations and people that will go with the new task at hand, then say no.

And the third I’ve heard many places and it really is a clever trick of the enemy. Bad? We good Bible study gals know more than to be bad? But busy? Yep! We fall for that one every time. The truth is, both bad and busy render us ineffective for service to Christ.

Well, cyber sister, how about you? Where do you rank on the multi-tasking scale?

Are you tempered and balanced, with enough white space on your calendar and in your day to keep you sane and connected with God and with those you love?

Or are you on activity overload, constantly playing catch-up as you run George Jetson-style on the busyness treadmill of life?

Or are you somewhere smack dab in between?

Does one of the three statements above jump out at you? Why?

Hop on and join the discussion today. By doing so, you will be entered in the drawing for the giveaway. However, if you are too busy to write out a comment, then simply say “I’m in!”. You’ll still be entered.

If that is all the time you have today…no problem! You are either too busy and you need to do some plate scraping yourself (don’t worry…I too am fixin’ to do a little plate scraping real soon)….or someone needs your attention right now, so you are being careful not to multi-task when you shouldn’t. Bravo!

Comments?

Plate-scraping Blessings,

I had really high hopes for what I was going to accomplish this past weekend.

My youngest and the hubster were headed to one of our all-time favorite places to be–Camp Barakel. Their weekend would consist of all things father and son’ish’ like ice fishing, snow tubing, playing broom hockey and human bowling on ice (don’t ask!) And they’d eat well and learn lots about Jesus.

My other son had a far away, early Saturday morning JV basketball game and my sweet friend Cindy and her family took him for me. We play at this location again tonight when I will be sweet and take her son with our family. (I love taking turns with friends who love to take turns back!) Then Mitch spent the day and night with a friend who is a single dad and his boys. Mitch loves it there. They watch ball games and work out and eat ‘man food’ all weekend. And he helps fold laundry while watching the games and pitches in with the weekend cleaning. Being a single parent is hard and I’m glad he can help out.

This set up left me with an entire day and a half alone! I was so excited about it I could hardly contain myself. On Thursday I rattled off a list to my friend Jill of all the things I would get done. I have a new marriage talk to work on for the upcoming Hearts at Home national conference. I have three manuscripts to read for women who’ve asked me to endorse their upcoming books. I have several friends whom I’m going to be interviewing here on my blog and I haven’t got around to crafting their questions. (They’ve probably thought I’ve forgotten them!) And have three ever-growing piles of papers that need my attention; one of ‘to do soon’; one called by the dreaded “T” word–taxes and one of ‘to do when I get around to it– no hurry”

Man, I planned to bust up those piles.

And work on that talk.

And craft those questions.

And read those manuscripts.

And be alone.

With God.

I really only got that last, most important one accomplished.

And it is okay.

You see, I really struggle with doing. Not that I don’t get things done. I don’t mean that. I can get lots done. I love doing. Makes me feel useful. And important. And wanted.

I struggle with doing too much.

I’d much rather be doing than being. I am a good doer, but a poor be-er.

But God nudged me by recalling for me comments made by this friend and this one. They both said virtually the same thing; one in a talk and one in the written word. They talked about the struggle between being a ‘doer’ and a ‘be-er”. And one made the statement that we are called humans ‘beings’ for a reason.

We are not however, called human ‘doings’.

Ouch.

So, this weekend I felt God calling me to stop doing and start being; to rest, rather than work; to put away those emails and housekeeping tasks and tax papers; to not measure my weekend by how much I’d crossed off my ‘to do’ lists.

He had a ‘to be’ list for me instead.

So I slept in one day. I puttered around and tidied up the house a bit. I read my Bible. I prayed. I watched a little TV, something I hardly ever do. I used to have only 2 shows I liked to watch. 24 and American Idol.

Hello!! I guess both of those show have already begun their seasons this year and besides an Internet version of the now famous “Pants on the Ground” anti-rapper song by that hilarious gentleman General Larry Platt, I haven’t seen either of these shows yet!

Too busy doing.

This weekend, however, was full of being for me.

I did end up doing some reading. No, not of the three manuscripts waiting for my endorsement (don’t worry Thais, Shari and Marybeth . I’ll get them read by deadline. Pinky Promise!)

No, I read an advanced copy of another friend’s book that has already released. Her publisher sent me a copy to read and perhaps chat about on my blog. I picked it up around 9:45 on Saturday night to peruse for a few minutes before drifting off to sleep.

No drifting happened until 1:23 am!!!

Could. Not. Put. This. Book. Down!!!!!

Suffice it to say, I will be blogging about Mary DeMuth’s Memoir Thin Places.

Soon.

One of the BEST, gut-wrenching and honest looks at how the God Who Sees (El Roi) is always with us and always has been.

I have about 7 people I want to buy this book for and I can’t wait for you to hear what God taught me through my nearly 4 hour, tear-stained, reading marathon late Saturday night. (Good thing I’d slept in that morn!)

My weekend finished with picking up Mitch and heading to a friend’s church before he and I went out to lunch at Cracker Barrel in Lansing and did some serious basketball warm-up pants shopping, both of which speak love to a 15-year-old, big-breakfast loving jock.

Oh, and by the way, the fabulous sermon at that church was on….

Rest.

Okay God. I think I get your point loud and clear!!!!

Resting and Being Blessings,

My casserole dish made the rounds last week.

One day, it held a batch of Boston Grahams, my son’s favorite dessert, as he celebrated his birthday with 7 of his best buds.

One evening, it held a pasta dish for our family as we ate dinner, laughed and caught each other up on our days.

One afternoon, it housed a jello salad, complete with mandarin oranges. My boys beg for jello salad and I hardy ever make it. But that day I obliged. So I cheerfully whipped up the treat, somehow hoping that perhaps the real fruit included might cancel out the sugar, dye and chemicals in the powdered jello mix. They enjoyed it for lunch for a few days in a row.

And finally, one early morning last week, I made another batch of that jello desert. I had received a phone call asking me to make it by Friday morning.

This time to take to a funeral; a funeral of a family at church that had to bury their their young adult daughter.

Oh how I wish casserole dishes were only made for sporting food at happy occasions.

But they are not.

They sometimes are an important part of carrying out the command in Romans 12:15 to “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

What will your dishes hold this week?

Blessings,

I have a potpourri of things to do on my Monday list:

• Get the house back in order after Mitchell’s 15th birthday weekend. It included bowling, pizza and Boston Grahams dessert (no one in my house ever asks for cake on their birthday but me!) Boy parties are such a breeze. Our 18-year-old daughter’s were more like seven-course affairs with elaborate themes, matching decor and clever party favors (won by playing the complicated theme-based games!!) Yep…I love me some good ‘ole boy parties!!! Here are a few pics of Mitch from a proud momma:

• Next, tackle a day of catch up since our boys were given the day off of school by the principal (dad!). You see, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, all of their public school and private school friends have the day off. So they lobbied to have it off too. The teacher (me) wanted to have school in honor of MLK Jr. Yes, “I have a dream!” just like he did. My dream included getting a boat-load of school done today so I could have Wednesday afternoon all to myself. That is when my oldest will be at his three high school co-op classes. Instead, I’ll be hammering away at school with my youngest then, as he scurries to finish all of his coursework before heading off to his four classes at the homeschool academy on Thursday. Drat! Oh well, I’ll spend time today doing other tasks like:
• Reading through a manuscript by my Proverbs 31 sister Shari Braendel entitled Good Girls Don’t Have to Dress Bad. It is due out in July. Can’t WAIT to finish and endorse this fabulous book!!! Watch for an interview here with Shari when it comes out.
• Sort and rearrange our storage room in the basement. I never properly put the Christmas items away, didn’t weed out old school books and binders in August like I normally do and that room is starting to become a catch-all of stuff with no place to go. Time to spend an hour or so doing some pile busting and shuffling so everything is on shelves and nothing is on the floor!
• Find time to listen to my Proverbs 31 sister Wendy Blight on Family Life Today. She will be on Monday-Wednesday of this week. The interviews center on her book released in February 2009, Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: The Transforming Power of God’s Story. In it she chronicles the story of being sexually assaulted just after college and the healing journey God has lead her on since. Click here to find out how you can listen online or in your area.
• And finally,  I’ll hop on over to my new cyber-friend Cheryl’s site at Moms in Need of Mercy. She hosting an interview with me this week and I’ll see how the conversation is going over there. Join us if you’d like by clicking here.
• Oh yeah….and at some point I will need to stop and feed my brood and Spencer’s friend who spent the night. Are pizza places open on MLK Jr day? In my dream, they are!

What is on your Monday list?

Sweet Blessings,

Welcome weekend and welcome to you gals who have clicked your way here from the guest blog post I have running at Hearts at Home. For those of you who’d like a peek at its topic (30 minute easy organizing ideas) click here. But be sure to come back for this second part of our “de-junking” series.

Well, last weekend we chatted about how to get started de-junking your cluttered home. If you need a refresher, you can read it again here.

Okay, once you have rid a room of extra clutter and chaos, what do you do next? How do you re-set it up in a logical way and then ensure it will actually stay that way? Do you just stack and arrange items in a tidy, eye-pleasing manner?

No.

Just having things arranged all ‘neat’ does not necessarily mean they are arranged in a user-friendly or logical. You want to place items back according to their frequency of use.

For those who have home offices for example, decide what items you pull out and use most often. Place them closest to your work desk.  That way, when you are sitting down typing away or making phone calls, you will not need to get up, walk across the room, reach up or dig in a pile or drawer to find them.

In fact, go through and make a list on a notebook or legal pad of all of the items you need to do your daily work. Then assign them each a number of priority. Make the number ones things you use daily, number twos the ones you use most days but not always, number threes those you only get out once a week or so, and so on. Once you have given your items their assigned numbers (usually five categories are enough meaning each item on your list will have a number 1 through 5 after it) begin putting things back.

First things first.

Acting as if your desk chair is the center of the universe, orbit your items around the room beginning with all the number ones first. Then go on to the number twos, etc….Place them according to how often you use them. Really think through your work patterns—where you do what you do and place items accordingly.

Then you can shift to ‘neat and tidy’.

Then you can purchase baskets and bins, cubbies and crates. Don’t just go to the office supply store and buy a bunch of cool looking organizational items and then return home and try to find what items will fit nicely into them. That is backwards. Think logically. The proper plan of attack is to:

• Decide what items you really need and which ones you don’t (dejunking process),
• Then determine how often you use them (priority number ranking excercise)
• Then purchase your organizational tools.

For you gals who had the messy counters. Do this in a mini-version. Be ruthless about what you must keep. Then, rather than make a list of specific items such as in a home office, list by priority the categories of stuff you seem to save. Maybe it will be:

#1 Kid’s school items

#2 Bills and correspondence

#3 Fliers and coupons

#4 Out of place items, etc….

Then you go through and craft a system where you can put these rotating items (you’ll always have items in these various categories, just not the same items each week.).

Again, think logically and in order. Give each category a basket, a handy-dandy plastic stacking paper holder, a folder, a slot, a drawer, etc…Then make it a habit, just like washing the dishes or taking out the trash, to deal with each of these categories on a regular basis. Take care of the papers–sign those slips, transfer the info to your calendar, etc… pay the bills, return the out of place items to their proper location, etc..

You see most of us get frustrated with ourselves and fuss and fume at the dear members of our families, wanting them to stop creating clutter and get with the program.!

The problem, dear sisters, is we have no program in place to “get with”.

Taking time to dejunk and re-think your work patterns can help solve this dilemma.

You can do it! I have faith in you!

Happy Organizing,

I got a note in the mail today.

A sweet note.

On one of those cute, clever, handmade cards that just scream “a crafty and creative person made this”.

I love those kind of cards. They make me wish I fell in the ‘crafty and creative’ category too. But alas, I’ll stick to purchasing my homemade note cards at craft show….. from someone else who home-makes them.

However, the reason that this particular note so touched my day really had nothing to do with its cuteness. It had everything to do with the handwritten words of encouragement that danced across its petite page.

It was from a blog giveaway winner who wanted to thank me for the what she had won. And she wanted to tell me how much our Weight Loss Wednesdays group had touched her life.

And, in a “go-the-extra-mile” way, she tucked in a few yummy looking handwritten recipes and a bookmark; homemade of course.

I propped that darling card up on my home office desk. It makes me smile each time I see it.

Ours is a day and age of electronic encouragement; of social Internet sites, Facebooking and Twittering. These tools are all fine and good and definitely play a wonderful role in keeping women connected to God and each other. There is something special, however, about a handwritten note.

It takes time; it requires effort; and a stamp; and a trip to a mailbox.

Who might be tremendously touched by a handwritten sentiment from you today?

A struggling friend? A lonely neighbor? A long-lost acquaintance that has been on your mind recently? Your parent faraway or husband nearby? Or the woman at the grocery store check-out or corner coffee shop who serves you cheerfully and faithfully?

Can I gently nudge you to carve out time today to resurrect the old-fashioned art of letter writing.

I’m sure someone will prop it up on their desktop or kitchen counter, bringing them warm feelings and sincere smiles for days to come.

Pens ready?

Write on.

_____________________________________________________________________

NOTE: Cyber sisters, If you live within driving distance of Greensboro, NC, you will want to check out my godly and prayerful Proverbs 31 sister Luann Prater’s Encouragement Extreme event coming up January 29 – 30th. Here is just a taste of what this wonderful weekend will include:
Luann Prater, Encouragement Cafe radio show host and Proverbs 31 speaker
Carol Davis, of Billy Graham Radio Ministry
Ramona Davis, Encouragement Cafe radio show co-host
Pam Allen, Worship Leader and Musical Guest

Friday Night Extra: After the general session, stick around, kick back, and relax during “Coffee House” time; and enjoy great live music, too!
Saturday Afternoon Extra: The conference will wrap up as you all become “Co-Hosts” for a live broadcast of the Encouragement Cafe radio show!

For full info and to register for this very affordable conference, click here. Luann would love to have you join her for a time connecting with God and some way godly girlfriends!

I sure wish I had some frequent flier miles built up. I’d be on a plane headed south in a heartbeat!

Encouraging Blessings,

Dear friends, cyber-sisters and family who live somewhere other than the Midwest,

Please stop your complaining about “this awful cold spell we’re having”.

Daddy, I am so sorry it has been too cold for you to play an 18 hole round of golf for the past several days. I know it breaks your 78 year-old, octuple (is that a word?) bi-pass heart. (Yes, folks…you read that right. My father has 8 bi-passes on his heart. One surgery gave him three; another three months later gave him five more. It was implied he’d probably live a year or two with all those short-cuts trying to keep his blood pumping. That was 13 years ago! My God is gracious and my dad is stubborn!)

Next…..

Sweet fearless leader and dear friend Lysa, I am sorry the thermometer on your car says it was 11 degrees in Charlotte, NC the other day. Really, I am. 11 degrees might mean you break out your cute “winter coat”. Perhaps you don a pair of snappy gloves. Our Proverbs 31 Sister Shari will be proud of your winter fashion choices. (And since she lives in Charlotte too will most likely feel your temperature pain. The two of you will probably flit off to Starbucks and sip something hot and delicious to ward off the awful cold)

May I sweetly point out something? Yes, it is cold for your neck of the woods. 11 degrees cold. You do not however, have to shovel 11 degrees; or slip and fall in your high-heels when you are meeting Shari for coffee because of 11 degrees. So, get over it, love.

Yes, you out there who do not reside in any snow belt of the USA (or other country) have nothing to complain about. This is what it looks like this morning outside my back dining room door:

Oh, and it is only 7 degrees, before factoring in the wind chill.

Okay, enough belly-aching about all the fluffy white stuff. (I actually think it is beautiful and since I have lived in Michigan my entire life, I am used to it.) The fresh blankets of snow we’ve been getting since last Thursday have been a great reminder to me. A reminder of the words to a song I once sang in church. They go like this:

I once read in a poem, when snow covers the earth; it hides the world’s flaws and gives nature new birth.

And they say when a man turns from sin to the Lord, that forgiveness, like snow, covers him evermore.

And somewhere it’s snowing; see the soft coming down, as the snowflakes surrender to the hardening ground.

Like the good grace of Jesus that now covers our sin; in the kingdom of heaven it’s snowing again.

I love the picture that is painted of someone coming to faith in God for the first time and I am reminded of the day that I first placed my trust in Him and the snow of his forgiveness covered me evermore.

May our actions and words as followers of Christ point others to that fresh blanket of forgiveness, whether we are chatting over coffee or giving a formal talk on the subject.

By the way, I’ll be doing just that tomorrow evening at a speaking engagement at my church.

Prayers appreciated.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, for the winner of the organizational giveaway. (A copy of The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized, a Fresh Linen candle and packet of Supreme Hot Cocoa mix) The gal who will get this basket-in-a-box in the mail is:

Julie@comehaveapeace

Timestamp; 5:39 pm on January 8, 2010

Congrats! Send me your mailing address at karen@proverbs31.org so I can ship your prize out pronto!

For the rest of you who want more motivation, we’ll be tackling more organizational topics the rest of January, so keep checking back!

Well, I’m off. Got a walkway to shovel and some hot cocoa to make before we start school…

Ahhhhh….winter in Michigan

Snow-covered Blessings,