Day 3: Give Life to Your Home

Wow, that's a good list...For day 3 in Sarah Mae's 31 Days to Clean she features her sister-in-law, Renee, who provides 10 ways to give life to you home. Every one of them speaks to me in some way. A few I do really well with like meeting mistakes with love, giving words of encouragement (okay, I still need help figuring out how to speak encouragement to my 2 year old who now screams whenever I try to put a diaper on her...potty training time anyone? Well, we are working on that. Anyway...), planning fun activities for the family and playing worship music. These are things I do and generally enjoy.

Zoey enjoying playing outside while we
listen to worship music

However, I am working on some of them too. Three stand out to me that I need work on:

1. Getting out of the house regularly to rejuvenate: I get out, but it is usually to go to the grocery store. And if Zoey is with me, like she often is, it isn't really a rejuvenating experience. I have been trying to find something to do that gets me out of the house, but so far there is always something standing in my way. It is either a night I can't commit to, it costs to much money or isn't a regular but a sometimes thing. I'm doing the yoga/workout thing regularly, which has helped a ton, but it doesn't get me out of the house. So I'm working on it, but I at least realize it is an area I need to figure out. That is a good step in the right direction, right?
2. Clear the clutter: yep, I'm always working on the clutter part. I do really well for a week or so and then as soon as the schedule is inevitably interrupted by a night out, I'm feeling bad or just plain exhausted the house becomes a clutter trap until I can't take it anymore, clean it and the cycle starts all over again. If you have any ideas on the clutter issues, I'm all ears because I don't really have an answer to fix that cycle.
3. Facing depression/anger: I wouldn't really call myself depressed at all, but I do go stir crazy every once in a while. It's a lot better since it is now warm out and we go outside all the time, but I still get bummed out sometimes being stuck in the house. I think it is pretty normal, but I don't always go to God with it. It seems like that one thing I feel like I can handle on my own, which of course I know that I can't. So I need to go to God first with depressing issues instead of a last resort. ...On the anger side though, God has been working with me for years so that the temper I had as a kid hardly ever rears its ugly head anymore. Until I had a kid, go figures. Did I mention she is two and has a temper of her own. Nothing has stirred up the temper I have learned to control like my daughter (who probably inherited my temper, that's karma for you.) She will scream and scream when I try to put clothes on her like I'm scalding her with hot water, it drives me crazy. I admit this only because I am human and God is working on this with me hard because I don't want it to be an issue again. 

So that is my can dos and needs to work on. The list in 31 Days to Clean is really good and I honestly only scratch the surface of what it so eloquently states as ways to give life to your home. Sometimes it is nice to stop and take stock of yourself and how you act in your home. I am very excited about the things I do well and it helps me to focus on the things that need improving. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13.

And thanks to the Martha challenge, my cabinets are clean!!! I can definitely tell which counters of the kitchen I use to prep on most often because they are the most dirty. But they look great now!

BEFORE 

AFTER: it looks a little different right?
It feels a lot cleaner at least!

*Note: The challenge is associated with Joyful Mothering from the book 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae.