Haven Challenge Anti Procrastination Day!

Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood has deemed today Anti- Procrastination Day and I don't even know where to start. I guess I will start by creating a list on all the things that I need to do and have not done yet since wedding planning has taken over my life temporarily . You can check out her post here!

Things I need to Do ( in no particular order)

1. Organize Closets
2. Donate clothing bags to Goodwill
3. Donate Books to library or school
4. My ever growing laundry pile
5. My weekly menu's and sticking to them!
6. Coupon Clipping
7. Bathroom Re-organization
8. Wedding Dress Alterations
9. Purchasing Flower Girl Dresses
10. Resuming my work-out schedule/plan
11. Deep cleaning girls room
12. Kitchen re-organization
13. Creating my Sanctuary Master Bedroom
14. Apply for my replacement birth certificate for my marriage license
15. Apply for marriage license
16. Create a photo album with all the hundreds of pictures around our house
17. Develop disposable camera film that is probably over two years old
18. Developing anad sticking to our chore chart
19. Developing and sticking to our household planner
20. Develop extra homework/summer learning chart/wall for kids

Making Your Home a Haven Challenge- I NEED YOUR HELP!!

pink bedroom graphic from art.com

I was reading through blog land today and came across Crystal's Making Your Home A Haven Challenge. The theme this week is Spring Cleaning The Master Bedroom. I thought I would join the challenge as I haven't participated in a while. Also , being that I have to de-clutter and re-organize to make room for my FDH in the next few months I want to solicit advice because I have never had a two adult bedroom. We both figured that my apartment was larger so we would stay there for a year and plan for a house.

The first thing I know I have to tackle is my closet. The next being my outrageous shoe collection and the third being my multi-use bathroom. I am a walking women's cliche', I absolutely adore shoes. They are my weakness. I am also an avid consignment shopper plus as I mentioned in an earlier post, because of my size I always get the pickings from those kind folks who down size their wardrobes. And my bathroom is a multi purpose room, I don't even know why the girls have a bathroom because they seem to be so attracted to mine! To top it all off, my FDH is also just as much as ,if not more of a consignment junkie than I am so his closet will also need to be pared down, ( unbeknownst to him!)

When I envision my master bedroom as a married woman vs a single mom, I don't even know where to begin. Maybe you can help me. I am so used to my room being an end all be all for me and my girls. Everything starts and stops in mommy's room. So the concept of a two adult bedroom is very new to me. I know what I like but then I guess I have to let him add a little bit of his style and ideas to our room. All and all I need help with small room organization. I don't want a messy bedroom, but what do you do with limited space?? Storage is out of the question for me because I feel that if you put clothes away in storage for a while, then you may as well give them away because you aren't wearing them anyway.

I know I want a peaceful haven of relaxation, happiness, oneness, openness and feminine beauty in my master bedroom. I want it to be the place that we both look forward to spending quality time in. No not just for the physical, but for the complete oneness of our relationship. I want it to be holy and peaceful and fun. So I guess I will start by minimizing the clutter of my closest, and getting rid of all of the outfits that I haven't worn in like two full seasons. Maybe brighten it up and make it look cheerful. Take the bathroom and separate the hair bows, and half-empty bottles of all the different lotions and sprays that I have. I don't know where to start but I know I don't have much time, so I am soliciting advice from anyone who's willing to help!!!!! What minimum cost methods have you used for maximizing space and organization. ( besides rubbermaid bins ;), also what kind of decorating tips can you offer that blend both personalities in one room.

The Sacrifice of Having It All

AnnaS over at Domestic Felicity wrote a post about the importance of Quality Time and it's slow demise within our modern culture. I agree. I posted an excerpt and I will comment after it. You can read more of her post here.

"Quality time" is something we hear so often; it seems as though we're under the illusion that it doesn't really matter how much time we spend together, as long as it's "quality time". And more specifically – it doesn't matter how much time we spend at home, as long as "our heart is at home". How little time is enough, then? If we come late in the evening to a home that has been empty all day long, can we say, "Now we can relax and spend time together?" Not really. Not unless you have a maid and a cook, anyway. If dishes pile up in the sink, the mountain of dirty laundry is overshadowing the poor washing machine, the refrigerator is empty and the floors are dirty, this hardly provides a healthy, nourishing, relaxing atmosphere. It's almost impossible to properly rest and relax until basic things are taken care of. " AnnaS-Domestic Felicity

There has been much controversy over whether or not women can have it all, the career, a nice happy home, and the apple cheek family. My answer to that question is yes, you can have it all, but you will pay a significant price for it. You see my question lies in what is considered " all". I can have a bushel of apples, and have them all, but they can all be rotten, or overripe, or full of worms. Therefore in my eyes "all" is not a significant measure. You must give up something in order to have all. What will you give up? It could be your peace of mind, your quality time with your family, your integrity and yes you can give this up very easily sometimes unintentionally, your spiritual safety as you will have more fiery darts coming your way from the working world, and there will be times that some have to make a choice between their family and their job.

I will give you a prime example, yesterday at work I was cursed by another manager. I work in a highly professional field of work, and because I am saved I maintained a Godly demeanor and handled it as a woman of God first, and secondly because I am professional and have high work ethics I handled it professionally. But you know what, it still did not take away the fact that it upset me and that I had to cast down ungodly thoughts, and evil imaginations. Basically it was a battle and while I thank God I can claim victory, it was sitll a battle nonetheless that I probably would not have had to fight, if I were at home focusing on my family's day. I was even still upset about the events surrounding it when I got home. I had to call on God and make myself stop thinking about it and focus on my family. This is what you give up when you work. You have unnecessary battles and issues that you say you will leave at work, but you have to fight to do so and this will subtly rob you of the positive energy you need for your family. I applaud the keepers of the home, I applaud all those women out there who made a decision to focus on the quality of the home life versus the quality and quantity of having it all. "All" comes with a price. I do feel that I could be a better mother to my children if all my focus could be only on my family and their quality of life but in the meantime I will have to focus on my task at hand which is remaining in God's will and providing for my family. Leaning on him to give the measure of grace I need to make it victoriously in this chapter of my life. I write this post urging those of us who work not to be so quick to judge those women who have taken a God given stand to stay at home and take care of their family and for those who stay at home to not be so judgmental of those who do work because we battle with the sacrifice that we make by doing so.

Be Blessed and Stay Encouraged!!

Making Your Home a Haven Day 6- Update

Crystal at Biblicalwomanhood has really inspired me to continue to challenge myself to not only create a haven of refuge in my home for my family but to endeavor to keep it that way with her Making Your Home a Haven Challenge. Its Day 6 of the challenge and I am trying to catch up. I did not really take before pictures because I would be too embarrassed to put those out there but I did take pictures of the after. Since I work, it is harder for me to come home and do full fledged housekeeping along with trying to spend time with the girls. I have to do spot work continually because I live in an apartment and clutter can build fast and look worse than it actually is.
My To Do List For Day 6-
Spent 30 minutes ( via timer) picking up and spot cleaning from the weekend to make sure that the rooms stay the way they are and add finishing touches to what we did not finish on Sat.
Cooked Dinner-Devotion
Family Time
Private Mediation/ Bed by 9:45

So here are my proud pictures of my Haven of Refuge and boy nothing beats the feeling of coming home after a hard day's work to a clean home, and it feels even better waking up to one!

Living Room Before- Shameful!!


Living Rm After

Dining Rm/Laundry/Kit After

Bar/Office- After

Dinner Before

Dinner After

Homemade chicken poppers, tropical fruit salad,
mexi-corn, and cheesy garlic bread w/marinara sauce- yummy!

Making Your Home a Haven Day 6

Crystal at Biblicalwomanhood ran a post last week entitled Making our Homes a Haven: The Challenge . (You can read about it and follow the updates here). Basically for the past 6 days she has been encouraging us to do little things to make our home a haven of refuge for our families. This coupled with a very encouraging "Young Mother's " meeting at my church hosted by my Pastor's wife for the young mothers in my congregation motivated me to take a more earnest approach and effort to promote a environment of refuge for my family. So I will do this in a two part post. In my first post I will update my position in the Making Our Homes a Haven Challenge. Since I am a working momma, I had to condense my challenge to one day- which for me was Saturday! In case you don't have time to link back to Crystal's Blog I will list the daily challenges we are supposed to do in order: 1. Refresh My Spirit, 2. Do your morning routine, 3. Take time to plan, and 4. Do Something!

1. Refresh My Spirit- I woke up this Saturday morning and brewed myself a cup of honey/lemon/peppermint tea and devoted close to two hours of uninterrupted devotion and meditation time. My encouragement came from reading Ecclesiastes Chapters 3-5. I also read some in Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah. I skipped around to the last couple of chapters of St. John into the first couple of Chapters of Acts.. I especially wanted to study Paul's spiritual growth during this time.

2. My Morning Routine: I woke the girls up, had our daily thanksgiving, and went over my plans for the day. I gave them detail things to do and explained to them how important it was for them to finish their portion so that we could all take advantage of our free time with activities I planned for them after their recital that afternoon. Made breakfast.

3. Take Time To Plan: I kinda did this one in between the first two. I knew the girls had a piano recital at 1:30 and I wanted to leave the house and be at there by 12:30 no later than 12:45. I knew I had 3.5 hours to do everything that I wanted to do after my devotion, so I pulled out the timers, and gave each room 30 minutes. I gave the laundry 45 minutes and vacuuming 15 minutes. This was excluding the bedrooms but we did finish it all, and we successfully achieved our goal!
4. Do something- Well I put on my favorite uplifting gospel CD and went to work! I finished my laundry, living room, kitchen, dusting, refrigerator, and vacuumed. The girls got a little sidetracked but when the timers stopped so did we. By doing so we were able to accomplish our goal of leaving the house on time and getting to the recital relaxed and I got a great seat!

My challenge for Today
I read Deuteronomy 5:28-33, Prov 1: 1-9, Prov 2: 1-9 about the importance of instilling the fear of God and being obedient to his commandments. I read this to my children this morning. I also prayed over them before they woke up so that they would wake up happy and thankful. ( it worked!)

Whats for Dinner- homemade chicken poppers, salad, mexi-corn, and garlic cheese sticks w/marinara sauce!

Evening Routine- Homework and Devotion maybe some baking if time permits !

Keeper of The Home???

Hello friends, I have been reading other blogs from women who are stay at home mothers and wives who have strong beliefs that women are to be keepers of the home and help meet to their husbands. Guess what! I whole heartily agree with them. With all the things going on in the world coupled with corruption and violence in the schools our children are better off under our guidance and leadership daily. Who better to train and teach your child then the one who carried him or her. Now I know you may say " what in the world does being a keeper of the home have to do with being a single mom and how in the world can I be a keeper of the home when its just me?" A lot, even though our situation may not be traditional, we still have a God given responsibility to be a keeper of our home, a help meet to our husband(God) and we still have the same biblical expectation of raising our children under the leadership of God. Titus 2:3-5 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. This Scripture clearly states the role of the aged women in teaching the younger women on how to run the household. There is so much that I have learned from blogging with these "Keepers of the Home" Even though I have to work and provide for my family, I can still use the wisdom from other mothers to help lighten my load and still follow Scripure. Here are a few tips that I have learned and would like to share, if you have any tips and ideas to share, please feel free to post!

1. Schedule/Routine Binder- Get a 3-ring binder and create a schedule. Before you do this, take a moment to write down everything you do from the time you wake up, to the time you put your family to bed. After this, give yourself allotted time frames to do so. Type it up and put it in a clear report cover and insert in your binder. Keep it in a place like the kitchen table or counter and make a copy and post it over your mirror to remind you of your daily routine. Share this with your family and get them accustomed to time frames.

2. Chore Charts- These work wonders!! Make a list of chores for your family to do daily and nightly, segment them off to daily jobs ( smaller ones that can be done in less than 15 minutes) weekly jobs ( those taking from 15-30 minutes) and monthly jobs ( those taking more than one hour). We as single mothers overload ourselves trying to tackle so many chores at one time. If you get in the habit of spacing out your chores then you will be less likely to overburden yourself and you won't allow yourself to be easily condemned by the enemy on what you have or have not done!

3. Timers- I have recently become addicted to my timer! I bought a cheap $1.00 egg timer from the Dollar Tree and I have one in every room. In the mornings I set my timer to 15 minutes when getting dressed. Trying to race against the ticks of the timer is motivation and for me it keeps me focused on the present task. I can not believe that I have not been doing this all along. I also give myself 10 minutes each morning for sparse cleaning, this keeps me from getting sidetracked in the morning with trying to clean, clean clean ( this is another trick of the enemy to throw you off on your time in order to condemn you for always being late or behind schedule) . My children also use the timer for everything to bath time, to playtime.

4. Preparation- I can not stress this enough.. Prepare, Prepare Prepare. There are so many things that can be done the night before or on the weekend like fixing lunches or snacks... My daughter has to take snacks to school each day, so her chore is on Saturdays preparing her snacks for the week, all she has to do the night before is take it from the fridge and put it in her backpack. We have a special spot by the front door where all backpacks, coats, hats, umbrellas and luch bags have to be before we can go to bed. This prevents rushing about trying to find stuff.

I have attached two links that helps with creating chore charts and schedules, also printable educational materials for you to use at home with your children. These few tips are one small step to help us be keepers of the home and blessings to our family.

Helpful links
http://www.starfall.com/
www.dltk-cards.com/chart/

Blessings to you and have a wonderful Friday!