Making Your Home a Haven Challenge: Day 6
I hope you all enjoyed a restful and refreshing weekend as a family. We certainly did, though our house is a bit more the messier for it! And that's why I'm glad for another week of the Making Your Home a Haven Challenge.If you've not had a chance to join us yet, feel free to jump right in wherever you and do whatever you can do. Remember that doing something and starting somewhere is better than nothing at all!
I've added in a few extra items this week since hopefully some of us have established some basic routines now. If it feels too overwhelming or too much, just pick one or two of the following items and do those. Don't bite off more than you can chew!
Today's Challenge:
1) Refresh Your Spirit
Begin your day with the Lord. Fix yourself a delicious hot drink and spend at least a few minutes praying, reading God's Word, and meditating on Scripture. Ask God to bless your day and to love through you. Find your joy and hope and strength in Him.
Did the Lord give you a special word of encouragement this morning? Share it with us!
2) Do Your Morning Routine
If you don't have a morning routine, take a moment to write down five things you'd like to accomplish in the same order every morning. And then get busy tackling them! Remember to keep it simple. It's better to plan a few things and get them done, than to write out an elaborate list and not do it.
3) Take Time to Plan
After your morning routine is finished, write out a short to-do for today (five items or less). Number the items in order of importance and start on number 1. Don't move on to number 2 until you've completed number 1.
What's on your to-do list today?
4) What's on the Menu for Dinner?
Take a moment to plan what you'll be having for dinner and then do as much of the prep work as possible before noon. Fix up a pot of soup, throw something in the crock pot, whip up a casserole, or pull something out of the freezer.
I recommend you have this dinner prep work as part of your morning routine or scheduled into your morning somewhere. Then you'll save yourself realizing it's five o'clock and you haven't a clue what to fix!
What are you serving for dinner?
5) Project of the Day
Turn some uplifting music on, light some candles, put an apron on, roll up your sleeves, and let's get busy!
Set your timer for five minutes and start at your front door again and quickly walk through the main living areas of your house straightening and picking up and putting away anything that's out of place. When the timer beeps, you're done, so work fast and don't get distracted.
Then, go to your kitchen (you knew we'd get there soon, didn't you?) and wash, dry, and put away any dirty dishes there are (or use the dishwasher) and then quickly straighten anything else that's out of place, wipe down your counters and cupboards, and replace your dish towels.
If you have a chance, take before and after pictures of your main living areas and kitchens and share them with us.
I'll post my challenge update in the early afternoon or evening. Have a wonderful day, ladies, and I can't wait to see and hear how God blesses you as you seek to be a blessing to your families. Let's pray for one another while we work!
Graphic from Art.com
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Would you like to join us in this "Making Your Home a Haven" Challenge? Just do one or more of the items listed above or something else to "make your home a haven" and post about it on your blog. Come back here and leave your link below so that we can be inspired!
Labels: Making Your Home a Haven
posted by Crystal Paine at 9:50 PM
19 Comments:
Thanks so much for the inspiration. The cleaner house is also making me feel like other things are more in order as well. It's really a fitting title. My home does feel more like a Haven!
God Bless
Crystal - I want to thank you for doing this! I wasn't able to join last week - but read each day and was encouraged just by what all of you were accomplishing! I'm hoping to start today! This is a great idea and has been refreshing in terms of thinking of my home as a haven and keeping it tidy and clean! Thank you.
Hi Crystal, thanks for a great blog. I've just started reading - I think via Like Merchant Ships - and am finding your Haven Challenge very helpful!
I'm not a Christian, so I'm replacing the morning prayer with some quiet reflection. I think I might add some time reading something from my collection of classics, rather than reading email and blogs, as I usually do.
Crystal, I just want to thank you for doing this 'challenge'. I was so glad to come here this morning and see that the challenge was on again this week! I don't have a blog to post my pictures on but even so I've been so enjoying the results I don't even care if no one else sees!
I especially want to thank you (and the Lord for working through you to bless myself, and I'm sure others) for posting your challenge in the order you did. I have been SO BLESSED by the first item - Refreshing your spirit. I had gotten into a rut of not spending a special, alone time and it reflected in my life. I knew it, but this challenge really made me get into a habit and routine in my mornings and the Lord truly has blessed and refreshed my spirit. In fact, it's the time I look forward to the most now! Above all I thank our Lord but I also thank you.
May God bless your ministry and your blog.
Good morning, Crystal! I had trouble rising this morning with below zero temps and fresh snow on the ground. It was tempting to stay warm in bed but I was anxious to start my routine so that I could see what today's challenge is! :) I don't have my own blog to post on but have been doing the challenges anyway. It's so much more motivating to do these things along with others. Thanks for all the encouragement.
My kitchen needs a good cleaning, so today will be perfect. I'm going to expand on the challenge to include cleaning the refrigerator, wiping out the oven, and taking an inventory of the freezer.The curtains in there could stand to be washed and ironed as well.
For supper I'm making layered taco dip to serve spooned into warm tortillas. I add seasoned cooked beef on this so it makes it more filling. Yum! My son wants to make M&M cookies today as well, and seeing the picture you posted of the Christmas candy (I tried that last year) has gotten me into baking mode, too. Here is my to-do list not including the morning routine:
1. clean bathroom
2. start laundry
3. prep supper/pack hubby's lunch for tomorrow
4. vacuum
5. clean kitchen
Extras if time allows:
Bake cookies
Put stamps on Christmas cards and mail
Get packages ready for post office
Anyway, we'll see what actually gets done. I love your relaxed attitude about just doing what you can and letting go of our own plans sometimes. I need to work on that!
Crystal,
I also appreciate your doing this! It has been inspiring as well as fun!
Have a wonderful day!!
Christy
Hey Crystal!
I'm really enjoying your challenge. :o) I was wondering how the girls do with allowing you to get stuff done during the day. My daughter is almost 17 months old and VERY nutso, LOL. :o) She's extremely active, so that combined with a poor house layout makes cleaning, organizing, daily chores harder on me than they should be. I do put her in the sling, do stuff while she's napping, have her help (I use non-toxic, green cleaning products), have activities for her while I'm trying to get stuff done, etc.
But, there are more times than not when I'm behind in my household duties because my little sweetie demands my attention. I praise God for what I can get done on a daily basis - and even more so for the blessing of a daughter. :o) Just wondering if you ever feel the same frustrations, LOL!
Thanks, Crystal!
Good ideas, and sometimes it is hard just to get going on Mondays, especially after a day of rest and blessedness! Don't know why that is for me...sometimes I just have to force myself to get going!!
Hi Crystal. I've been meaning to link to your posts for the past week. I had already been revamping my home routine and happened upon your posts. It's so true that it just takes a little time to get things in order. I use the 15 minute tool as opposed to 5 minutes but that usually includes staying in one room and brining it to order.
This is my Monday when I put the home back to rights and do a lot of laundry so I had better get started.
It's so true it's not easy cleaning and taking care of things with a busy toddler who wants to get into stuff. This may not be everyone's cup of tea but this is one way I handle it. We have a portable vcr player and my laptop with a DVD player. I put in Gaither gospel tape and place it near the room I'm cleaning. Then we sing and I clean. She loves these videos and as the church pianist they give me lots of ideas for the older hymns we like to sing. I usually only do this for the bathrooms, and kitchen. The other rooms she helps me with and even though it takes longer it's very special to work side by side. Stickers will also hold her attention as long as I can get her to put them on paper and not the furniture or walls.
Greatly enjoying this challenge! Thanks for heading this up.
Okay, I had to condense my challenge into one day to catch up from last week, but I feel so better!!!!! I did go in and post today and I feel inspired because now I have to live up to what I write, kinda like a personal motivator for me. Thanks for the blessing. My girls are enjoying this too!!! I have little keepers in the making:)
Crystal,
Yesterday my pastor made mention in our parenting Sunday school class about the connection of a chaotic home and chaotic children. He pointed out that if we can't maintain control over one how can we the other? I never thought of it before this. It made me think of the past week. And yes, I have stayed home more to keep the house in a better order thanks to this challenge, and in doing so I have had more one on one time with my kids. I think this is going to make some big and lasting changes in our family! Thank you for answering the call that God has placed in your life to help others!
Now a quick question...what was the name of the multi-purpose cleaner you use? I wanted to get some pay day, but totally forgot the name (pregnancy brain drain I suppose LOL!). Also, can you do a quick recap on what/how you use it? What surfaces you clean or fuctions it serves...I know you have done this before, and I apologize if I am making more work for you! Thanks again!
This has been fun! I joined in on your challenge Friday and have enjoyed getting my house spruced up a bit! I can't wait to tackle the rest of my projects as the week unfolds!
~Kristy
Homemaker's Cottage
I'm glad for another week of challenges! Thanks again Crystal!
What beautiful inspiration! Thank you for this challenge.
Crystal,
great posts!
Have you ever read "A Woman After God's Own Heart" by Elizabeth George? A wonderful read that I highly recommend! It's been a true encouragement to me! But some of the things she speaks of, remind me of some of the things you do....timers, schedules, etc. =)
So glad you and your family are well and I'm glad you're enjoying each other!
Blessings,
Heather in Pa
Thanks again for the challenge! :)
I'm so glad the challenge is continuing for another week. I am really enjoying reading about what everyone is accomplishing and it has been a huge motivator for me. Thank you Crystal!
Thanks for the encouragment today. Mondays are always busy in our household and it's easy to feel overwhelmed after a messy weekend. It's been so helpful to stick to the morning routine and then come up with the top five priorites to try and tackle. And then planning dinner by noon is a real plus, too. I never knew how doing that one thing would make the rest of the day and evening so peaceful. Thanks for all the helpful tips that I've been learning on this blog and from other ladies posts as well.
I just finished wiping down the kitchen surfaces after putting the children to bed. It took me working on and off all day but I got the kitchen done. Yay! Can't wait for tomorrow's challenge.
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