Finding Joy in Your Home

I love to read. I get excited to see the new releases each month and typically read anywhere from 4-10 books a month. I love to read fiction books, but my real love lies in Christian non-fiction. 

In fact, I issued a Christian reading challenge for women this year and several thousand women are all reading together this year and encouraging one another in that endeavor. It's really fun and encouraging!  

But because I'm such an avid reader, one very sad thing becomes all too apparent: The Christian book market is riddled with books marketed to women that are full of fluff. They are devoid of anything of substance and many of them have very wrong and un-Biblical teaching inside.

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And yes, we women eat them up and recommend them to our friends. I'm not saying that every popular book out there is trash...but somewhere in our popular Christian culture, we forgot to be discerning with what we read, what we take in, and what our theology is. 

It scares me and troubles me to see the fluff and down right false teaching that is circulating as "good Christian books". So what's the answer? 

We women (and all believers) need to know God's Word. We need to be well versed in the Bible so that when that fluff or false teaching comes around, we can recognize it for what it is. We need to be discerning so that we can bring every thought, deed, and action back to God's Word to measure it against what God has to say...not man (or that popular woman blogger)!

I've been doing a lot of study on this topic lately. And my biggest encouragement and takeaway has been that women need to learn theology. We need to live in, dwell in, and know God's Word. Having a firm grasp of theology is essential for the life of the believer. 

You might be thinking that this is a boring topic. And you are about ready to tune out. But there are some intensely practical reasons for studying theology. We will discuss that below. But first:

What is theology? 

What do I mean when I say we will spend the next four weeks studying practical theology? Will I be sharing really boring books and quotes from people who died a long time ago? Will you be falling asleep at the wheel from long boring talks? Absolutely not! A good decision on practical theology has deep roots into all aspects of our lives. 

"The word 'theology' comes from two Greek words that combined mean 'the study of God.' Christian theology is simply an attempt to understand God as He is revealed in the Bible. No theology will ever fully explain God and His ways because God is infinitely and eternally higher than we are. Therefore, any attempt to describe Him will fall short (Romans 11:33-36). However, God does want us to know Him insofar as we are able, and theology is the art and science of knowing what we can know and understand about God in an organized and understandable manner. Some people try to avoid theology because they believe it is divisive. Properly understood, though, theology is uniting. Proper, biblical theology is a good thing; it is the teaching of God's Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17)." - Got Questions

Our "theology" is what we know about God. So studying theology simple means learning more about God. And the idea of practical theology couples our knowledge of God with those practical parts of our life. 

"Don't be content with the Christian desk calendar approach to Christianity. Don't be satisfied with a daily practical saying or some three-step process for being a good wife or a bett...

Throughout college as I was writing papers on Ancient Near Eastern History and learning how to read the Bible in the original Hebrew (yeah - I was a double major - History and Biblical Studies and loved every minute of it), it was easy to feel like I was spending my time on extremely worthwhile things. 

After college, I worked full time and had dreams of getting my masters degree (I still do for that matter) and it was easy to feel like I was contributing to my family by bringing in an income when we really needed it. 

Now? My days are spent changing poopy diapers (which amounts to a LOT with three in diapers), the endless cycle of meal prep, cleaning dishes, putting up a new load of laundry, folding that laundry, putting it away and starting all these processes over and over again. 

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It's so easy to head to bed each night, feeling defeated, overwhelmed, and NOT looking forward to tomorrow. Somewhere along the line, it became easy to forget the importance of what I do. Somewhere amidst the poopy diapers and the mile high pile of dishes...it became easy to feel like nothing I do is of much consequence. 

I think a lot of us struggle with these feelings from time to time. But we don't want to voice them because then maybe it will look like we are not "good" mothers or "good" homemakers or we are not grateful for all that God gives. 

This week I got a question that really touched my heart. And I decided that I needed to address it, in two parts in fact. Here's what this sweet mama said, 

"Jami, I've really been struggling with something lately, and was hoping you'd have some advice for me. Lately, I've been so tired. Just tired of the everyday. I get up and feed the kids, then the baby, then do laundry, dishes, a bit of school work, change diapers, feed everyone lunch, and so on and so on. It feels like 80% of my time is spent dealing with feeding my family whether it's prep, cooking, eating with them, or cleaning up afterwards. I go to bed dreading the next day because I think "I have to get up in 7 hours just to do all this again". Seriously, I am missing the point here. I don't feel like I am doing important work, and when I consider the possibility that what I'm doing is important, I don't think I'm doing it right. I mean most days I'm lucky if I get any work done at all or the kids get a bath that night. Sometimes it's several days before they get another one. I know that's not super important but I think it get the point across a bit more. If this all makes sense, please help me see the point or bigger picture in all this drudgery!"

She posted this question in a private group of mine and within minutes, several other women were commenting "following" or "I struggle with this same thing!" You see - my friend struck a nerve. So many of us feel this all the time or in certain seasons and it can be easy to fell alone and lost in it. 

Next week I am going to address the first part of her question - the physical parts of working around the house, getting some momentum and inspiration, investing in yourself and more. But first, I knew I had to address the real root of the problem....

What to do when...

Your Work doesn't feel worthwhile or important! 

I know how debilitating it can be when we feel useless. We don't greet our day with joy or enthusiasm when it feels like nothing we do matters. It's easy to feel stuck and to dread the start of yet another un-meaningful day. 

So what do we do when we have these feelings?

A secret weapon in my homemaking is listening to things out loud during my day while I work around the house. It helps motivate me to get to work, helps me stay energized while I work, and becomes an incredible opportunity to learn and grow.

I regularly listen to the Bible, many good podcasts, and audiobooks. Because I talk about this so often, people always ask me what podcasts I listen to. Today I'm sharing all my favorites. 

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When I Listen to Things:

The more you get into the habit of listening to things out loud, the more you want to listen to things out loud. I love finding pockets of time in my day. Here are my favorite times to listen to books and podcasts throughout my day: 

Cooking & Cleaning

I do probably 50% of my Bible reading while I'm making breakfast. If I didn't get up early enough to do my Bible reading before the kids get up, then I love to listen to the Bible out loud while making breakfast. I also love to listen to podcasts and audiobooks out loud while I do other meal prep, clean the bathrooms, do the dishes, etc. 

Driving

We live in the woods so we are a good 20-45 minutes from anywhere. I love to use this time to listen through some things...driving becomes one of my favorite things. In fact, sometimes if I am having a particularly rough day (if the kids woke up at night, someone's not feeling well, or so on) then I will throw everyone in the car and go for a drive. It helps!

Projects at Night

Before bed, I like to do a good 15-30 minute pick up around the house. This is a great time to listen to stuff. OR Jason will read out loud to me while I work or we will listen to an audiobook together. We will also do this if I'm doing things like working on a painting project, decluttering, etc.

All My Favorites:

The Bible

I use the YouVersion Bible App. It's a free app that gives you access to hundreds of Bible translations. Several of the translations allow you to play the audio version of the Bible as well as read it. I listen in the ESV and the guy who reads it does such a good job! 

Like I said, probably 50% of my Bible "reading" is actually done while listening to it out loud. If you are really struggling to establish a good Bible reading habit, then this is a great thing to add into your day! 

Podcasts for women: 

Homemaking Foundations Podcast with Jami Balmet

What is this podcast doing here?? ;) I wanted to include my very own podcast just in case you are not familiar with it yet. If you are looking for something to listen to for Christian women, I encourage you to check it out!

Flower Mound Women's Bible Study by Jen Wilkin

I adore Jen Wilkin and love her advice! I've read two of her books and plan to read the rest of them. I'm just starting to go through her Bible study podcasts and highly encourage you to do the same! 

Cultivating the Lovely Podcast

My friend MacKenzie's podcast is probably top of my list right now for favorite podcasts for Christian women! She's always so encouraging and motivation and I love the guests she brings on the show. And hint hint: You might just see MacKenzie popping up on my very own podcast very soon ;) 

Inspired to Action with Kat Lee

I would say that this podcast is definitely geared more towards moms but it's very encouraging and inspiring for anyone! I find that I get a lot of good, practical take aways from this podcast. 

Yesterday on the podcast I attempted to answer a question and went in the direction of what do you do when your day gets derailed? So hop over to listen or read that episode because it's got some good stuff. Here's the question I got:

“I was wondering if you could share a schedule on your page, or with me! Your post about distractions really opened my eyes. How do you schedule your day without too many distractions?”

So as I've been thinking about it, I decided I wanted to also address a different angle of this. I wanted to talk about distractions and how we can attempt to eliminate these distractions from our day. 

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What qualifies as a "distraction"?

It starts with our priorities. I have these more fleshed out, but these are my priorities in order:

A Vibrant Relationship with the Lord

Passionately Pursue my Husband

Spend Time with the Kids

Craft a Healthy Home

Manage and run my blog and ministry

So when I'm attempting to look at what qualifies as a distraction in my day, it all flows out of my priorities. It can sometimes feel like a distraction when our kids come up and want us to sit on the couch to read a book because they are pulling us away from doing the dishes. But spending quality time with our kids is a priority as well. 

So first, we have to make sure we are thinking rightly about distractions and what they really are. 

Think really hard about your social media time

I am not about to say that all of social media is a waste of time. I think there can be really good times and moments for social media.

You can use Facebook to keep up with family and friends who live across the globe.

You can use Pinterest to learn how to better meal plan and find delicious meals for your family.

Instagram can inspire you to create lovely spaces in your home and to read more books.

Twitter can help you keep up with current events and news. 

But social media can have a hard side as well. Of course, it can suck up our time and make us zombies on our phones while real life goes on around us. But there can also be other effects.

Facebook can overwhelm us with nasty articles and bog us down with every single tragedy around the world.

Pinterest can cause us to feel envy over all the pretty things we don't have, the kitchens we will never get, or the parties we will never be able to through.

Instagram can make us feel like a failure when we compare ourselves to those other women who seem to have it all together.

And Twitter can tear us apart over nasty comments, fights, and unloving attitudes. 

I got to the point where I took most social media off of my phone. Obviously this has the added benefit of not taking as much of my time. But honestly I did it because I couldn't take what it was doing to my heart. It was causing me too much strife and heartache. 

So I took Facebook and twitter completely off my phone. I still have Pinterest because it's handy to pull up a recipe or something on the go (and I don't personally struggle with that one being a time suck). And I still have Instagram because it's my very favorite form of social media, it's very encouraging to me, and it's not a huge time suck. 

So take a really hard and honest look at your social media streams. Should you turn off notifications through out the day so you don't get constantly pulled away from your famil...

One of the hardest things about "homemaking" or running and managing our homes...is figuring out how to DO IT ALL. On the best of days it can be difficult to juggle it all. 

Throw in a sleepless newborn, a teething toddler, a sick kid, a difficult circumstance, or any variety of weird things that can creep into our days...and it gets downright hard. 

Even one little thing can throw off our routines and before we know it, we are stuck feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Sound familiar? 

Listen to the Podcast:

We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. 

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

Last week I got an email from a reader and I could SO identify with her struggle. So I decided it would be perfect to address here on the podcast and on my blog. Melanie said: 

"I was wondering if you could share a schedule on your page, or with me! Your post about distractions really opened my eyes. How do you schedule your day without too many distractions?"

Honestly, this is a tough question to answer because it seems like every time I get into a smooth routine and schedule...something my life changes and turns it all upside down. 

Five children in Four Years

Our family has undergone some immense changes in just four years. If you have hung around here for very long, you know that we have five kids, four and under. WHAT? How is that even possible? Well, we have two sets of twins and a baby girl.

In December of 2012, we had our first kids, twin boys. In July of 2015 we had our second set of twin boys. And in January of 2017 we welcomed our baby girl. (And yes, I know curious minds want to know: we just won the jackpot of fertility. Our twins were conceived naturally. And yes, it does run in our family. My dad is a twin :))

A family photo - February 2017 <3

It seems like each time I get into a new routine or habit, someone's sleep schedule changes, we add another baby (or two) to the family, someone gets sick which then leads to the whole family getting sick, etc. On top of that, Jason quit his full time sales job in January 2016 so that we could run our ministry together full time. (If you are wondering how we make this all work, you can come on over and watch our Week in the Life videos.)

Learning to be Flexible 

One of the keys I've learned while juggling a home based business and five kids four and under, is that I need to be flexible in my daily schedule but stick rigorously to my priorities. If I can manage to do this, then I can allow myself that flexibility that I have to have in my life and still get the things done that I need to. 

This lesson applies to whatever season you are in that presents its own unique challenges: working from home, marriage with no kids but working outside the home, homeschooling, figuring out new routines as an empty nester, balancing your new role as a busy grandma, and the list goes on...

I am going to share my ideal schedule for my day. Now I hesitate to share this because I am in no way saying that this is the ideal schedule for anyone else but myself. AND I hesitate to share this because like I said, my schedule is constantly reshaping and changing to fit our ever changing family life. But I think it will be helpful to illustrate my next point so hang in there...

My ideal schedule:

6:00 am - Wake up and make coffee

6:30-8:00am - Bible reading, prayer, book reading

8:00 am - Kids up (Here's my secret to 8am wake up for kids. It's a LIFE SAVER!)

8:00-10:00am - Kids up, breakfast,