My New Plate

I love plates, I have several sets of dishes and have fun using them at various times. My main day to day pattern is a simple white but I have beautiful wedding china with blue flowers and I have a wonderful set of antique Fire King dishes in Peach Luster, plus my Christmas dishes, which I must confess are still in my cupboard from Christmas, those have a Christmas plaid pattern. And I have several tea cups in lots of different patterns to keep it interesting. Love dishes! I love to decorate a beautiful table with them. I have a friend at church who shares this passion and we love to do the tables at church for big events.

This past year I released a lot of stuff from my life.  I remember talking to my sister in law about my time releasing.  We talked about the clean plate.  I had to release everything first so I could add things back to an empty plate rather than adding and pulling at the same time.  You don't know if the thing you added is a problem or something that you haven't taken out yet.  So that is what I worked toward last year, finding a clean plate.

Now I am trying to fill my plate slowly, one thing at a time. 

When I was at home my plate was a fresh white plate, each thing on it could stand out from the simple background, the plate would match any decorating scheme I wanted to put it in and sat in the background to let whatever I put on it shine. 

However, I am not sure that is what my plate looks like anymore.  My plate my be empty of any activities I have put on it but I no longer have a simple white plate that can do anything or go anywhere.  I have a patterned plate.  My decorating options are limited with my new plate and not anything will look good on it.  I still have many options but I am not free to do anything I want to do.  I need to look at the color and pattern of my plate and make choices that complement and enhance the look of the plate. 

But as with many things I can learn from my time decorating a white plate.  Even when my plate was white I didn't just put anything on there.  I asked myself what I was passionate about, what is God doing in my life and from there I moved forward.  I love being a woman and I loved being a homemaker and much of what I did during my years at home focused on those passions.  I also love being a mom and I love teaching my kids so at other times in my homemaking career I filled my plate with those things.  The beauty of the white plate is that I was able to change the look of the table as new things came into my life.

My new life has a patterned plate.  There is one constant in my life that cannot be changed.  And while I may not have a patterned plate forever I am committed to this look for the next several years.   Which means even more than with the white plate I must remember to be aware that my theme needs to complement my pattern and not conflict.  So as I consider all the options before me to add to my plate I will keep my limitations in mind.  And just like when I was at home I will be careful to not overwhelm my plate and to be sure there is plenty of room for the most important things in my life.