The groggy wife tells all

I’d be a great wife if I wasn’t so tired. How about you? The truth is, it’s hard to be great when you’re groggy.

We read, we pray, we counsel, we try, but if we would just change this, we would be better wives. Marriage is hard enough when our days are filled with routines, but throw in a challenge or crisis, and it’s likely to sink us. Let’s face it. It takes energy to be loving.
The Groggy Wife Tells All

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) but when you’re tired, you’re more likely to be: impatient, unkind, rude, irritable, unbearable, and unenduring.

Are you a better wife when you’re well rested? If you’re too tired to remember when that was, then just remember this:  when it comes to having energy to be a great wife, LESS IS MORE.

How to find room for rest

  • Less doing … so you have to prioritize (I’m cooking in my own kitchen here, friends!)
  • Less tech … so you have to put away tv, Facebook, and Pinterest when you should be sleeping
  • Less noise … so you have to choose to slow down and create space in your days

How to get more rest

  • More pause. Any time, all the time. After a meal, before getting up, in the car, in the bathroom!  Pause.
  • More sleep.  If we know sleep impacts so much of our physical, mental, and emotional health, there’s no substitute. How much sleep do you need to live well?
  • More rest.  Rest is different than sleep. Rest is allowing your body and mind and spirit to enjoy quiet, peaceful time absent of hurry or demand. Rest.

When wives are groggy it shows in what they don’t want to do. 

  1. They don’t want to cook.
  2. They don’t want to play.
  3. They don’t want to have sex.
  4. They don’t want to listen.
  5. They don’t want to love.

It’s hard to be great when you’re groggy.  Are you a tired wife?

Let’s stop making excuses and stop being so tired. It’s good to pray and read and counsel and try … and read Marriage Monday every week ;) but maybe the best thing we could do for our marriages this week is to make progress in being women who rest.

Make sure you get marriage and relational encouragement and practical wisdom in your email every Monday by subscribing to Come Have a Peace.

Let’s rest well today and tonight, friends. We will love better, and our husbands will thank us for it.

What signs show up in your home and relationship when you are too groggy? Would love to hear your thoughts.

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By Julie Sanders

What would you call this pizza?

Pizza belongs on Fridays, especially Feed Me Fridays!

For me cooking has always been so much about economy and inspiration:  using what I have and what I know to create something interesting and delicious for the people I love and for those we welcome into our home. When I’m not doing much cooking, it’s usually a sign to me I’m not doing enough loving. When “too busy” becomes “too typical,” it’s not just permission to “call” for delivery …. for me it’s a call to re-think my priorities.  I love take-out as much (or more?) than the next girl, but it can’t be a way of life.  I also love PBJ’s as much (or more?) than the next girl, but that also can’t be a way of life.  Maybe you have an area in your life that sometimes gathers dust or gets ignored. When that happens in my kitchen in this season of my life, I hear the message “Stop and evaluate!” Can you relate? I need to hit “reset” in my kitchen.

Economy and inspiration definitely stirred up yesterday’s dinner. I’m not sure what to call this pizza, but maybe you’ll have a suggestion by the end of this post. After all, my family LOVED it, so I need to name it and make it again.  So be thinking as you read …

______________ Pizza.  (You fill in the blank)

Homemade Pizza

I started with a homemade pizza dough; this is SO easy to do and really takes the whole thing up a big notch. I use the Betty Crocker pizza dough recipe. It’s on page 167 of the “old” red binder, or you can find it here. If you follow the internet version, just know that I stop at 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1 tsp. of sugar, only 2 T. of oil, and I only let it rest 5 minutes. In other words, the older way is the easier way.

  • Spray an 11×17 cookie sheet (with a slight edge) with non-stick spray and then gently nudge the dough all over the pan, creating a shallow crust.
  • I just make one large pizza out of the dough recipe. If you put a little soft butter on your hands, it helps not to be covered in pizza dough.
  • Saute 2 chicken breasts in oil and garlic, let them cool, and chopped them into bite size pieces.
  • Brush olive oil all over the dough. Probably about 3 tablespoons.
  • Distribute about 1 cup of grape tomatoes (cut in half) and 3 tri-colored sweet peppers all over the dough.
  • Sprinkle feta cheese (about 1 cup) all over and then cover with 1 1/2 cups of shredded mozarella.
  • I topped it all with a sprinkle of dried oregano from my sweet friend Mary’s garden in Greece.  All done!
  • Bake the pizza for 15 minutes at 425. Let it rest a few minutes (TRY to get the people to wait …) before you slice it.

This got rave reviews from two of the family, with the exception of the one who said peppers and tomatoes are for salads ;) What is he thinking??

I love making my own pizza, and the family has come to really enjoy it too. This would be an awesome weekend supper, and you can use what you have to inspire your own pizza creation.

So what would you call this pizza? I’m taking suggestions!

 

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By Julie Sanders

Why I’ve taken allergy shots for 8 years

Eight and a half years ago I started getting allergy shots. I’m allergic to pollens, dust, and mold. As much as I love spring and the explosion of life this time of year, something deep inside my sinus passages wants to scream, “Noooooooo!” I couldn’t live where we live without these shots. THREE EVERY WEEK.
Allergy lady Microsoft Office

Disclaimer:  Sometimes I want to move to Arizona.  There, I said it.

If you’ve tried to tell your kids “It won’t hurt that bad” when they get vaccines, it’s time to accept the ugly truth. It hurts. :( Sometimes I get tired of it, and a couple of times I’ve tried to stop going. Once I even “had it out” with the allergy doc, demanding to know why it hasn’t been a textbook case for me. Wasn’t the idea that I would do this for a few years, introducing the allergens slowly into my system so that I would naturally develop defenses against them? I was not a happy patient.

But then she broke the news to me. Sometimes people are so sensitive (weak?) to the environment and the environment is so full of the triggers that you just need to keep on getting help to manage the effects.

This isn’t a plea for allergy information, I promise. It’s a confession of my sin, I mean the allergies, I battle. I don’t have to roll around in the grass to start sneezing, though it certainly would make matters worse. Just by being in my world, my body feels the effects of what’s toxic to me. The world is full of offenses, toxins, and triggers that make us sick, only the symptoms go far beyond red eyes and itchy skin. Like an allergy attack, sin strangles the life out of us, leaving us gasping for our very life.

The only answer to the sin in the world all around us is a regular inoculation of God’s truth. Weekly is not enough. In this case, in the case of our hearts and minds, we need shots of truth daily. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word,” (Psalm 119:9).

I’m going to get my three allergy shots today. It’s been a week, and I’m feeling the assault of the world around me. How about you? Have you had your shot of truth today?

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By Julie Sanders