Garden Update

Our garden is doing great! I just wanted to show the newest pictures I took of it today. I am really excited that the garden is doing well. Stephen and I are both working really hard on it to make it blossom! 

Our herbs and strawberries are doing great! The basil is sprouting well even though we used a good bit of it to cook in the past couple weeks.

The garden as a whole is looking very tall, and green. I think those are both good things.

Yay, tomatoes!

Look at the lettuce. It is almost ready to eat.

 The onions are sprouting up, yum!

The bell peppers are the slowest thing growing, but they still look really good.

The tomatoes are growing really well, I'm the most excited about these.

The jalapeños grew up overnight! I am excited to use some of these in cooking.

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.

Day 2: Created to Give Life

It is day 2 in my cleaning challenge and I'd say it is more about cleaning the heart the the house, so far. I cleaned the kitchen recently, but it was good to do it again. Our biggest pitfall in the kitchen is leftovers. (Well at least since I'm getting a better and better system for washing dishes, they are already all clean!) We usually have about one serving of food left from dinner that we save. Usually, Stephen will take it to work and eat it there or Zoey and I will eat it fro lunch. However, there are some weeks where the leftovers just pile up. I dislike letting food go to waste, and I dislike handling food with mold on it even more than that. I'm not a germaphobe by any means, but come on, that is just gross. So that is the Martha challenge for me today...clean out all the left overs. I have recently followed a rather handy system to help in this process though. That is to put the date on what meal it is on a label (i.e. masking tape) so I know how long something has been in the fridge. It has helped me catch the older ones before the mold sets in at least.

BEFORE

AFTER: wow, it looks empty now, but clean!

But on to the heart matters...We are created to give life. That is a simple statement that I think many of us forgets about on a daily basis. I mean, it's obvious women give life because we birth babies. But I think it goes beyond that. Sarah Mae includes several ways that women (or people in general) give life, but I find one in particular that calls to me. That is to create an atmosphere of peace. All the things we do for our family and ourselves is thwarted if we do not feel comfortable and at peace in our surroundings. It actually ties into my mission statement from Day 1 of the challenge about having a clean area so you can think and breed creativity. By having a clean area we can breathe and find peace in our home. I want Stephen to come home from work and be able to relax in peace (environment at least, there isn't much I can do about Zoey running to jump on him when he walks in the door.) I want Zoey to be able to play and feel comfortable to learn. I want to feel comfortable while I write and live as well.

This also means to me that Zoey and Stephen come above any housework. I give life, and though that means I want a peaceful and clutter-free home, it also means I am there for my family for support and playtime. I feel like I spend a good bit of the day doing nothing while I sit with Zoey, but the more I think about it the more that statement is incorrect. Even though I feel like I'm just sitting with a list 10 feet long of things to do, I'm actually bringing peace to Zoey. She knows that I am there for her no matter what else. We sing, play blocks, read, do puzzles and anything else she brings me to explore. She is working on her letters now (she can almost spell her name, it is so cute!) She is also working on counting. I love how much she can understand and surprises me everyday by doing things on her own that we have talked about. For example, she spilled her crackers in the floor during snack time and immediately picked them all up before I could say anything to her. Times like that I know that what I do with her every day really does mean something and she is growing up to be a very good big girl.

There is a quote (p. 8) that I really enjoy..."Life-giving is about receiving from God in order to give to others. --Barbara Mouser, Five Aspects of Woman." I enjoy this because there are days when I feel like I can't give any more. But I know God gives me the strength and the purpose to give to others, so I enjoy fulling my purpose.

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

Day 1: Why Clean?

Well, that seems like an easy question...because somebody has to do it, right? Wrong. I mean of course someone has to do it, but that isn't why you do it. You clean because you want to be healthy, you want to be in clean clothes, you want to be able to eat off plates with out mold on it, you want your house to be free of flies (if that is even possible in the summer), and you want to be able to walk on the floor instead of on top of toys and other clutter. Well, these are reasons to be clean, but why clean?

I've never been very good at mission statements. For all of my writing background and general love of it, I have a hard time making concise statements. I generally tend (in case you haven't noticed) to ramble on and sometimes lose my point completely. But today I'm making a point...why clean?

Have you noticed? I'm stalling...

Why do I clean? Why do I clean? Why does cleaning make me happy?

For me it boils down to this:

I have found it is hard to start any project when there is clutter in the way. This concept goes for mental projects as well as physical ones. I want a clean house so our minds and work spaces are clear to expand and embrace creativity.

I did it! I made a mission statement! I love creating things: scrapbook pages, photo gifts, thoughts, ideas, etc. I have a hard time focusing whenever I have things like dishes or laundry on my mind. I also have trouble focusing whenever I have to move stacks of mail, toys or clothes (or do several other things to prepare a space to work) before I can start on a project. By the time the space is clean my creativity is waning. So, there you go. Now that wasn't so hard was it?

Have you ever stopped to think about why you do something? Is is because it is expected of you or because it makes you smile? I think the point of this challenge is to find the reason behind why we expect ourselves to complete tasks so even the mundane ones can make us smile.

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

31 Days to Clean

I found this book, 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae and a homemaker's challenge to go along with it. The more I read about the idea, the more I like it. The book is about finding joy in cleaning and in life.

From the author: "It’s about the “why” and the vision and the heart for taking care of our domains (Mary) with some spring cleaning thrown in (Martha)."

I kept reading about Mary and Martha and wanted to remember the story. I know it has to do with Mary sitting with Jesus and anointing his feet and Martha cooking. I remember the essence of the story, but not the specifics. So...I looked it up. I love the Internet. :)

Turns out I was right. The story is told in the new testament in Luke and John. I'm going to focus on Luke 10:38-42 for this explanation of the story. These versus have the most detail of Mary and Martha's personalities.

Mary and Martha are Lazarus's sisters. You remember Lazarus right? He's the one that Jesus raised from the dead. You can read his story in John 11:1-44. But for now we will move on.

Martha was a doer. She was constantly serving others by keeping the house, cooking meals and caring for the physical needs of others. Jesus promotes this constantly to his disciples and followers. However, Jesus tells Martha that there is something that is even more important that the details of serving and that is listening and having a relationship is Jesus Christ (Luke 10:41-42).

When Jesus tells Martha that she is too worried and upset over all the details, He is speaking directly to me! I tend to get really involved in all the details to make sure every aspect of whatever we are doing runs soothly. This comes in really handy when you are preparing for a day out with an infant or making sure we know when places are open, etc. But at the same time, I get stressed out when things begin to stray from the plan. Also, I have missed out of fun, spontaneous opportunities because I have too much of a plan. This is actually something the Lord has been working on with me for a while and I am greatly improved from a few years ago (kids aid in that process greatly I think). However, I know I am a work in progress and this still speaks to me, loud and clearly.

Mary, on the other hand, was a thinker. She wanted to sit at the feet of Jesus and soak in everything he had to say. Martha thought Mary was lazy because she wasn't helping with the chores, but Jesus sides with Mary. To take time to talk with and learn from Jesus is above anything else.

31 Days to Clean is an inspiration to combine the two methods...Mary's thinking with Martha's doing. Both methods are important. Sarah Mae said it best with the tagline to her book, "Having a Martha House the Mary Way." And so the challenge begins!

*Note: I found some cool information on Mary and Martha from "Women in the Bible."