One of my goals for 2007 is to join a movement led by Sallie at A Gracious Home in Celebrating a Year of Abundance. It's not meant to be about deprivation or living legalistically, but instead it's about being a good steward of what we already have and trying to focus less on material things. Along with the others, we will be following an old Depression Era motto:

While decluttering my house recently, I was amazed how many things I had, even down to toiletries that I had forgotten about and so bought more of them. I am now working steadfastly through using everything up before I buy more.

Another issue for me will be food. I live in a different city to the one where I work, so often I will stay up there during the week rather than drive home. This makes planning meals and sorting out food shopping more difficult. It is often just easier to buy food on my way back home and make a meal from that. If only to allow me to defrost the freezer, I need to make the effort to make my meals from the food I already have. It will force me to be a little more inventive and adventurous with my cooking over the next few weeks as I try to find combinations that work. Perhaps I should be glad that I live on my own and that no-one else will have to suffer this!

While sorting through a huge pile of paperwork hidden away in the spare room a few weeks ago, I was shocked to see how much stationery I own. (That weekend, I also developed a new hobby - shredding old documents is wonderfully satisfying!) Some of it I have had since I was in primary school! There will be no excuse for buying new stationery any time soon.

Part of what I am looking forward to is having a more uncluttered home, but I'm hoping to learn more about what is responsible stewardship for all of God gifts to me. Even already, as I have wandered around my house or done my shopping, I have almost heard your voices sitting on my shoulder gently reciting "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Do without!"

Sallie also tells me that this week is National Delurking Week designed to get all the lurkers out there to comment on the blogs they visit. When I saw this advert for it, I just had to participate it so please comment somewhere if you've never commented before!

You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
Psalm 65:11

Lindsey at her Christmas blog, Advent for Evangelicals, has asked us to share the story of our nativity scene and to share some of our Christmas traditions.

My nativity scene stays up all year round. It's from Peru so has a special place in my heart after working there but I also like to have it up all year to remind myself and others who visit that celebrating Jesus is not confined to December!

I have adopted a tradition from one of my American friends that I hope to introduce to my future family. The nativity is complete all year until Advent. At the beginning of Advent, the Baby Jesus is hidden away until Christmas morning as we wait for his birth.

The Wise Men also leave the nativity and go on a journey throughout the house until they arrive on Twelfth Night. (You can see them hiding travelling through one of my bookcases on the right.) My friend and her roommates would hide the Wise Men in turn. Whoever found them next would hide them for another person to find, until the 6th of January when whoever found them would return them to the nativity. Admittedly, this doesn't work quite as well when you live on your own! That said, my friends enjoy hiding them for me whenever they visit.

(Apologies for the terrible quality of the photos! I don't have a digital camera and didn't have time to get proper photos developed, then I couldn't work out how to get camera phone photos from the camera to my computer, so I am afraid I was stuck with using my webcam!)

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'
Jeremiah 33:14-16

After all the excitement of yesterday (still giggling intermittently!) and my recent thoughts on the compatibility of full-time work and being a wife and a mother, I had to laugh as I read the first few paragraphs of this article.

Carolyn McCulley pointed out some articles from the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood on her blog, Solo Femininity. I was most amused reading Homemaking Internship by Carolyn Mahaney that I just had to share it with others. It was this first extract that got me, but I definitely recommend reading the whole article.

Imagine preparing your whole life for a career in medicine. In high school you volunteer at the local hospital and spend your evenings reading medical journals. You make the honor roll and head off to a prestigious medical school. After eight years of only study and no social life, you finally graduate. Then you spend two, maybe three years in your chosen field—not even enough time to pay off the school loans.

But the more you practice medicine, the less you enjoy it. Suddenly you realize the truth. Your real calling is to be a teacher. You want to work with kids, small ones. So now with a mostly useless set of skills (at least you would know how to do the Heimlich maneuver if a kid choked on his hot dog in the school cafeteria), you want to enroll again at the university and study to be a teacher. But you can’t. Your time and money have run out.

You can’t afford to give six more years of your life to study, and you certainly can’t afford the extra school debt. The years and the funds allotted for career preparation have already been spent on another profession. You have to accept the reality that you didn’t graduate with the right degree to teach.

All too often we stumble onto homemaking the way this student stumbled onto teaching. We devote ourselves to studying for a particular career, but suddenly discover we want to enter an entirely different field for which we never prepared. Surprise! We find ourselves engaged to be married but without a degree in homemaking.

I've done all of that. I studied hard and worked hard, often to the expense of other things. Just yesterday I reached one of the pinnacles of my career and spent today getting congratulatory hugs and handshakes from friends and senior colleagues. I am now in their elite club - I am now one of them! But I have found myself still unsatisfied. I have devoted myself to medicine only to discover I want "to enter an entirely different field for which we never prepared".

It's an interesting article about how to practically prepare OUR daughters for homemaking, yet it doesn't address the issue of how to prepare if you are not from a home where a Biblical view of the family and of the home was taken. I know that it is only now that I am learning about running a home and raising a Christian family, having never stood at my mother's knee while she roasted a chicken (I still need to learn how to carve it) or never having had family worship. Some of what I do in my work now will help, such as the "transferable skills" of organisation, time management, conflict resolution, and caring for others. I have been so blessed to have older women in the church mentor me and teach me some of these wifely skills. Of course these skills are not only to be learnt for marriage but, as Carolyn Mahaney says, to "honor God by expressing your femininity today".

My young friends, let it be your constant aim, and at the same time your earnest prayer, that you may first of all thoroughly understand your mission, and then diligently prepare for it, and hereafter as successfully fulfill it.
John Angell James, English pastor (1785-1859)

I found out about this amazing day on the Internet today. Now I am working all day on Saturday (for my American and Canadian readers, your Buy Nothing Day is on Friday) so it will be quite easy for me not to buy anything, but I wanted it share it with everyone else in case you wanted to have a go! I think its principles are great.

The day is designed to encourage people to shop less and spend more time with their family, along with reinforcing the very serious message that we, in developing countries, are consuming a disproportionate amount of resources. This in turn deprives the developing world of these resources and causes environmental damage.

I've been trying to make some changes in my shopping habits. I try to 'buy British' and take note of where my food comes from. We need to be aware of how far it has flown to get to the supermarket. How much did those people get paid? Where they paid fairly? What are their working conditions? I am also looking at how much packaging comes with my shopping and trying to reduce that. When I have stopped living in two cities and have settled down a bit, I am quite keen to start getting deliveries of vegetables from local farmers to cut down on both of these. I also need to work on my recycling much more than I actually do.

If you have any other suggestions or are going to try to "Buy Nothing" on Friday or Saturday, let me know!

The heavens are the LORD's heavens,
but the earth he has given to the children of man.
Psalm 115:16

I really enjoyed reading Sherrin's post on Titus this week. One sentence struck me:

All women can be homemakers no matter what their current work situation is. However, creating a welcoming home for our families and communities does take time and effort. This means that it is reasonable to conclude that at some times in our lives, particularly when there are young children at home, it will be necessary to cut back on paid work in order to fulfill this calling.

I completely agree with her. I have long said that should I get married, I would want to stay at home with the children. However, this started another train of thought...

I have such a busy job and spend a lot of time at work. Now I did know that life was going to be like this when I decided that I wanted to be a doctor and I can't claim to have been pulled in unawares! With all its demands though, it is so hard to keep my house on top of work commitments, never mind added to my church work, friends, family, and recreation. I do love my work - I find it fascinating and fulfilling - but my priorities have changed.

I really don't think that my job (as it stands at the moment) could not be compatible with a happy marriage. I could "have it all" - get married, have children, work full-time, get a cleaner to do the housework, put the children to daycare. I have plenty of friends and colleagues who do this, but that's not the wife, the mother or the doctor I wish to be. So it brings me to a conclusion that surprised me: if, God willing, I get married, should I give up my job and be a full-time homemaker to and for my husband, even before having children?

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
Genesis 2:18

What habit would you most like to establish this year?

I have to confess that recently I have failed in keeping up with Flylady as much as I would like. I'm now not at home very much since I started a new job so there is not much routine to my life. Thankfully, as Flylady says, "You are never behind - just jump right in where you are!" The house is much more organised and clutter-free thanks to her, but I am just getting away with the bare minimum. Having some proper organisation back would be good, so I will try again! That said, something is better than nothing, as Flylady would tell me!

As for spiritual habits, I think I need to ensure that I read my Bible at the beginning of every day. Sometimes I haven't been leaving enough time in the morning to read my Bible, so have left it to later in the day. Sometimes after a day on call, I don't take the time or have the energy for a proper devotional time. I wrote about getting up early a few months ago, so I need to re-establish that. Can I even aspire to join the 5:00 club?

O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
Psalm 5:3

I'm enjoying reading other people's answers to these questions. Please keep your thoughts coming!