Friends are the people who smile with you. They laugh with you. They cry with you. Friends are the people you can count on being there for you when the world turns you away. In the last few months I have been noticing how important friends are on our journey.

I have had a few friends who have had some difficult issues over the last few months. The issues varied as did their intensity. Yet, I found myself drawn to allowing my friends to lean on me. In between these trials, I have tried to offer laughter and smiles to lighten the load. Then there are the days when my shoulder has been dampened with many tears. You know, there are those days when smiles seem a lifetime away.

Most recently some friends have had some touchy adversity. Why does it seem that it is easier to be a friend when the adversity will be over in the blink of an eye. You don’t mind carrying the load when the load is light and you know it will be over quickly. But what about when the load is heavy and there is no resting place in site? Why is that so difficult to be a strong friend?

What I have realized is that God has something to say about this. Firstly, He never gives us more than we can bare. When those times come that you feel as if you can’t handle it on your own, He carries. Sometimes the carrying is by placing a friend in your life who is willing to carry you for as long as you need, regardless of the weight of the trial. These are the times that truly build not only our relationship with our friend, but our relationship with God.

When we listen to God and follow His principles, He carries those of us that He places to carry others. It is amazing to me that when I place everything at His feet, including helping me to have the right words, the wisdom, and the appropriate heart to serve the needs of a friend in need, He answers. Oh how heavy my heart can grieve for the sadness of a friend, and then *POOF* He removes the heaviness from my heart and replaces it with what my friend needs.

On your journey it is important to be a good friend. Being a good friend includes being there in whatever way your friend needs for service. But it also means that you should expect nothing in return. Let God work through your friends. You will know your friends by the fruits of their life. God promises us that the fruit of others will be clearly visible for us to discern those we can count on as friends. Show your fruit everyday in the way that God commands.

These are my thoughts.

I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Julie and her passion for planning. Julie is a friend who I have learned a tremendous amount from. We all have those friends in our lives, and they are rubies to be sure!

Well, what has been happening at our house. Two weeks ago I decided to have one of my decluttering weeks. I declutter every room of the house, ridding ourselves of things we don’t need. Each year I lose a little more sentimentality over stuff and take joy in living more. However, life seems to have been spinning out of control in certain respects here at the Valeska Estates.

Sometime in March life began to take a serious turn towards the chaotic. We have had so much going on with our businesses that I put the house on hold. Hang around with me awhile and you will notice that I haven’t been sleeping much since that time. All I can say is, I praise and thank God each day for a supportive husband and family, as well as having trained me in check points. My check points is what has kept my head above water. Well, my head has gone under a few times, I admit. Thankfully I am a good swimmer!

At any rate, I skipped my decluttering session for the Spring. Don’t sweat the small stuff, right? I guess you have to accurately identify the small stuff in order to follow that thinking. Decluttering is NOT small stuff. So, last week was decluttering week. Once again life swam across my moat and pounded down the gate! I didn’t get it finished. Who developed this check point system anyway? Oh, me…oops! When the system breaks down its time to plan a new strategy.

This is one of those times in life when you realize that your life is changing for a longer period (perhaps forever) than you had first expected. So, I spent a bit of time this week evaluating my decluttering program and came up with a new plan. This week I will finish the main decluttering. This is what I am calling, “Get the Junk Out of Your Trunk!” I will take one week to declutter my home scheduling 2-3 rooms per day. This will likely involve several truck loads to the thrift stores, but it is a necessity. Because I do need to devote time to other projects during the week…you know those little things like communicating with my husband or saying hello to the children…I will leave behind a box for each room that may take more time to sort through, as many items may just be in need of a new home. From that point I will designate one or two rooms per week  to accomplishing the finishing touches of decluttering and get it ALL re-organized. Somehow, I always find a more efficient way to do something and wonder why I didn’t do it before. All this comes on the winds of a very tight schedule, so I have added times for relaxing and enjying life as I know it. Check out the post this post that is a result of this by clicking here.

I know this sounds crazy, but as I began sorting through how to revamp my decluttering plan to fit my “new” life, I realized this correlates to my spiritual life as well. Often times when life changes, my relationship with God changes as well. I spend more or less time with Him, and in a different manner than before. Unless I make time to pull together a plan that will allow me to have a purpose for our time together, I just flounder and chaos takes over.

It’s amazing how life can reflect how you are working on your relationship with God. All I can say…thank goodness for His patience with me!

Here’s to simplifying my home and my soul! Here! Here!

These are my thoughts.

I am so excited to put the Spotlight on one of my very most preciolicious friends, Julie Forsythe. Julie is poignant and thoughtful. If you enjoy readings that cause you to think, Julie’s posts on her blog The Clearing is a place to visit daily. Julie has published 5 books and is a freelance writer. Today Julie shares her thoughts on the importance of using planning on the journey to simplicity.

 

The Simplicity of Planning

By Julie Forsythe

Life does come at you ninety miles an hour most of the time.  It seems like one day can blend into another and many times those of us who are wives and mothers go to bed with that partially unfinished “to do” list scrolling through our heads like one of those news feeds at the bottom of our television screens during the evening news.  If you’re like me, you have found that this does not make for a restful night’s sleep.  One of the best ways that I have found to combat this is some simple planning.

As a woman I can wear any one of a dozen hats at a time, and often two or three.  I am wife, mother, friend, lawyer, accountant, doctor/nurse, maid, cook, and chauffeur.  Add to that my part-time job that I work from home, freelance writing assignments, and things that are intermittently interjected such as the sewing of two Jane Austen style dresses for the high school co-op’s production of Pride and Prejudice starring my two daughters that I took on this past spring with limited sewing skills.  With all of these hats on and off in the course of any given day, a lot can get left undone without some careful planning.

Years ago a good friend told me that every Sunday evening she reviewed her calendar for the week.  When I started implementing this practice I found that I had an overview of the week in my mind at all times, and was much less likely to forget something.  The biggest flaw in this plan was writing it down.  I had a wall calendar, but since I didn’t carry it with me wherever I went, a lot of important dates, appointments, events and notes never got written down.  I also found that as the kids grew, and multiple activities and events were added to that weekly overview, it started to get jumbled and became more than I could keep in my head.  That’s when I discovered planners.

The first all-in-one planner I bought at the local office supply store had a great calendar, but I found it was set up more for a business professional than a work-at-home, stay-at-home, homeschooling mom.  I needed a planner that could help me organize all the little details in my life such as what I was making for dinner, what time soccer practice was on Thursday night, or the name of the medication my child was prescribed.  Since I wasn’t finding my dream planner, I decided to make my own.   For the last couple of years, I have designed and tweaked both my own ideas of what was necessary to help organize my own life, and the suggestions that I have gotten from others to design a planner that will work for just about any mom.  The most recent edition of this is called The Master Plan.

No perfect planner is just going to magically make the pieces of your life fall into place, but most of the time the plans fall apart based on user error.  The two most common mistakes people make when attempting to use a planner are not writing things down, and not keeping their planner with them.   I have taught my children how to find the grocery list in my planner and can ask them to jot something down, when my hands are dirty while making dinner and I just used the last of something.  To make the most of your time with some simple multi-tasking, have one of your children write down a list that you dictate and let it be their writing assignment for the day while you make lunch or do something else.  The most important thing about effectively using your planner is to keep it with you.  You don’t have to have it in your hand, but it should be accessible.  Life is simplified if you have your calendar with you when you are making that follow-up appointment at the doctor’s office, write down the thing you signed up to bring to the potluck, or pencil in that special date with your hubby. 

One word of advice to simplify planning is to be careful not to plan too far ahead.  If I ever make plans for too far in advance, something always seems to come up that causes me to have to rework those plans.  Over-planning can actually complicate your life, and depletes one of your most valuable resources, your time, which is why you made the plans in the first place.  I normally plan my menu and grocery shopping on a weekly basis, my household budget quarterly, etc.  The most important thing is to find a way to use your planner that works for you, and use it consistently. 

Julie Forsythe is a work-at-home, stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of three and has been married to her nutty professor, computer geek he-man hubby for nearly 20 years.  She lives in southeast Texas but calls the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia her home.  Freelance writing and planner-creating are just two of the things she does in her spare time. 

As you know, our lives have been turned upside down. Since th hubby started the family biz (www.freshgearsolutions.com) it has been a whirlwind life! The weekends even more so. The guys leave at 5:30 am on Saturday and Sunday mornings and don’t return until 8-9pm. When they get here they are WHOOPED for sure. Tomorrow is Father’s Day and Kelsey is working with them too! So what’s a simple mom to do with her littletons?

Well, we are going to make a special dinner and dessert to welcome home dad after a looooong day of work! I prepared a HUGE and Extra Special cooler filled with goodies to sustain everyone all day long. But the FUN will begin when the littletons begin making decorations. Tessa has made a picture of her and Daddy that we framed. Being the resident artist (she draws better than me and she is only 4) and interior decorator extraordinaire (somehow Martha got some of her genes in this kid) she is charge of the decorations. Likely Daddy won’t have much left in the tank when he returns, but we will take whatever he has left to give and then let him go off to la la land.

I tell you all of this because I was really feeling stressed about it all. I have had so much on my plate recently, that I haven’tbeen able to come up for a breath. Then WHAM! Father’s Day is upon me. I really enjoy doing special things for people, especially the fam. So I was feeling so much pressure to get something going for this holiday. But all was relieved today. Want to know why? Well, I attended one of Kathy Butryn’s all day virtual seminars and it was FANTABULOSO!!!! Talk about being gifted with words from God, this Mama has answered the call and then some! She is poignant and real. She shares her vision for Godly womanhood in a way that is just eye opening and heart warming! You can’t help but walk away encouraged! Check out her website and grab her FREE ezine, you will NOT be disappointed!

Afterwards, I realized it has been far too long since I have come up for air. My journey to simplicity has been stalled with the busy-ness of business. Running 2 businesses AND Thomas having his regular full time job has been so hard to adjust to. After listening to Kathy, I am ready to scoop myself up and let the blesings of refreshment wash over me as God renews my soul. Just to share a tidbit from today that most EVERY woman can relate with:

Kathy spoke about taking time for silence and solitude. I cracked a few jokes at the fact that life has become so harried for me, that I can’t even use the potty without multi-tasking! While she spoke I kept wondering, how can I be silent AND in solitude for even 1 minute? Well, I am here to say that I took a moment today to stop. It really was just a moment; perhaps a minute or two. It felt uncomfortable. I felt the urge to move and do something. I couldn’t even commune with God because I was so distraught that I wasn’t accomplishing something. At the very split second before I heard the phone ring, I gave a BIG Thank You to God for using Kathy as a tool to help me recognize that I need to take time for this. While it may take me a bit to sit for more than a minute or two, with God as my guide I look forward to being able to increase my time of silence and solitude.

When is the last time you took time to just STOP and sit in silence AND solitude?

These are my thoughts.

One aspect of womanhood that I notice, is our lack of physical self acceptance. We primp and choose clothes that appeal to our figure and sense of color. We choose hair styles and coloring that allow us to feel good about our appearance. Then there is the ever dreaded weight issue.

The other day I happen to catch a side reflection of myself in our sliding doors and I thought, “That is NOT me?” Now, anyone who has been hanging around for a bit knows that I have a medical issue that requires medication that makes the losing of weight extra difficult. As if that weren’t discouraging enough, the medication periodically stops working and causing a shift in my endocrine system resulting in rapid weight gain. Although I accept this part of my life for the most part, when the meds stop working, I have a FAST downward spiral.

My brain begins thinking about why I even bother to focus on healthful eating habits. I could gain weight by eating other foods I enjoy, like buffalo wings (uh oh, my mouth just started to water), ice cream, cheese, and other not weight loss friendly foods. I also exercise 90 minutes per day, so when the meds stop working my thought process begins to deteriorate with thoughts of “Why do I even bother?” Then I have to see myself from the side. Next, thing I know I am sitting with a bowl of ice cream n my lap watching a movie.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you have 10 or 200 lbs to lose, it feels the same to every woman. Some days I don’t even feel like a girl. I certainly don’t look like a girl. I mean really, girls have curvy figures, I look like a beach ball with sticks for appendages. Before I know it, my brain begins to say more and more detrimental things about physical self. I know a good weight is a health issue for everyone, but why is that we women internalize it so negatively?

This usually comes form our lack of understanding that God loves us just as we are. If He loves us at the weight we are now, why is it so hard to love oursleves. For one thing, we are often judged by our outwad appearance. Since my weight fluctuates, some times drastically, I can report that I am treated differently when I am thin than when I am fat. People address me differently. During my fat times, I am deliberately overlooked in certain situations. This keeps pushing down on me. Isn’t Satan tricky?

The truth of the matter is that, we can be discontent with our physical appearance as long as it doesn’tinhibit our living for the glory of God. Try to remind yourself that every trial in life is put there for YOUR personal growth! I have to pull my mind back and focus on how God wants me to react to my current situation. Am I glorifying God right where I am? I have no trouble glorifying Him when the doctor changes up my meds and I am able to lose 40 lbs in 3 months! Oh how I am praising Him. But three months later when the meds have quit working, the doctor is unsure how to proceed, and I have gained 56 lbs, the glorifying doesn’t come so easily.

So whether you have a little or a lot to lose, or perhaps you have some to gain (If you are one of these women, call me RIGHT AWAY and I will give you some FREE!) remember to take time to give God the glory for where you are right now today!

These are my thoughts.

This post is a bit overdue because our family was preparing for something VERY exciting!

We began a family business, Fresh Gear Solutions. This was the result of a LOT of prayer and information gathering. When we officially began the process of starting the business we didn’t realize that our checklist would be quite so time consuming or tedious. We never let this deter us from our goals, though. After two months of putting the pieces in place, Thomas began laying the ground work for our customer base. He is really quite good at this aspect of business. I worked on the web and technical issues (Ok, I CAN hear you laughing! But of the two of us, I am the stronger one in this area).

There were some glitches along the way. The manufacturer of the machines had an unforeseen medical issue with the head of the plant. Once that was overcome, we were promised delivery by a Thursday, so Thomas firmed up an appointment. With the machines coming from Canada, of course there was another delay. Would you believe the machines arrived 45 minutes before we had to head out? BUT, with lots of prayer, help from my dad, and God’s grace to allow us to work under immense pressure without losing our heads, we were able to accomplish allt hat was needed.

The weekend went spectacularly! Everyone was so pleased, especially the administration at the rink. God answered each one of our prayers, in His time and way, not ours. A perfect testimony to leaving it in His hands and waiting. Not easy to do, but always worth it!

Planning is an essential part of life for me. Not being organized by nature, I have found that planners really have helped me become more organized over the years, without feeling overwhelmed.

SO, I want to tell you about something new getting ready to hit the scene.

There is a new planner getting ready to be released, that is THE planner, as far as I am concerned. This planner is not your ordinary everyday planner. Firstly, it covers forms for all aspects of life for public school families, homeschool families, AND unschool families. It contains specifics for each of those family styles! Not only that but this is a 4 year planner containing not only year at a glance calendars but monthly calendars as well. But that isn’t all!

I don’t want to get over wordy here until I get the go ahead about it’s release, BUT this planner is type-it-in interactive. This means that you have the option of printing blank forms OR typing in the information you want BEFORE you print! HOW COOL IS THAT? The interactivity doesn’t stop there. The author, Julie Forsythe, has made the planner interactive within itself. This means that when you go to the table of contents you can simply click on the page you want to go to and POOF!, there you are!

It is almost ready to be released, so GET ready for it! This IS The Master Plan!

These are my thoughts.

There are some days that you almost wish you could skip over, ya know? Today was one of those days. Simple Journey Bookstore crashed. Then a wonderful lady told me about some other tech issues. I am trying to isolate those, but it is late and I need to get some sleep. Just wanted to give you all a heads up, that I am working out the kinks.

Please email me at Leslie@leslievaleska.com if you note anything on the sites that is not working. THANKS for your help!

This is just a reminder that the HUGE UHSE Sale 2008 ends tomorrow. All e-books are up to 60% Off! But only until tomorrow!

>Here’s a review of the sale:


Menu Planning: Simple & Delicious $15.00 $10.00


Trim the Fat: The Ultimate Book on Cutting Costs on Food $18.00 $12.60


Simply Frugal Breakfasts $10.00 $6.95


Simply Frugal Portable Lunches $10.00 $6.95


Simply Furgal Beauty $10.00 $6.95


The Spring Cleaning Fling $9.95 $6.00


Inspirational Journal Pages Vol. I $12.50 $5.00


Inspirational Journal Pages Vol. II $12.50 $5.00


Homeschool Co-op Planner $10.00 $6.95


The Plan Homeschool Edition $17.50 $7.50


The Plan UNschool Edition $17.50 $7.50


I WANT it ALL Bundle! $36.00 (This bundle includes Menu Planning, Trim the Fat, Simply Frugal Breakfasts, Simply Frugal Portable Lunches, & Simply Frugal Beauty. That’s an additional 15% of the already low sale prices!)

Hop on over and make your purchases before the sale ends!

When I started this official Simple Journey Ministries website, there was a plan to share more about me and the fam. Life kept creeping in and other priorities took the place of getting this particualr ball rolling. But today, I am ready to dig in with a bit about our family.


For those who are new to the Journey, I am a wahm homeschooling wife to Thomas. To say he is my best friend, would be an overused and understated phrase. We do everything together. Yes, we do have times when we are apart, but we talk about everything! I know all about his clients at work and he gets to hear all my banter about every nitty gritty mundane detail of my days. Hmmm, me thinks he is getting the raw end of the deal here. LOL! Anyway, Thomas is employed with a window and door manufacturing company. He has been there for 16 years and it has been an amazing blessing to watch the company grow and change. You can learn a LOT watching a company go from one man’s garage to being a publicly traded company.


We have four children ranging in ages from 4-oh my, I really don’t want to type this…but our oldest turns 17 on Sunday. eeek! We have 2 sons of Adam and 2 daughters of Eve. Lovely really. Each child has a same sex sibling and watching them grow together is really rewarding for me! Yes, they are normal…well to our family they are. We have four very distinct personalities; a comic geek, a tomboy, a jock, and a fru fru princess. God has blessed each of them in so many areas, that my days are always filled with moments to journal and remember. I shared with my friend Cindy (www.cindysdesktop.com) that my four year old fru fru princess, Tessa, (who is quite the artiste) was working on an alphabet book. It was the first book that she wrote & illustrated, right. So she comes in to the kitchen and says, “Mommy, ya know I am an artist AND an author!” She couldn’t be more excited that her “career” had opened into a new avenue. Love that moment.


Our oldest, Eric (the one who will be *gulp* 17 on Sunday), is currently working on TV and movie scripts. Yes, he wants to write movies. I must say I was much more content reading his novel work, but he kept being drawn to screen plays. So, ya might think that this is a bit nutty and what would one do with this as a mom. Well, I prayed about it, that is for sure. Did you ever know recognize how God has a funny way of answering prayers? I began talking with a mom who contacted me regarding homeschooling information. As we began to get to know each other, I found out that her parents were in the film industry. While Eric will not be pitching his scripts to any big execs real soon, my friend’s mom was willing to work with Eric on writing screenplays. SO, that’s one less thing I have to edit, eh? It truly has been amazing watching God put people in our lives for even the smallest of needs.


Kelsey is our tomboy. Well, she isn’t truly a tomboy, but she isn’t overtly girlie either. She is truly a bookworm, and enjoys fantasy stories in which the main characters are animals. I have much enjoyed watching her take her zest for that genre and turn it into other things. Most recently, she has been working on developing an rpg game. I am not completely sure I understand how this is all going to work in the end, but so far she has me impressed (and a little dumb founded). Watching her grow into a young lady has been something of a special treat that I hadn’t expected. She is quiet and reserved and has always been extremely shy. Over the last two years, she has come out of her shell so much, that people around us are astounded at her transformation. Don’t you just sit in awe at the opportunity you have been given to observe your children growing into the people God has planned for them to be?


Last, but never least, is our son Evan. Well, anyone who knows him knows he is our BIG challenge, in more ways than one. He is the only child with an interest in sports in any way shape or form. The funniest thing that people note when they come to our home for the first time is the lack of furniture in our living room. The room is quite large and rectangular. The furniture we do have is pushed to the walls. I bet you are wondering what I am leading up to, eh? Well, it all comes from the amount of sports we play inside. The main sport is hockey. We are hockey junkies! Evan’s first professional hockey game was at his tender age of 2 weeks old. We play hockey in our home on a daily basis. Believe it or not, we have never broken a window or door. Did I mention both goals are glass doors? Evan gets us to play everything; soccer, baseball (hockey pucks for bases of course), basketball (we have a hallway that is set up as a basketball court with a net on each end), golf (another great way to re-use tin cans), well you name the sport we play it here at Valeska acres. Here’s one thing that has been really fun with Evan. Years ago, shortly after fire was discovered and the wheel invented, I played sports. Two of my main sports were field hockey and lacrosse. Over the years I saved my equipment. They were huddled in a dark recessed unused corner of a closet providing no cost shelter for many spiders. I had pulled them out when I was declutering at some point and Evan came in and asked what was on the bed. I explained what they were and immediately he wanted to know more about field hockey. So I have tried to teach him a bit about that. But, what he really gravitated towards was lacrosse. This has been a true blessing because it is my favorite sport to play, and I am hardly athletic anymore. But playing lacrosse with Evan is a little bit of me splashing on him and it so much fun! We have had comments when we are camping about us playing. How I wish lacrosse were offered around here. Oh, and one more thing that might give you an insight as to how much we love hockey, Evan learned the words to the Canadian anthem before he learned the American anthem! Alas alack, I digress. Time to move on.


It is my hopes that I will be able to get to know all of you and you will get to know me a little better through this blog. Keeping checking back as I will be posting more personal stuff, as well as spotlighting authors, sharing bible studies on Godly womanhood, and such here. Enjoy your day and feel free to email me anytime!


These are my thoughts.