Sabbath Rest, part 2

Subtitled: You can do almost anything in a skirt! *grin*

But we’ll get to that later.

I’m getting some great responses in the comment box for my last posting! Thank you!

So, I went to bed on Saturday night, laying out all my problems to the Lord with this whole Sunday rest thing. I had recently read… what was it… the messages from La Sallette?… that spoke about Jesus being angry that people were working on Sunday and not honoring it as a holy day.

That’s what prompted this to begin with.

I believed that Sunday was to be a special day, of course, but some of the little details were bothering me — how much is too much? At what point do I cross the line into “working”?

I asked Him to show me how to deal with ALL of the stuff that had been left undone on Saturday, to make Sunday a day of rest that would please Him, and to help me not get swamped on Monday.

Here are the answers I received.

After Mass on Sunday, we went home and had our usual doughnuts/tea/coffee break. We emptied out the dishwasher, and then it was time for me to take Christopher to Sunday School. When I got back (right around lunchtime), I found dh in the kitchen, packing lunches for everyone. Seems they took a vote while I was gone and decided a picnic and hike was the plan for the day. I wasn’t thrilled with the whole idea, but off we went.

We were gone for hours (God’s answer, therefore, was to get me out of the house for the day so I wouldn’t be bothered by the mess). When we got home, there was just enough time for me to get supper started (easy roast), and then crash and take a well-deserved nap (exercise does NOT rejuvenate me. It puts me to sleep!). When I got up, I finished up supper preparations and we had a nice, leisurely dinner. That was followed by normal toy pick-up and bedtime for the kids.

By evening (9-ish) I consider Sunday to be over, so I have no qualms about planning out homeschooling for the next day.

So what about Monday, Lord?

Well, the baby got me up early (groan) and so by 7:30 am I had stripped our bed and started work on our laundry. I got the kids working on the most pressing jobs (dishwasher, sweeping, and bathrooms), and sat down at 9 to start homeschooling, feeling pretty good that the day had gotten off to a good start.

At 10, a change in plans brought us 4 more children to spend the day with us.

Sounds like a disaster, right?

It wasn’t. It was an answer to prayer.

I had been given a free casserole from a church function a few weeks ago which had been sitting in my freezer. Lunch problem solved. I spent prep time making (store-bought) cookies instead for the kids.

After homeschooling, I had kids running inside and out, making huge messes, but somehow all of it got cleaned up. With so many eyes watching everyone else, I had the time I needed to get the laundry “through the system,” and to catch up on more weekend stuff.

A call from a friend with news of rain on Tuesday prompted a serious yard blitz. I got all the kids outside with rakes and together we cleared the front yard in very little time. I got up on the roof to blow leaves out of the gutter before the promised rains came (and as I’m writing right now, there is a nice, steady rain coming down.)

When my friend came to pick up her kids, she directed them to do a massive toy pick up in the house while I swept the entire place.

Final results? My Monday, which I feared would be a disaster, instead found me:

–ahead of the game on laundry
–ahead in bathroom cleaning (I even washed the bathmats and shower curtains!!!)
–right where I was supposed to be with homeschooling
–ahead of the game in terms of food prep/meals (I ground wheat berries, too!)
–ahead in deep-cleaning/straightening up
–and WAY ahead in yard work (I blew leaves out of the gutter!)

And all of this was done by 6:00 pm.

I’m sitting in a clean house, no longer feeling grit under my feet, feeling pretty darn happy that I only have a little bit of laundry to do for the day. Our homeschool plans are in place, I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have unexpected company, and lunch today is already in the works (homemade chicken soup for a cold, rainy day)

I’d say the Lord took care of the Monday stress!