Bring On the Comments...

It's been about a month since I began my cleaning/organizational tangent.

That little tangent began after picking up this cute little book at the local Christian bookstore.

A month later I can still say that I really love the principals this book lays out. It has motivated me and helped me to tweak areas of my home and areas of my own thinking in order to make things run more smoothly.

I'm not talking perfection, here. After all, the book is not called The House That Cleans Itself and Stays Perfect Without You Doing Anything Ever Again...although I would have totally bought it if that were indeed the title.

Organization requires maintenance. Dang it, but it's true. I have to make a point to put stuff back in it's newly labeled place. I have to remind my boys, pretty much every day, to hang up their coats. But at least we all know where the stuff now belongs, and that is huge!

Is everything perfect? No way. Perfection is not my goal. My kids would hate me if I required perfection...I would hate me too.

The key to an organized house is not that it looks super clean all the time...the key is that when you pick up, it goes QUICKLY, because

1. There's not a ton of extra junk around that you just don't know what to do with (because you've sorted, pitched, and donated)


2. Everything has a place...basically.

I love this book. I have picked it up dozens of times to re-read certain sections. There is still many ideas that I haven't implemented yet...baby steps.

I'm telling you, no matter how neat and organized you think you already are, this book has more ideas. For real. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, this book has ideas. Really good ideas.

The author Mindy Starns Clark sent me three autographed copies...all her idea, I didn't ask her to do it, she's just generous like that :)

Leave me a comment, about anything you'd like and you'll be entered! I'll pick THREE random winners tomorrow! Leave me different comments and enter yourself as many times as you like...why not?!?

Happy Organizing and Thanks Mindy! :)

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Two Things...

So the title of my post yesterday was sneaky, I'll admit. Shame on me ;)

I think I could start a new blog series called "Why it's better to have a pretend teenage daughter than a real one" For example, yesterday was our first day we were able to communicate and one of the first things Julie wrote was, "You are so young." I'm pretty much positive this is not something a real teenage girl tells her mother.

It made me love her even more. Of course.

And I think when she gets here, we should all talk her into doing a regular guest post on Life in the Parsonage: The teenager from Norway version...good stuff.

Here's some stuff I learned about her already:

• Her English vocabulary may be better than mine. She used the word flabbergasted. Which impresses me beyond belief. Nice that I need to have a foreign exchange student in order to expand my own English. By the time she lives with me for a year, she'll be using made up words and improper grammar like no one's business. :)


• She is not a "pink person" which is good, because I'm not either. No pink bedroom walls in this house. But I've got a girlie plan that is cute as all get out, and I'll share it with you when it's complete in its perfection.


• She is sweet. And charming. I can tell she's charming already...I just can. And witty! Go check out the comments on my post yesterday, she commented at the end.

I have one picture of her that I got from our exchange student coordinator...wanna see her?!?

Bloggy friends, meet Julie:

In other news: Remember that book The House That Cleans Itself that I went on and on about?!? Well, the lovely author of that book, Mindy Starns Clark sent me THREE autographed copies to give away to ya'll! Thanks Mindy!

Two things:

1. The give away is not until TOMORROW! So you have time to tell your bloggy friends OR be selfish and keep the news to yourself in hopes of increasing your odds of winning. It's between you and the Lord ;)


2. Comment on the post tomorrow and then on Thursday I will randomly choose THREE winners!

See ya tomorrow!

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We're Expecting!

Friday morning Ben and I left tiny-town for a couples retreat in an actual city. The first session didn't actually start until 7:30 Friday night, which means we left are home as soon as humanly possible in order to make the most of our time.

Friday was also THE day that I was to hear from the school. We we're hoping to know by around 10 AM. Every time my cell phone rang my heart raced. I jokingly said to Ben, "You wait, that Principal will wait till the END of the day to call."

And...he did.

I was standing outside Banana Republic when I got the call. And we got the slot! Which means in August we will become pretend parents to a lovely 17 year old girl from Norway, named Julie!

YAY! Did I mention she's adorable? And smart? And friendly? Well, at least I think she is from her application ;) We now have the all clear to communicate with her, so we're awaiting an email. We'll have six months to communicate before she arrives.

I've very distracted with girlie bedroom decorating plans.

I do want to share some of the stuff I learned while waiting (other than the fact that I really don't enjoy the waiting)

• Knowing God is in control of the situation, and acting like He is are completely different. Knowing is easy. The other: Not so much. I found myself continually handing it back over.
• I spent a lot of time copying down different Psalms because it brought me such peace...calmed the anxiousness that I could not calm on my own.
• God does not make we wait in order that He can see how I'll react. He already knows. The waiting is so that I can see my own heart.
• I have learned that no matter what I think should happen, I ultimately want to be in the center of His will, not mine. No matter what.
• God is in the details.

I can't wait to share more with you all on this journey. I sent Julie my blog address. Hopefully she doesn't change her mind about coming ;)

Now...I have about 30 loads of laundry to do. Exciting stuff.

PS - Ben and I had a great time on our short getaway...the topic was Love and Respect...more later.

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Bursting...

I'm gonna be away from the computer today...it's a long story, I'll fill you in with boring details later ;)

It is the day, however, that I am supposed to hear back from the Principal of our high-school to see if we can have the only slot left for an exchange student. I've been hanging on for a week...waiting for his reply.

The waiting has made me feel like I might burst from the inside out. Seriously...I'm that bad at waiting for news like this.

Needless to say, God has taken advantage of the waiting and revealed much about who He is.

And He is good.

Whether we get to host this year or not...He is still good.

Happy Weekend friends and I look forward to updating you later!

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As If...

Last night during the Bible Club lesson I sat amongst the kids for a little role I like to call "crowd control." Granted, it was a small crowd, but it was made up of mostly squirley little boys.



One sweet little first grade boy was sitting in the front row...with ants in his pants (we say that kinda thing 'round here), one pew out of my reach. When I caught his eye, I smiled at him and motioned for him to come back and sit beside me.



He complied, and as he took the seat next to me, I heard him whisper to himself under his breath...I hate when I have to sit by the old ladies.



I silently *gasped* to myself. Surely he didn't think I was an old lady?!?



Oh yes he did! :)



I assure you, the inner 15-year old living inside of me...well, her feelings were hurt, HURT! Poor, poor girl.



Later on in the lesson something came up about old people, and my own first grader who was sitting on the other side of me leaned in and whispered, mom...you're old! As if they were talking about me...thank you Noah, thank you.



My inner 15 year old has two words for you first graders...AS IF!!



Remember saying As If?!? I may start again...because there's nothing like an old lady talking like a teenager ;)

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Guilty

A little story.

There once was a young lad in Kindergarten. And while at kindergarten, in his class of twenty some six year olds, he made a small can that held grass magic seed he'd planted and watered and watched grow.

His mom forgot to take a picture of it.

Which is sad...because the little magic seed container never stood a chance after being brought to the Kindergartner's home...where the three year old little brother resides.

The evidence of destruction:

The dumping

The feeble attempt at cleaning up the evidence

All that remains

The culprit...and the punishment

Guilty.

There's a given fact around our home...curiosity kills anything the three year old touches.

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Poor Poor Pitiful Me...

Everything in life...anything of worth, requires maintenance.

Everyone knows this...it's not some new deep thought.

I've known this for a long time...logically speaking.  But every fiber of my being wills it to not be true.  I want to work at something ONE time, maybe two and then I want it to just work perfectly...forever.

I think I'm not alone.  

I know that's not how it works...but it doesn't change the fact that sometime...many times I act as though it should work that way.  And when it doesn't, I play victim and give up, because it MUST not be fair...it shouldn't be SO HARD, right?!?

Yes it should.  Yes it is.  Time to get over it.

That's what I heard as I poured out my heart out to God this morning before finally dragging my lazy body out of bed.  I whined and complained to Him about how tired I was...about how cold it was, about how evil my treadmill was....on and on. 

It was my own answers to my complaints that hit me.    It was my thoughts on how things should feel...

• I should be able to go to bed at a reasonable hour, and be able to pop up in the morning, cheery and ready to start my day.
• Ditto for the kids.
• When I get out of bed, I should step into a house that is clean...because after all, I spent TWO weeks getting it organized...it should STAY THAT WAY without me having to attend to it all the time.
• My kids should get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush their teeth and THEN watch cartoons until school starts...because that's the routine, they know it, they just should do it.
• I will of course have gotten up by 6 AM (cheery) and spent the time alone with God that I so desperately need.  I'd also have time to make a menu/grocery list so that I could hit the store after dropping the kids off to school.
• I would then hit the treadmill, shower and actually have myself ready by...say...11.
• Then, I could work on ministry stuff...all the while my house would stay clean because no one would be undoing whatever it was that I had done.
• Supper would be planned and prepared, because I of course, had a menu and all the ingredients needed to make it.
• Then, and this is the kicker, we would all sit down and NOT ONE CHILD would complain and refuse to eat.

Sound lofty?  Some of it is, some of it is completely unrealistic.  According to the amount of work I think I should have to put in, in order to achieve this makes it IMPOSSIBLE!

Have you ever looked at women who seem to be able to pull this off and think,  how in the world does she do it?  I'm ashamed to say, that most often, I assume that it's easy for her.  That there must be something in her life that makes it extra easy for her to pull that off.  That I, on the other hand, have it so much harder...that MUST be why I can't do it.

Wrong.  So wrong.  Truthfully, that crazy list is not really that lofty (except for the kids actually getting themselves ready:).  But it requires work, and diligence.  It requires doing what needs to be done even when I don't feel like it.  It requires no excuses.

I don't have to work any harder than anybody else to accomplish things.  Time to stop giving myself excuses.  Time to do things I don't feel like doing.  Which for me right now, means folding an enormous basked of whites...my least favorite ;)

If you relate at all to this, I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

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