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Posts from the ‘Values, Priorities and Goals’ Category

Jan 24

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Schedules and Child Care

Our first was born in the thick of the “feed your infant when they cry” philosophy, based on the reasonable premise that a baby knows when he/she needs food for that tiny little tummy. Part of this philosophy was that the youngster would settle him/herself into a routine.

The proposition sounded like a great experiment, so I made a chart: days and times on which I could color code blocks for eating, fussiness, sleeping, and contentedness. After several weeks, it was clear that no pattern was emerging; the chart was put away and we began moving toward a family schedule. Read more

Jan 23

Schedules

Schedule. What is it about HOME and SCHEDULE that do not seem to go together? The same doctors that tell you to feed your baby whenever, and let your children sleep whenever want to tell you those things during a set appointment time. Schools and work places dictate arrival and departure times but HOME can’t set any boundaries. People fill agenda books with all sorts of professional appointments and project lists, but HOME can’t find a time for all its inhabitants to meet together and projects are planned on the whenever-we-get-to-it-basis.

The first place children should learn about schedules is in the home, not school. The most important appointments a business man keeps should be his home appointments. The schedules that ought get the most coordinated, thoughtful attention between a husband and wife ought be the in- home schedules, not the coordinating sports-music-school-business trip-chauffeuring schedules. The most successful schedules an office manager arranges ought be his/her home schedules. Read more

Dec 12

Daily Dose 53: Mary and Martha

Of all the family meals in history, the dinner at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus may be the most analyzed. Imagine the Lord pulling three or four hours of your home life out of the swirl of time, and hoisting it up for generation after generation of expositors who never knew you, your back story, or  the events leading up to dinnertime, to explain to the world exactly what sort of person you were. If one dinner’s preparation, not even the dinner’s menu, was going to define your spiritual outlook to millions of strangers for almost two thousand years (and counting), how would you feel every time you walked into the kitchen?
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Dec 11

Daily Dose 52: Diminishing Returns

If a little is good, more must be better. If a little plant food generates bursts of colorful blooms, wouldn’t more make even more blooms even bigger? If I can get so much done in a concentrated ten minute cleaning session, think what I could do in an hour. Yes, think about it. The results might surprise you. At what point does too much plant food begin to burn the roots, decreasing the size and health of the blooms? Take pictures after a ten minute session and an one hour session. Is there a noticeable difference in final outcome? Not likely. The increased effort probably went to less visible projects (think washing walls: lots of intense labor, but very little increase in the “tidy look” department). Welcome to the world of diminishing returns. Read more

Nov 27

Daily Dose 38: Cannon Balls and Sand

How about another personal favorite Picture for My Mind?

C. H. Spurgeon wrote in his Sword and Trowel of a man filling a large box with cannon balls. Needless to say, it did not take too many balls before the box was full. Not so, says Spurgeon. The box would only be full of cannon balls, but it was not truly full. The space around the cannon balls could be filled with shot (think BBs, modern America), and when no more shot would fit, then a quantity of sand could still be poured into the nooks and crannies. There is an infinite point-number line-math lesson in there somewhere!  Read more

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