Cough, cough, cough, cough

Is it possible to cough so much that you just pass out? You would think I've been a chain smoker for years the way I am coughing today!

Scripture Memory #5

Almost two years ago, God challenged me to ENJOY my life. ENJOY the little things; ENJOY the people; ENJOY what I already had.

I have felt a bit ashamed that I have attacked this so poorly. I thought I could just easily decide to ENJOY things. But so easy it is for me to see the problems, the frustration, the discontentment.

My husband made me a beautiful metal sign with the word ENJOY. It sits above my kitchen cabinets for me to see the 50 million times a day that I walk into that room. And still, I struggle.

Daily, I walk in and see the dirty dishes, the dirty floor, the piles of paper, the dusty window.

I am reading Ann Voskamp's book, one thousand gifts. I warn you now, this is profoundly changing my perspective. You will hear me talk about it a lot. The hard part comes in how exactly to put into words the stirring inside of me.

What I know and can express right now is this. I am not ENJOYing life because I am not thankful for the things that God has given me.

Ouch. That hurts to even write to admit.

And being thankful to the point of ENJOYment is not something that happens overnight. It takes practice. So very few things in my life require me to practice. But then I think, how much am I not accomplishing because I am not practicing?

So I start here:

He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to
his God. --Daniel 6:10b NLT

It starts with practice...practicing thankfulness.

Routines Rule

I am such a creature of habit. I drive the kids to school the same route every day. I clean bathrooms the same way I have for over 20 years (meaning not very well!). I know this about myself: I function better with routines.

So, in an effort to get on top of some of my goals, I set up two new routines today.

I have a routine for laundry. It goes like this:

Mon: Master bedroom & bathroom
Tues: little girls
Wed: little boys (although they really aren't that little)
Thur: Judson
Fri: Master bedroom & bathroom
Sat: Mikalah (technically so she can do her own, but...)
Sun: delicate/hand washables

It works for me. I used to have a day where I did 20 loads of laundry. Now I do two loads every day in between everything else. It really seems like I am never doing laundry.

However, that has been the only area where I had a specific routine and somehow the only area I felt like I had some control over. So, new routine:

Cleaning:
Mon: Master bedroom
Tues: Girls & boys room
Wed: Living/dining/kitchen (these are lumped together because of the flooring)
Thur: Bathrooms - deep clean
Fri: basement
Sat: garage/outside
Sun: relax!

So the idea is that on that day I will spend time in that room cleaning/straightening something. Some days I will have a few hours and it will be amazing. Other days I may only have 30 min and will manage to straighten things up or just dust. So, we will try this for four weeks and I will check back with you at the beginning of April (lordy how does the year go by!) and let you know how it is going.

Another routine developed - kitchen duties.

Three chores: helping with food, clearing the table, and the dishwasher.
Rotate children through so they help every other day.

Example:
Mon: child 6 helps with food, child 5 clears the table, child 4 loads the dishwasher
Tues: child 3 helps with food, child 2 clears the table, child 1 loads the dishwasher
Wed: child 4 helps with food, child 6 clears the table, child 5 loads the dishwasher
and so on...

Again, we will try this for the rest of the week and see how it goes.

Costco Wedding

I may have a few years before this is a reality in our house, but it is nice to know that Costco is there for me!!!