What a special episode this is! Not only was this my very first recorded interview, but this is also The Full Life Podcast's tenth episode!! And to add to that, Margie is a beautiful friend whom I have known since I was 14. 

This conversation includes so much comfort and encouragement to anyone walking through something difficult in their life. 

Hear about the faithfulness of God from a woman who has lived the definition of a full life. As she journeyed through the highs and lows, God was with her. From a childhood in China to a mission field in Kenya, at 75, Margie can tell us that trusting in God actually pays off. 

Margie was married to her husband Don for 24 years. Soon after they came to Australia, after years of performing eye surgeries in Kenya and Papua New Guinea, Don was diagnosed with cancer in his bowel and it had already spread to his liver. 21 months later he passed away, leaving Margie as a solo parent to their 3 teenage children.

“Losing a partner is really one of the most profound losses and there were times when I just felt totally desolate and wondered what the point of going on was. But God was faithful.”

God spoke to Margie when Don was terminally ill and said, “I was with you before you met Don, I’ve been with you while you’ve been with Don and now when Don goes I will still be with you and I will still have a work for you to do.”

“The whole of the Christian life is trust - based on trust. Trust in a faithful, wonderful, compassionate, loving God who wants the best for us and who longs for us to be able to hand over to Him. And that’s really the secret. You just have to bring it, all your sorrow and all your grief and all your misgivings and all the difficulties that you perceive are going to happen to you. You just have to continue to hand them over and say, “God I belong to you, you take care of me, you do what you like with me.””

“He eventually restores the joy.”

“Keep on trusting Him because you know who He is and you know that He loves you.”

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Today I am joined by Laryssa Schleusener who together with her husband James are the founders and Senior Pastors of Collective Church in Brisbane. We have a really honest conversation about what it was like for Laryssa to change cities, plant a new church just days after having their second child, and the loneliness that comes from not having a ‘Village’ of people around you. We also talk about her vision for The Village Woman Movement, which is about helping women to learn who they are in God and figure out their identity and then how that translates into living a life of love. Laryssa challenges us to live a life that is bigger than us and reaches beyond our own 4 walls. 

Some Take Aways:

• A holiday doesn’t fix things. We have to live lives that we have to allow God to speak to us and change us, not just wait until we’re on holidays. 
• God spoke to her about the concept of a Village and ALL carrying the load and giving out of what we have to one another. Share what it is that we already have in our hands with each other. 
• All the things that they were believing God for, He came through for them. Laryssa encourages us to write it down, document it so that we can remember. 
• 1 Peter4:7-8 Loving each other. What ever we give, give it as though God is giving it. Do it carrying a spirit of love and willingness. Spread around God’s love not Laryssa is a hero. That birthed the idea of The Village Woman. We all need to live our lives not living insular and looking within our four walls but we need to learn how to in this day and age be open to people dropping in for food. “I want to be able to have someone over at dinner time and then randomly they can stay.” 
• The Vision is to help women clarify who they are in God and figure out their identity because when we know who we are and who God has created us to be, that’s when we can help people. And if I don’t know who I am…I will never truly help people out of what God has put in my heart. When we are totally who God has called us to be and we know who that person is, the love that we give to the people around us, it’s the love of God. 
• Laryssa is encouraging girls, wherever you are, challenge yourself in these areas. Are you  living a life that is bigger than you and that is outside the four walls of your home? Are you so precious about the people in your immediate blood relation/family that you can’t be open and if you are in that position ask God to challenge you and change your heart because we are all God’s children and it is just so important.
• It is always on her mind that ‘Whatever I do to the least of these I do unto Him.’ 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this conversation with Laryssa Schleusener. If you would like more information about The Village Woman go to thevillagewoman.com/ and that is also where you can register for The Village Woman Event. It’s happening in a couple of weeks’ time, Sat 19th October at the Metro Arts Centre in Brisbane. It’s $30 and includes an afternoon full of dessert and inspiration listening to the lovely Julia A’bell, helping us on our journey of identity and how to be ourselves. And listen to this, I would like to pay for one person to go so if that’s you, you would love a free ticket or perhaps you would like to bring a friend along and give them the ticket, just jump onto my Instagram account @mel_lynam, find the post advertising this episode - there’ll be a beautiful pic of Laryssa - and in the comments below tag a friend. I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday the 9th Oct. 

I believe that Jesus is the key ingredient to a Full Life. Friend, God loves you and I want you to know that I am praying for you. If you would like to get in touch for any reason head on over to The Full Life Podcast Facebook page or fin

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Elise and I talk about keeping our budget in mind each week, finding time to spend with God daily, how to keep ourselves full, refreshed and overflowing, and maintaining intimacy in our relationship with our spouse.

Budget

• Keep open communication with your spouse about expenses for the week and upcoming bills, what is left in the main bank account and what you still need to purchase that week.
• Mel and Dan have learned over the years to talk about their finances regularly instead of ignoring them.
• Consider your plans for the weekend, what you should probably go without this pay cycle.
• Think ahead about bills, expenses and birthdays coming up. Communicate.

Making time to spend time with God

• It's about the moments in the day. Including God in your day. Time alone in the car.
• Having a devotional book to meditate on scripture for the rest of the day.
• Sometimes over breakfast.
• Sometimes before you get up, while still in bed. Or at night after the kids are in bed.
• We make time for what is important to us.
• It’s about the moments. Have a continual conversation with God throughout the day, talking to Him about things that are on your heart.
• While washing dishes, folding washing.
• When we get up early but the kids wake up early and interrupt us, at least we’re trying, at least we’re getting something over nothing so it is always worth making that extra effort to get up earlier to have that quiet time but we realise it looks different in different seasons.

Preventing Burnout. Soul Care - how do we fit this in? What does this look like?

• Finding moments in the day - a quiet coffee alone, reading a book.
• Going out to get nails done
• Gym
• Elise says, “Spending that time away from your kids can actually make you a better Mum. Because you’re not burnt out and when you’re feeling run down and stressed it’s only going to result in bad responses to your kids so you need to spend some time away from them.”
• Have a hobby or something that we look forward to outside of being a parent.
• Going out for coffee on own to read book or watch Netflix.
• Sewing into myself and loving on myself is actually also sewing into our children and loving on them. They do reflect our moods and our responses. 
• Going for a walk.
• Just having a break from the “demands” that children put on us and feeling overwhelmed from those demands and having a time out from that.

Spending quality time with our spouse

• Finding baby sitters can be challenging especially when you have more than 2 children.
• It takes a lot of organisation sometimes to go out. It is definitely worth making it a priority for your marriage. 
• Be creative. Sometimes going out on a date doesn’t suit the budget but you can be intentional with the time that you spend with each other at home such as grabbing take out, playing cards and then watching a movie together. 
• One friend of Mel’s has a jar full of ‘date night’ ideas including spending the night playing xbox because that is his thing. So one night he taught her how to play a game. Mixing things up.
• Run on the beach and then grab burgers.
• Picnic dinner
• Taking time out to be just the 2 of you.
• Mel and Dan have had times of feeling disconnected, being parents together but not working on our friendship. 
• Let’s have some fun together.
• Even if you do feel far apart, you can take steps to get back to feeling like you’re close friends and intimate again.  
• Keeping it in mind and being intentional about having fun together.

That concludes our 4 part series on Organisation. We hope this has been helpful to you.

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I have asked Elise to come onto the show today to help me learn about how I can be more organised. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not perfect in this area and I would like to suggest that most of us are not. This is an area that we can all continue to grow in. And we can learn from each other. So join us as we discuss what ‘being an organised person’ looks like and what we can do to continue to improve in this area. 

Today in Part 3 we talk about housework and how to fit that into our life, we discuss after school routines and Elise and I share our after school snack ideas.

Housework:

Mel says, "This is my greatest struggle!" For a lot of us, housework in not an easy thing to manage. 

• Tackle one thing a day or one thing at a time eg. one day the bathroom and the toilets. 
• One task a day and write it on your list. 
• Tackle things in bite sized pieces. 
• Mel asks, how do you stay motivated? Elise enjoys the satisfaction of having it clean.
• Elise uses a cordless vacuum cleaner because it’s just so much easier, helps her to feel more motivated to pull it out once a day.
• Mel wishes for a Robo-vac. 
• Sometimes it is a struggle with young kids around to get jobs like the vacuuming done. Usually we do get interrupted but that’s just life as a mum. 
• Elise doesn’t do any housework on the weekends. Mel also tries not to.
• Manage mess in the kitchen as you go through the day.
• Let’s be gracious with ourselves that we are doing our best and maybe just aim to get one room done today or one section of the house done today and do the other half of the house another day.
• Book The Cleaning Ninja by Courtenay Heartford - First section cleaning your house quickly in 8 minutes. 
• Window sills and skirting boards - using the brush attachment of the vacuum cleaner, doing vacuuming and dusting at the same time. 
• Whatever you can do to simplify these tasks. The more we do it, the more familiar we get with our routine. 
• It looks different in every season of your life. 
• There will be a day when we will be able to clean our whole house uninterrupted without any little people around but right now it’s ok because this is a good season that we are in. 

After school routine and snack ideas:

(Elise has had 8 years to work on her after school routine, Mel has had less than a year…)

Elise:

• They know what they’re allowed to have for afternoon tea, 3:30pm and then have to wait. Fruit, crackers, biscuit, really simple. 
• Outside time or find their own thing to do, quiet, happy to be home in their own environment.
• Don’t make them do homework straight away.
• They bring their bags in from car, shoes and socks. Lunch boxes and drink bottles on the bench. 
• 5pm shower and then homework while Elise prepares dinner. Elise can go between helping them and dinner prep. Oldest son might do his homework after dinner in his room. 
• Early 5:30pm dinner. 
• After dinner T.V. or wind down time with a book. 
• 2 of her kids go to bed 7pm and 2 go down at 8pm.
• 6:30pm start getting them ready for bed. Her Grade 1 daughter will do her school reader book at that time as well. 
• Their routine has evolved and changed over the years, adapting to number of children you have, and with husband working late on business. 

Mel: 

• Has to repeat instructions over and over with her 5 year old (first year of school). 
• Snacks first thing when we get home. 
• Frozen blueberry and frozen peas.
• Peanut butter on corn thins
• Julia Sweet and creamy yoghurt (no added sugar) sometimes with peanut butter in it.
• Boiled eggs
• Cheese and crackers
• Fruit
• Baked g

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In this series, Elise Boyle - Mother of 4 and Co-business owner of Sunshine Coast Blinds and Shutters - and I sit down and nut out what it looks like to be organised and discuss practical ways to organise your life and your family’s life. 

In part 1 we looked at preparing for the week ahead and meal planning.

Today in part 2 we talk about how to deal with feeling overwhelmed, preparing for the day ahead the night before, and morning routines. We also discuss the pressure of punctuality and how it can be a real stressor in our life and choosing to be gracious with ourselves and our children when we are running late.

Dealing with feeling overwhelmed:

• Think about what do I need to do? Focus on one thing at a time, one foot forward. Sometimes taking a moment to step away from the kids and breathe.
• Mess and stress. Remind myself it’s ok, they’re kids, they’re going to make mess. Manage one room at a time.
• Just make a start. Even if I feel really tired and overwhelmed. I can pick up 3 toys - tricking my mind to make a start. 
• Breaking the task down into little steps. 
• Get it down on paper and out of your head. Write lists. Number them in order of priority. “Even if you can just keep one room of the house child free, that helps.” For Elise it’s their bedroom. 

Preparing for the day ahead, the night before:

• Elise makes the lunches whilst cooking dinner if it’s doable. But sometimes after kids go to bed.
• Puts washing in machine and sets timer for the morning so that it starts at 6am or 7am and she can put in a 2nd load before she heads off to school. Hangs out when she gets home. 
• Choose what you're wearing the next day. 
• Folding washing at night. Elise washes every 2nd day and folds on the same night. Usually 2 loads on that day. Results in “washing free” days!
• Tidy house for a fresh start for the next day.

Morning Routines:

• Elise tries to get up before kids and gets herself ready
• Gives each child a task that they can handle to help out ie. putting dishes away, stacking dishwasher, getting themselves ready - it’s their own responsibility.

Punctuality - Progress over perfection! It doesn’t help our kids for us to be stressed about being late. Mel - “I focus on trying to be relaxed.” It’s ok to be late. What is most important in our children’s lives is that they remember us being loving and calm. They won't remember being late but they will remember our attitude toward them as we hurry to get ready for school. 

We hope you found this helpful! Tune in Thursday 19th September to hear us talk about housework and how to fit that into our life, we discuss after school routines and Elise and I share our after school snack ideas  Also, remember I’d love to hear from you. If you have some tips and tricks for being organised please share them with us! Jump onto our Facebook page The full life podcast with Melanie Lynam or find me on Instagram, @mel_lynam. Thanks for listening! 

Talk to you soon xx

Support the show (http://paypal.me/thefulllifepodcast)

In this series, Elise Boyle - Mother of 4 and Co-business owner of Sunshine Coast Blinds and Shutters - and I sit down and nut out what it looks like to be organised and discuss practical ways to organise your life and your family’s life. 

In part 1 we look at preparing for the week ahead and meal planning.

We start off by saying that ‘being organised’ looks different for everyone because of our different personalities and as well as that it changes in every different season of life that we go through.

There is hope for those of us (me!) who were not born with a natural tendency to be organised. You CAN develop the skills even if it does not come naturally. It's about thinking ahead so that you don’t have to think so hard in the moment or on the day.

Elise still has days when she feels overwhelmed. “But getting myself organised and knowing ahead of time what I need to do the following day…definitely helps me not to feel overwhelmed.”

Some ideas:
- Making school lunches the night before
- Getting the meat out for dinner that night, have ‘what’s for dinner’ in your mind even in the morning.
- Having a to do list for the day
- Make sure I write everything down for the week
- Having a list of meals for the week so she knows exactly what she needs to buy for those meals.
- The value of having a ‘Weekly Schedule’ 
- Write things down
- Set a reminder on your phone
- Daily to do lists
- Apple or Google calendar on phone synced with Partner’s is a good extra reminder for appointments and events.

Meal Planning:

Elise's ideas 
- Saturday and Sunday night easy meals - toasted sandwiches, scrambled eggs, take away.
- Cooks up chicken breast on Sundays for lunches to prepare for the week.
- After school sports: make easy meals during the day that can be reheated that night.

Mel's ideas
- Friday night frozen pizza's 
- Sunday nights eggs on toast (hubby cooks)
- Cook 1 or 2 double batch meals so that you're eating left overs some nights and not having to cook every night. Or freeze half for a rainy day.

We hope you found this helpful! Tune in on Thursday to hear us talk about how to deal with feeling overwhelmed, preparing for the day ahead the night before, and morning routines. We also discuss the pressure of punctuality and how it can be a real stressor in our life and choosing to be gracious with ourselves and our children when we are running late.  Also, remember I’d love to hear from you. If you have some tips and tricks for being organised please share them with us! Jump onto our Facebook page The full life podcast with Melanie Lynam or find me on Instagram, @mel_lynam. Thanks for listening! 

Talk to you soon xx

Support the show (http://paypal.me/thefulllifepodcast)