31 Days to Clean - Introduction

Today I am starting the 31 Days to Clean book written by Sarah Mae. I am very excited to start this book because I really need to get my house, life, and time under control.

Sarah Mae confesses in the first paragraph of her book that

"I struggle with managing my home well. Cleaning does not come naturally to me; in fact I think my DNA is allergic to it. "

and from that sentence on I knew that Sarah Mae and I were kindred spirits!

I have been married for 21 years and I have struggled with keeping my home clean, decluttered, and organized since the very first day. I have gotten MUCH better over the years but it's still a daily struggle to do all that I feel I should be doing. Finding a balance between housework, family time, homeschooling, and cooking/baking has always seemed an impossibility to me.

And then when Sarah Mae wrote,

"The heart of our home is not in the ability to keep it perfect at all costs; the heart of the home is love."

I knew that this book was written to my very feeble, insecure, imperfect heart. See, I want a perfect home, decorated just so, spotless with everything having a place and everything in its place. I also want to cook 3 meals a day from scratch, make my own bread and whip up a special treat that my family will love. I want my laundry to be caught up, my children to have the most amazing education possible, my husband to be amazed at his Proverbs 31 wife, and I want to always be there for anything that my family or friends need.

Unrealistic dreams... ABSOLUTELY! But just because I realize they are unrealistic does not mean that I stop having them and unfortunately that also means that I do not stop beating myself up because I cannot achieve them!

My prayer is that this book will help me, not only to better maintain my home, and set me up for success in keeping the kind of home my family desires to have and I desire to give them. But more importantly teach me to show my family Jesus every single day. Whether that be by taking on the heart of a servant and washing floors, or by taking on the role of a teacher and sitting with a child until they understand a hard math concept, or by taking the role of comforter and listening to a broken-heart.

Because I am fairly certain that my children and my husband will focus less on the mess and more on the message that Mama is showing/living/teaching everyday.

My New Year Starts Today!

Happy New Year

I realize that most of the world started their New Year 11 days ago, but I'm a rebel!

Okay, not really but we had company coming from Ohio on January 2nd and staying until January 8th and in the middle of that time we had planned a 3 day mini-Disney vacation. So I knew that starting my New Year on January 1st and then stopping all my plans/goals on the second and not picking them back up again until the eighth was just not going to work for me.

So I put my New Year on hold until now.

My New Year goals/plans/dreams will start on January 11th instead of January 1. And I'm okay with that because one of the things that I want to work on this year is GRACE!

Grace for myself, my children, my husband, my family, and my friends. I may even try and push myself beyond my own expectations and offer grace to the people in my life who really need it (those that I have removed their labels). But let's not get crazy before the year has even started and give myself a goal that feels impossible right now.

I will begin the New Year with grace for myself and forgive/understand why I didn't start on the first and jump in where I am with what I have. No looking back, no doubting, no wishing I had done it different!

Here is a quick re-cap of what my goals/plans are for the New Year:

Meals on the table at the same time everyday Monday - Friday!
And a semi-consistent meal time on the weekends! You can read why this is a priority for me here! 

Take at least one picture a day

Find at least one thing to be thankful for every single day

Do something from one of my Pinterest boards every day!

Set up a weekly blog plan and stick with it! This is a HUGE priority for me and one that I want to have finished by the end of this week.

I have lots of other goals/plans for the year (and you can read about them here) but these are the ones that I am planning on working on this week.

Did you start your goals on the first? How are you doing? If your not doing as well as you hoped give yourself some GRACE and choose January 11 as a re-start date for your New Year and join me in being a rebel!

The Foyer (A New House Update)

I love my house and I love my Foyer! I have BIG dreams for my foyer and in my mind I know pretty much exactly what I want it to look like when I finish with it! This is both good and bad.

It's good because I have a vision!

It's bad because I have a vision!

I have specific things that I want and while it's good to know what you want it can be very very frustrating when you cannot find what you want!

I LOVE this pictures so much!

I found this amazing picture at Kirkland's! Don't you just love it! And I knew the second I saw it that it would look amazing in my foyer! It is what started my vision!

LOVE this rug so much!

And then I found this rug and I loved it! I knew that it would fit the space perfectly and that it would help tie in the outside of the house with the inside of the house. (I found it at Kohl's) 

So now I had my picture and my rug. I needed a table. And here is where my vision became a HUGE problem! I could see the table in my head and I wanted it. PROBLEM: I could not find the table in my head at any store in the real world!

The table in my head was white (or some variation of white), it had at least one drawer and at least two shelves. It was at least 30-inch tall and could be no more than 45-inches wide (that's how long my wall is). It was perfect and I wanted it!

TWO MONTHS! That is how long I looked for it. And I was just about to give up and settle for something else. When I found it! It was perfect and I LOVED it!

Better than I imagined!

I found it at Wayfair (on line) but since I had never ordered furniture on-line before I was very nervous. I should not have been. The table is perfect and while it did need to be assembled the directions were easy to follow and the table was put together in less than 20 minutes!

Now I am on a quest to find the perfect lamp and some picture frames to set on my table and I also want to paint the room and I have a few more ideas of things that I want for the other walls!

I had no idea that decorating could be so much fun or take so long!