Clutter Busting Challenge Day 3 Update

For the month of May I'll be spring cleaning 

through the ebook 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae and joining 

Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom for her Clutter Busting 

Challenge! 

Join me on this journey!

 

I'm so bad at getting things done on time....sorry all!

But I did get everything done on my list! I'm excited, especially since today my Graves was acting up pretty bad most of the time. 

31DTC Challenge

For the first part of the challenge I was to find out what makes my family feel the most loved when I care for our home.  These are the responses I got:

 

~Keeping the bedroom clean, making it feel more relaxed and less cluttered.

~When we go to the store to get more food.

~When I can be a helper.

 

For the second part I cleaned off the top of the refrigerator, and cleaned off the outsides of the cabinets, including the oven door. 

 

Yikes....um, seriously needed to do this today. I had no clue it was this bad!

SO much better! Now I don't feel gross about it anymore.

Um, so I just noticed how awful the dishwasher door looks. I don't know why I didn't do that along with the rest of the cabinets.

Clutter Busting Challenge

Here's what I'm getting rid of today:

~ A movie
~ A book
~ A cute "Yard Sale Money" jar
~ A candle
~ 6 jarred baby foods
~ A can of formula

I love getting rid of all this stuff! Tomorrow I'll show you where it's all going and why I haven't gotten rid of it just yet!

Clutter Busting Challenge Day 3

For the month of May I'll be spring cleaning 

through the ebook 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae and joining 

Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom for her Clutter Busting 

Challenge! 

Join me on this journey!

Morning all!

Today is day 3 of the Clutter Busting Challenge! 

Sorry for the weird hiatus. We've been battling allergies with Isabel for the past week or so, and then randomly my middle and the baby started with allergies and I came down with flu-ish symptoms. On top of that, around dinner time last night, Isabel scratched her cornea and we had to make a trip to urgent care. They think it'll be healed by tomorrow at the latest, but she has to wear a patch on her eye for today. Please be praying for her. She's a bit self conscious about wearing that to school. I don't blame her. 

Today's passage covered specific ways we can give life to our homes. I so needed this. I had a generalized idea of what this would look like in my head, but this really helped me see much more clearly what it would look like in real life. It also pointed out several spots where I'm lacking greatly. 

As I was going through this list I realized the first three points centered around controlling the tongue. The same tongue that is talked about in James 3:2-10. Yikes!

Oh boy.

Tackling this list might take a bit lot longer than I thought.

The next two points centered around what our eyes see.  Not just what we perceive, but really what we see and take in consciously and sub-consciously. The first part of Psalm 101:3 speaks clearly to these things. And let's face it, clutter is worthless. 1 Peter 2: 4-5 talks about the church being built into a "spiritual house". We are also told to remember we are "temples of the Holy Spirit" in 1 Corinthians 6:19. When I picture these two "houses" I don't see them as cluttered. They are beautiful.

The last five points are either of a spiritual nature, emotional nature or both. It's starting me straight in the eye how none of these things that really bring life to our homes are really about just the clutter. It centers around a heart issue or an emotional/spiritual issue. 

I don't know how God will lead me to resolve these issues in the next few weeks but I'm praying for healing in these areas. If you're following along with me and you need healing in these areas, know I'm praying for you. If you care to leave a comment, please do. It's so amazing to see how God weaves this all together. But even if you don't, know that God knows you and knows every bit of your situation, down to where it hurts the most and how to heal it.

I'm planning on being back with a Day 3 update by 6 pm tonight. Praying for you.

Clutter Busting Challenge Day 2 Update

For the month of May I'll be spring cleaning 

through the ebook 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae and joining

 Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom for her Clutter Busting Challenge! 

Join me on this journey!

Hi all! I'm back to give the results of Day 2!

For the 31 Days to Clean I cleaned out and wiped down my fridge. I would have done the freezer, but Hubs wasn't home yet and it goes so much faster (and more fun!) when we tackle it together. Plus we cleaned out the freezer about a month ago, so I don't think it's too gross.

 Then I wiped down the doors, the water/ice dispenser, especially the door handles! Yikes!

For the Clutter Busting Challenge, I was able to get rid of 7 more things:

~An old Walkman
~A votive candle
~A bottle of fish food (our fish died about a year ago)
~A pants hanger
~A movie
~A book
~An almost expired phone book

How much were you able to get rid of?

Clutter Busting Challenge : Day 2

Good morning all!

We're on day 2 of the challenge. Today talked about how as women we are life givers, to those around us and the environment we live in. What can I do today to bring life to my home, my family and those around me? Here's what I can do specifically in today's important areas of life:

Marriage: Having a date night with hubby tonight! yay!
Kids: Have a game time with them today after school! Maybe pop some popcorn, a favorite around here.
Home: Get 7 items in the box and complete Martha challenge day 2, clean fridge and freezer.

I've never thought of myself as a life giver. I'm not sure I've even known of the concept of being a life giver til I read today's passage. But I do agree that we as women do have that role. We all just need practice on being life givers in different areas of our lives. I personally need to practice it in the last two areas listed above, Kids and Home. I'm not great in the marriage area, but I do try to make conscious decisions about what I could do for my hubby daily to improve/maintain our marriage.

I mentioned I would share a little about my new morning routine and how excited I was about it! After I completed the Early to Rise Challenge, I knew I wasn't going to stop getting up at 5 am. But I also wanted to be able to incorporate some other goals into my morning, specifically prayer time. So, for now, my morning routine is:
~Prayer time
~Coffee and toast, Bible Study and Daily Bible Readings
~Write 31DtC/7 items recap
~Get kids up and ready for the day

I really like the way this is set up to put prayer as the very first thing I do in the morning. I tried this morning just a typical one on one with God prayer time, but I think I need to do something different than a traditional prayer method. I found my thoughts wandering ALL OVER the place and couldn't get a handle on what I was exactly saying. I'm thinking prayer journaling  would be the way to go. I know a lot of people set up their prayer journal with just entries of what to pray for during their prayer time, but I'd like to figure out a way to do that plus an area for writing out my prayer to God while I'm praying it. I think just the act of writing it while I'm thinking it will slow my thoughts down and make them clearer for me to process. Plus I can write down updates and answered prayers and be able to cross reference them to see the process God lead. I'm excited!

Oh, and I know I mentioned a picture of my Mary challenge from yesterday so here it is:

We were told to write out our why so we have a vision for what we're doing and can focus back on it when we need to remember why we're doing this in the first place.

Hope to be back today with a recap!

Early To Rise Challenge Day 30!!!! and Recap of Clutter Busting Challenge Day 1

Good Morning all!

This is Day 30 of the Money Saving Mom Early to Rise Challenge!

Day 30!!! EEKKK!!

*happy dance*

I honestly didn't think I would make it all the way til the end. My track record shows I typically give up about 1/3 of the way into something, so this is big for me. I can't tell you how encouraging it is to tackle something like this, and complete the task. This really gives me motivation for other challenges in the future.

Thank you so much Andy Traub for writing this book. It really has been a catalyst for me to start changing my life in so many different ways. The rising early habit I have learned is now time that I value instead of dread. I can already see a difference in the way I tackle the day and that in itself is a big accomplishment. No more ruts for me!

Now, I have to be honest. Not everything is changing. I still stay up WAY too late for my good, sometimes I still hit the snooze button and I am still way too hard on myself for not having loads of progress at times. Old habits die hard, huh? I suspect progress will come with time for those goals too.

On to tackle more challenges!

Yesterday I mentioned I was joining in on Money Saving Mom's May Clutter Busting Challenge. I'm also combining this challenge with Sarah Mae's ebook 31 Days to Clean just to have a chance to spring clean too. Then we'll tackle two birds with one stone. By the end of this month I'll have less stuff to try to keep clean. Makes sense to me!

Yesterday went well. I was able to get the 31DtC challenges done that morning, but hadn't done the CB challenge by dinnertime. I don't know why I waited so long. It took me all of 3 minutes to do.

Here's what I ended up getting rid of:

2 plastic containers, 3 boxes of breastmilk storage bags, a package of bottle nipples, and a baby monitor. I didn't take pictures of my 31DtC accomplishments, but will try to remember to have those up with today's Day 2 post. OH, and sorry for the lack of post on "actual" day 1. I had planned to after dinner, but we had to make an emergency run to the doc.

Isabel had been having itchy watery eyes since the day before and I thought nothing of it at first. I gave her the typical allergy eye drops and benedryl because I thought they were her seasonal allergies, but nothing was working. Finally I suspected pink eye and realized if we didn't get her to the doc within the hour she'd have to wait until today to go, meaning I would miss a meeting at Renew this morning, not to mention she would be miserable. I was right (I hate it when I'm right sometimes) We didn't get back home til after 9 pm. Oh well. She won't be going to school today, so the kids can afford to sleep in this morning.

Anyway, I'll try to get my 31DtC/CBC done before dinner tonight! See you in a bit!

New Month, New 31 Days to Clean Challenge

Hi all!

I am so stoked for the new month!

With the ETR challenge FINALLY ending tomorrow, I decided it would be a perfect time to start a new challenge.This month, I'll be doing the 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae as well as Money Saving Mom's Clutter Busting Challenge. I missed Money Saving Mom's April spring cleaning challenge :( so I thought I would do my own during May. I was planning on catching back up with her in June, but her May Clutter Busting challenge just fit right in.

Here's what'll happen...

Tomorrow I'll put up my last ETR challenge post AND my first morning Spring Clean post and share with you my new morning routine come May 3! I'm pretty excited about it, if you can't tell ;) I'm finally able to set myself up to tackle several goals at once with my early mornings. I've been trying to figure out how to work tackling more goals into my day since January.

So, be on the look out for this button:

(I made it myself!)

and be sure to follow my Pinterest board if you don't already!

Tonight I'll post my first 31DtC/CBC post for day 1!
See you in a bit!

*Please note: As far as I know Sara Mae is not doing a challenge on her blog that I'm following. I'm just going out of her 31 Days to Clean ebook. I have no affiliation with her otherwise. Over and out.

Early To Rise Challenge Day 29

Good Morning!

This is Day 29 of the Money Saving Mom Early to Rise Challenge!

This is a busy week at our house and I'm excited to share some of it with you later today!

For now, we'll just get on to the passage for today. It was a great reminder for my type A self to not pressure myself so much. I really love that the passages are real. Today we covered how not every morning will be amazing, yield massive progress, etc.

Like I said, I need the reminder daily pretty much that things just won't go quite as I planned. I get so caught up in making sure I have enough time to complete what I was hoping to that I have actually sent my kids back to bed after they unexpectedly got up (it was summer, so they could afford to sleep in, and they got up around 5:30 for cryin' out loud!)

Worrying about the older two getting up too early is no longer an issue since they discovered they like their sleep and have to grudgingly get up at 6:30 am every morning. Now it's D-baby that I'm dealing with. Lately he's not too much of a morning intruder, but I really did struggle when he would wake up around 5:30 am too. 5:30 was NOT a time I wanted to allow a 1 year old to get up and start the day.

I've had to remember not to beat myself up for it too much and have actually had to deal with feelings of inadequacy because I wasn't able to get to everything I wanted to. Usually I bite off way more than I can chew anyway. Another habit I need to get rid of.

How do you deal with unexpected interruptions, either during your quiet time in the morning or other times of the day?

So what time did I get up this morning? I was up by 5:04 am and was able to start on my new challenge for the month of May. I'll share more later today. I'm very excited to pursue another challenge and really hope it will be as beneficial as this one was.

Thank you so much for sticking with me through this challenge! One more day, one more day!