Grateful

"You are my hope, Your promise never fails me. And my desire is to follow You forever. For You are good, For You are good, For You are good to me!"

Today was a hard day, emotional and full of everyday life frustrations.

Then I went to check on my kids tonight before I went to bed...

I looked into the crib and saw Prince Charming sprawled out in his red feetie jammies, clutching his blankie, lost in sweet dreams.

I tiptoed into Youngest Princess' room, pulled back her princess canopy, and listened to her talk in her sleep until she rolled over and pulled her baby doll tight.

I peeked into the bottom bunk and found Oldest Princess there, sleeping in her old room so she could be close to sissy, lying on her side with her hands tucked under her chin, long dark hair framing her sweet "growing up too fast" face.

I knew my life was good. And I wanted to end my day updating my list of 1000 Gifts. I wanted to fall asleep remembering His GOODNESS instead of my "light and momentary troubles."

58. The joy of being a part of this sweet fellowship of believers:


We still love our "old" "big" church in the city and consider it home, too, but being a part of this "little" church plant out in the country has been an unexpected blessing and given us a wonderful place to call HOME. So excited to be there tomorrow morning, to learn more of God's Word, and to be with people I love.

59. King Charming and how hard he works. For the past year, he has had a hard schedule for work. It has been a challenge for our family to work around the odd hours and stay connected when we are all like "ships passing in the night," but it has been the most difficult for him. I'm so thankful for the sacrifices he makes for us and the amazing way he provides for us.

60. The hope that that shift might change in May. Praying...

61. Being tired today because I got to stay up until the wee hours of the night chatting with sweet friends.

62. The comfortable bed waiting for me.

63. I can lay the frustrations of today down and remember that Your mercies are new every morning. A new day tomorrow!

64. Oh, Lord, thank you for the beautiful gifts asleep upstairs right now. Please bless their lives as abundantly as you have blessed mine. I pray they will grow up in love with you, and will have lives rich with love.

Goodnight bloggy land! I'm going to fall asleep counting my blessings one by one.

Thankful,

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My New Friend

Let me introduce you to my new friend:

Mr. Dish Drying Rack

Truthfully, this is one of those blogs posts I feel silly writing. I imagine you sitting at your computers saying out loud, "Duh, Becky."

But I figured I'd share anyway in case there is someone else out there ending every day facing a mountain of dishes.

Transitioning to homeschool seemed to double the amount of dishes waiting for me at the end of the day because the girls are home eating all three meals, making snacks, etc. Busy with lessons and adventures and crafts, we'd throw the dishes in the sink. Some nights I was so tired, I'd leave them until morning. Isn't it depressing to wake up to a dirty kitchen?

I tried something new this week and it has been a dish washing miracle for me. I start the day by filling the sink with hot soapy water and put the drying rack next to it. The rule for the day is, "You use it, You wash it."

After school, the girls' chore is to put all clean dishes from the drying rack and the dishwasher away before I start dinner. As I cook, I clean each dish immediately and put it in the handy dandy drying rack or rinse it and put it in the empty dishwasher. Then after dinner, they all put their dishes directly into the empty dishwasher, and I turn it on before I go to bed.

Also, they choose a "cup of the day" that is rinsed after each use and left on the counter. One cup a day has cut down on dishes, too. I just tucked in the kids and guess what? I don't have any dishes left to do. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with all of this free time? : )

So far it's working great!

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Winner!

I realized I didn't announce the W.O.W. Coffee winner! Oops! : )

Our winner for this round was Homegrown Strawberries! Yippee!

I was excited she was the winner because I was so inspired by her project for the week. She organized her daughter's bedroom, and boy did we need some of that around here. After reading her post on how her week went, I spent all day Monday working with my own princesses to clean their rooms.

I'd love to hear if you have any organizational tips for little girls rooms. Right now we are still basking in the glow of being able to see their floors, so they are motivated to keep it that way.

(Plus I've been stopping school three times a day to make them check to see if their room is still tidy. I don't want to go through that experience again. I'm still having nightmares. LOL)

Congrats Homegrown Strawberries! Your Starbucks card should arrive in the mail soon! Enjoy your java- You earned it! : )

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W.O.W. Results

How did it go ladies???

I'm so excited to visit your blogs and find out how your week went as you tackled those goals. Remember to celebrate what you were able to accomplish even if it wasn't perfect. That's what I'm doing! I did not completely finish my goal, but I'm excited about how far I got and how much it is helping our organization already.

I got about half of what I hoped to get accomplish finished, but I'm so thankful for the accountability because I can say with certainty that none of it would have been done without the knowledge that I'd be reporting to you today. : )

My original goal was to have my card-file system all ready to use, that I would develop a weekly and daily schedule that would work for our homeschool and life, and I also hoped to cover the ugly tin box with some pretty contact paper so I could leave it out on the kitchen counter.

Here's what is finished:

Awhile ago I won this planner for Homeschool Moms:

So, I used it to map out our school week by the half hour. We were able to implement the new schedule yesterday and it worked great. I'm hopeful that knowing what we "should" be doing will help us keep on top of things instead of winging it.

I also started going room by room and listing what needs to be done in each and how often that chore needs to be done. Some chores I want to do every day, some only need to be done once a year. Most chores were labeled daily, weekly, twice a week, monthly, seasonally, or annually.

Those two steps were as far as I got. I'm still working on getting it all transferred to 3x5 cards, but I did buy some really fancy colored cards for the job. I'll do another post when I finish it.

Thanks for all of your encouragement and the fun of doing our work together.

I'm adding MckLinky to the bottom of this post for you to link up your results. On Thursday I'll draw the coffee winner. Can't wait to hear how it went. : )

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Hey, You Never Know...

...the sky COULD fall on you when you are watching TV.

A guy's gotta be prepared, Mom.

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Ready to W.O.W. ?

Wow, am I ever in need of this W.O.W. challenge! : )

For those new to W.O.W., it stands for Within One Week. It is a challenge I host periodically and is open to anyone and everyone who has a goal they'd like to accomplish within a week, enjoys support and cheerleading, and would like a shot at winning a free coffee on me. I'd love to have some new players this round, so if you haven't joined us in the past, I hope you will this round. You can read up on what W.O.W. is by clicking the W.O.W. label on my sidebar for more info, or email me and I can walk you through how to join us. It's fun! And it feels so good to get something checked off your to-do list.

My goal for this week:

We recently jumped into homeschooling two months ago. It has been a huge blessing, but by jumping in mid-year like we did, things are a tad disorganized around here. (That's an understatement!)

All of my focus and energy has been on schooling, and all other things have been pushed aside- housework, menu planning, ministry work, even blogging! LOL

I've come to the conclusion that it is now time to develop some kind of workable schedule and routine around here so we aren't just reacting to mess and always trying to stay one step ahead of it. I don't want to be afraid anymore that someone is going to knock on the front door and see how messy things have gotten. : )

I love being hospitable and I also want to work homemaking into our school experience, so that's my goal. I want to develop some kind of a system, routine, and cleaning schedule that will actually work for us.

I'm starting with this old tin box:




When I was a little girl, I remember my mom using a card-file system for housecleaning. Years ago, she gave me all of her old cards and dividers:



Everything was color-coded and filed in the box according to the frequency of when they needed to be done: daily, weekly, monthly.

I found this card in the box. It must be at least 25 years old. My color must have been pink. : )



I've decided to give that old system a try. So within one week, I hope I have something developed that will work for us.

Your Turn:

1. What would you like to see done in one week? Do you have a fitness goal, a business goal, a house goal, writing goal? Write a blog post about it or leave a comment on here. You are welcome to use my W.O.W. image above.

2. Come back here and link up using McLinky.

3. Next, Monday, I'll have a new post here for us to link up our results. Again, if you don't have a blog, feel free to use my comments section. We can cheer you on from here. I'll tell you how I did, and someone will win Starbucks on me.

A few things to remember:

1. The more people who play, the more fun we have. Please invite your friends to join us. And please link back to this post from your post.

2. Choose a goal that isn't too overwhelming, something that can be done in a week without too much stress.

3. If you don't finish, that's OK, too! You will be closer to finishing it than you were a week ago, and that is something to celebrate!

4, Please visit the other players often throughout the week to cheer them on

Have fun! I can't wait to be inspired by you all!

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