Week of Thanksgiving

So, this may come across as totally random, but that's okay. First, every week I read lots and lots of amazing blogs, things that encourage and inspire me and every week I think to myself 'I should share the wealth! I should let others know about some of my favorite posts for the week!' {And every week I forget!} Anyhow, here are a few I came across this week that I especially loved or found encouraging.

First, there is THIS POST from Rachel at Finding Joy. I simply love her honesty and I admire her desire to choose joy in all things. This post spoke to my heart in particular because I can so easily fall in the trap of comparing myself or my home or my life to others. I promise you will be blessed by reading it.
I especially loved when she said:
I want to live inspired by others.
I want to live encouraged by others.
I want to live grateful for my life.
I want to live thankful.
I want to live getting my worth from the Lord.
YES, YES, I do too!!



Next, but also along the same lines, is THIS POST from Amy at The Blessed Mom. No, I am certainly not enough, but HE is!

Next is THIS POST from Edie at Life in Grace. She talks about the mundane things of life becoming sacred when we realize our high calling. Below is one of my favorite parts of her post:

Perhaps this thing I’ve come to dread—-this daily drudgery—-is in fact my greatest teacher, in disguise.
Teaching me to live in this moment. With these children. And this sacred work. It’s really all there is.
Today is the day of salvation.
So, I hold on tightly to little hands. And I stir the soup. And I fold the towels.
And I say thank you for this work, this calling.
And for this blessed ordinary day—where grace and mercy rain down and turn water into wine, drudgery into vocation, and curse into blessing.
Ahhhh, those blessed, ordinary days! If only I can learn to see them as the gift that they are!

And then there is THIS POST by Ann at A Holy Experience. I have come to love her 'Weekends are For' posts so much. She always gives a few different ideas for the weekend, including a way to worship, an activity to do with the kids, sometimes a recipe to make or thought to ponder. But every weekend these posts encourage me and inspire me to make the most of my weekends.




And now ... two BEAUTIFUL homeschool 'school rooms' ... Alicia from LaFamille just moved into a rental but still did a wonderful job of making their school stylish and vintage and drool worthy. Also, my bloggy friend Lora at My Blessed Life and her family just recently moved into a new home and she finally got around to posting their learning room pictures - the built ins her hubby made are gorgeous and make the room look amazing. {Insert pep talk ... OK Kathy, you CAN be content with your dining room/school space ... remember those posts above about not comparing!? ;) }

Now that you've seen some lovely links for the week, I wanted to share a way that I am trying to challenge myself. See I have this terrible trouble with being addicted to Facebook. A friend of mine was challenging herself about a month ago to go for a whole week without Facebook, and to learn to turn to God throughout her day, not to turn to FB every time she was happy, sad, had news to share, etc.
I was so challenged by her words and thoughts that I decided to try it too. When I started out, I didn't say I would stay off it for a whole week, but I simply made myself stay away for a few days ... which turned into more days, which turned into a whole week! And get this, it was one of the best weeks I've had in a long time! We accomplished so much stuff that week!

So with this week being Thanksgiving {which I'm hosting} and with much to do, and wanting to turn my heart towards God for this time as I prepare for the holidays I've decided to challenge myself again and stay off FB for this week. Will I stay off for a whole week? Not sure yet. But I know that I need to make myself take this break.

I am planning to have a little fun with the girls in our homeschool this week. We'll be doing our basic math and language arts lessons, but we'll be adding in some fun lessons on Thanksgiving and maybe some crafts and stuff too. And maybe taking a small break from the other subjects .... we'll see how it goes!

Hope you all have a great week!

What Clean Means to Me

A couple of weeks ago we had a nasty mystery odor in our kitchen. I mean, it STUNK. BAD. We finally figured out that it was a {new} carton of eggs in the fridge that were somehow contaminated and were making the entire kitchen smell rotten. We threw out the eggs and this led to an all out deep cleaning of my entire kitchen. It took me an entire afternoon on a Saturday. But it was well worth the time and I am so glad I got it done. It made me decide that I need to take the time to deep clean each room, one by one, even if I only do one room per month. Doing it on a rotation will mean I will probably get each room deep cleaned about 2 times per year.



Here is the inside of the fridge as I was cleaning it - I'm soooo thankful to have a fridge in which every shelf and drawer can come completely out so I can clean the inside and also scrub down the shelves and drawers in the sink.

I laid them out to dry while I cleaned the rest ...
Putting the shelves back into a sparkling clean fridge!

Here are some pics of my kitchen in the midst of 'deep cleaning'. Deep cleaning to me meant pulling everything out of every cabinet, getting rid of things I no longer use, tossing old or outdated foods, spices, etc, wiping down the insides of cabinets, re-organizing the ones that were messy or moving things to other cabinets that made things more functional for me.

I even cleaned out the microwave {which is something I hate to do and rarely do} and UNDER the stove ... have you looked under your stove lately?

Mine was NASTY underneath!

I wish I had taken after photos, because it looked sooo nice when I was all done. And what a great sense of accomplishment. The only thing I did not complete that day was wiping down the mini-blinds and washing the windows. Those tasks will be saved for another day.

Yesterday I did a similar 'deep clean' of my youngest daughter's room. You need to know in advance that I DO require my kids to clean their own rooms, but sometimes it's just time for Mom to step in and REALLY clean.

Her bedroom is teeny, tiny. Maybe 8 ft x 10 ft? Some people have walk in closets bigger than Joy's room!! And because it's so small, and because she's a girl, and because little girls love to have lots of stuff, and love to collect things --- it's always messy and overcrowded!

And so, while she was at Grandma's house yesterday afternoon, I spent about 4 hours deep cleaning her room. I got rid of lots of trash, vacuumed, sorted, organized, removed some items that were just taking up too much space, dusted and just got it all back in shape again.

Here is the end result ...

Now, will it last? Probably not for too long. :) But at least it's good to get in each room and deep clean them every so often.

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Today I woke up and had a big smile on my face. Would you like to know why?

Well, typically my house can get pretty messy. It's a small house and there always seems to be things dumped in places where they don't belong. Oh sure, we have our moments when it's clean - like on cleaning day. But by the next day it's already messy again. I know - such is the life with kids and dogs! But I get so discouraged when it seems that all my efforts are in vain. I clear the counter tops and enjoy how nice they look, only to have them cluttered up the next day!

But over the past week I've been making a greater effort to work on keeping my home clean. Not just on cleaning days, but every day. So many times I'm guilty of using something, and instead of returning it to it's proper place, I dump it somewhere - and there it sits for DAYS! Like I'll use a hammer to hang up a picture, then instead of returning the hammer to the garage, I'll leave it sitting on the kitchen counter for a week!!

I'm come to realize that I'm just lazy a lot of the time! I have a busy life with keeping a home, being a wife, homeschooling and raising daughters, running to all their activities, being involved at church, spending time with family and friends ... but just because I'm busy or tired or lazy doesn't mean I can walk past that hammer every day for a week instead of simply putting it back where it belongs as soon as I'm done with it. Isn't it funny that much of the mess and disorder in my home is actually from ME!? It's not just the dogs, kids or hubby - I'm just as guilty, if not more!

So why did I wake up smiling you ask ... because I climbed out of bed and my room was CLEAN, as in no piles of items on the floor, no pile of dirty laundry, no piles of clean clothes on the dressers. Clean. And I walked into the kitchen and it was ---- you guessed it - CLEAN. And I sat with my coffee in the living room and it was - CLEAN! No baskets full of clothes waiting to be folded, no cups and plates on the end tables, no newspapers strewn on the floor.

In my home there are a few areas that are always a trap for me - here is my practical advice for keeping up with them ...

**living room** As I mentioned above, laundry usually sits in PILES in my living room. Baskets full of folded, or unfolded laundry always sit on my couches. My new resolve is this - when I bring a load of clean laundry upstairs, it gets folded immediately and everything put away immediately - this is a GREAT chore to get your kids involved with!

**kitchen** I'm super guilty of piling dirty dishes in the sink - which drives my hubby crazy! I'm also guilty of using the kitchen for a meal, or to bake - then leaving it messy till the next meal or even the next day! My new resolve - put dishes directly into the dishwasher instead of in the sink. If it's full of clean stuff, empty it {another great chore for kids}. Clean up the whole kitchen after a meal, it only takes a few minutes to wipe down the counters, throw trash away and do a quick sweep. My girls LOVE to sweep - something else you can get your kids to do. Walk away with a clean kitchen!

**bathroom** Sink and countertop are always nasty. My new resolve - wipe them down daily. Another chore to get the kids to do - soooo easy, give them a clorox wipe or a wet washcloth and it's done in minutes.

**laundry** As I said, just keeping up with it. Wash, dry, fold, put away. DONE. I also find that I keep up with it better when I remember to change the loads. We have to let our dogs out the back door several times per day - and the back door is right next to my washer and dryer. So each time I let them out, starting with the first thing in the morning when I wake up, I throw a load in the wash and a load in the dryer ... and just keep it going!

**school room** We have so many books, supplies and crafty items. It can become so messy. Now, we clean up at the end of each school day. Which means when we come back to do school the next day, it's already nice and clean and ready for us!

Most of these things don't have to be daunting tasks - get your kids involved! Even very small kids can fold and put away hand towels or wipe down the sink!

Now I'm going to ask some advice ... there are still some areas that I struggle with. Our 'master' {which really is just a normal sized bedroom} is always the dumping grounds. When I clean the house, I take everything and dump it in my room! I need help! What are some ways to keep our room neat and clean and not have it be the dumping grounds? I want it to be our sanctuary, not our dump!

Also, papers, magazines, mail and such. We don't have an office or a desk area so I always seem to have paper and clutter like that laying everywhere! What are your best tips for this stuff? I feel like I need these things to be somewhat near the kitchen just because it seems to be the center of the home and where I go to find important information. So how can I tame the paper clutter?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these areas!

I also want to say that I KNOW, believe me I know that it's hard to keep up with a house and a family. I'm not trying to lay any guilt trips on anyone. I just know that for myself, it's been a few simple changes that have helped me and I really do love my home so much more when it's cleaned up. I also find that I have more time for the important things in life when I have things in order. I also don't go through my days feeling completely overwhelmed and stressed. Clean really does have a calming effect! Just doing small things as you go through your day can help a LOT! As you take some towels to the bathroom, you pass a hairbrush on the countertop - instead of walking by, take the brush with you and put it away. Little things make a big difference!

I can't wait to hear what some of your clean ideas and strategies are!

If Walls Could Talk

This wall says how much I love and value my family ...This wall says that I adore my husband, and thank God for our wonderful marriage...
This wall helps me to keep things in perspective ...
This wall says that I love collecting similar items, and reminds me that family = love ...
This wall says that I have a love of words and phrases, and again a love of collecting similar items ...
These walls reveal one of my addictions ...

This wall reminds me of all the people who mean a lot to me ... especially those that have passed away like my Dad and Grandparents ...
This wall says that a little princess lives here ...
This wall says that we love the beach, sun, surf and sand ... and reminds me of countless hours spent together enjoying God's creation ...
This wall says that a budding artist lives here ...
This wall says I am blessed to be able to teach my children at home ...
This wall says that a sports nut lives here ...
This wall says that my work is never done ...
This is my only unpainted wall, it's a new wall, and the paint is already bought for this wall ... so this wall says "PAINT ME! PLEASE!"

Changes - part 2

Here is the second change we've made in the last two weeks ... this one we have talked about and wanted for years. We are thrilled to finally have our very own pool! Now if only this crazy weather would warm up so we could test it out!

You are ALL invited to come use it and enjoy it with us!
BEFORE:
DURING DIGGING:
START OF INSTALLATION:
ALMOST DONE:
FINISHING TOUCHES:
WATER GOES IN:
ALL DONE! We still have some work to do with landscaping and such, but the pool is done!

I did it! I did it!

I made one of these super cool "ragamuffin garlands" -- as seen on The Nester's blog.
I thought they were so super cute when I saw her post about them, then I had just finished re-doing the bathroom and had plenty of leftover fabric so I thought why not? I could do that!

Honestly, it did not take that long and (I think) the result was worth it. It looks very cute hanging above my bathroom door. I am hoping to make some for the girls rooms too. Go check out The Nesting Place for more cute garlands! {{I know I've been saying that A LOT - I think I have a blog crush!!}}

A decorater's dream!

This is seriously my new favorite blog. Yes, I tend to lurk on other people's blogs! I found the link from (I think) Amy's blog, and you know how it goes, you just link from one to the next to the next and find all these great blogs out there in cyberworld!

I love to decorate my home and love to have new projects to work on. And I love to do it all simply and as cheap as possible. So I love The Nesting Place! She does the most beautiful things with such ease. I can't wait to purchase some cheap fabric and get started! My two upcoming projects will be the bathroom and new curtains for the dining room ... stayed tuned to see my progress!

Now go check out The Nesting Place! I promise you will be inspired!