How did it go ?  Are any of you still with me???  Well I have a confession to make, I didn’t have a great week of cleaning and organizing!  I did not totally fall off the wagon or anything like that but it was just not as productive.  While my kitchen on the surface does not look too bad it is in need of some real organizing in the cupboards and I did not get to it at all!  I decided I would post a before video today of my kitchen and then lump it in with this weeks rooms (bathrooms and master-bedroom)  that might be a lot as it is already Wednesday but there is nothing wrong with aiming high!  When I get it done I will just go ahead and post the results and if it takes me the rest of the week then it could be Monday before you see it Honestly, if this challenge takes me an extra week or two I am fine with that I really do want to go through each room and do a good clean and get rid of all the extra stuff I have been holding on to!

I enjoyed this weeks devotional.  I love the challenge that God cares more about your heart than how clean your home is and before we stop to pick another thing up we should examine our own hearts first.  That needs to be a daily prayer for me.  Lord before I start this new day examine my heart.  If I am harboring hurtful thoughts or attitudes in my heart, please cleanse me of them.  Help me go into this day filled with joy and a quiet spirit so that I can joyfully go about the work at hand and loving lead and guide my children today!

The challenge also had ‘Entrance’ listed for this week, well, we have two entrances so I went the easy route and avoided our back entrance through the unheated summer kitchen.  The summer kitchen is a mud-room/ storage/ barn, as it has housed chickens, cats and dog as well as their feed.  You can begin to imagine what that room looks like.  Hence why I opted for our front entrance.  I didn’t bother to make a video of it as there really isn’t much to it and I got off very lightly there, as there just wasn’t much to do.  Here is a quick look at the front entrance.

There is this weeks update… better late than never???

I decided to make a wand and cape too.  Here are a couple of pictures of the wand, cape, and crown that I made for Emily….

I added some flowers to the corner of the cape.

Hannah’s crown, cape, and wand…

I made it a little big so she won’t out grow it right away.  Joel wants me to make him a cape (without any flowers!!)  Now the crown from Pinterest is a little different but she was selling her crowns for $56- US.  I have been wondering for a while about perhaps starting an Etsy shop or something like it.  Do you think I could sell dress up stuff?  I think most of what I make would fall under dress up and imaginative play. I think that $56- is a bit high but I am still not sure what a fair price would be?  I would love some feed back.  If  you buy online or sell online or just have a comment about the dress up stuff I’d love to hear from you.

How did the first week go?  Did you join in?  Well I jumped in with both feet and am loving the challenge.  The first weeks devotional was a call to look at our hearts, as well as, our homes.  I love the verse she shared, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” ~ 1 Corinthians 14:40  It is so easy to look at housework and apply that verse but what about the rest of life?  It says let ALL things, that means the way I correct my children, my blog posts etc.  I spent a lot of time thinking about how Iwas to apply that to my life not just my home what does it look like to have a life that can be described as decent and orderly?  It got me thinking about how I behave and what my priorities should be.

Of course, there was also the house component.  Now she suggested that you start with the vehicle and the front yard.  It was too cold and snowy for me to have any desire to venture outside to do some cleaning.  Perhaps in the spring!  I decided to start with my living room and my basement.  I decided to go with 100% disclosure and I made some videos of both rooms before and after.  Now keep in mind we have just come through the holidays, we were away, and sick so things might seem pretty bad.  I love a clean and orderly home and I am always looking for ways to improve my system.

The living room looks like any living room might look after a busy holiday with time away and dealing with a sick Momma and kiddos.  The basement however is beyond pathetic.  It was once fairly organized, I even had a friend say they had never seen such a clean basement before, I would hate for her to see it now.  Well, over the last year and 3/4 since Joel’s diagnoses no one cleaned the basement.  Things were put in the basement to get them out of sight.

“Mom where should I put x y and z?”

“I don’t know, just put it in the basement.”

“Momma, I’m sorry I knocked over the fan and it broke.”

“Oh just put it in the basement.”

Anything that did not have a home ended up in the basement.  It wasn’t just me, it was all of us.  Seasons would change and snowsuits did not get properly put away.  It was deplorable!!!  Why would anyone in their right mind make a video of their disastrous basement and then post it on YouTube for the world to see?   I’ll tell you why, because my dear supportive loving readers, will say things like;

I don’t know how you do it?

You are supermom?

You are amazing!!

You have 6 kids, a child with cancer and you homeschool is there anything you can’t do?  (I no longer have a child WITH cancer, I have a healing SURVIVOR!)

The truth is I can’t do it all, I fail more times than I can count.  While I know that you guys love me and offer those words as encouragement sometimes I cringe a little because I am so very aware of my shortcomings. (That and I am not the greatest at receiving praise.)  So I wanted to show the side that I would normally want to hide.  I am excited to work through this process because whether my failings are in my organization skills or in my heart, my loving heavenly Father is there ready to dust me off and nudge me along in the right direction.

Now, I had some technical difficulties, #1 some of the video is poor quality and # 2 one video did not work out so I will have to post my after video of the basement tomorrow.  So promise me you’ll come back tomorrow and see we did make SOME improvements in the basement (the poor basement needs more than just a few days.)

Living room before;

Living room after;

Basement before;

Basement after;

~ Stephen & Alex Kendrick

I am hoping I do this review justice!

Here is the publisher blurb;

A man cannot be passive about what Scripture tells him to do for his family and expect to be found faithful to God in the end. He must see with spiritual eyes and realize that future generations are directly impacted by his daily decisions.”
—The Resolution for Men

The Resolution for Men ~ Priscilla Shirer

Ms. Shirer herself writes in the very beginning of the book,”I’ll admit, I’m sensitive about resolutions.  Frankly, the whole word and it’s meaning disturb me a bit.”  She goes on to share her feelings about failure and obligation etc. that go along with resolution but then comes to the point that if we look at our lives we are all making resolutions one way or another.  The way we choose to act, live, behave are all forms of resolutions.

While the movie Courageous focuses on the lives of four men it seems only natural to have The Resolution for Men.  Yet there were also wives and daughters in the movie and our courageous men that step up to the challenge of The Resolution for Men need women who are willing to do the same.  Hence The Resolution for Women.

This is a book for all women; young or old, married or single, a mother of many, few, one or none. Yes, there are chapters pertaining to being a wife and a mother but there is so much more to this book than just those chapters, and I think there is wisdom to be gained from those chapters even if you are not personally married or you do not have children.  This book challenges us to love God, to be content with who and where we are at in life, to love others, to embrace who God has made us, to leave a Godly legacy, and so very much more. It is another must read and  I am very excited about this book.  I kept thinking if every Christian woman would pick up this book and resolve to live this way, what an incredible difference that would make.

Ms. Shirer writes in a way that makes you feel like your sitting down with a good friend as you turn the pages.  There is a lot to this book though and it is definitely one I want to go back and reread at a slower pace as each chapter has some questions to help the reader go a little deeper at the end of the chapter.  I think this book could easily be used in a group setting as a study.

It really is a must read!

Book has been provided courtesy of David C Cook and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from B&H Publishing Group