Mondays at My House

I love Mondays.  Yes, I do!  But, I love every other day of the week for it's various assigned things to do as well.  Mondays are like "let's start fresh" and I love it.

My Mondays are days when I exercise again because I don't purposely exercise over the weekend.  My plans and things look different over the weekend, so it makes sense to just start my day with exercise while everyone is still sleeping.

I love getting back to school with my youngest, getting back in to the groove of schooling and routine.

I plan on Sundays for my week, not heavily, but just getting my brain wrapped around what I need to get done.  Since we finished class days at our homeschool group this past Friday, my days are going to look a little different now.  I'll be spending my Fridays differently, but still planning for next 17-18 school year when classes start again.

Mondays are our "clean up from the weekend" days.  Wrappers that have been forgotten, stray papers, cups, that everyone has forgotten and a host of other things are cleaned up, put away, and things generally tidied up.  As much as I try to clean up after myself when I get up from where I'm sitting, everyone else doesn't follow suit and it gets old reminding everyone of everything.  So, we just clean up Monday mornings.  It works!

Mondays are also days when I "start fresh" with cleaning up the bathroom that is ours.  Why not all the bathrooms?  Well, each of my young adults have their own bathrooms to tend to.  At this time we're getting things together to get the poolhouse bathroom pulled together.  Although there isn't a lot to do, there's still things to purchase to pull it together.  When it is, it will be assigned to one of my young adults.  👍🙌

I need to also set aside time to plan menus.  Strangely enough, having been a person who has planned meals up to 3 months in advance, I have not planned ahead for  meals for quite a while.  I would love to do that, but with the crazy schedules we've been having between my daughter and husband working strange hours and my sons doing Civil Air Patrol things, it makes planning quite challenging.  Then add to that someone who just doesn't feel like eating what we're having, so they go out and buy their own meal.  While that meal may be Ramen noodles and only costs $1, it pretty much makes me feel rather defeated at the time.  I've made preparations and etc for healthy food, so they should eat it right?  Well, I have to choose my battles.  Come to find out, they come out to the refrigerator late at night to get something to eat and invariably reheat what we had for dinner, so it eventually gets eatten!  I still struggle with this, though.

Having young adults in the house is challenging.  I feel like I have to walk a fine line between being a drill sergeant and someone who gives them authorship of their chores and when they need to get done.  There are issues there as well with mental health issues, ADHD issues, medication affects on some, so the juggling is challenging.

So, this Monday, I'm doing what I can do to ensure that the area I'm in charge of is clean, neat, and tidy.  I am in charge of the whole house, yes, but my own chores are in the area of my office/sitting room, our bathroom, bedroom and hallway.  If those are not clean, it is my fault.  I need to be the one setting an example to those under my roof of routine, diligence, and getting things done.  Yes, they are young adults and the expectation is for them to get their things done.  Unfortunately, reminders need to be given.  One day reminders will not need to be given.  One day this entire house will fall on my shoulders to clean daily.  When that happens my routine will change, but until then, this is how things are.

One day they will each have their own homes, by the grace of God.  They will be in charge of getting everything cleaned up without our prompting.  Hopefully, they will each see the need to keep things neat and tidy, eventually.  For now, they are a work in progress, just like me.

Have a Blessed Monday!

Tough Cookies

Within the past couple of weeks, a friend of ours used this phrase to describe us.  I often wonder what has caused us to be seen as "tough cookies" in retrospect.  I remember so many events in our lives, individually and in our married life that has formed us to the people we are today--for better or worse.
I know that many, countless times we've had seemingly insurmountable occurrences in our life that had caused us to immediately hit the floor on our knees in a puddle of tears because in our own strength, we could not do "this", whatever "this" was.  Miraculously, as if by only the strength of the Holy Spirit, we stood to dry our tears and put one foot in front of the other.  There were times that many times EACH DAY we were in a puddle of tears, surrendering everything to the Lord, telling Him that we can't do "this" alone, that He's going to have to do "this" for us because in our own power, we're nothing.

With each step we've taken, we often times get to see a few steps ahead.  Other times, we can only see the step we're on currently.  These lessons have been "hard learned" and wrought with heartache, pain, and rivers and rivers of tears.  So, to use the term "tough cookie" to describe us is not as accurate as perhaps someone with the strength of a piece of jello or as sturdy as a river of tears.

That said, the Lord Himself has etched Himself in and through every aspect of our lives, from our finances, to our home and everything in it, our vehicles, our pets, my Mr. G's retirement from corrections and on to his current job, as well as homeschooling, and moving on in to our lives very soon as post homeschooling parents.  Our lives have been filled with trials and triumphs, but only by God's grace.

So, it is only by the strength of the Lord that we rely on daily that we can be remotely compared to "tough cookies."

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, 

because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,

 for those who are called according to his purpose." 

(Romans 8:26-28)

This verse has become our very own in the past 3 years through the trials we've faced.  We've clung to it tightly when the winds blew so hard and things we thought were "ok" suddenly disintegrated.

We were helped by many folks posting different scripture at just the right time, praying for us and loving on us just to let us "talk it out" and vent.  There have been priceless friendships formed that had those occurrences not happened, we would have missed those friendships.  God brings about things in our lives to bring people together who wouldn't have normally crossed paths.  What a blessing these folks have been to our lives!  They don't even know the true depth and breadth of how much they honestly helped us just by being there for us when we needed them most.  We feel the Lord Himself put them in our lives and we are truly grateful for their friendship.  

Many times, it was only through the gift of music that was able to sooth our aching hearts.  Many times I leaned on these two songs.

The Lord has blessed us, and given us peace so many times through so many ways. 

Praise His Holy Name!

God Bless,

No, I'm not Wonder Woman!

I was reminded a few minutes ago, that I needed to not only grant others grace, but to grant myself grace.

You see, two of my three young folks are off to a training weekend with Civil Air Patrol.  Their chores were done yesterday before we left, but inevitably with dogs, you have fur--especially in the early Spring.  Wait a minute!  What am I saying?  There's hair A.L.L  T.H.E. T.I.M.E!!!!   Needless to say, vacuuming up the hair in the corners and where dust bunnies decide to gather is an essential job to do daily.  The mopping/swiffer wet jet is done two or more times a week with an off white tile floor.  I was planning to swiffer wet jet after vacuuming, but my lower back and hips started to ache.  Do I continue or do I take something for the pain, go sit down and have my coffee and rest my back for a bit until the pain goes away? 

I decided a blog post about granting oneself grace would be good.  I started re-reading a blog post by my friend, Lisa, and realized that she covered it well too, but from her perspective as a homeschooling mom who has returned to school.  Whatever your circumstance, whenever you push yourself too far without granting yourself permission to sit down for 15 minutes, you are setting yourself up for pain, resentment, and you miss out on possible precious moments with loved ones or with the Lord.

I like to take the FLYlady approach to getting things done around my house:  You can do anything as fast as you can, in 15 minutes.  In that 15 minute time frame you may not be able to complete the mountain of dishes in your sink and on your counters, or completely tackle the ever increasing "Mount Washmore" in your laundry room, but you'll be able to take baby steps.  Disclaimer:  If you look at the FLYlady website and read about her system, you'll notice that she promotes getting dressed to the shoes with your hair and face done every morning.  As I type this, it is 6:19AM.  I've been up since 5:00AM and I'm sitting here in my pajamas with my hair done...or rather tossed up in a barrette and side pony tail.  I thought I'd get some blogging done while I have my morning coffee and devotions, then get my painting clothes on--minus the shoes, and get my entry way and hall way edges painted before the kids get up at 7AM.  LOL  I like the quiet.  There isn't any grumpy people to deal with.  LOL

This is my work today.  I have never used this dark of a tan before, but I liked the rich coffee & creamer look to it.  This is only the first coat, so of course it will need more than this.  It is coming along, though!  My plan is to paint all the trim white.  It was a mauve color, so we're changing it up a bit.  The flooring will go in last and it will be the same type that we used in our bedroom.  I just didn't want to put the flooring in first, then slop paint on it.  LOL  The first door to the right is where my office/sewing area is.  It will be painted next, Lord willing.  I've not firmly decided what color to do in there yet.  I'd love to do a nice soothing blue, but I'm thinking it might not be a good idea.  I might get super creative and do a base color and a stripe across the room with an artistic touch.  This is what the kids and I had done in the boys' Pennsylvania bedroom:

The stripe was so much fun and creative!  And, if you notice, I tried duplicating it in the valances with the stripe on the bottom.  We tried bringing in some desert sand colors, then balance or offset with the blue marbleized fabric for the main valance color.  I've been watching Fixer Upper and it seems that muted grays and whites are often used in that show, so everyone is emulating JoJo's designs, or at least trying to.  I'm not one to go with current trends, but I use my home as my color palate.  I try to find timeless pieces that are beautiful to me and colors that I love to decorate with.  If I can't find those timeless pieces, I make do with something functional--like the side table in the picture above--it doesn't go with the bunk bed, but it's functional.  LOL  I frequent yard sales, facebook flea market groups, estate sales, and I try to go to auctions to find things that will work for a specific area.

There are so many different things I'd like to do to my GA house, but I have time constraints and I need to save for the other things I'd like to do--like a new front door to let in more light.  I've also been drawing out raised garden bed plans and other ideas for the front yard are swirling around my head too.  We'll see what happens with it all.

Almost two weeks ago, when I wrote the introduction to this blog post, my dining room and living room were being painted.  I have finished and I promise that I will update with finished pictures, but I wanted to get one with everything in place--including the new ceiling fan and scriptures I've found for the wall. I promise I will take pictures and post them!

No, I'm not Wonder Woman and I've never claimed to be.  I am a woman who is saved by grace from the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am also a woman who needs to grant grace to myself more often than I do.  I need to love myself enough to push myself enough to get the needful done, but rest when I need to, to just be, pray, read, recharge, so I can get up refreshed and ready to tackle the next 15 minutes.

God Bless,

When I Can Work

I have grandiose plans to declutter, paint and pack away bunches of books, decorations and just generally get much more organized than I am now after Christmas.  My own grandiose plans have come to a roadblock of sorts.  I have entered pre-menopause and my menses are changing, lengthening up to 14 days causing a drastic lowering of my iron levels.  When that happens, nothing can stop me from taking a nap, out of sheer exhaustion.  I can sit in my chair to rest from my work and in 5 minutes be sleeping.

I have increased iron rich foods to be best of my ability.  I cannot, however, ingest sardines or organ meat.  I have been in contact with my doctor as well as an OB/GYN to pursue the next step which right now is an ultrasound.  We need to find out if there are any fibroid tumors growing inside my uterus or any abnormalities.  If there are, then we'll likely go in for a hysterectomy.  If there are no abnormalities, I'll likely go in for an ablation.  In the mean time, I do what is needful, then rest.  I need to accept this season of my life for what it is--a chance to grow the response of my kids, growing them to understand what it means to be an adult--to take the responsibility for getting things done without being asked; to step up and just get things done.

As my dear friend, Cheryl at copperswife.com says, we must "hold our plans loosely."  And so, as I release the expectations I have for myself, the plans I have for my time after Christmas is over, and simply rest, I know that I can rest in the knowledge that this is His plan for me just for now.

God Bless,

In the Kitchen

This week, according to my calendar, is the week we deep clean the kitchen.  Yesterday was Monday, so it was dusting day.

This morning already, I've taken care of the kitchen windows on the inside.  You see, I'm the detail person.  It is my job to take care of each detail in the house.  What about the every day things?  Well, the children have been trained to vacuum, sweep, mop, do the dishes, unload the dishwasher, dry and put away dishes, wipe the counters and table, wash, dry & fold and put away laundry as well as hanging it out on the line.  So if my kids can do all of this, why do I do anything at all?  Well, as it goes with children, they don't see the details most of the time.  This is where I come in.  

The above schedule helps me to remember which room we're in for the week.  Yes, I need reminding.  I write things down so I don't have to remember it.  With all the appointments, classes and responsibilities I need to take care of, the less I need to remember the better!  This reminder is wonderful!  

I take care of myself better when I know things are done and cared for.  While "everything" isn't done at the end of the day, I know that I can see progress.  I've learned that this is better than not seeing progress, or heaven forbid, things get worse.  I don't kick myself in the pants for not doing xyz because I know it is going to be done on the above rotational schedule. So there is no guilt.  

Does my house resemble "tornado" status at times?  Yes!  But, the wonderful thing is that with one hour of steady work from 10 hands, things are much better!  

Throughout the month I take note of areas that need my attention and when that time comes up, I take care of it then.  This goes for the kitchen as well, unless there is a cupboard full of ants going after that ONE drop of honey that may have spilled.  (Ask Me How I Know!!!!)  Yes, there are times when you absolutely have to take care of those details that are right in front of your face.  It is a wonderful reminder for this Momma to remind children  who use the honey to make sure the bottle is wiped well before placing it back on the shelf.  We don't want any more ants!  Whew!  

Now, I'm sure there is another question running through your mind right now, "Why not just clean the whole kitchen instead of small bits and pieces at a time?"  I'm glad you asked!  I have many many hats that I wear throughout the day that need my attention (call my name, demanding at times...) so in order to maintain my own sanity by making sure those attention grabbers are tended to, I try to make sure the 15 minutes it takes me to tend to details in the room of the week after the necessary people needs are cared for.  Yesterday I wiped down walls.  It took me a little longer than 15 minutes, but I was the only person here at home.  After I was done I hung sheets out to dry and rotated the calendar above to the next 5-6 weeks.  Hurrying in the shower, I shuffled off to get the kids from berry picking, bring them home, push the oldest along to the shower to get ready for an appointment almost 2 hours away.  You see, the details were done in the morning.  This morning it was the windows.

Tomorrow the calendar says "declutter."  The refrigerator needs cleaned out and wiped down.  I need to go through my drawers to see if there is anything I can put in the yard sale we're having over the 4th of July.  I also have a junk drawer that needs some attention.

Thursday it says to "detail the floors."  I'll have my daughter sweep the floors really good this afternoon, then I'll scrub everything after taking them to work in the morning.

What about my husband's days off?  I try to spend as much time as I can with him when he's home.  But, when he's in the garage, I try to get my own work done.  Sometimes it happens.  Other times there are other things that pull at me.  The important thing is that I look at the calendar and make plans to do the work the Lord has given me and plan accordingly when I know I'll be busy.  Thursday I plan to do my Friday work in the afternoon so that I don't have to worry about it when I'm spending time with my hubby.  

Will this system work for you?  I don't know.  You can use it, but feel free to tweak it to your own family, home and needs.  Just pray about it and ask God for His direction.  That's what I did!  

Have a Blessed Day! 

Blessings--New Pictures Added

Crocuses popping up through the leaves.

We've been going through some very roller coaster like times lately, so it helps to focus on the blessings.

For those of you who do not know, we had a house fire that started in our basement in March of 2005. 

This is what our basement looked like. 

God took this mess and not only blessed us through it, but also the lady who bought our house.  Everything was fixed up nicely for her with a new furnace, hot water heater, electrical, duct work and everything was painted fresh for her.

Our prayers were answered!  

During that time, we'd lived in a campground in a camper so that our children would have room to ride their bikes and play.

We started out in an 18 foot camper with 3 kids and 2 dogs.  Yes, things were cramped!  We traded up to a 35 foot 5th wheel and spent 4 more months in it.  Needless to say, we were ready to move in to our house, which seemed so roomy and spacious when we first moved in.  

During the past 8 years my husband has had no desire whatsoever to do any more camping.  He didn't even want to consider a camper unless it was a drive-able Winnebago type RV.  He was so very disgusted with the thought of camping that we just stayed in motels whenever we went somewhere and didn't have friends to stay with.

Last year when we went to the end of the school year field trip to Columbus Zoo and the Creation Museum, we stayed in motels.  Plus we left our dogs behind with some good friends.  He wasn't too thrilled with doing that, but they were left in good hands. (He's attached to our doggies. )  Couple that with the cost of the motels and he was newly convinced that we probably should consider a camper.

We started looking, but not too seriously.  We just wanted to check prices and see what we needed to start saving for.  We realize that both of our parents are getting up in years and we needed to go see them, even if they did live thousands of miles away.  The best way for us to do that was to drive and camp.  

The Lord had His hand in this so much so that we just could not believe it!

About a month or two ago, a friend from church approached my husband about a camper.

"Huh?!" said my husband.  "Have you been talking to my wife?"  Our friend said, "No, should I?"  And the Lord worked out the details through my husband who didn't want to go camping for 8 long years.

I will say that the Lord works in mysterious ways.  His ways are not our ways, so when this camper was literally dropped in our laps, we decided to accept it without question, even though we didn't have a good vehicle to tow it with, yet.  We figured if the Lord wanted to give us a camper that He would provide the good quality vehicle to tow it with where ever we needed to go.

What an undeserved blessing this is for us!  The kids are smiling at the thought of making more memories, going camping, and enjoying our family.

When our friends delivered it, I was gasping because I didn't realize it was so HUGE!

The front of the camper complete with working stove, oven, microwave and full size camper refrigerator.

To the right is the shower and just below, the potty.  (I know...something you always wanted to know.)  LOL

Turning around looking toward the back of the camper--behind me is the table.  The first closet to the right is a pantry or linen closet, then there are clothes closets.  To the right is the bathroom and, of course, the bedroom in the back.

The bedroom, of course.  We bought ourselves a new mattress, so our old mattress went out to the camper.  

God bought us a camper.  It was only done through Him.  Just about everything we'd been looking for in a camper was given to us.  Isn't that just like God?  :0)

God is so good!

What an awesome blessing!

When One Spouse Has Been UnSaved

Disclosure Statement:  This post is real, brutally, gut wrenchingly honest and posted WITH permission by my husband.  You will laugh, you will probably cry---much like I have.  And, most likely, you will rejoice to see what wonderful work God has done.  And, this is long, so bear with me.

Ideally, when two Christian people come together, agree to be married and fall in love, they are what Christian circles call "evenly yoked."  In an ideal world, this is what that marriage would simulate--

The work done together is for glorifying God and the couple moves closer together as they move closer to God.

When one has an UNsaved spouse, things look a bit differently, and each situation will be just a bit different with different circumstances.  But much of what you'll see is excuses, whether valid excuses or not, they're still there.  Sometimes the excuses are selfish pride based.  Other times they are timing based like, "When I retire", "When the kids are out of the house" and infinitum.

Then, there are the times when the Lord chooses to "prune" the other spouse.  Yes, the "saved" spouse gets worked on by God.  Yes I'm still looking back and trying to make sense of it all.  But, the best I can tell,

John 15:2  He cuts off every branch that does not produce fruit in me, and he cuts back every branch that does produce fruit, so that it might produce more fruit. [emphasis mine]

How does a Heavenly pruning sound?  That is EXACTLY what it took for me to surrender.  I had a ruptured disc in my lower lumbar area.  The gelantinous material oozed out in a way that it just barely touched the left side of my spinal cord and caused me to be on my hands and knees in pain for 48 hours.  No shots would help, no chiropractic care would help, no hot water, ice pack, nothing would help.  I called the assistant pastor who brought 5 other people who prayed over me at 8:30PM on February 4th, 2001.  At 8:37PM, I got up and stood without pain.  God was teaching me, molding me and showing me through that circumstance that not only did He love me, but He loved me enough to discipline me to bring me in to submission to His will for my life.  He even gave me some not so lovely reminders--"zingers" I called them.  I'd always get them when my heart and mind were not so lovely toward my husband.  Contrary to what one might think, almost 12 years later, I still get them.  It isn't as often, but I'm glad for the painful reminders.  Yes, I said that.  Yes, I am stubborn.  I come from a long line of stubborn Irish folks.  LOL

You see, I begged God for the first 11 years of our marriage to change my husband.  When I read The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian, the first chapter was about "His Wife".  That's when I "got it."  I needed to be willing to change, to be molded, pruned and so forth to bring forth much more abundant fruit.  Now, some people might call me "Fruit Loopy", but that's ok.  Go ahead, I can handle it.  Yes, I've made mistakes.  No, I'm not perfectly humbled, pruned or submitted.  I was the saved one who was praying.  That's all God had to work with because I was as rebellious as they came, complete with the mouthy bitter attitude.  Just this week I found myself apologizing to my husband for putting up with me and being such an awful stumbling block for him.  I was not the epitome of a Proverbs 31, Titus 2 or 1 Peter 3 woman at all, but just the opposite!

I could just imagine God looking down on us and saying, "Oh dear, this will never do!  I'm going to have to do some pruning before I can give her the desires of her heart."

 Why?  Well, the best I can tell, it is because the humility [forced at times where situations were beyond my own control and I had to just surrender and pray for God's protection for myself and my children], and meek and quiet spirit needed to endure the years of spiritual unrest, gut wrenching torturous spiritual battle needed to continue.

Did I say that?  

Yes, I did.  

The past two months have been so very torturous for me.  My husband has been addicted to online games, ignoring all of us until his needs of "get me a cup of coffee/water/food" from the kids or intimacy from me needed to be filled.  After he'd leave for work, I'd just cry my eyes out begging God to help me.  I know I felt much like a robot, going through the motions, just getting the every day things done and not much joy, unless it was in my kids and their antics or going to worship, Bible Study or Choir/Bell Choir practice for the holiday season.  Since he works in the afternoons, the practices were almost always then.

What a balm for my soul!  I so needed it!  

Little did I know, the darkest time would come on Christmas day...



...if you would like to read the rest of this story, please email me privately.  My email address is in the left side bar (just add symbols).

This is just the beginning of the story of God's work in our lives.  It's very long and Mr. G doesn't mind sharing it, so please feel free to email me!

Early Mornings and Cold Feet

I am so very thankful the Lord wakes me at such early morning hours.  This morning it happened to be 4:37AM.  I was able to be up to say "Good-bye!" to my hunting men, read my scriptures (Proverbs 1 & a couple chapters of Psalms) and do one day in my Bible study.  I've been snuggled up in my hubby's robe because it reaches past my fingers and I get cold easily sometimes.  My feet still have to warm up.  I'm so very thankful for this fuzzy blanket with an adorable puppy on it that my precious children gave me for my birthday.  They know how cold I get at times and their thoughtfulness is such a gift.

I guess I should get more work done on my socks so I can have warm feet! LOL

Praising God for time to worship Him.  Yes, I worship every chance I get, which equates to deliberately taking a few moments to stop and listen to the praise music that just came on the radio.  Small moments of worship throughout the day are a wonderful uplifting balm to the soul.

Time alone with the Lord, it doesn't have to be just in the early morning hours.  Make time for Him, even just moments throughout the day, and your day will be richly blessed and your soul fed.

Last night, I had intentions of doing my daily exercises while listening to this DVD.  

 I finished my exercises as best I could, but found myself sobbing, in tears not only for family members, but with gratefulness for His mercy upon me in my life.  I couldn't help but worship and praise God.  I couldn't sing along, but whispered the words through my tears.

During my time, my husband came upstairs to check on me because I'd been warm downstairs with the fireplace going.  The room temperature was 75 Degrees F and I was getting hot, but needed to do my exercises.  What he found was not his wife doing exercises, but sitting on the floor next to our bed, with bloodshot, swollen eyes, head bowed and tears still flowing.  He asked me what was wrong and I couldn't answer.  Once I was able to answer because of being so overcome.  Eventually I told him why the tears and asked him to pray.  He did, then he kissed me and went downstairs.

There are thoughts that come to me in my deepest heart during these times of worship.  Yes, I do test them to be sure they're from God and if they are truly good, I know their source.  I am sure the thoughts He gave me were as a direct result of my husband's prayer.  Praise God!

Right now I'm listening to "Gentle Praise" on the local Christian Radio's online website.  I know they have other genre's to listen to, but I like this one currently.  

John 15:4  

"Abide in me, and I will abide in you. 

Just as the branch cannot produce fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, 

neither can you unless you abide in me."

Can one praise and worship God while doing things of daily life, like dishes, laundry, mopping, vacuuming and perhaps hand crafts?  Absolutely!  While I listen to Gentle Praise, I'm going to knit some on my sock. :)

Have a Blessed Day!

Cloudy Rainy/Snowy Winter Days

After getting all the morning chores done, the children get started on their school work.  Some mornings the clouds roll in and makes the barometric pressure fall.  The fall in the barometric pressure is a cue to both my husband and I that we need to prepare for the inevitable achiness that accompanies this type of weather.

Our mornings take a little bit different turn in cases like this.  We stay in bed a little longer, until the pain meds start to help.  The kids get moving on their chores, make coffee for us (what a wonderful blessing that is!) and get showers if they want to.  The morning starts out so much more "low key" due to our achiness.  Why?  Because we have to roll with the flow.  The expectations we have of ourselves need to be loosened and given grace when there are physical ailments.  These are days that we try our best to work through what we have to do.

Many times we end up doing an abbreviated day of school with just Bible Reading, Bible Copy Work, Language Arts, Math & Science.  This will take us up to noon, if not just a little after lunch.  We use the rest of the day for games, reading or other projects.  What a wonderful restful time to just relax and be together. 

Last Saturday we did something different in our Christmas Clean up than we've usually done in years past.  We brought all the Christmas bins downstairs and lined them up in the entry way with their lids off.  We emptied all the unwanted undesired things out of them before putting away the things we love.

We ended up with lots of extra room in each bin for clearance 75%+ off sales and Summer yard sale finds.  If I don't love something, I've decided, in 2012 I'll be purging it from my home.  Everything that comes through the door is something that is loved.  All unloved, doesn't fit, old, stained, chipped and just too much work to maintain will be given away or thrown away.  It is time to simplify!  For so many years clutter has taken up so much of my home.  Even though I've had it under control for a while, there were so many things in the attic that were just thrown up there after we moved in here.  Well, in a few years my hubby will be able to retire and I don't want to deal with having to lug the clutter along to where ever we move.  I don't love clutter, so it's time to get rid of it. 

Rainy, snowy winter days are wonderful to get things like decluttering done.  When we're stuck in the house with nothing better to do, decluttering is a good thing.  This is blessing my family as well as myself.  I feel so much lighter when I see that trash bag leave the house!  :)