Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Another Revamp day!!!

The weekend went well! I'm continuing to stay off the computer, generally until evening. DD is brushing-up on Algebra, so I have to get online to work with her for her online course (aleks, if you are a homeschooler and care. ;))

I spent much of Saturday working on reorganizing the laundry room to get it to functional at minimum. Pleasant to be in might be a stretch since it is in the basement of a house built in 1903. But this blog will not be about trying to make my home look like Better Homes and Garden model homes. Rather, working on being realistic and functional.

Another great thing that happened today was that I had some outside help! She worked on the main level and I worked on cleaning up my bedroom and the boys' bedroom. (The boys' bedroom is a never ending saga. Let's put that to rest, already!) I have had cleaning help in the past and loved it. DH makes fun of me for cleaning for the cleaning lady but I'm honestly not cleaning. I'm picking up and tidying. All the while leaving the dust bunnies behind! An added bonus to having the help is that I'm forced to tidy the house. Afterwards, nobody want to mess it up since it looks so nice. I'm hoping this will allow me to focus on some of the organizing projects that need to be done to make my home function better. I feel a lot more caught-up!

I'm still working on Bible study as well. It's part of my revamp! I just started "A Call to Die". In it, I've been challenged to give something up or change something drastically for 40 days. Good thing I've already started that. Only now, I'm going to wait until sunset to turn on the laptop. This is hard, btw. But it's part of working fixing the inner selfish child in me. I want to serve my family and my heavenly father better!

Anyway, laundry room before and afters coming soon! I wish I would have taken a pic of my vanity today before I cleaned it up. I'm a toiletry/make-up junky!!! But it's all put away now and looks great!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Revamp my life day 1

The husband forgot to take my laptop to work this morning. Fortunately, my daughter hid it as soon as I told her what I was trying to accomplish. It's late but I drank too much caffienne this evening while visiting with a friend. The boys are on a scout camp out. I feel bad for them because it is very cold and rainy outside.

So my first day was just okay. I did make it through and accomplished a number of things during the day. The biggest one was my quiet time. I dusted off "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. I always find this to be a good place to start when I'm really lost. And today I was really blown away by what the passage was about considering the changes that I'm trying to make.

Beware of the tendency to ask the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative— stop hesitating— take the first step. Be determined to act immediately in faith on what God says to you when He speaks, and never reconsider or change your initial decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you stand. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will right now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you, saying, “I will write that letter,” or “I will pay that debt”; and then do it! Make it irrevocable.

We have to get into the habit of carefully listening to God about everything, forming the habit of finding out what He says and heeding it. If, when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we will know that the habit has been formed in us. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we have not yet been.
 
 And the corresponding verse:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. (2 Peter 1: 5-9)
 
 WOW! My realization that I spend a lot of time "asking the way" about homeschooling an housekeeping when I already know perfectly well what I must do. I will be working on the habit of carefully listening to God. I already heard that small voice yesterday when I made the decision to start revamping my life.

So here it goes:
  • I will stop using my computer as an escape and a time waster.
  • I will turn to God more and my computer less (especially when I need answers on managing my time & life).
  • I will continue taking steps toward being a woman who seeks God in all things.
  • I will continue to diligently teach my children.
  • I will continue steps to maintain a less than perfect, yet orderly home.

If you are interested, "My Utmost for His Highest" is available for free here: http://utmost.org/take-the-initiative/. It's a great devotional and I often find it speaking to my situation!

I'm going to be working on more specific goals for revamping my life. But right now daily time with my Heavenly Father is the highest priority. I want to make sure that I'm starting with a firm foundation and not building "castles in the sand" as I have so many other times before. I never burned the bridges as referenced above. There was always a path right back into my mess.



Thursday, May 9, 2013

Revamp my life bootcamp!!! Day Zero

It's been awhile.

Life. Is. Good.

I really can't complain. But something is always just a little bit wonky. The dishes are never fully finished or that laundry pile is just a little too high. I'm just a little bit overweight. (Now. I actually use to be a lot.) A history or science lesson isn't all the way finished. There's one too piles of papers or dishelved closet that I hope nobody open. Some days I hope that I don't have an unexpected visitor! Disorganization haunts me around every corner.  And as that builds up, I get more and more overwhelmed and find myself in a place that I'm frozen. Even a baby step seems useless.

Overall, I can't get it together at the level that I want it together. My desired level is beyond what is realistic. But I know that I'm fed up now and I know that I need to do something different.

But, today I made a decision. I don't want to stay this way. I've been reading Cleaning House and it has inspired me to start my own experiment. It will mostly involve me changing my heart but hopefully that will extend to my own children through example. I'm putting myself through a Revamp My Life boot camp. And it starts tomorrow with the first Revamp. My precious laptop is going to work with my husband. No more getting sucked into hours of pinterest, facebook, reading blogs, shopping online, reading homeschooling forums, reading about cleaning and doing laundry. I'm going to actually do some of this stuff.

Enter this blog. I need a place to record the results of my experiment with unplugging during the day. Track what happens when I make a change as a reminder to not end up back in this same place like I have so many times in the past. And I think that relaying it to the world might just help at holding me accountable (or my readership of two, LOL!) But still. Someday, someone will stumble upon my post and realize that they need to do the same. And hopefully my success and failures will inspire them to jump in as well.

Day One will start where it should. I'm inviting my Heavenly Father into this journey and give the first day to Him. That's right. Part One will be to start revamping my spiritual life. I'll still be working on some of the other stuff, afterall, what else will I do without a computer all day? Yep. All the stuff I haven't been doing.  I still have kids to homeschool and errands to run, too!

So here it goes.  I get the computer back tomorrow evening but I won't even be home until late at night to access it. Do you think I'll get the shakes? ;) Don't answer that!