I'm Sorry I Forgot To Tell You

(An unrelated picture, just so you'll have something cute to look at.)

So often I'll read a post by another blogger and think, "That would go perfectly with what I was thinking about writing!" The reality is, though, that I forget about it until after I hit publish or Alice is waking up as I'm almost finished and I just go ahead and post it as is in order to get her back to sleep before she's decided she's ready for a late night party. Thus, it's time for a post all about posts I forgot to tell you about. Sorry about that. (And I'm sorry that later on in this post it's all italics. I don't devote a lot of time trying to figure out glitches.)

1. Carol's post about How to Pray for a Home Educator Carol is smart and funny and should blog more frequently. You know, in all that spare time we all have.

2. They Can't Kill Me If I'm Already Dead I'm not familiar with this blog, but someone linked it on facebook the other day and it's worth reading.

3. Tell me again: Why Bother? by Elizabeth Foss (Excuse me while I go clean up some piles...)

"The Flylady talks about CHAOS--the "Can't Have Anybody Over Syndrome." Certainly, it would be a shame to not be able to have anybody over. But a greater shame, I think, is to neglect the people who actually live in a house by being a poor steward of both time and treasure. A greater shame is for a hard working man to have to pick his way around the mess as he makes his way to a disheveled bedroom. A greater shame is to throw a meal at the kids and run to work on an outside project while they eat."

4. The Warmth of Your Smile by Elizabeth Foss (Not that anyone is going to mistake me for a tower of efficiency...)
"Work for the sake of work? I do have days where I barrel through. I go from one item to another, forgetting that the list serves the people and not the other way around. I fall victim to “just a minute” and small faces crumple as I achieve. They don’t want “just a minute”; they don’t want a tower of efficiency. They want a warm lap. They want me to look them in the eyes when they recount the latest teenage drama. They want my undivided attention. They want me. And, truthfully, it is my job to bring warmth and beauty into their lives just as much — or more — as it is my job to be chauffeur and cook."

5. Crafting Home by Elizabeth Foss (If you can't tell, I really like her.)
"We are called to provide for those who come and go a place of gratitude. A place where the habit is a song of thanks and children are ever aware of God’s goodness, even in grief, even in failure, even in sin. Homemakers (whether devoted full time to the task or not), make havens, places of consolation, of new beginnings, of forgiveness."