Today was more challenging than I would have imagined. The Martha Challenge seemed simple enough. I just had to clean out the fridge and freezer. The fridge...the fridge? Oh, yeah! That one place where we store pizza boxes and expired milk to never be seen again. Got it! I'm not sure why this took me forever, but it did. The freezer was quick and easy so I did that first. Then the fridge. I tossed all of the trash pretty quickly. Then came the kiss of death of all of my "projects". I took a break. I lost my focus. I procrastinated the rest. I did manage to get back on board and finished it up. My big realization from this challenge was not only do I lack focus, but my almost empty refrigerator could really use some groceries. I'm still too embarrassed to post a before picture, but I will try to post an after picture tomorrow.
The Mary Challenge was about how we as women were designed to "give life". I needed to figure out some new ways to give life to our home. Immediately I knew what my challenge needed to be. Today I vowed to not raise my voice (nope, not even once) to my children. I'm a yeller. Sometimes I yell to get over the volume in my house, but most of the time I yell to "get my point across". Getting my point across is my nice way of saying bullying or intimidating my children to do what I want them to do. It doesn't work and it's no fun for any of us. Yelling was my normal. It will NOT be my children's normal. Shockingly (or not) the kids were very receptive to the idea of a quiet mommy. The day was amazing. I noticed less fighting, yelling, and fussing between the kids. I didn't feel frustrated with them or with myself for yelling at them. The boys breezed through their night time routine without any nagging from me. Everyone went to bed on time without an argument. Conclusion: Yelling doesn't work. Just ask my kids.
Monkeys on the Bed
Unhappy Leah
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
My Mission Statement Part 2
Reasons to Make Our Home Our Haven
1.To have a haven worthy of God’s presence. To have a place to meet with the Lord peacefully, and in love, with my family. To have time to read His Word, pray, and listen to what He has to say about our life.
2. To give my husband a soft spot to land upon his return from the stress and mess of work.
3. To give my children a safe and warm place to grow, play, love, live, and learn to “work it out”. To set an example for them of how we are supposed to be stewards of our corner of the world.
4. To have a comfortable place for my family and myself. To let go of perfectionism and love myself, so I can love my family. To not feel defeated, or lazy, or unworthy of a clean home. To stop my negative self talk and move forward with life. To respect my family and myself enough to know that we deserve a tidy home.
5. To enjoy “keeping” our home. To know that whatever I can do IS enough. To end procrastination. To have stress free time to enjoy the people and activities that I love.
6. To be able to invite family and friends into our home without being ashamed or worrying about what they might be thinking.
7. To have the time and energy to achieve other goals for myself and my family. To have the desire to do for others. To model giving to my children.
8. To finally stop surviving and start living.
I CAN DO THIS!!!
1.To have a haven worthy of God’s presence. To have a place to meet with the Lord peacefully, and in love, with my family. To have time to read His Word, pray, and listen to what He has to say about our life.
2. To give my husband a soft spot to land upon his return from the stress and mess of work.
3. To give my children a safe and warm place to grow, play, love, live, and learn to “work it out”. To set an example for them of how we are supposed to be stewards of our corner of the world.
4. To have a comfortable place for my family and myself. To let go of perfectionism and love myself, so I can love my family. To not feel defeated, or lazy, or unworthy of a clean home. To stop my negative self talk and move forward with life. To respect my family and myself enough to know that we deserve a tidy home.
5. To enjoy “keeping” our home. To know that whatever I can do IS enough. To end procrastination. To have stress free time to enjoy the people and activities that I love.
6. To be able to invite family and friends into our home without being ashamed or worrying about what they might be thinking.
7. To have the time and energy to achieve other goals for myself and my family. To have the desire to do for others. To model giving to my children.
8. To finally stop surviving and start living.
I CAN DO THIS!!!
My Mission Statement
Each day of this book has a Mary challenge and a Martha challenge. Today the Martha challenge was to browse the book and gather supplies needed to complete the challenges for the other days. The Mary challenge was a bit more difficult. We were supposed to figure out why we wanted a tidy house and then write our own mission statement. I guess I never really thought about that before today. I mean, of course to keep the bugs and other critters at bay. And so no one calls CPS. Other than that, I really wasn't sure. I was raised in a clean but cluttered home. That is my normal. So that made me think. Do I want my children to live in dirty (cluttered, not filthy) homes when they grow up because that's what I had made their normal? Do I want them to argue with their spouse over household duties? Do I want them to play the martyr like I have for so long? Do I want them to be embarrassed about the condition of their homes? Do I want them to stress and procrastinate over keeping their houses? The answer to all of those questions is absolutely not. So on to writing my mission statement. I'll share mine in the next post.
Cleaning Revolution
http://www.facebook.com/#!/31DaysToClean
Along with one of my very best friends, Nicole, I'm starting this journey to a cleaner house. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I've realized that if I was working for someone other than my family who loves me, I would have been fired long ago. So here it goes!
Along with one of my very best friends, Nicole, I'm starting this journey to a cleaner house. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I've realized that if I was working for someone other than my family who loves me, I would have been fired long ago. So here it goes!
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