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I know, I know...I haven't been posting much. Truth is I have been spending most of my time learning how to do my job better and part of that is spending more and more time with my children and more time keeping my home in order. But now as my home is more organized, not perfect yet but definitely improving, I am excited to share all that I have learned with all of you here!

I will be posting things I have been learning here as well as guest posting on a new site created by my mother-in-law at Proverbs 31 Practical Helps. You can find my posts on the Clean Heart and Home page.

Anyway, I can't wait to get started. We will also be starting a weekly project for all of you to join in on so keep an eye out for that...coming soon!

Blessings to all of you!

Perspective on Children

My mom told me this story today and it has been spinning in my head ever since. I can't help but wonder how many others there are like this older gentleman who may wish they had it to do over again.

After walking in to an office one day with their two young children, my parents were stopped by an older man who told them what nice children they had. He said when he and his wife got married, they agreed not to have children so they could enjoy life; travel the world, have it all. And they did. They saw the world, all of it, soaking in every minute. Life was a constant adventure. They had all the nice things they wanted and enjoyed them too. Then suddenly his wife passed away. Now this poor old man was left alone in the world. He no longer had someone to travel with him. no one to enjoy his things with him and no one to whom he could leave them when he died.

He had chosen the path of pleasure and it left him empty-handed. He would have gladly traded it all for some one to love him his old age.

Grandchildren to sit on his knee and listen to his stories.

Someone to keep his memory alive long after he was gone.

This man probably is gone now, since this story is over 20 years old, but maybe his sad tale will helps us rethink what is really important and what our perspective of children should look like.

31 Days to Clean...my way

So any one who has read my blog could probably tell you at least these two things about me:
~I am pursuing a clean house
~I have a hard time following a schedule

Here is my latest way to try to make this happen:

31 Days of Clean

I had planned to start this with every one on the 1st...needless to say, it is not the first. But I am starting and I will try to keep my progress updated as much as I can. But I can't guarantee that I'll be done in 31 days, or even 31 weeks.

Anyway, day one asks us to make a list of why we clean so, for the sake of making you all laugh, here is my list of reasons in no particular order:

Why I Clean My House-
~I hate tripping over clutter
~I like seeing out my windows
~I like using on a clean toilet, showering in a clean tub
~I don’t like my children eating two day old food off the floors
~I can relax and enjoy my free time so much more if I am sitting in a clean house
~I want to be able to welcome company anytime they want to come without having to kill myself before they get here

I'm still working on my list, but one thing I realized is I clean for almost entirely selfish reasons. So what about you? What are your reasons for cleaning? Care to share?

Project:Simplify Week Five Results...sort of

For those of you who are waiting on pins and needles for my before and after pictures, well, I'm afraid that Project:Simplify week five will finish in week six. (Who am I kidding? My mother-in-law knows this already! :D) As I mentioned in my previous post, at least part of my family has been sick for about two weeks now and last week, all of us were down. So needless to say, I did good to keep up with the basics. Anyway, I am still working my area of choice and while I really think I bit off more that I can do in one or even two weeks, I will post the result this Friday of what I have been able to accomplish.

Until Friday then!

Week Five of Project:Simplify

Sorry to be so late in posting this week's hot spot. We have a houseful of sick people and things have been a bit crazy.

Anyway, hop on over to Simple Mom and see what the final week's project is. I'm excited to see what I can get done...as least I hope I get something done...

Project:Simplify Week Four Results

This week was by far the easiest for me. Since I started using the one day/one room method of cleaning, my kitchen has stayed under control. But this did give me a chance to catch up on a few projects and I am pleased the results.

I started with my small kitchen pantry, where I store just enough for a week at a time. I have found that for me, shopping with three children 3 and under, once a month shopping is the way to go. So I store most of my groceries in a closet downstairs.
Before

After

Then I cleaned off the top of my frig, the spice cabinet and the inside of both the frig and the freezer, none of which had very interesting pictures but I am happy to have them tidy!

Finally I finished off Wednesday by cleaning out the oven, which was so dirty that I was too ashamed to take a "before" picture, and organizing my downstairs pantry, which was so messy, I could barely walk in it anymore!
Before

After

All in all, a good week! Only one more week to go!!! Head over to Simple Mom and enjoy everyone else's hard work too!

Week Four of Project:Simplify

I'm sorry for the delay in posted this week's hot spot. This is one I have been working on every Wednesday for a few months now. (I'll try to explain my system soon.) Anyway, I've been so excited about finishing up my simplifying that I haven't posted for all of you! :D

So head on over to Simple Mom and you can get started too!

Project:Simplify Week Three Results

This project was both easy and frustrating. I recently weeded through most of both the boys and girls clothing totes, so there wasn't much to do there, except my younger daughter was ready to move up a size...just a few weeks too early to change to summer clothing. So I will be moving totes up and down the stairs again soon.

And we don't have a lot of toys to cull but we did make some progress there too. So without further ado...

Before

After

Before

After

Before
These boxes are my toy rotation system. This means less stuff we have clean up every day, but we don't have to get rid of good toys, books and puzzles.

After
The box on the right is the remain toy rotation box. Some day I will get a tote for it but for now is a recycled diaper box and packaging tape. (Important so the girls don't get in to it while it's being stored.) The toys on the left are headed to my son's room, since they are going to be his toys anyway. I forgot to take a picture of the things we got rid of, but there was about a trash bag full between clothes, toys and just a few books.

Before

After

Anyway that was my week three. How was yours? You ready for week four already? I wonder what we will be simplifying then...:D

And don't forget to check in at Simple Mom to see what others did to simplify this week!

Week Three Project:Simplify

We are on week three of Project:Simplify. And this week's hot spot: children's clothes and toys. (You can find the post here, Simple Mom~Hot Spot #3)

If you're home is anything like mine, you will probably be spending more than a week on this, but we'll see just how big of a start I can get on it. :D

My words of inspiration for this project:

“Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris (19th century architect)

See you Friday!

Project:Simplify Week Two Results

I've been weeding through the mass of paper that has steadily been over taking my home, well, as long as there has been a home to take over. I remember being a newlywed and going through stacks of paper together trying to figure out what we should and shouldn't save. (It doesn't help that my husband and I both are pack rats. :D)

So when this week's project was announced part of me was wiping my brow relieved to have another fairly easy week. The other part was in a dead panic...how would I solve the paper gather mess???

I spent most of the last week going through our family book collection getting rid of books we don't want or need...most of what I weeded out were old textbooks that are outdated and useless to us. But I digress...The main point in this exercise was to clear out my son's room, so that in about 6 months when he is ready to move upstairs, he can get in and out of his room. It has been our catch-all/storage room for the past 2 years and it wasn't going to clear itself out. But again, I digress...


While cleaning out his room, I found a little shelf I had used in college as a bookshelf. And it hit me (a solution, not the shelf), I could use this to house all my paper clutter!

So this is what I did:

Up until now, my kitchen island instead of being used to prep food or something kitchen-y, has been my catch-all paper holder. You can see the difference that just one little shelf made for me!

Now I can use my whole island without trying to move papers so they won't fall into the food or any of the other crazy things I was doing. I just need to get some contact paper to cover those wipes boxes and we'll be in good shape! :D

The best part is that the whole project didn't cost me a penny! Thank you, Lord!