Challenge Day 6

We're Heading to the Kitchen!
But First, The Making your Home a Haven Challenge hosted by Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood has given us other steps.

1. Refresh your Spirit- This week God has really blessed me, Kinda gave me confirmation that he heard my prayers and from an unlikely source so I knew it was God and not me. I love when he does that. I was reading Ezekiel 20 and 21 about how God deals with disobedience. I do not know how I got there as it was a random open your Bible and read. Faith, Trust, and Obedience have been on my mind for quite some time. It is so hard to be Obedient when your Faith and trust in Him are being tested.

2. Morning Routine- My morning routine is to Get DH off to work and take my quiet time with God, Its the best time for it since I am already praying for DH. I Make his lunch, get his clothes together if I did not do it the night before and spend a few minutes with him before he leaves. 5:30 he walks out the door and I start by praying for him then spend Lauren and other things, Taking special care to remember to take time just to listen.

3. Plan- My to do list today is a bit different than normal. Today I have to finish my dining room, I am proud to report that my living room is still somewhat neat even after the weekend, it will only be a 5 minute clean up.

• School with Lauren, she had last week off as she helped me get the living room in order, it was a big job.
• We are going to finish the dining area, To do this I need to put 3 Rubbermaid containers in the Shed and the two fans out there as well. Then I am going to sweep and Mom the entire floor. (our Living and dining rooms are technically one LONG room)
• Heading to the Kitchen, I am going to be doing the dishes and moving the Table to the dining area.

Dinner is Chicken Quesadillas and Rice with Black Beans.

4. Do something, Now that I have it all out, time to get to work. To see what others are doing and for more encouragement Head on over to Biblical Womanhood

Be Still

The beginning of this week got off to a bang with Crystal's Make your home a Haven challenge. I got so much accomplished Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday that on Thursday we decided to spend time together as a family and not worry about accomplishing anything. Ironically enough, I managed to complete her task for yesterday of the Bathroom at least effectively enough that DH noticed that it looked better (mainly because his work clothes went in to work with him so the mess that was left was gone.)



While I had planned on a slow day anyhow, I guess I needed it because I woke up with another of those headache days where you just don't have the strength to do anything. When I prayed, I heard ONE verse over and over again. Of course, I have always been really good at the verse part, but where its found is the problem I have. So glad that Lauren is learning how to memorise the location too. Anyhow, Today in my mailbox sat a catalog to my Favorite Christian bookstore all over this catalog today happens to be the verse God had been pressing on me, BE still and Know that I am God. Psalm 46:10a it was on Pillows, plates, plaques, you name it. I realize that I did too much, but I did not realize that God was still proud of me for accomplishing anything.



So often, when I am having a bad day, other things seem to make me feel like a failure that I don't get much done, I don't seem to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, or even a foot in front of me. It is great to know that God is watching over us when things are going right, and when they aren't going at all.

This week, I had been stressing over some papers that I was expecting in the mail before December 1st. They came today. I had been waiting to hear from Dr. Pieper's office to get the Blue Cross Authorization for my spinal tap next week, she called today, they don't require an authorization for this procedure. Our tax bill came for our winter property taxes. I had been stressed over how much that would be....are you ready? The winter bill is a grand total of $27, I can handle that, but more importantly, God told me to Be still and Know that he is God, He is in control No matter how many things in my life seem to be falling apart.

We tend to forget that God knew what was going to happen before we were even born. I know too, he knew this would stress me out, that's why he was able to provide peace in my home even though the stress was still there.

Last night, the most amazing thing happened in our home. Lauren, decided that she was going to use self control and not go crazy when daddy got upset. She didn't realize it was bed time, and was playing around, instead of getting upset at daddy for getting upset, she came to me and asked if she should apologize to daddy for upsetting him. Isn't that just a big thing for a 5 year old to do? My little girl just wanted to play with her daddy, she did not want him upset. Poor daddy didn't know how to respond, he did however do the right thing and everything was fixed and it was a good night.

Self control is the one thing we have been working on in our home for all of us. We all have tempers, but God wants us to use Self Control. He does not, nor will he ever, want us to fly off the handle when things don't go exactly as we think they should. It is so great that he helps us by giving us grace and mercy when we mess up. Lauren realized that when we do remain calm the outcome is much much easier to take. DH realized that when he listens, she does as well. And I learned, that God has been working in both of their lives, You can pray over your family, but God uses the trials of life to show he has been listening.

Day 3 Making your Home a Haven

Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood has been helping us along with this challenge. The encouragement of knowing I am not alone is just amazing.

First up. Refresh your spirit, after my prayer time she asked us to list 3 things to be thankful for, its hard to stick with just 3 as God has been so amazing lately.

I think the first thing I am truly thankful for is that God is Provident. There have been so many times recently where I had no idea how we were going to make it through a situation, but GOD is amazing and just made things work the way they needed to and everything fell into place.

The second thing that I am most thankful for is my family. I have had so many ups and downs its nice to have family support. So many people do not have the help they need when they go through trials its such a blessing to not go through alone.

The third thing I am going to share about being thankful for isn't even mine, but I am extremely grateful that the insurance company decided to pay to fix my sisters car instead of totalling it out. This has been a prayer of mine since last week as it would be very hard on her to have to replace her car right before Christmas to come back to Michigan for the semester break.

The second part of the Making Your Home a Haven is our morning routine. For me that is done at 5am, I will be adding to that though starting or finishing a load of Laundry.

On my to do list, Today I will be completing the living room, Yesterday I got it picked up, got all the toys clutter and almost all of the things that do not belong out.
I will be moving the furniture around to separate the living and dining rooms Because later this week I am planning on moving the table back into the dining room area.
This will take up a good portion of the day since I have to move fairly slowly and have to take school breaks for the Bug today. She had a day off yesterday.

I will also be putting lots of Laundry away, I dint seem to have too much of a problem with the washing, drying, or folding clothes, BUT, I do have a problem getting it put away, so that's a goal, I have 3 baskets that are ready to be put away but haven't been yet.

This afternoon about 3pm or so, Bug and I will be heading to the Library, we have lots of books on hold and its the perfect time to go get them. We will be reading through some Little House books as well as some others I want to try.

For dinner, today, I think I am going to cheat, we have a package of Salisbury steak in the freezer so I think we will have that, Baked Potatoes, and Garlic Green Beans. Poor DH is getting tired of Chicken and ground beef, it looks like its time to make a trip to the grocery store again and work on menu planning week by week.

For the Third Part, the DO Something part, I am going to keep working on my living room. I am glad I am pretty caught up on the laundry (and DH's work clothes go in with him on Thursdays) so I have the time to continue tackling the Living room.